The world around us

I’ve realized that I really look forward to my vacations, not only for the beautiful landscapes they take me to, but also for the way I am able to relive that time through my photographs. So I get to enjoy the time twice over, it seems! This shot was taken at a resort called Cardamom Club, which was located just outside Thekkady in Kerala. It was hidden away in a little valley and once you got there, there was no one else, no highway, no roads, no people going by, just peacefulness and serenity.

A picture of my home… of a view that I really like… a view that I see everyday…. but am still not tired of. That is what home is, something you see everyday, but don’t tire of. A lot of people are not too attached to their homes, but I love my home…no matter where in the world we are, and love to make it special, not with material things, but with warmth and love.

The Internet and blogging has led to so many games being played between readers and online friends. Being tagged is the most popular one of course, and I got tagged recently on flickr, where one had to post the fifth photo from the fifth folder on one’s computer….well I posted the fifth photo in the fifth folder of my pictures, else I would have ended up with word file. No use in that, right!

…of Mussoorie.

Most of my shots of my trip to Mussoorie have been showing only the beauty of the town and the hills around. As with a lot of towns in India, haphazard growth is everywhere, sometimes overtaking the beauty and simpleness of the surroundings.

This is the reality….there are lots of wires crisscrossing, most of them illegal but so prevalent that they become part of the landscape, the old houses are beautiful but falling apart, the new houses are strong but ugly concrete structures and so on.

So, it’s really up to us to find the beauty where ever we can. One has to look beyond the obvious, and not get sidetracked by things like the huge dumpster that welcomes you to the town, or the discarded plastic bags in the gutters, in essence ignore the ugliness and notice only the beauty that could be.

Picnics have been a family tradition for quite some time, a tradition that I absolutely love. A holiday or summer vacation is not complete unless we have a couple of picnics, hopefully one by a stream or two, where maybe we can make a tiny dam, have twig races and chill our beer. Luckily, our past vacation, we managed to have three picnics, each one quite different from the other and each oh so enjoyable.

Here’s a shot of one of them.

I love noticing the simplicity of things. It’s funny how I never used to notice them before, but the act of taking a photograph of it, keeps it in your mind forever and one is able to relive it, to delve into it and to really absorb it in its entirety. I love the quietness of the moment, when one just notices and lives in that moment alone…not thinking or worrying about anything else. It’s funny how and why I’ve become so philosophical about taking and viewing photos, but it’s a wonderful feeling nevertheless.

In a post earlier today, I wrote about how much fun it has been to start noticing and taking photographs of the little things around me, and I wanted to share a shot that I took last month and posted a few days back on flickr. It was just a regular day, a nice day, but by taking that shot I did manage to make it more memorable, which is something that we should all do. Lives are not meant just for the run around, for making money, they are also meant for the little joys, and this was one of them.

Taking pictures is a great way to keep memories, I feel. It’s great to be able to just see a photo and remember all the things associated with it. At one time, we only used to take photos of each other, the family and so on, but lately I barely take any of these photos and instead spend most of my time photographing the things around us, whether we’re on a trip to a beautiful place or just a nice moment with a cup of coffee at home. It’s the little moments that all add up to make a wonderful life.