4 Southern States in 7 days

On 30 June, 2008, second schedule of the KVK corporate film started. We left for Mangalore by AI, both the Indian airlines are now merged and the new entity is called Air India.
It is the first time I was gong to travel to Mangalore. People have been prasing the beauty of the place for long, especially Beena. In fact I had told her that when she goes there next time, i will come with her. Flight took off at 9.20am and landed at Mangalore at 10.35. It was raining heavily there. The plane was parked a little away from the 'Arrival' building. There was no bus to carry us to the terminal; but the staff had made arrangements for the umbrellas. It was like a relay of orange and white umbrellas from airplane to the terminal. It looked so pretty. Once inside, I asked someone if I could click a picture, "NO", was the booming answer. I gave up. Our baggage was getting a bit late due to rain. I was walked off to check out the small airport building. At the other end I noticed that I was hidden from the view of the security. Slyly I clicked a picture. The stream of umbrellas had dried up; but as they say, 'something is better than nothing.'
Outside a Toyota, Innova was waiting for us. After loading up, the car took off. In this area people paint their homes with very shockingly gaudy and bright colors. I was finding them very unusual. On the way we took some shot of a green patch. We needed it to show it as a forest in the film.
Late afternoon we reached well appointed guest house of KPCL or Kasargod Power Corporation Ltd. Name of this village was Mailotti. We had and freshened up. We were waiting for a signal from the rain to let us shoot. Soon it came and we walked down to the power plant. Once there, we did the outdoor work when it was not raining and when it was, we went in the control room and engine room. We did most of the inside work and wrapped for the day around 8pm. I enjoyed the hospitality of a guest house after very long. In childhood we used to go with our father when he went to tour his 'Tehsil'. We got such royal treatment there. I am happy I got to experience same again. Some of us had a drink. It was a good night after a nice south Indian dinner.
Next morning (July 1) again I took some left over shots quickly and started off to our next location, Paschim Hydro Power Plant. It kept raining through out the journey of 3 hours. Finally we read the sign board and followed the mud road to reach the destination. Driver was not happy with the loose surface below the wheels. He said coming up on this will be difficult.
Surprisingly this plant faced a gorgeous panorama of a lake and hills and to top it, pregnant clouds were hanging all over those hills. I took many pictures here. It was great to find such a visual treat.
Paschim Hydro is new plant, so the engine and control rooms look spanking bright. Name of this village is Kempuhole. This was the only 'hydro power plant' on our shooting schedule. I finished the shoot just when it was getting dark. We were supposed to take shots of the dam which supplies water to this plant, but could not, due to some genuine problems. Firstly the mud road had got a bit washed off, secondly a tree had fallen across the road blocking it and lastly wild elephants were roaming in that area. Hmmm, I thought that were one too many points against me.
The driver told most of us to walk the wet road part. We made it easily to the highway. After an hour's drive we reached Hotel Ashrita at Saklespura at 8.45PM. Had a quick dinner and slept. In the morning the weather was exceptionally cold! I saw people wearing woolens going about. What a difference in climate, I thought? Also the water in bathroom taps was muddy brown. I have never seen tap water that dark in color.
Next morning (July 2) after breakfast we started our marathon drive at 8am. We were headed to Nagappattinam. We reached there 11.30pm. I was dead tired. My back and bottom was under a lot of pressure. I didn’t feel too good. 18 hours drive is no joke! We stayed in hotel Sea Horse. Entire staff was asleep. It took them some will power to give us our allotted rooms. I thought a south India cup of coffee would do me some good mentally. I asked the waiter for it. ‘Impossible’ was the prompt answer. It ended all arguments and hope simultaneously.
Next morning (July 3) we got up at 6am and again I asked the waiter ‘can I get a cup of coffee?’ ‘Possible’ he said as easily. Oh, I thought this was innovative way to communicate, when there is a lack of vocabulary.
As we left the hotel I read a sign saying, ‘Vailankani 5KM’. We had no time otherwise it would not be a bad idea to take quick drive to that famous church. After breakfast in a small restaurant we left for MMS unit-1. I did some detailed shoot of the security staff, also got some long shots of the entire plant, students going to village school and HT transmission towers.
We wrapped the location at 11.45am and moved to MMS unit-2. On the way we passed Thiruvarur. The temple and the lake look very pretty. The weather here was totally reverse of Kerala. It was hot and humid. We stopped at a old woman’s shop to have cold drinks. I took some pictures of the temple. We then passed Mannargudi. The temple here was similar but bigger than Thiruvarur. Some one told that it was bigger than Meenakshi temple too. I have not seen that. We did not stop here as we were late and had to finish the shoot of next plant. We reached there at 3.30pm. I used their luggage carrying trolley as out make shift trolley. The shots came out pretty cool. Luckily the floor was reasonably smooth. After covering the usual part of the plant, we moved to a nearby village. Here I took shots of school kids and huts. This area was festered many with small red flags, denoting presence of ‘Maoists’. We got out from here before dark.

On our way back I stopped the car at Mannargudi town to take some pictures that I had missed earlier. The exposure was down; but I did take a few shots of the temple and the town.
From here we drove to Chennai. We reached KVK guest house at 1.30am. It was difficult finding the place. We passed a fresh site of a car accident. The car was lying toppled and a badly bleeding body of young man was sticking out of the door.
In the morning (July 4) we left for Chennai station to board a train for Vijaywada. Railway staff hounded and charged us for carrying shooting luggage. I am sure they charged us illegally. Any way I paid 250 and got a receipt. That was not bad. Departure time was 6.40am. We reached Vijaywada at 1.40pm, had lunch and proceeded to Machilipatnam. At 4.30 we kept our bags in the RVK power plant’s guest house and started shooting straight away. I made the unit climb a 10 story high water tank for taking top angle shots of the plant and nearby area. It was getting dark. So I used this opportunity ask them to switch on the plant lights and did more shooting. Those shots came out well too. This was my last power shoot. We did some night shoot in the control room and wrapped up. I drove down to Machilipatnam town for having a hair cut. This is my kink that every little place I visit, I put a stamp of hair cut on me.
Next morning (July 5) we shot more of the plant. I went up on the OH crane and took some top angle shots of the engines from the moving crane. We wrapped the location around 11.30am. We moved to Vijaywada and took shots of the bridge on river Krishna. We then took a train at 4pm to Hyderabad. It was not a very long journey. We were in the guest house for dinner.
Next morning (July 6) we came down after breakfast and I saw this scene. A 2 year old naked girl was sitting on a auto rickshaw. I clicked her many times; but the best ones I had missed. In the beginning she was sitting on the driver’s seat. Soon her mother came back carrying a baby in her arms and the family walked to an under construction building site. I think these pictures are some of the best visuals that I managed to grab.
There was drab shoot at the KVK corporate office. Then we took some shots of Tank Bund, with statue of Buddha. I bought two new types of Mithai. One was called ‘paper sweet’. It was like white paper made of rice. And another one was Cashew nuts coated with jaggery.
After returning the guest house we had tea and at 6.45pm left for the airport. Everyone knows about the new Hyderabad airport. It really turned out to be wonderful. In India we are used barely functional airports and railway stations. Expense on the aesthetics was never considered. Hyderabad airport is the face of new India.
A little hesitatingly I asked the security staff if I could take a picture here. ‘Any where you like’, he said.