The ubiquitous whistle of Indian Cuckoo was echoing in the far distance and soon it would become the only sound I’d associate with Nepal for years to come. The golden of a dawn sky reflected in the glimmer of River Rapti flowing in front of me as a thin veil mist lifted from the lush hills where the river disappeared from my sight. The grasslands on the opposite bank swayed in the gentle morning breeze and a Riverine forest extended well beyond. It was just my first morning in Chitwan National Park but I was already in love with the magical serenity of Terai.

When I think of Nepal, lofty Himalayan peaks were the only things that sprang to my mind for years! Home to seven 8000+ meter high peaks and many more impressive mountains, it’s hard for anything else to fight for attention living under the shadow of such a formidable presence.

So the first thing that sprang to my mind when I was planning to a trip to Nepal earlier this year was that I need to overlook the mountains and find something else to write about. And that’s how I ended up in the jungles of Chitwan National Park. Recognized as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and declared a World Heritage Site in 1984, the ecosystem of Chitwan is the last surviving pristine example of Terai region.

I have had only glimpses of Terai before while passing through West Bengal; and I have always wanted to spend considerable time reveling in the beauty of Sal forests, Riverine forests and Savanna grasslands that form the ecosystem. Naturally, I was thrilled to have spent a whole week in the jungles of Chitwan that were bound by the Rapti and Narayani rivers where I was staying and Indian border on the other side. I had no clue what to expect from Chitwan in terms of animal sightings and activities that would keep my occupied during my time there. Now, I can safely vouch that you can in fact spend a whole week in Chitwan and not get bored.

Sauraha is the more famous and densely packed village where plenty of resorts and hotels have popped up, thereby creating a very touristy atmosphere. I, on the other hand, stayed at a faraway village called Meghauli where only two resorts existed including the one I was at. My days in Chitwan went by like a dream, calm and serene. I almost saw no other tourist apart from the ones staying at my resort and that’s a big deal considering how inundated Nepal is, with travellers from all over the world.

I spent my days hiking in the forest, going on wildlife safaris, bird watching and rowing up and down Rapti River. Given that Meghauli hardly sees much action in terms of visiting tourists, the animals in this part of the National Park were immensely shy and would run for the cover the minute they would hear the sound of an approaching vehicle. This made observing wildlife even more interesting.

However, one of the most fascinating things that I had experienced in Chitwan was tracking animals on foot. Unlike National Parks in India, hiking in the forests of Nepal is allowed. I found it insanely exhilarating yet equally distressing to be walking in the same forest amongst the company of wild animals. We encountered massive 2000-kilo One-Horned Rhinos several times during our walks that got my heart racing like it was about to burst out of my ribcage!

The One-Horned Rhinos, Tigers, Leopards and other animals of Chitwan National Park suffered severe poaching during the 10 year Maoist Insurgency period in Nepal that lasted till 2006. However, soon after, Nepal’s government took extensive measures to protect the wildlife and doubled the numbers of Rhinos that had plummeted to 375 making it a rare conservation success story in a world where wildlife conservation is increasingly becoming a lost cause. The park is extensively patrolled by a battalion of army who are stationed at several spots in the area. I encountered many of these foot soldiers during my jaunts into the park and I was suitably impressed by Nepal Govt’s commitment to protecting their wilderness.

The jungles were indeed lovely and teeming with all sorts of wildlife creating strange dramas. I remember giggling at the sight of a tiny black Drongo chase a giant Great Indian Hornbill and marveling at the pulsating sound of Oriental Pied Hornbills flying over my head. I also remember feeling spellbound after my first sighting of the marvelous plumage of the exotic and long tailed Asian Paradise Flycatcher. I always thought of myself as a non-birder but somewhere over the course of several jungle explorations, I seemed to have turned into one.

Probably that’s the charm of Chitwan, it will turn you into an ardent admirer of all things wild. Now, I even fondly look back upon my heart-stopping encounter with a humongous 18-foot Rock Python while I was on foot in Chitwan! And to think that the mammoth mountains grossly overshadow all this glory. Next time you plan a trip to Nepal, do consider starting from the plains before you head up to the hills! You can thank me later.

I was hosted by Pugdundee Safaris at their recently acquired Barahi Jungle Lodge in Meghauli village. Keeping in line with the Pugdundee ideology, the property is eco friendly, environment-conscious, uses locally sourced material and emulates the indigenous Tharu architectural design. During my fortunate stint as a travel blogger/writer, I’ve stayed in plenty of rather luxurious properties but without a doubt the rustic cottage at Barahi happens to be my most favorite one so far!

Located on the banks of Rapti River, right opposite the grasslands of Chitwan National Park, location is golden in case of this property. My room had huge glass windows through which I could see the grasslands, night sky and the colors of sunrise sneak up at dawn every day. Every single minute of the day that I didn’t spend in the jungle was spent sitting in the lovely balcony overlooking River Rapti and the National Park. Without getting into lengthy descriptions of the property, I would just highly recommend spending a night or two here to experience the beauty of the Chitwan yourself!

Disclaimer: My stay at Barahi was sponsored by Pugdundee Safaris, opinions as always are mine!

3 weeks ago, I, along with almost hundred other photographers from all over the world were packed in a room somewhere in Ubud, spellbound by immensely powerful and beautiful visual stories by some of the world’s top photojournalists. I was at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2015 happening in Bali, Indonesia.

So what is this Foundry Photojournalism Workshop?

Few months ago, randomly scrolling through my twitter feed I stumbled upon a link to the Foundry Workshops. At the outset, the workshop is all about mentoring emerging photographers from developing nations so we can tell our own stories better. And the best part is that they get world’s top photographers, actually working in the field to mentor you as instructors for a whole week at insanely affordable cost($450). The instructors and the whole Foundry team volunteers their time to make this happen and the fees collected from attending students are just to cover the ground expenses of conducting the workshop. I took one look at the list of instructors for 2015 and I knew I had to sign up for this.

Represented by world’s top agencies such as Getty, Panos, VII and covering stories for reputed publications such as National Geographic, New York Times, TIME, etc, the list of photographers teaching at the workshop seemed too good to be true.(Anyone from developing nations who has considered or attended workshops with top international photographers knows how steep the workshop prices can be!) At that time, I had no idea how intense or inspiring that week would be.

This is how it works.

After registering at their site, few weeks before the workshop commences you get to choose your instructor(s) whose class you want to attend. You arrive at the location (changes every year) hopefully with a story idea already chalked out. Then you work on it during the whole week under the guidance of your instructor. There will be daily sessions where your work is edited, discussed, story is fine-tuned and you take the feedback and work on it the next day. At the end of the 5-day workshop, your work is edited down to a 10-image story and shown on the final night along with all other students’ work.

Along with all the shooting that you’ll do, the week is also packed with sessions - daily classes with instructors, additional classes on marketing, copyright laws, privacy, image processing etc and evening sessions where the instructors themselves showcase and talk about their work.

Despite being a travel photographer, why did I choose to attend a photojournalism workshop?

Months after registering, I was flying into Bali with much anticipation and equally anxious about learning the craft of visual storytelling from the best. I had chosen to attend Adriana Zehbrauskas and Paula Bronstein’s class. I was somehow very curious to know how women photojournalists worked in tough conditions. And my main motive of attending the workshop was to infuse some much needed story telling and if possible, few documentary style elements into my otherwise “just pretty” photography.

I knew I was sitting on a gold mine of important stories and had access to some insanely wonderful places and communities (a fact reinforced by discussions with few of the instructors). Going forward I wanted to be able to tell the stories of these wonderful places and communities in an insightful way and not just document them for the sake of posterity. For instance, imagine how awesome it would be if I could sensibly portray the tough life of Bakarwals, the nomadic shepherd community of Kashmir or document the mind-boggling water shortage faced in the world’s wettest place!

So what did I learn?

That photography is just like writing, actually it’s very stupid of me to not realize storytelling is the same no matter what the medium is. But this exact point was driven home like crazy during the one week, how to infuse your story into a compact set of images.

Beyond that, it was the complete approach that happened to be a great learning experience. Thinking of a story, finding your subjects then trying to form a narrative. And it felt so rewarding to go back to a place and shoot everyday on the same subject - trying to get more familiar with the story, predict what would happen and shoot images representing a specific idea.

Discussing daily with the instructors, I also learned how to interpret a story and individual images when I see one. Editing was an important part of the process; we had two instructors and two assistants. And everyone had their own way of seeing and editing a given set of images. I realized maintaining that individuality was pertinent to arrive at your own style.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible to have such a positive experience without the very patient and helpful instructors and the incredibly warm people of Bali who made me feel very welcome. I spent many hours every day in someone’s home watching and photographing them go about their work. We couldn’t communicate much because often I would be alone without my guide and my hosts would speak little or no english. But the lack of much talk notwithstanding, they always took great care of me and it felt amazing to be a part of their lives for that one week.

When I travel, this is what I look for and in many ways, I realized, working on a story leads to that exact outcome I’m after - immersive experiences that show me a glimpse of the local life and their culture. I specifically chose to document a Balian(traditional healers) who specializes in black magic. He commands unwavering faith and people take everything from him - beating, hair pulling and even spitting. It turned out to be a big challenge to first, find an authentic Balian and second, photographing the entire ritual stuck in a small box shaped room.

In the end, I'm quite happy with the story (not the result) I chose to work upon. Because any person you would speak to in Bali will have a story about visiting a Balian and this is a very integral part of Balinese culture. I will share the images from this project very soon. I found a direction and focus that I felt I was missing earlier. Hopefully, my stories henceforth will be more insightful and well thought out. *Fingers crossed*

Here are my tips to get the most out of this workshop!

• Have a story idea ready by the time you arrive at the first class and if possible do the recce too. You will get the most out of the workshop if you get daily feedback on your shoots and image edits. Unfortunately for me, I had just one round of edit and feedback as I took long time to find my subject. Taking the feedback and heading back to shoot the next day is immensely helpful and so is the daily edit process. On an average, you’ll have classes on four out of the five workshop days before the final edit and presentation happens on the last day.
• If there’s a particular idea or vision that you want to work on, fight for it and get guidance on how to make it work. Just doing something for the sake of doing something drastically different from your usual work won’t be helpful. Work on something that challenges you yet aligns with your end goal.
• Do attend all the evening sessions to get massively inspired as the instructors and the assistants present and talk about their work. It’s also a great opportunity to strike a conversation with the instructors and network with fellow students who have come from all over the world. The community and the connections you make, I realized, become a very important and rewarding outcome of the whole workshop experience.
• With a changing location every year, there are bound to be some challenges and unexpected issues. Be prepared for some minor setbacks and talk it out with your class assistants and instructors when you face any issue or feel like you are not getting enough time with the instructors.

Finally, here’s why I think Foundry is absolutely bang for buck, especially for Indian Photographers!

Storytelling and especially visual storytelling is a difficult craft that needs a lot of honing and mentoring. Above all, it needs a lot inspiration. During the 5 years that I have taken up photography, never have I been inspired so much to tell a story, any story. It was always about getting one good shot, just an independent shot that fit nowhere in the arc of storytelling. Without a purpose, I was as lost as a fish out of water. I always just thought of making pretty pictures, now I see that even a landscape can have a story to tell.

In the beginning when I had just bought my camera, I was eager to meet the photography community and go on one of those several photowalks where several DSLR-wielding people flocked a market or a slum or a busy street over the weekends. Try as I may, I could never get excited enough about the prospect of shooting in a market. They all came back with beautiful pictures but none of those images stuck with me. I forgot them as I saw. They made no sense. And when I saw a photostory, it all went above my head. Learning to see is just as difficult as telling I suppose. I related more to the traveller tribe(who always had the most outrageous stories to share) and never integrated into the photography community.

Now, it surprises me that there are so many wonderful amateur Indian photographers out there creating beautiful and strong individual imagery but so few of them actually work on a full story. I cannot even imagine the amazing work that will be produced with some guidance. I’ve noticed that many of the top visual storytellers of our country at the moment have studied in international photography schools where they possibly learnt how to tell and decode a story. Here in India, there seems to be no easy access to learn the craft and the difficult onus is completely on us if we want to find guidance, learn and understand the complex art of visual storytelling. We hardly have prominent photo festivals or a way to interact with the professional photographer community working on real stories across the country. Wish this would change in the coming years but until then, we at least have Foundry for that much-needed inspiration and learning!

P.S - Just in case you’re wondering, the entire trip and workshop was self-funded :)