I was paying a visit to my native village Kuthyar - approximately 40 kms from Mangalore. As always, I went to offer my prayers at the Ellore temple which was close by. One of the features that I like about this temple is the beautiful pond within the temple premises. I have a lot of childhood memories in this place, and so naturally I paid a visit to this pond. There were very few people in the temple and none at the pond and so Mr. Tortoise here was confidently basking in the sun at the surface of the pond. Upon my arrival, the tortoise dived into deeper waters, thus depriving me of an audience with him. However, I had my camera on hand and I was determined to take a picture of this shy customer. I went into hiding and waited patiently. Ten minutes later, the tortoise surfaced again and my wish was granted. I started to shoot away, but before I could take three shots, the tortoise had guessed my presence through the camera clicks!! Away it went into deeper waters again. At that point, I was not sure whether I had a good picture or not. But I was lucky and I consider this as one of the best shots that I have ever taken :-)