Chitra Aiyer

I am happy to share that a London publishing house chose one of my pictures to be on the cover of one of the inflight magazines they publish - The Oryx, Feb edition. If you are flying the Qatar Airways this Feb, do check the cover page out.

Here’s the link - Magazine’s online version

I had originally posted this image here on my flickr stream.

If you are familiar with Bangalore, you may have seen these flowers fallen on the streets - by far, one of the most fragrant flowers. These are called ‘Aakasha Mallige’ in Kannada, which literally translates to ‘Sky Jasmine’. The trees are tall and fill up with these flowers in the months of Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov. They bloom in the evenings, I think, and the flowers fall from the trees during the night. Some of the streets in Bangalore are lined with these trees and in the mornings when you go for a walk, you practically have a fragrant floral carpet to welcome you!

PS: I am terribly sorry for not writing here as much as I would like to. I have been very busy with a bunch of photography work and assignments; if not anything, I am hoping to at least update the blog about that work of mine.

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Filed under: photography

It is the typical November Bangalore weather now - winter is setting in, it is mostly cloudy with drizzles and there is that nip in the air. Makes you want to wind down, cuddle up with the family, read, play board games, leave the curtains open and let the dull light stream into your home. I love something about this whole thing - it makes me feel at peace, being at peace makes me feel happy, being happy means only one thing - a heart full of love. And you will never hear me complain about that.

As I see the drizzles and the rains from my window, I am reminded of the monsoons in the Ghats that we enjoyed completely. Our visit to Koppa in Chikkamagalur district a month ago gave us the opportunity to experience the monsoons in the Western Ghats. While it was nearing the end of the monsoon season, we didnt see it in all its glory, but experienced some of it to get a sense of it. The weirdest thing was it would start pouring like somebody up there opened a tap and then stop like somebody up there closed the tap too. We stayed at this lovely home-stay with its beautiful courtyard. When it rained, sitting and watching the rain in the courtyard was almost meditative. The kids loved the rains too - they were out and about with the umbrellas and enjoyed the clear water all around.

Seeing the rain drip from the tiled roofs always reminds me of rains in my native ancestral grandparent-homes in Kerala (this pic on flickr). However, I have never really experienced the monsoons in Kerala, having never been there in that season because of school in Bangalore. The dripping rain water from the roofs also forms these little pools of water you see in the pic below.

A row of little bowls with spurting pearly water drops.

We did many drives in these pours. Windshields awash with the mountain rains, all rivulets flowing with roaring waters, the Ghats saturated with the color green, and all the Ghat people going about their business under cover …. literally. One thing you always notice is how you never find anybody having weight issues in the Ghats … well, how can they? They are always navigating the terrains on foot or cycles,  sometimes navigating the mountains through short cuts that run steep; and that needs burning of calories to maneuver.

Here’s an elderly gentleman going about his day

The beautiful landscape, washed, scrubbed and in its green glory through the pouring rain on the windshield.

The little Ghat towns are all vernacular in their cuteness. The architectural scale is very human, the building materials are local/traditional, and the people warm. And the coconut trees are never out of the frame. Again, all of it reminds me a lot of my childhood vacations spent in remote corners of Kerala.

As we left the Ghats behind, I clicked this couple in the rains, from the car.  The elderly man and the little boy - each under his own umbrella, walking on the main road of their little town, chatting away, almost oblivious to the surrounds. This shot is one of my best - I love it for a variety of reasons - the camaraderie, the rains, the moment, and for what I felt when I looked at the LCD after. I hope you like it too.

PS: I get only a few moments at a stretch. I have had to stop so many times while writing this post. It is a luxury to get an entire chunk of time to sit and write what I want to write - I dont have that luxury … and that is ok. I still loved writing this, I love the rains outside as I type this, I love the family that surrounds me, I love having had to get up as many times as I have had to for them. Everything about now is beautiful and I am thankful …

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All pics used here are mine. Please do not use without permission.

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Filed under: Trips, photography

Itchy Feet is one of those blogs that I completely love. It is written and maintained by Charukesi. I ran into Charu’s work first on flickr; from flickr, I went to her blog. I have known her on various social forums and even met up with her a couple of months ago.

There was this 1 post of hers that is my favorite and the minute I read that I realised I simply had to write about her and Itchy Feet on my own blog. Why - what was it about that post? Typically, we only hear what the person writing about a place thought of the place - how much he/she enjoyed it, what he/she did there. But here was a post that was very different from all of that. Here she was writing about how local kids in Sikkim went to school traversing through its mountainous terrain - she was able to look at it from their point of view, almost removing herself from the scene. It was also about children and education - 2 things that are very close to my heart combined with travel, another thing that is again very close to my heart. So, to me, that post won me over. It is wonderful to be able to paint a picture to the reader about some aspect of local life. Charu, being the good observer she is, does that so well for her readers. And not to mention, her pics are always fabulous - lovely tones and light in them. So here I am, introducing Charu and her travel blog.

Charu with her husband overlooking the Gurudongmar lake, Sikkim

She started blogging in late 2003. Blogging was a fairly new thing then and apparently she was encouraged by a friend to start. She started off writing a general blog - http://indsight.org/blog where she used to write regularly about social issues, especially gender and education - and advertising/marketing. She also used to post her travel stories on that blog and over a period of time found that she was writing more and more about her travels and so decided to start a separate travel blog dedicated to her travel stories and photography. That is how ‘Itchy Feet’ came to happen. When she started writing travel stories for publications, she found that this blog was a good place to post those stories for the record.

She calls herself an accidental photographer - she has a basic digital camera and goes about taking photographs with it - “they are mostly a record of my travels” she says. But her pics speak a thousand words, though that idiom is a cliche, one must only see her pics to get a feel of her travels. Well seen, and well shot … capturing the essence of any place.

Says Charu, “When I travel, I enjoy - and try to do it as much as possible - walk around the place to get a feel of it - find new shops, lanes, eateries - and I definitely like to sample local cuisine, as authentic as possible.” And you experience all of what she does through her beautiful narratives.

When asked to pick a spot that has taken her breath away, she says “this is a toughie… that must be the Angkor temples in Cambodia - not the Angkor Wat itself but the smaller temples -  especially Ta Phrom - where ancient trees hold the temple in their grip - it is a truly awesome sight - sends shivers down my back…”

Ta Phrom temple

Visit Itchy Feet to get more of Charu’s travel stories.

Note: Both the pics posted here are Charu’s. Please do not use them without permission.

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