A new day, A new beginning...

Next up is a very famous blogger from Mumbai who has 500+ bloggers following her and who is quite popular with Indian as well as overseas readers and is surely one of the top and most popular travel blogs in India and my favorite too. She wins accolades and awards at the drop of a hot and is often out on a all-expense paid holiday.

Often people maintain a diary that has all their hearts and souls written and is kept private, but here is one diary that is specifically written for the reader and the reader is as well part of every yatra undertaken...

Delighted to have Arti, the person behind http://myyatradiary.com feature on my blog and by the way Arti is a spiritual blogger and loves traveling to spiritual destinations and take us along by scripting it on her blog in detail.

Here is a special post from MYD to Huchchara Santhe, take a look...


The sky is dull and listless, like a beautiful sketch in bluish gray. The sun is no where to be seen, hiding behind a misty cloud cover with its colorful box of crayons. 15 minutes have already passed by; the day has cracked but...

Where is He?

‘Will come out’ a few locals in their jogging trail assure bringing me out of my reverie of disappointment. Eagerly, I stand still, my eyes fixed towards the sky. The early morning air is crisp and brusque, and the beach idyllic displaying all signifiers of a worldly paradise: a quaint, densely wooded coconut plantations looming besides a deep salty sea, forested mynahs high up in the canopy chattering away until hushed by the wild melody of a roaring surge of the ocean.

'When' is my only question?

As if in response, an early morning zephyr blows gently across the water causing the elements in the picture to swing and dance. The leaves start rustling and…

...the skies get a touch of life.

I see Him, finally: A massive blob of red; peeping coyly from behind a cloudy curtain and endless coconut trees. Even though, the day has broken long back I cant help but get overwhelmed.

Partly shrouded, partly visible:
The play of the sun is a stunning sight to behold.

Standing still in the morning light of the silent beach side, my spirits soar each time, every moment I see it blossom and bloom one more inch out of its shell. Flashes of soft lightning diffuse over hazy skies and browny blue, surreality still expanses of water. The rising of the sun has caused the setting in the sky to look like a mini carnival.

Fully bathed in new found hopes and pristine purity, I close my eyes and say a silent prayer.

This energy will carry me through the chaos of the day… and beyond.

A new day has arrived, a new chapter begun… I have to move on… I have to continue my expeditions in this mad world…

Huchchara Santhe: The journey … shall, continue.

A Bloggers journey…

Well, I started this blog way back in 2008 and the primary intention was to ‘share’ my experiences, knowledge and showcase my journeys to the readers and to help them plan many such endeavors.

I’m a traveler at heart and still enjoy traveling at the knock of an opportunity. The blog kicked off with some of my travel articles from the past that I wrote based on my memory and what I could recollect. After few busy months, there appeared to be a jetlag when I was in a trance and sure of what to write (well, this happens to everybody), but in an effort to sustain the enthusiasm, I was waiting for any weekend travel opportunities just to write an article, such was the craze.

Before I could even realize, a couple of years had passed by and the blog was been fed regularly with my articles and quite a few people had taken a liking to it and were asking for more. All along, I used to use my compact digital camera wherever I used to go but dedicated time went into photography only when I lay my hands on the Dslr camera.

Slowly and steadily, all travels now had an element of photography in them and that helped me explore a lot of new places and as time lapsed by, my interest in nature in general and wildlife in particular grew leaps and bounds and that is now very relevant to the articles I blog about, showcasing the splendor of nature and travel tales together.

All along, I really appreciate and acknowledge the support shown from the readers, visitors and it always feels good when someone somewhere recognizes you by your blog and wishes you the best.

As I look forward, I intend to continue showcasing the beautiful nature to my readers maybe with more travel articles and also probably exploring new destinations and publishing all information that I can get so as to help people in their planning.

You can write to me at santosh.badri@gmail.com or connect with me on facebook.

This is a post written to be eligible to feature on Prismma.

A Spooked tale... SoakNoMore

SoakNoMore

The day I got an email stating registrations are open for the SoakNoMore Surf Excel Matic Indimeet in Bengaluru. I was waiting for this for long and without a second thought I registered myself to attend the event. I was skeptical about attending but nevertheless didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be part of such a huge gathering.

Excitement was the order of the day and nightfall arrived rapidly as if saying ‘enough of your excitement, let’s end the day’! My mind was still occupied with the thoughts of SoakNoMore Indimeet. I was amazed to see so many people with me seated in a corner trying to hide from the MC and the camera flash lights… the person seated in front of me turned around and I could see a monstrous hideous face staring at me! Shivering, I forced myself away to see a green, creepy, slimy thing making its way towards me from the side. The shivering increased and now sweating profusely, I stood up and waved to the MC, all that I could see was a bug like thing with long antennae and spiny skin coming towards me! All that I could hear were them yelling “SkNmr” at me…! I shrieked at the top of my voice and woke up alarmed with a noise! Panting heavily, I was relieved when I realized it was a dream… a scary one!

Next night, the same events recurred and the monstrous, hideous things coming towards me yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” and I capsized in the place where I was seated. I shouted at the top of my voice till a hand fell on my shoulder – I turned around gripping in fear only to realize it was my mom inquiring about me. Pretending a bad dream, I went back to sleep.

Days were moving faster and the nightmares were recurring more often and I could see all sorts of creatures yelling at me and I was losing sleep everyday. I still remember that afternoon at office, after a heavy lunch and with ‘want-of-sleep’ eyes, I just dozed off while sitting in my workplace.

I sensed some movement through the corner of my eyes; I turned slowly in that direction to see a slimy, horrific creature peeping out from my back! As our eyes met, “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” was the only thing it yelled at me as if in protest. I gave it a whack to dislodge it from my shoulder and send it hurtling far away. Relieved just for a second, I saw another one peeping from my trouser pocket and yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” at me! I punched it hard till if fell of my trousers and squashed it under my boots. With a tired evil grin, I looked around in disgust to see a huge, filthy, spiky creature on the collar of my colleague seated beside me yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” at me! Feeling dizzy, I woke up and with a loud shriek gave a hard slap with my book on to his neck. Taken aback by violent shaking, I opened my eyes to see quizzical faces around me asking ‘What was the reason for that hard slap’! Somehow, I survived that day!

The d-day arrived; I finally took part in the SoakNoMore Surf Excel Matic Indimeet in Bengaluru. Had a good time interacting with lot of bloggers, playing games and talking about our writing! I saw lot of large posters of the SoakNoMore and the new product on it. The representative from Surf spoke in length about the new product of Surf Excel Matic where in you need not soak the clothes prior to washing with the use of the new detergent powder. I rode back home satisfied and happy to have been part of the meet with my gift hamper.

A slight movement on my arms woke me and I just spanked on it thinking to be a mosquito. Continuous movements kept me disturbed and finally made me open my sore, sleepy eyes. With my eyeballs popping out in horror, the creature was crawling up on me. I looked in disgust to see multiples of them on my legs, knees, bed, my jacket hung on the door, the dump of clothes kept aside for washing, my bag on the table, on the window and door curtains, literally everywhere in the room! I could hear all of them mumbling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” and advancing menacingly towards me. Holding my head, I was about to yell at the top of my voice but I sensed a pat on my back. Surprised, I turned to find the MC telling me “SoakNoMore – no more soaking before washing”. It stuck me that all these days what I was hearing to was the same – “SkNmr – SoakNoMore”. I turned around to find no creepies or crawlies around and everything looked normal as always. Then, I realized what were those creatures trying to tell me all these days from the time I registered for the event – “No more soaking”. I laughed hysterically as my eyes fell on the new box of SurfExcel Matic with Vibarting Molecules sitting in the corner. Murmuring SoakNoMore, I went to sleep – a happy and relieved man!

This article has been written for the contest 'Soak No More' on IndiBlogger.

Bangalore bloggers will SoakNoMore

Bangalore Indiblogger meet - #SoakNoMore

Anyone on Indiblogger eagerly waits for an Indimeet at their location. Such is the craze that people travel from different places just to take part and meet up with fellow bloggers and it was no exception this time. There were a few bloggers coming in from Chennai / Hyderabad exclusively for this meet :)

Leo, The Fool, Sibi, Gyanban, Harsha, Tina were all there and also met Pooja, Naba, Thousef, Ghanchakkar, Farida, Suresh and others. This was my first Indimeet and I had no inkling of what to expect, I only expected to meet lot of people! Venue was the Capitol hotel on Rajbhavan Road, Bengaluru. Date and Time - 1:30-5pm on 4th August 2012.

(Master of Ceremonies - Zombie (Anoop))

Anoop (or Zombie) was the MC for the evening supported by Renie, Vineet, Nandita, Karthik, and the many others and he had a list of events planned for the afternoon. Indiblogger meet and no prizes, it can’t be that way – believe me! DVD players, bean bags, gift hampers were the surprise gifts in store for the afternoon.

(the elusive Renie Ravin on Indiblogger)

Introductory sessions with some questions (winners got the goodie’s) of all the bloggers took off very well with interesting lines and comments from different people and some heart felt emotions too. The Indiblogger team had some wonderful games up their sleeves for the evening like lagori, ball in the basket, anagrams and the luckiest winners were the anagram winners with all the participants of Team Orange winning a DVD player! Lots of people got to carry home Bean bags and 6 months supply of Surf Excel and gift hampers too that had conditioners, deodorants and similar stuff.

After an entertaining and energy sapping phase, high tea was served with lots of cakes, sandwiches, and rolls topped up with tea / coffee. After the energizing break was the time for promotion of their Surf Excel (with vibrating molecules) brand by their brand manager who put up a presentation and questions and gave away goodies too.

A final note of thanks by Zombie and the end of the event and an Indiblogger Purple T-shirt and a gift hamper from Surf Excel to bring curtains down on an entertaining afternoon. Zillion thanks to the entire Indiblogger team and Surf Excel for putting up a splendid event and hope the next meet is round the corner :)

All Photo credits to Harsha Chitta who blogs at Curious Dino Photography here

Huchchara Santhe blog reviewed

"All around me are familiar faces 

Worn out places 

Worn out faces 

Bright and early for the daily races 

Going no where 

Going no where"

Well, these are the opening lines of my blog review's post done by The Fool (as he calls himself) in his wonderful, diverse blog Lucifer House Inc.

Yet again, this was possible only due to Indiblogger where I found his topic inviting people to submit their blogs for review. It is a real good sign from people who would want to invest so much of their time to go through your blog and pinpoint as to what is right and what is wrong and my heartfelt appreciation to "The Fool" on this great job done.

It is always good to know what people think about your blog, what you write, how you write, the contents, the widgets, the layout, the colors, the photos, all that is visible on your page to the world. Feedbacks, suggestions, reviews are very important for any blog to develop in this virtual world.

After an extensive review, he sums it up this way :)

"In the end analysis, I must say a really great blog for anyone who loves nature. It has a wealth of information on travel in the Western Ghats in Karnataka and observation of birds and other flora and fauna."

As I have mentioned there, this blog is due for some makeovers and changes and hopefully it should happen soon...

Read the complete review here -> Review of Huchchara Santhe

I request all of you to visit the link, read it and leave your valuable footprints all over Lucifer House :)

Well, with this review, I would also like to invite any other interested people who would want to review my blog, just leave me a note.

Suggestions and tips from readers are also welcome.

If you want your blog to be reviewed by The Fool, just follow the instructions given on this page -> Blog Reviews

Thanks again for all the support, appreciation and feedback and hope this journey goes on and on... :)