Travel Diary of A Wandering Mind
The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset. ~ Catherine Opie
Still we never stop enjoying those beautiful sunset moments and never get tired in capturing them with our lenses. We often run to hill stations and to scenic beaches to watch glorious sunsets. Well… the beauty of sunset can also be captured from anywhere as I did from our rooftop. 🙂
Varanasi is a place where you will see them anywhere and everywhere – on the Ghats, in the alleys, at the temples. Some maintain the attire in which they came on this earth, some wear saffron clothes. Some are completely absorbed in their own world, some are very conscious about the surroundings – whether passersby pay attention to them or not (I hope you understand why 🙂 ). Some draw tika on their forehead while some smear ashes on the skin. Many of them wear matted hair coiled up on their crown. Yes, they are the Sadhus (hermits) – they belong to Varanasi’s culture.
While I was taking a stroll along the Daswaswamedh Ghat in one fine morning I spotted him. He came down the stairs, spread his rug on the floor, arranged his belongings in order, then sat down and looked at me curiously. As I approached him he wore a pleasant smile.
“Kya mai ek photo le sakti hun apki?”, I requested. (Can I take a photo of yours?)
He instantly gave his approval, “han, zaroor…le lo”. (Yes, of course, go ahead)
And there he goes – our smiling Sadhu Baba.
P.S.: I took this photo with my old SONY Cyber Shot W190.
Flowers are perhaps the most beautiful creation of Nature. And you’ll find them aplenty on the hills. During our stay in Pipalay, a beautiful village in Namchi, South Sikkim I did try my hand on nature photography. There were wide variety of flowers and foliages. Some were known to me and some unknown. Some dazzled in vibrant colors while some were too small to go unnoticed, but when they blossom you can’t ignore their collective beauty.
There was this red Zinnia in the garden of Shepherd’s Vacation Home (the cottage where we stayed during our short trip). I zoomed in with my Sony Cybershot DSC-W190.
I found this tiny crimson beauty in the bush behind the cottage and the yellow one too…
The pink and blue ones bloomed at the feet of the Holy Statue of Samdruptse in South Sikkim. Can you tell me their names?
The monastery at Samdruptse has manicured gardens where purple and white cosmos were bountiful. They looked like small butterflies amidst the green blades of grass.
This ‘unidentified’ pink blossom along the garden fence also caught my eyes. And this time I badly felt the need of a DSLR…
On our way back to Pipalay (from Samdruptse) we stopped by Namchi Rock Garden that offers mind-blowing view of the mountains all around. Bonus was a variety of foliage that adorned the small garden. I thought this magenta one is worth sharing.
You might also love the following combination of red and green sprouted along the stairways of the Rock Garden.
It’s been quite a long time since I have been to the hills of Sikkim. Have thought so many times of writing about our Namchi trip and have let it go every time, because so many things (about Namchi, Sikkim) are on my mind and I’m unable to sum it up! But then, today when I was reading this post How to Photograph a Spider’s Web on DPS it just kindled my memories.
We stayed in a cottage by the river Ringit. Ours was a beautiful small red-brick cottage that was surrounded by tall Sal (iron-wood) trees. And one fine morning I set out in the woods with my camera and captured this ‘Charlotte’s Web’ through my lenses.
This little arachnid seemed to be very smart to have woven its web high on the branch. And I only had Sony Cybershot DSC-W190 which doesn’t offer too much of optical zooming facility. 😦 Still I did as much as I could to capture this fine ‘work of art’ with my digi cam.
Hope you like it! Please don’t forget to leave your valuable comments, friend… 🙂
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