Thanks Apana and Mrudul for the suggestions. Appreciate it very much. Nice PP Sabyasachi. I guess I need some more time tinkering with the settings. Come to think of it, instead of giving a +ve EC as you suggest, I had done just the opposite! Had given a -0.3 step compensation

I wanted a faster shutter speed so had bumped the ISO to 800 and given a -ve compensation. Now I think I should have opened the aperture to 5.6 instead of fiddling with the ISO.

Thanks for the time guys.