Wish you all a very happy holi. May you travel more this spring and throughout the year and may your travel be colorful! We had a great time this year.

Happy Holi

For the first year my daughter decided to play Holi this time! Till last year she you tell us she didn’t like it! So it was great fun for us.

Have fun, enjoy the colors and play safe.

                          

I am sometimes asked- when did I start to travel? Well there are two answers to it. One is that I started traveling after I stopped being active at sports. But these days a different answer suggests itself to me. And that is, I hardly travel! I have not yet started traveling, I want to travel much more.

Now if you ask me when I started travel blogging the answer is more definitive. I started blogging in June 2005. At that point of time I was stuck in a very lousy job and travel writing was an escape. At that point of time there were few India travel blogs. That was also the time when people used to ask you, “Who reads your blog?” Things have changed since then.

Blogging seems to have exploded. Some of my friends went on to quit their full time jobs and make a living out of travel. There is a new breed of bloggers who started in a better blogging landscape.

But I am most puzzled by a personal development. In 2005 or so I would probably travel 4 times a year, maybe even less. I remember in 2008 I went out only twice. In 2012 I traveled almost every month and I started this year thinking that would it would fine if I traveled every month.

Shovling the Snow, The Khyber, Gulmarg

This year also started fine, we traveled to Chennai for a family vacation, then we went to Alwar in Rajasthan. Now February went blank but I went to Gulmarg in March. And there are two more trips planned for March, of which I am sure at least one will happen. Chances are both will happen.

What caught me by surprise was the restlessness after the Gulmarg trip. I usually do not get restless after a trip for at least a month. But that is changing. I was restless as soon as I recovered from the tiredness of the trip! I wanted to go out again after two days! Now with a full time job and a young naughty child that is simply not possible. But the year is young and I hope I will get ample opportunities to test my theory.

I wonder if this is how things are going to be how long will I resist? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my work in academics but wanderlust is creeping on me and it is becoming worse with age! And I no longer feel sure, I no longer feel in control!

                          

So the wait is over. I did my first ever blogging contest with Groupon a few days back. Many thanks to the 16 people who left valid comments. There were 18 comments in all but two comments were by the same person so the name was entered only once. Another comment was a good luck comment so it was not eligible for the draw.

Thank You for Your Comments

So here are the 16 names on bits of paper all ready to be folded and then drawn randomly.

All Set!

So there I go, I promise I even closed my eyes when I picked up the names!

And the winners are-

Winners of the Groupon Contest

2. Suman Saurabh (1X3000 Rupees Coupon)
1. Harsh Vardhan (1X5000 Rupees Coupon)

Many congratulations to you both. You will hear from me via email. I hope you check the emails you provided for leaving the comments.

And once again thank you all for taking part.

                          

My love affair with photography started gradually. I always liked to take pictures but there was a time when I would not get withdrawal symptoms if I didn’t get to travel once a month and click pictures. Now it looks like I am not going to travel in February and I am sulking like mad. I know I should count my blessings (and there are way too many to start with) but …

Tips for Photography and Using Pictures on Your Blog

So I thought instead of sulking I would talk about photography. I am no expert but I love to take pictures and I have 70 of them on sale with Getty Images.

1. Look for the Light: One of the things I learned through time is to look for light. All lights are not equal. The noon light is different from the ‘golden light’ which is different from twilight. I take pictures with different expectations depending on the light.

2. Can’t Shoot Then All: I like shooting landscapes. I like shooting landscapes more than anything else. This realization made me stop chasing very thing under the sun like flowers, portraits, wildlife, street photography with equal rigor. I like clicking flowers, birds and everything under the sun but I am not chasing gear to shoot everything anymore. And I am not expecting the same results as well.

3. Did You Photoshop It? The short answer is no. I do not have enough money to buy lightroom and I will not use torrent to download it. But I do use Picasa to edit my pictures. And even the most stringent photo competitions would allow you minor adjustments. I do make adjustments in Picasa for my pictures. I have made  my peace with the post processing process.

4. I am not a Pro: I read photography websites and forums. I bought a SLR first and figured it out later. And learning is an ongoing process. A lot of advice on the websites comes from pros. I will never (as far as I can see) have the leisure to sit at a place and wait for a shot for a few hours, forget about days. I would probably never scout locations for three days and then start shooting. So even if I do read a lot I try to sift it through my filter. Will it work for me?

5. I Respect Copyright: I am lucky I mostly write about places I visit myself. So I have my own pictures to go with it. But on the rare occasion when I don’t have them I will not use a random picture from a search engine. That is a violation of copyright irrespective of whether the photograph carried a copyright sign or not. If I am really pressed I would use a creative common picture.

What is your take?

                          

This post is Sticky till 12thFeb. Regular posts follow below this.

So here is the first ever contest that I am holding on this blog and I am quite excited about it. I hope I will manage to pass on some of the excitement to you as well. After all, would it not be fun if you got some money to spend on your next travel or purchase?

The Deal

The contest is simple and fun for travel lovers. Visit the Groupon India site and pick up the best travel deal that you can find. Leave the link to the deal and your brief comments on why you liked it as a comment on this blog. The comment has to be on a travel deal at Groupon India website to be eligible. It can be from any city in India.

What is Up for Grabs?

Two Groupon India Vouchers

1X5000 Rupees

1X3000 Rupees

You can use the vouchers to spend on any deal (and not just travel) on the site. If the cost of the deal exceeds, the difference has to be paid. If the cost of the deal is less the balance will remain in your account to spend later. The coupons are valid only for Groupon India site.

When Can I Start Posting Comments?

Now!

When does the Entries Close

Comments made after 12 February 2013 will not be eligible. That means you can post on 12 Feb till 11.59 pm India time.

How do we Decide the Winners?

I am drawing out the winners by lottery. You may ask why and you have every right! It is because we want to have some fun. Remember waiting at a lucky draw or playing tambola? Do it again with Travel Tales from India!

So the aim is to have fun and I am really happy that Groupon supported me in hosting my first blog contest.

When will we Announce the Results?

I believe in giving fast feedback, so the results would be out with the post that I do on Feb 13th (under normal circumstances).

So head on to Groupon India site and tell me which are your favorite deals and why in my comment section.

You can check the results here.

                          

When Shubhra, the editor of Travel Secrets asked me if I would like to meet her and her team at Kunzum Cafe I readily agreed. It was fun for me when she featured me in her magazine. Travel Secrets is now also on  twitter.

So last Sunday we all met at Kunzum Cafe and the surprise for me was that I was the blogger who was supposed to talk at the meet! We were a cozy group but I didn’t expect that the spotlight would be on me!

Meeting Travel Secrets Team and Bloggers at Kunzum Cafe

The good bit was that we talked about everything under the sun related to blogging. It was a pleasure to Jupiter Huidrom there. He has done shows with both National Geographic and Fox Traveler. He asked many questions about things companies should know if they want to work with bloggers.

On the other hand as I am not a full time professional blogger I think a lot of my answers are different from professional bloggers but then I could be wrong.

The question that completely floored me? Why do you think people like your blog? I said, “you have to tell me, how do I know?” So do you have any clue why do you like my blog?

Some of the pictures of the event are on Travel Secrets Facebook Page.

                          

And I have started a strange blog called 16 December India- A Diary of 40 something. Wanted to do it for sometime (not with that name) but it took a brutal night  for me to get out from my travel complacency. Not sure where it will go. I know I will move on but I don’t want to forget.

                          

Do you remember some of the posts that I did for Cinthol’s Alive is Awesome contest? There were some prizes associated with it. I was extremely reluctant in the beginning but the person who was in charge of the contest was one persuasive person. Once I committed I did all the posts that were required. And it was fun reliving some of those water filled memories.

Alive is Awesome by Cinthol

So last week I was very pleasantly surprised when I got a mail saying I won an iPad! And the next day evening I got the iPad too!

iPad 2

This is my first Apple product. Daughter considers it her tab. I get to use it in between sometimes. May write more if I get to use it more. Have to say I never expect to win! And among all the thing iPad was what I was eyeing most!

                          

We are closed for a short break! I will be back after a week with new pictures and stories from Himachal.

Closed for a Short Break

What you see from now are scheduled posts. Hope you will enjoy the pictures.

                          

If you have been blogging for some time now you might have noticed that our blogs change, they go through phases and at least in my case my blog has grown up with me. When I look at some of my earlier posts and the pictures I posted I often wonder aloud- how could I have ever posted that pic? In my case it has been 7 years of blogging and seems like a long, long time.

I started blogging because my sister and brother-in-law insisted that I blog too and gave me no peace till I started. Initially I would blog whenever I felt like but for past few years (I have not kept count) I make you all on my RSS (or those who read my stuff regularly even otherwise) suffer almost daily.

And then there was Light!

There was a time when I would take my blog only so seriously. Not that I take it (or myself) too seriously even now but there is one difference. I will tell you what but in a minute.

When I started, it was for pure fun, for recording my journeys and since I would anyway take pictures, I would put a few in my posts too. Then came a time when I would post only pictures on this blog. But thankfully I outgrew it.

To begin with, I was not so serious about my photography but it really grew on me. I have developed a passion for photography that refuses to go away or diminish in any way! And I hold this blog responsible for it!

Slowly I started getting invited by hotels (the first trip was in 2006 I think) in India. Some money (largely loose change but sometimes a little more) also started coming my way through blogging. Recently I got invited to Malaysia because of my blog!

Even till the start of this year if I ever got worked up about my blog traffic etc. I would ask myself- “why did you started blogging?” and the answer would be- “because it was fun.”

Did you notice the past tense. Try as I may, this tried and tested recipe is not working any longer. If I get worked up now about my blog due to some reason (like that tweet button on the top of the posts is not working and I have no clue how to fix it) I try asking myself again, “so why do you blog?” But in reply all I get is a silence. I am not sure of the answer any longer and I do not know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I hope time will tell.

How long have you been blogging? Have you changed as a blogger? Do share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you on this.