Jim Ankan Deka | Music, Photography and More

It took me almost four years to come out of my mundane, humdrum existence and start my five months journey in the North-east of India on June 12, 2015. I always believed in a quote by English writer and philosopher Gilbert K. Chesterton - "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see." After visiting many places as a tourist, I wanted to see the world through a traveller's eyes. Yes, today I travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape me. My journey began in Meghalaya, a state in the North eastern region of India. Living Root Bridges in Mawlynnong, Asia's cleanest village (photo: Jim Ankan Deka) Khasi Heritage Village in Mawphlang (photo: Jim Ankan Deka) The Sacred Forest in Mawphlang (photo: Jim Ankan Deka) View of  the city of Shillong from the Shillong Peak (photo: Jim Ankan Deka | camera: Samsung Galaxy S4) A view from the Nongsder village (photo: Jim Ankan Deka | camera: Samsung Galaxy S4) Morning view in...

Road to Mudumalai National Park (photo - Jim Ankan Deka) "If you want to see tiger, go to a zoo; not a tiger reserve!" Says Nitesh, one of the officials of Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu. It was a bright sunny day when we reached the entrance of Mudumalai National Park. We already had rooms booked at The Nest Inn, a small but clean resort in Masinagudi (one of the five ranges of the wildlife sanctuary). The 180° panoramic view from the resort was actually astounding. The cool green background reminded me of my hometown in Assam of North East India. After checking in, we thought of going through the travel guidebook. First destination on the menu was the Moyar River, a tributary of Bhavani river which originates from a small town called Moyar along the Masinagudi. The moment we reached the river, which was actually very close to our resort, we got the stench of human excreta. What we thought to be a clean forest and animal destination, ended up becoming the lav...

Red Bull Flugtag, Bangalore, India (photo - Jim Ankan Deka) Not many in India have heard about Red Bull, let alone the famous Flugtag event. So, the event got king-size media attention when Red Bull first announced about it which was to be held in Bangalore. I was invited to the event by one of the organizers of the India's First Red Bull Flugtag. It was held at Sankey Tank, Bangalore - one of the last surviving lakes of Bangalore. I was little surprised with the decision of the Bangalore govt for giving permission for such an event to be conducted at a place like this. Anyway, curiosity took over and I with two of my colleagues from Music Malt thought of visiting the place and covering the event for International Press Association. It was total chaos! Although the crowd was doing fine, the chaos was seen among the crew members, bouncers and managers (seemed to be) mainly. As we went past the people and got near the entrance, there were few bouncers and guards who had lit...

Crossroads, a classic-rock band from Bangalore, India played at a city hot-spot on Friday, December 27, 2013. The band covered songs from Metallica to Dire Straits. The evening was fun as we got to sit at the "Trader Vic's" and witnessed the entire concert sipping beverages. Below are few moments of the show. Vicky Mahanta of Crossroads at Phoenix MarketCity Tushar, Vicky and Pradipto of Crossroads Santanu Bhuyan and Tushar of Crossroads Crossroads at Phoenix MarketCity Prashant Singh and Santanu Bhuyan of Crossroads Crossroads at Phoenix MarketCity Prashant Singh of Crossroads at Phoenix MarketCity Santanu Bhuyan and Vicky Mahanta of Crossroads Vicky Mahanta of Crossroads at Phoenix MarketCity Juby Thomas and Pradipto of Crossroads

I was kind of little reluctant about my trip to Dehradun, because I had just over 24 hrs at hand. What could I have accomplished in one day, trying to travel the beautiful land of the Gharwalis on the foothills of the Himalayas. But being a travel addict, I had to give into my passion. So my travel partner Parmita and I booked the tickets from Bangalore and reached the Jolly Grant Airport on September 21, 2013. Though we went to Mussoorie before, we had little clue about Dehradun. And as this was more of an unplanned back-packing kind of visit, we did not even book the hotel in advance. So, after reaching the city, we looked around and checked into a neat hotel - Hotel Doon Castle . The hotel was clean and what we found out was that, the 'Queen rooms' are far better than the 'King rooms'. Clean toilet, decent food and less charges - 3 things a traveler looks for before choosing a hotel. Doon Castle did provide us with all of those. Though we would have loved to re...