Flights of Fantasy over the City of Lakes - Bhopal

The feeling of being above the ground at 4000 feet plus, in an 360 degree open air basket, with early morning chill caressing your skin along with carrying a chilly feeling deep inside down your heart that if something goes wrong at that height. All this is fun at one time when you take a ride in a Hot air balloon.
What can shake one from not entering the fantasy flight is with your inaugural flight crash landing from a height of 400 to 500 feet, with you sitting in crash land position and the basket hitting tree branches and a roof of a building before you realize that you have landed with a roaring thud. This experience happened to me in my first flight along with another fotog from a agency, who refused to enter the hot basket sitting that he would rather shoot from the ground during an adventure ride with the 3 EME center based in Bhopal in December 2002.
The harness wire which the captain of the balloon handles caught fire and snapped. Thanks to Major Bhaskar who was our team captain who kept his cool and did the landing in the safest way possible, thus ensuring that there was no injuries to any of the five occupants. Later before we could reload our senses and take our seats with one member short, we took off again but this time with more confidence and after ensuring that all the things were in place.
As for me I took the bull by the horn, and was all excited to get some very exciting pictures of the city of lakes and the rural side of it.
What you get to see below appeared in the front page of the HT Bhopal Live of my personal experience and the pictures I took from 4000 to 6000 feet above ground.
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Its as close it gets to being on a flight of fantasy in the real world. Rising slowly above the terra firma in a hot-air balloon and seeing the world from 4,000 + feet high. And there's nothing to compare with a hot-air balloon ride. In a fast train the landscape whizzes by in a blur: In a hot-air balloon, the meadows just keep getting smaller and smaller as time virtually stands still.

Even for any Fotog with a seasoned eye for visuals, it's quite a spectacle taking time to sink in. And it was that kind of day for a couple of lens men, who were taken up a hot air balloon with them by Army Adventure Wing members of the 3 EME Center.
Major Bhaskar was at the helm as the balloon took off. For a slow rising mass of hot-air, contraption of ropes and the balloon itself, it was surprising to see it still took a lot of skill to rise slowly and navigate in the face of smoe pretty quirky wind.

Naib Subeidar Santosh was in charge of the other balloon as the two spectacular machines rose in tandem from the Jeet Stadium at the EME Center. The wind was strong throughout and favored North-West. The speed of the balloons was 25 nautical miles before we smoothly landed on the farmland near Khukaria village about 45 Kilometers away from the main road.
Major Bhaskar and Santosh plan to cross the Arabian Sea in February 2003, a feat that would be under-taken for the first time by any Asian. These rides are their practice flights and meant to sharpen their skills. After all, a botched ride over a desolate stretch of the Arabian Sea could be rather unforgiving.

During the ride, we saw nomadic tribesmen from Rajasthan herding their live stock and camels, across the rural hinterland. Their annual migration into the State's 'greener pastures' has just begun.
Even as the camels gently strode across the vast plains underneath, Major Bhaskar's balloon gently brushed some treetops, a bit scary for the second time in one day, for a ballooner but a routine experience for the immensely skilled officer.
The balloon itself was of rib-knit nylon to take up to 140 to 160 degrees of heat blown from four blowers fixed to gas cylinders.

Major Bhaskar says you need a keen knowledge of the wind velocity and also the knack of blowing enough hot air to avert mishaps.
Colonel Balasubramaniam, the head of the ground staff which helps retrieve the hot air balloons after they land, says it is easy to fly high but following the balloon is the tricky part because they have to stick to roads and then make their own track to reach the balloon far afield.

Special Guest at Aero India 2009

The Aero India International air show 2009 had some special guests apart from the the defense chiefs.

Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor inspects the static venue of the air crafts and also takes keen interest in the Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems display counter while taking a feel of the Helicoat simulator and the Spike-MR (Gill) with range of 2,500m, Spike-LR with 4,000m range. Spike is anti-armour weapons. The weapons are lightweight fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles and use electro-optical and fiber-optic technologies. The systems are used by infantry soldiers, special rapid reaction forces, ground forces and helicopter aircrew.

Defense Minister A K Anthony and MOS Pallam Raju, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall F H Major along with other senior officials of the Defense ministry at the inaugural function of the Aero show 2009 in Bangalore (left) as he along with Rahul Dravid look at some of the manuvers of the Sarang Helicopter team (right).



Admiral Sureesh Mehta interacts with some of the officials of the Russian Mikoyan the builders of the MIG-35 at the display stall in the Aero India 2009.






Tamil Film actor Ajit was there to have a close look at the static display. He spend more than five hours being escorted by the HAL employees. He claimed that he was a very personal visit and that's why he was sporting a moustache along with the beard so that he will be able to hide his identity. Anyway after speaking to for a few moments and requesting him if I could take some pictures of himself freeze framing the Iron eagles on display he obliged and wanted me to picture him with the Sukoi static display plane and mail it to him. After framing him into my Canon-EOS D50, he handed me over his Nikon with a 80-200mm ED lens mounted to shot his pictures. With my pictures taken I parted ways with him and started to concentrate on the air show again.

Combat Exercise by Indian Paratroopers

The main aim of having a Parachute Unit to any country is for quick deployment of the solders behind enemy lines to attack the enemy from behind & destroy their first line of defense. They are the "CRACK FORCE" & help the main army to get in without much damage. The Indian Paras are the Elite group of soldiers & generally all the Special Forces personals are selected from it. Though it has its own SF Units & slowly they are being converted into SF or better known as "COMMANDOS".
The three parachute commandos (battalion-size units) perform Special Forces duties. Airborne, Air Assault or Parachute troops are usually held centralized. The mounts, in all cases, are provided by the Indian Air Force. The parachute and parachute commando units, which are part of the Indian Army's Special Forces, are ready reaction troops, although their use “is heavily dependent on the Air Force air transport fleet.
By start of the new century, the Parachute Regiment had essentially two components. One part was the traditional parachute force, with the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Parachute.
In 2003 the government announced the creation of four new Special Forces battalions to be trained in cooperation with Israel. The intended role for these units was to stop cross-border infiltration in Kashmir, though they were to be trained for cross-border raids as well. One report indicated in 2004, that the 5th Parachute was converting to the Special Forces role; however, it was actually the 4th that converted. There are no open source indications that the remaining battalions were ever actually formed.
The parachute units of the Indian Army are among the oldest airborne units in the world. The 1st unit was authorized on 15 May 1941, & by October 1941 the 50th (Independent) Parachute Brigade had been formed; comprising 152nd Parachute Battalion (Indian), 151st Parachute Battalion (British) & 153rd Parachute Battalion (Gurkha).
The Pictures you get to see below are the ones taken at the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore during the visi of the Sultan of Brunei.

Fighters of the Parachute Regiment Training Center enact a war scene as their slither down a mock training iron railings (left) as they enact an arm to arm combat with an mock target (right) to the visiting Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah after he had checked out the latest and mordern Weapons of Warfare during his visit in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

Commandos of the Parachute Regiment Training Center enact a war scene as one Sits behind an tree trunk to give covering fire (left) to the fellow commando who is running for the final assualt (right) to the visiting Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah after he had checked out the latest and mordern Weapons of Warfare during his visit in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

The below operation is an very coveted one tacking the unpredictability of the Jammu & Kashmir hills surrounded with thick forest and rocky terrain. The Paratroop Commandos are air lifted by a Helicopter and dropped to a certain point to finish an operation with terrorists holed up in a Kashmir home. The whole operation lasts 6 minutes and the enemy is neutralized with meticulous planning and swift and calculated moves during the operation.























This Scene was appreciated by the visiting Sultan of Brunei and he also praised the team from the fast coordinated moves by helping each other through out the six minute operation.

*** Please scroll down for more on the Sultan of Brunei ***