One Step At A Time

A quarter of 2023 is already gone by. No, i am not thinking of the passage of time in any philosophical manner. It is just that as the year wears on I go into a sort of panic mode. A very existential crisis stares me in my face. I have to get 12 photographs - either birds or animals or flowers - ready for a calendar for the coming year. The last couple of years have been particularly challenging given that there was no question of travelling to look for fresh pictures. The proverbial travel bug was biting me really hard - hard enough to give me weals.

Anyway, last year was challenging for me in yet another way - it was what the late Queen would have woefully described as her 'annus horribilis'. Being the queen of my own life, I have no hesitation in referring to it in the same manner. My body seemed to hate me, but I was determined to shut it up. So when a friend announced that she and her friends were going to Kedarnath and Badrinath, I jumped at the opportunity and went off well stocked with all potentially essential medications. Unfortunately I could not visit Kedarnath as I did not get a helicopter seat. But I did visit Badrinath and after some spiirited exchanges with the others who were trying to dissuade me, managed to climb up to Ganesh gufa and Vyasa gufa in the last Indian village before China. That I came back with a pneumonia (I did not realize it was that for more than a month after) is a different matter. So i went on a trip to Masinagudi with some friends for 4 days and managed to play table tennis with a 14 year old for a good quarter of an hour - the first time since I left school. Am delighted to realize in retrospect that even pneumonia did not stop me from doing that!!!

Then I got a message from a friend (meeting after 30 years) saying she was coming to India in February and we went to Coorg and Wynad. Wynad was a wonderful experience. I pushed myself to climb - almost on all fours, one step at a time - a 400 ft mountain (Edakkal). The incentive was an ancient cave with petroglyphs on the top. Man, was I proud of myself! The bonus was the breaks in between where I made friends and some monkeys took a tremendous fancy to me, and came and posed by my side for a picture!!! :-D I also went zip lining for the first time in my life. I came back on a high and could not stop watching the video for an entire week!

Age, I have been heard and have always believed, is just a number. Some numbers are particularly attractive and despite all other troubles of the last year, I was happy to have set them aside and entered the haloed portals of the senior citizens' club with a bang! Numbers have the good effect of pushing one to enjoy whatever time one has to the maximum - before life or the body give up completely on one.

All the travel have certainly done me a lot of good and not to forget - I have got more pictures for the calendar of 2024.



Devaprayag - Confluence of the Bhagirathi and Alakananda rivers to form the Ganga


Charkhamba at sunset



Masinagudi



Waynad - From the top of Edakkal

 

Thanks a lot Laks. Yes, am looking forward to travelling as much as possible. Planning to travel in winters and work rest of the year round. Visited Pune after 5 years to visit sis and bil. The city has changed so much, but it was wonderful meeting friends and spending time with them.

 

Dear Viswa,

So wonderful to hear from you. As for "It is oddly one step at a time with so much activities in such a short time!", one season of travelling is one step. Yes, am mercifully over the pneumonia and this year has started out well for me. Am so grateful for that. Every such good phase boosts up my confidence to travel - have not done so much in more than a decade now. Looking forward to the next round Sep/Oct - Jan/Feb. Good time to travel in India. Every good phase that life throws my way will be made the most of and used for travel.

 

Thanks a lot, sir!

 

Thanks a ton, Anisu. If I have 4 pictures for each month, i sure will by necessity have to travel more. :-D