ARE YOU SEEING THINGS? OR MERELY VIEWING?

You know how when you're on vacation you're trigger happy? I'm not saying it's a bad thing; I'm one of the gang. I've been known to take a crazy amount of pictures - in high resolution, no less - that have on occasion resulted in a frantic search for additional memory cards. A mad dash to the nearest store in whichever city, and then only do I breathe a sigh of relief. Actually, not even then - I almost always run out of battery towards the end of a long, happily satisfying sightseeing-y day. Of course, Murphy being Murphy, I'll miss the best photo ops just then. Sigh. Such is life. To combat that, I learnt to bring with me a fully charged cell phone; that way there's a (possibly feeble in terms of quality) backup, but a reliable one nonetheless. But just to plug the iPhone here (and no, I'm not getting paid for this), rest assured that the iPhone 5 does an awesome job. Not remotely feeble. 

But back to the topic at hand.

I was in the middle of taking the most breathtakingly beautiful pictures at The Twelve Apostles, alternately gasping in awe (yes, it's that awe-inspiring) and peering through my (camera) lens. That's when I realised: do you really see as much as you should? Or do you merely view through the lens? Get the difference? While it may sound like merely a subtle nuance, I'm now thinking otherwise. In our rush to capture the image for posterity, do we then wind up actually seeing it only when home, while sorting through the myriad pictures? Would I have seen more, remembered more if I were to see the place, take it all in, absorb its magnificence - albeit sans a camera? I'm not saying no pictures, all I'm thinking out loud is, maybe a little less camera and a lot more eye.

So at The Twelve Apostles, while my camera did a fabulous job, my mind and eyes worked still better: those waves lapping at the rocks, the pristine sand, that wallaby in the wild, the gull soaring effortlessly into the blue... not all on the camera, and not stuff to be forgotten in a hurry.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE

That's where I was. This long, amazing vacation that (sadly) came to an end last week. Needless to say, I'm in denial that it's back to reality now. Does that explain my absence from this blog? I apologise.

To make up for posts (of which there are plenty in my head; just got to get them down to cyber pen and ink), I'll come back in a bit with some pictures. Of course, they don't do justice to what is a simply beautiful country, or the equally lovely holiday that I had, but still. They do make for some many wonderful memories anyway. Soon.

DRIVER ASLEEP!

... And asleep he was!

SINGAPURA!

Here's a few pictures from a recent holiday to gorgeous Singapore.

COUNTDOWN

... to vacation time begins.
Fun places, here we come!

OFF ON VACATION!

Yes, it's Diwali. Yes, it is festive. Yes, I am finally done with preparations. Of course, as usual, I'm sure I could've done more. In any case, too late now - it's a little past midnight, and here I am, channel surfing (a fruitless exercise, but being the eternal optimist,...) and blogging. And quickly sending/ replying to work mails, because...

... I am off on vacation. Hurrah! Yay! Yippee!

Nothing fancy, just the annual visit to the in-laws, but it's not reason to complain at all. Of course, will put up loads of pics while there *snort* when I'm back. Will blog regularly too. Okay, occasionally.

So what did I do to prep, anyway? Here's the list:

• Cleaned house
• Washed curtains/ changed bedlinen (which we do otherwise too, but it's almost mandatory at Diwali)
• Put up the fairy lights and the kandeel, or paper lantern. (More on that later, remind me)
• Piously lit diyas and placed outside the door (Again, more later)
• Made chocolates. You think? Well, unfortunately this is the one thing that I didn't get down to doing. Sad. So bought these small pouches, bought chocolates, bought diyas and made up packages to give the neighbours. (You'll notice the malls love people like me - note the overuse of the word 'bought'.)
• Bought gifts and wrapped them (LOVE that!), ready to give away with loads of warm Diwali wishes

That's more or less it.

So while I'm away (and possibly too lazy to blog), have a wonderful and safe Diwali, y'all out there!

A LITTLE SLICE OF HEAVEN

...Isn't it?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a view of sheer awesomeness at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Thank you, Nimilita (a wonderful, wonderful friend - and not just because she lets me use her personal photographs out here in blogland), for a glimpse into what undoubtedly is Heaven - or as close as you can get to it, if nothing else.

 

 

This, I believe, is as good a reason as any to happily ditch the material world and turn holy/ spiritual/ whatever-suits-you, isn't it?

SUNSET ON THE SAND DUNES

Rajasthan.

Through my parents' camera lens.

SRI LANKA IN PICTURES

Here you go:



And here's another:

QUACK!

Step 1: Go to Chandigarh.
Step 2: Drive down to Sukhna Lake. Evenings preferable.
Step 3: Park car, get down and walk to the lakeside. And walk some more.
Step 4: Spot ducks/ geese, like this: "Ah, look! There's a duck/ goose!"
Step 5: Wait for friendly neighbourhood (rather, lakeside) kid to stop by with paper cones full of peanuts. (Doesn't take too long.)
Step 6: Ask price of peanuts. Go bug-eyed at the sheer robbery, but buy anyway. (Look longingly at the ducks/ geese, and kiss your chances of haggling on price good-bye.)
Step 7: Shell out kid's asking price. Grab paper cone.
Step 8: Get attacked by (seemingly perpetually) hungry ducks/ geese.
Step 9: Unravel paper cone in haste. Toss peanuts to said quackers.(Else risk getting attacked to the accompaniment of obnoxiously loud quacking.)
Step 10: Pose for photograph(s).

AWAY FROM HOME

Plan holiday. Book tickets. Go shopping. Get organised. Pack. Realise you've packed everything but the kitchen sink hence no space in luggage. Grumble. Unpack. Grumble. Repack. Fret-fume-done. Go on holiday.

Day 1: Have a good time.

Day 2: Still having a good time.

Day 3: Ho-hum. Not bad.

Day 4: Wanna go home!!!

Homesickness sets in quick! So much for the holiday; somebody put me on a flight back home!

ROMANCING THE ROSES

Go on, take a deep breath and feel the clean air pervade your smog-filled lungs. I somehow seem to remember an MTV advert from back in (was it?) 1994 that stated 'One day breathing in Bombay is like smoking ten cigarettes'. I'm sure that the number of ciggies in question has now risen exponentially, but that's digressing.

What we're discussing here is a tiny nondescript little hill station called Badhok. Before that quizzical expression on your face results in a permanent frown, let's put some geographical facts into perspective. Badhok is a place up in the Shivalik Ranges in the North of India. That's
somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas.

So there we were, driving along a red-bottomed monkey-inhabited road winding up the mountainside, when we pulled into this quaint resort called The Pinewood. (Yes, unlike apartment buildings in Mumbai called Beach View when you can't even see a stall vending bottled water in sight, this one does have pine trees surrounding it.) Now the view from this resort was heavenly rows of bright red poppies swaying in the breeze, huge rose blooms in eye-catching reds and oranges, dainty little purple and yellow flowers nodding their heads in time to a tune of their own. Bliss.

Badhok itself has nothing much to write home about, except for some scrumptious local Himachali cuisine, and gorgeous weather even in the summer. A good place to run away from it all for a weekend. As we did.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

How I hate returning from one! Then on the other hand, I'm homesick after about five... say six days, and can't wait to be home! I keep wondering how things back at home are, how our fish are (okay, so this time we walked in to find one dead goldfish, may it rest in peace) and what we've missed out on...

Guess that's why it's called 'Home Sweet Home' and nothing can take its place. Though maybe a couple of nights in an old restored fort (now a heritage hotel) would be fun. And romantic. More on that later... Suffice it to say that I'm thoroughly enchanted!