When we go ahead full speed in life, there are times we have to suddenly stop! You stare in the face of seemingly impossible obstacles. You turn around and realise that in your quest to cycle fast, you have left behind all your loved ones far far behind.
You are surrounded by strangers who may or may not help you. You are also not sure if the people around will pretend to help and end up cheating you. So what would you do??
A window is just a window! A piece of an architectural jigsaw puzzle strategically placed by the master artist to give a view of the outside world or sometimes inside too. We would have seen many of them everywhere around us, some noticed and some barely.
What if each window had a story to tell? A story of its existence or one about the views it would have seen?
This window in a historical building now occupied by a new tenant may have had the ringside view of many historical happenings.
Did you know?
Window Tax Woes: In 17th-century England, King William III imposed a controversial “window tax,” charging homeowners based on the number of windows their houses had. This led to some hilarious (and desperate) measures, like bricking up windows or even installing fake ones! The tax was eventually abolished in 1851, much to the relief of homeowners.
I amm thinking of doing an exclusive photo session with windows as a subject. What do you think? Would you like to collaborate on this? Maybe we could do kind of a global project on Windows of the World.
Once upon a time there was a little bird. He was a happy go lucky fellow and enjoyed roaming about everywhere.
One day while flying through a village near a Lake he saw a huge heap of something brown and it was teeming with insects for him to munch on. He decided to investigate and maybe get a bite or two.
He swept down and landed on his target in a graceful move.
“Yuck this thing stinks!!!”
Just then a passerby asked his friend “Hey, who put this huge pile of dung here??”
His friend said jokingly, “Must be that bird standing on the heap” and clicked a photo on his camera.
The little guy was aghast and started chirping loudly in protest.
“Honestly, it wasn’t me. I just landed here now. I am not an elephant to unload this huge dung.”
But those two could only hear loud chirps as they walked away from there.
“Hey, do you think that bird has started chirping loudly after I said that?”
“You have a pretty wild imagination bro, come we are getting late.”
🐥
Check out my Instagram page for more photos sujil_click
Queen city of South
Beautiful memories have a tendency to always keep you yearning for experiencing them again. Even after a year of this trip it remains fresh in our minds and I thought of a revisiting it through words and images.
A spur of the moment discussion with my co-brother Vishal lead to a plan to visit Salalah, the southern port city of the Sultanate of Oman during the Khareef Season of 2018 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khareef).
Located in the Govenerate of Dhofar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhofar_Governorate), the place is blessed with natural greenery unlike the other parts of the Arabian peninsula. By road it’s around 1200km away from the current capital city of Muscat. Incidentally Salalah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salalah) was once the capital of the Sultanate.
One of the major concerns during the planning of our trip was getting a dependable person to guide us since we were new to the area. Also we had 3 young children with us the youngest being my 8 month old toddler.
Lot of research on Google & TripAdvisor led to shortlisting of few probable operators. After discussion through WhatsApp, email & phone calls we decided to go with Beautiful Salalah (https://www.beautifulsalalah.com/) a tour operator based out of the southern city.
Mr Hussain, the key contact person & his colleague Mr Ahmed quickly designed a package for us. We had two days to spend during the Eid holidays (2018). Considering the young ones in our team, the itinerary was designed with sufficient room for quick pit stops for food and cleaning up!!!.
What I loved about their arrangements was that they understood our requirements perfectly and tailored our itinerary accordingly.
The itinerary
Day 1
- Mughsayi Beach & Blowhole
- Marneef Cave
- Ittin mountain
- Ittin cave
- Ayn Jarzin
Day 2
- Wadi Darbat waterfalls & boating area
- Tawi attair
- Ayn tabruk
- Ayn athum
- Ayn razzat & razat garden
Actually there are lot more places to explore, but we were limited by the kids comfort factor to avoid anything too adventurous. And it was drizzling most of the time. Our guide cum driver Mr Ahmed (different person from the one mentioned above) did an awesome job and was an epitome of patience for addressing all our needs.
As always images speak better and so now the photos
Yummy stone chicken getting ready f/5.6 1/1500s ISO 3200 
Its hot hot stone chicken f/5.6 1/1500s ISO 3200
Over all we had a pretty good time enjoying the hospitality of The Hamdan Plaza Hotel ( http://hamdanplazahotel.com/ ) where our rooms were booked by our tour operator Mr Hussain (https://www.travelwithhussain.com/). Spacious & luxurious my family especially the kids where really happy with the warmth provided by the wooden flooring of the bedroom. We are actually looking forward to another trip shortly to explore some of the places which we had to miss due to potty breaks of the kiddos.
As always please remember to be responsible tourist & keep the places you visit neat & clean so that they remain a beautiful memory to all those who visit them. Let us not forget to preserve the beautiful world around us for the future generations, for we are only custodians for them.
I genuinely welcome feedback & criticism on the blog, please feel to speak out your heart so that I can improve further. Also do spare a few minutes of your precious time on my other blogs. Your visits, comments and likes would be inspiration for me. (And I have a few more pictures to upload so do visit maybe after a few days to check them out. Or you could subscribe to my blog channel to get updates.
Sujil Soman,
(Banker by profession, dreamer by choice)
National Geographic Yourshot Profile https://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/1218306/
All photos for this blog have been taken on Canon 1200 D https://global.canon/
Travel Partner https://www.omanair.com/
For more information on Khareef Season in Salalah https://omantourism.gov.om/ & https://www.travelwithhussain.com
Little drops of water (a very famous & oft repeated poem by Mrs. J. A. Carney (1845). It’s surprising that how much of our lives are dependent on these drops.
Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the beauteous land
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above
And the little moments,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages.
Of eternity.
(Copyright acknowledged)
Two years back, we were traveling by train (Indian Railways) & our stock of water got exhausted around 9pm. As soon as the train pulled into the next station (a very important Junction station on the route) I got down on the platform & asked the first vendor for two bottles of water, he said sorry no stock. I went to the next vendor & he said he will give me only one bottle!!!
I was totally surprised, bottled mineral water is something we take for granted nowadays & I was refused a second bottle. Wow! and its peace time, no natural calamities except the heat. I ran back to the train before it pulled away & this got me thinking. In the morning I saw a video, forwarded by someone on WhatsApp – a each time a guy comes to get a bottled water he has to shell out more & more, at last the bottle becomes a glass & still the amount increases.
Come to think about it & how much water is wasted in our day to day lives
Water drops from a loosely closed pipe. Canon EOS 1200D Focal Length: 250 mm Shutter Speed: 1/4000 sec Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 3200
I remember reading that the next world war may happen over water. But inspite of all these we continue to do our little share of wasting water & polluting it. There are many organisations like Siruthuli , The Energy and Resources Institute etc who try to do their bit. But is it sufficient that a few individuals or groups try while the rest of us just don’t care about it?
July 2019 when am actually writing this, in India there is flooding at many locations few months down the line we will have droughts!! Mother Nature is providing us its bounty in many ways,
But will it ever become a success unless you & me actually take notice and close the tap properly!!! Till we stop carelessly throwing that small chocolate wrapper into the water stream during a much hyped nature walk we undertake to understand Mother Nature!!!
We are all basically hypocrites and preach about how important nature is and then throw in some waste into the sea when no one is noticing!!! Aaa no one has seen it?! But is there a point in fooling ourselves.
The same concept of little drops of water making the mighty big ocean also applies to little pieces of garbage making up the mighty big garbage mountain. So let us take a honest decision to reduce our pollution footprint in solid steps.
Maybe like when we are celebrating the half century since Neil Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface his words ” one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind “ may be the clue to our future. Lets all try to make these small steps that may help save our planet from doom!!! Talking of Moon, hope Chandrayaan 2 mission by ISRO is successful in its search for water, we may need to pipe it back to Earth sooner than we think.
– Sujil Soman
(Banker by profession, dreamer by choice)
Kodaikanal, popularly referred to as Princess of Hill Station, is located in Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu, India. The etymology section in wikipedia on Kodaikanal provides some interesting insights into the name, one of which I have given as the title of the blog.
The place is picturesque & climate is superb. When we went the climate on the plains was mildly oppressive in terms of heat, there it was refreshingly cooooollllll in the daytime & cccccooooooollllllllllllldddddddddddd in at night & early mornings.
The place is filled with flowers & fruits. Mangoes, plums, pears, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, etc are available on sale en route, but please be careful to examine them properly before purchasing.
I am not boring too much with text, I guess this time around let the pics do the talking.
Flowers always have a magic about them. There are a lot of them in Kodaikanal & you can see them sway in the breeze. Just gaze at them on a silent morning & you will understand what’s the big deal about meditation.
that’s all for now.
Hey friends,
Even though I started my blog a few months ago, i never did anything further on it. Well now i have something to share which would be worth your time.
Yesterday (26 Mar 2016), I made a quick solo visit to Ooty (Ootcamund or Udagamangalam). Well what’s so great about it? Well nothing much, but just thought i will share my experience with you – to bore you or to enlighten you!!
Rather than the place it was the mode of travel that I would like to share with you. I managed to fulfil my long cherished dream of taking the Toy Train or Nilgiri Mountain Railway – something that has been classified as a world heritige by the UNESCO.
The trip as such was hectic – catching the train was not an easy ball game. I barely managed to get in. I caught the Nilagiri Express (train no.12671 ) from Coimbatore Junction (CBE) to Metupalayam (MTP) at 530am. The Nilagiri Mountain Railway starts from MTP at 710am. At MTP i had my grand realisation, if you have not reserved your seats then to get one, you have to stand in a queue till 7am. The Station Master comes & checks the availablity of seats & then issues tokens. If you manage to get a token, then you need to race down to the ticket counter to get a ticket which cost Rs.15 (Roughly US$0.25, if you assume US$1 = INR60.00 exchange rate).
Then starts the beautiful trip which takes roughly around 5hrs to chug the train up the mountain to Ooty station. The trip involves around 4 pitstops to fill water for the steam & this is the highlight of the trip, since all these places are picturesque & gives one ample time to click to one’s hearts content.
The journey may be tiring at times, because the train moves at relaxed trot of 10kmph at most times.So I would suggest you be prepared with sufficent fluids & eatables. But please don’t litter the serene beauty of the Queen. Carry small litter bags. You can see the effects of unresponsible tourism all around, lets pledge not to contribute to the mess even if we don’t want to dirty our hands to clean it.
One very important thing that can be noticed is the dedication of the staff to the Indian Railways staff to the safety angle. The train is constantly monitored at every pit stop.
i guess this would be ok for now. Thank you for the honest feedbacks.
Note: i should thank my Canon 1200D for being such a good companion during my trip & the Luminosity Medium DSLR Backpack for carrying my limited equipment safely.
hi everyone,
am not sure when am going to get my first reader, but well i guess someone would stop by sometime. well am banker by profession. i recently took to photography & i do love writing. so this attempt. please do provide your honest feedback.
regards
Sujil
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