Who Am I

Me

I go by the name Santosh, born and living in Benglauru city in the state of Karnataka, India.


Having spent my entire life here in the city, I'm currently employed full time in a corporate giant where I use the complete benefits of leaves and weekends that I can avail to travel, go bird-watching, for a bit of wildlife photography, to go on a ride or a drive and take part in conservation activities!




Lot of people travel, go exploring and do what not, but its very few of them who pen it down. In my initial days, I've struggled looking out for information about places on the internet and all that I used to find were very similar and mostly useless or misleading stuff. This enticed me to pen down my experiences with relevant information and that could come handy to other folks who would want to visit. The other intent was to narrate the happenings as they unfolded that would take the reader ona virtual tour. It indeed is very satisfying when your content gets appreciated and more when people have found it useful. As years have rolled by, my outings with my core group reduced due to lot of limitations and commitments with all of us.

Slowly and steadily, the flavor of topic of this blog has changed from being a travel blog to a wildlife travel blog. Now, all my posts are an attempt to showcase the rich and diverse wildlife (birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, etc) from the places where I visit along with tales of generic travel that I undertake.

Extensively traveling in India from Kashmir to Andamans, Gujarat to Assam, I've recorded about 650+ species of birds of the total ~1200 found in India... many more to go, you see :)

I'm not heavy on social media, but you can still find me on Facebook, Facebook Page, Twitter, Google+!

My current photography gear:
Canon 7D MkII
Canon 100-400mm
Vanguard Orros 8x42 binoculars

Books and Guides:
The Book of Indian Birds - Salim Ali (13th edition)
Birds of Indian Subcontinent - Grimett & Inskipp (2nd edition)
Birds of Southern Coastal Karnataka - Dr. K. Prabhakar Achar & Shivashankar
Pictorial Guide to Frogs & Toads of Western Ghats - Gururaja KV
Google Maps
Karnataka Road Atlas
Wikipedia


My core team:
First of all, a lot of credit goes to each one of them for their continuous support and encouragement. With them, I have explored a lot in Karnataka and have enjoyed a lot of experiences and memorable moments that are etched in my memory.

(Me, Raja, Nagaraj and Guru)


If any of you need any help in planning for your travel, or visiting any known place, or any photography advice, do reach out to me and I will surely communicate back.

10 comments:

  1. Very nice introduction . Your interests dating back from college days to present is a very nice thing. Nice that you have great like minded friends.

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  2. good introduction....thanks to you all...

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  3. Maga Santosa, very touching maga, namduke ee blog ge pyarge agbittaite :)...
    This team has been and will be very special to me forever.... and especially without you nothing would have been possible, I cherish every minute of it...dhanyavadagalu maga (pls dont scold me for saying this...). And no escapes saying I am married, I will still be part of your ventures even if you dont like it :P. This is just a beginning....what say

    Guru, we enjoy having this lazy hardworker with us all the time, though invisible when not travelling with us... we have been team in our practicals and projects during our college days and share similar behaviors like lazing, food freaks and ready for tea all the time...

    Naga (Mr Gaitonde), got introduced to our team by chance and being santu's colleague we were bit shy to have full fledged non-sense discussion or chat with him for some time, but now he is a great friend and a great part of our non-sense discussion and ventures...

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  4. Please let me know the email ID I can use to contact you.

    Regards,
    Inam

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  5. We are Creativeland Asia, an advertising agency based in Mumbai. We have developed a campaign for a FMCG brand which is essentially soaps, shower gels, deodorants, etc.

    Not just are we kicked about the campaign but we also see great potential in making it a cult brand. We are very keen on working with you on this campaign since your style is very unique.

    You can visit www.creativelandasia.com and view our work from the past. We are re-launching an FMCG personal grooming brand. I cannot reveal the brand name at the moment at legal formalities are being worked upon. We are coming up with a blogging campaign with a few hand-picked travel/adventure/photographer bloggers. The space we are placing our brand is in the adventure bathing zone and looking for bloggers to write in the same zone of adventure bathing. kindly provide us with your contact number to discuss further details.

    Thanks and regards,
    Varun Vazir
    varun.vazir@creativelandasia.com

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  6. Interesting buddy... like your pics.. you are great as a photographer... ;)

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  7. Hi,
    I came across your blogs when i was searching for information regarding Kodachadri trek:-) Nice writings and photography:-)
    Even i have few like minded friends who love traveling. We had several traveling experiences in the past and now for the first time we have planed for trekking:-)
    Very much excited about this!!

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  8. Thanks to all for the appreciation and continued support :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Santosh,

      Great coming your blog. I love trekking and nature too. I work for Greenpeace India and wanted to tell you that we are hosting an interactive session with bloggers and writers at our office in Richmond Town, Bangalore on Saturday, 16th Feb, 3:00 pm onwards.

      I would love to have you there for a discussion on blogging in general and Greenpeace’s new online campaigning initiatives. This will also be a great opportunity for you to meet and network with other bloggers and writers in the city.

      This is an informal session where you can share your thoughts and ideas about blogging in India and how this medium can be used more powerfully. We will also talk about the environment and the need to protect it. Do join us and be a part of this platform to share experiences and interact with a community of bloggers.

      To register for the event please reply to me or call Janet or me at the numbers below for any further details. Feel free to invite your blogger/writer friends as well.

      Contact details:

      Ignatius - 9739325137
      Janet - 9731488826

      To learn a little more about Greenpeace do visit our website, Facebook or Twitter page:
      http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/about/
      www.Facebook.com/greenpeaceindia
      https://twitter.com/greenpeaceindia

      Thanks!

      Ignatius Thekaekara
      Online Media Officer - Greenpeace India
      M: +919739325137

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  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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