Pozu turns Five!

As a kid, I used to feel that time goes so slow and it'd be good if we could get a time machine to become older quickly. Now, as a parent, I feel that Pozu's growing up at so fast that we need some way to slow things down and enjoy her naughty childhood a little more. I'm sure she wouldn't be happy if I told her that!



She turned five last week and this time her birthday party was very different than all the earlier years. For a start, she now knows what to expect on a birthday party and could tell us what she'd like to do for her party. It was our first real birthday party for the kids, all the earlier ones were all focused on adults and it used to be a get together for our friends more than hers. Also, this time Gozu was quite keen on doing it at the clubhouse rather than at home so that there's enough place for the kids to monkey around (it turned out to be a very good idea). The only thing that I hadn't anticipated was the amount of work that was needed to organize the event, and that meant that I was running around until the party started. But in the end it was all worth the effort.

Gozu had baked a special cake for her which she cut as the first birthday cake of the day before going to school. She was so excited about celebrating her birthday with friends in school that she distributed all her chocolates right in the school bus and later realized that she didn't have any left for her classmates. Poor thing, I should have given her the spare packet of chocolates that was kept at home. Note to self - next time, give her more than double of what's required for the bus and her class!



Pozu had given me a list of some 20+ friends she wanted to invite for her birthday and surprisingly we had more than 80% of the kiddies turn up for the party. The fun started right at 6PM as kids started coming in and soon the whole place had transformed into a madhouse with the birthday trumpets. Gozu and Shalu had arranged for some games for the kids and that kept them happily busy for a while until it was time to cut the cake. Pozu had specified that she wanted to have an elephant cake - in line with her "I'm Pozu - the elephant" statement. Some of her friends wanted to smash some cake on her face, but that led to some loud crying and that mission was aborted.



After the cake cutting, the kids knew that it was time for the party to get over. That marked the beginning of the destruction and all the kids got busy in taking down the balloons and the decoration. This was a new revelation for me since I hadn't seen this stage of the birthday party before. But in the end everyone went home with a happy and smiling face, that's what matters!

A Wild Sojourn in Goa

This year the Dasara holiday and Gandhi Jayanti were two events that most of us were eagerly waiting for. It opened up a lot of possibilities for travel with a 4 day weekend and more interestingly a 9-day vacation with just 3 days of leave. Pozu had a week long vacation from school that week anyway. As the days approached, we realized that we hadn't taken a big vacation in this whole year and it may be good if we just take the whole week off and be at home even if we don't end up going anywhere.



Being a super long weekend, almost everything had already either been booked or was turning out to be a super expensive affair. Moreover, we were certain to find hordes of people anywhere we land up and that's something that I usually don't like. We prefer to visit places where we simply don't see too many people. Although I must call out that in India, it's all in relative terms coz there are people just about everywhere. And the other agenda is usually to find a place with some wildlife so I could sit around a practice some photography as well.




After reviewing all available options from the hill stations of Ooty and Coonoor, to the beaches of Goa, we still hadn't zeroed down on a place. Finally, after a lot of discussions it was either going to be some remote places around Sakleshpur and/or Coorg or a trip to the unseen forests of Goa mainly with a birding agenda. We still weren't sure about the accommodation and food etc since there were no bookings made. But that's the good part about our trips, we like to go places where we don't know what's in store for us. We've figured that in the end, everything can either turn out to be okay or go horribly wrong, but in any case, these experiences create long lasting memories from such trips and help you become a better traveler.



Not being able to decide which place to go, we just packed our bags and loaded the car. It was now left to fate to decide where we end up eventually. Pozu was all charged up with the idea that we were going out, a darling that she is, she didn't care what place. For her anyplace that's not home and has place to play around is good.

We left around 3AM as usual and soon we were out of the city and cruising on the NH4. Before we realized, we had already overshot the turn to Sakleshpur. Whether it was good or bad I don't know, but it meant one thing for sure. Our destination was now finalized, we were headed to the forests of Goa!



Now it was still early October and the birding season was yet to begin, but I was hopeful that the Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and the Zuari river would be enough to keep me partially busy at least. The plan was to find a stay near Mollem so we could visit the sanctuary and do a trip to Dudhsagar falls. So, instead of taking the Hubli-Karwar route, we took the Dharwad-Londa-Ponda route to get to Mollem. Previously when I had taken this route, the roads from Dharwad till Londa were in really bad shape, but this time I was surprised to see that the roads till the Karnataka exit were actually pretty good. However, the road after Londa is where it starts getting rougher so much that it becomes difficult to distinguish between the road and the potholes in some places. The Fortuner took all of it in its stride, although I couldn't help commenting that our Safari would have done the stretch at 20% higher speeds without any discomfort inside the cabin.



It was still Sunday morning when we reached Mollem where we found the Dudhsagar Spa Resort right next to the gate for the sanctuary, barely a 7 hour drive from home. Now, I had other things in mind when it came to our stay options, it had to be minimalistic in order to keep the costs down. However, when you're traveling with family, it's always good to make subtle compromises in order to keep them happy else my photography life will become really tough.



Both Gozu and Pozu had already pictured themselves having fun at a place like that with nice lawns and children's play area etc. So I went in and enquired about availability, good news was it was available but bad news was it was not in my desired budget. A round of negotiations helped finalize a deal that was reasonable and we were settled. We had secured bookings for the next 4 days until the mad rush begins from Thursday onwards when we were planning to head back and enjoy the long weekend at home while everyone's out.



Over the next 3 days we spent a lot of time inside the sanctuary, just sitting around in the forest and enjoying the absolute quietness. We also visited the Tambdi Surla temple, the Bondla wildlife sanctuary, Salim Ali Bird sanctuary etc.



All my birding plans had to be shelved since most of the activities had not started yet and some places needed a long trek which wasn't possible with the two ladies along. But I wasn't complaining, being in the wilderness was good enough. Best part was, there were no people around at all, not a single soul to be seen for hours together.



The fourth day was reserved for our trip to the Dudhsagar falls. The jeep trail through the forest that leads you to the falls hadn't been opened yet and so the options available were:

1. Take the train from Castle Rock or Kulem, both ways train available only on Thursdays from Kulem
2. Hire a bike taxi who'd take you through a mix of forest roads and paths along the railway tracks, 
3. Walk up for about 14-15kms from either Castle Rock station or the Kulem station,

Option 2 and 3 were out of question with Pozu along with us. So it had to be the train, and Thursday was the only day we could get a train that will take us in the morning and bring us back to Kulem at around lunch time.



Overall, it was a nice trip, although it was a very hot day and a little bit of rain would have really helped. I was happy that I managed to capture the beautiful falls along with a train on the bridge, so mentally that one thing was off my checklist. The return train was a bit delayed and it was almost 2.30PM by the time we were back at Kulem.

The trip to Dudhsagar was the official end of our trip plan and we were supposed to be heading back home. But fate had other things in mind.



On Wednesday, our gang of friends from Bangalore announced that they are coming to Goa with their families and asked us to stay back. The only issue was that they were going to reach only on Friday morning while we had to checkout on Thursday from Dudhsagar Spa Resort. There were no bookings available for the following day, not at Dudhsagar and not anywhere else in Goa as well. It looked like more than half of Bangalore and Mumbai/Pune was in Goa for that weekend. From the smallest of places to the 5-star resorts, every place I called, I got the same response, "Sorry Sir, we're fully booked until Sunday!"

I was pretty sure that we'd find something or the other if we just landed up at places rather than searching on the internet. Just then, I managed to find one lucky room at the Grand Hyatt that may have opened up due to a cancellation. Now, this was absolutely not in our plan or budget, but then we didn't really have a plan to begin with. So from a moment ago where we were wondering what kind of place we'd get to stay, we had landed ourselves with one of our most luxurious and comfortable stays of the trip.



The Grand Hyatt is a really big and beautiful property, no doubt on that. But never ever have I seen a 5-star property as crowded as it was on that day. The swimming pool was filled with people, there were people walking in the gardens, even the breakfast place was full on the next day morning. It just wasn't quiet anywhere unlike our stay at Dudhsagar. The good thing was that since we were now closer to the city, we got a chance to spend the evening with our friends Anil and Deepa while Pozu was super excited to see her friends Aarna and Ayira.

 

For the next two days, we were joining our crazy group of friends for a nice and comfortable stay at the Skylark resort in Colva. Luckily enough, we somehow managed to secure 7 rooms as a last minute booking, all thanks to the group that had cancelled out. The resort was quite good and food was equally amazing, most importantly, they had a nice big pool for us to have fun. 

Time just flies when you're having a good time, it was already Sunday before we knew. It was time to head back home, and this time it was for real!

What happened after that, I'm sure nobody's really interested in. It was Monday!

Exploring the Experiential Learning Process!

Albert Einstein had said "The only source of knowledge is experience". I tend to agree with it completely, until you've gone through it, you don't "really" know what it's like. With the advent of technology and youtube, it's not too difficult to find a video or an article on what you were trying to do. There's enough crazy guys who must have tried something similar already and most likely video-taped it as well. But the touch and feel experience is something you'd not forget easily vs having a third person view.

And this is exactly what happened in one of our lunch time conversations. Pozu and I were discussing some random stuff when the discussion went on to describing how clay pots are made. When I offered to take her to show her the pot making activity in person she was all excited about it. So we finalized a visit to the Pottery Town in Bangalore on the following weekend. All through the week she kept checking if we were on track with the plan, so there was no running away from it.



That day she woke up and got ready pretty quick and soon we were in Pottery Town. Given that the Ganesh festival was round the corner, there were lots of stalls selling idols from a 1ft tall to a larger than life idol standing 15ft tall. I had imagined the area to be abuzz with the artisans, but the traditional clay pot making houses are reduced to only a handful. Pozu was amused to see how one of the guys was kneading a large blob of clay with his feet - all she knew about clay until now was the colored Playdoh.

On speaking with one of the fellows there, he told me that the large pot making guys weren't there for the weekend and I could come back on Monday if I wanted to see that. But there was one guy making small pots and the diyas upstairs. So we went up and met Ramesh who was a really kind-hearted gentleman. He first did a demo of how he makes the small pots and then invited Pozu to help him make a pot. Initially she was a bit apprehensive about it, but once she had laid her hands on the clay, she was all smiles.

He even gifted her one of the pots as a souvenir with a nice handle on it. She now has plans to color it nicely as one of the weekend activities.



A few days later, she surprised me with a question. "Daddy, what will happen if the Earth stopped spinning?" I didn't know how to respond to it so that she'd understand that the gravitational force would cease to exist and weather conditions would change drastically etc. But then she bowled me over by saying "If the Earth stopped, we'll all fall off". I asked her who taught her that and she said one of the boys from her school was telling them all this. And thus began our conversations about how the world is like a ball that goes around itself and the sun and how we experience night and day etc. Heck, she even understands the fact that US is almost diametrically opposite and that's how they're sleeping for the night when it's day here in India - makes me look like a fool sometimes.



It was quite funny on how she is able to grasp all that concept so easily at her age. I'm sure that I wouldn't even have known how to wear my own clothes at the age of 4. She was eager to know more about how the moon changes shapes etc and soon we were talking about the solar system and the planets that in our galaxy. In 10 minutes she had registered the names of all the planets and could tell them in order of sequence. Soon, we were getting deeper and deeper into technicalities of the various colors of the planets, how they all go around the sun without hitting each other and how each of them has different number of moons etc.



Looking at her level of curiousity, we took Pozu for a visit to the Nehru Planetarium. I knew it was going to be a little early for her age, but amazingly enough she enjoyed the documentary and could relate back to our conversations as she saw the planets and stars on the gigantic dome screen. Actually, she was quite amazed with the dome screen since she was expecting something like the cinema screens.

I don't think she'll be able to retain all of this by the time she starts learning about it in her school, but given her learning capacity, I am really not concerned about all that just now. Overall, it was a wonderful experience not just for her but even for us - reinforcing some of the knowledge that takes a backseat with everything else that goes on in life. 

Amy the Amethyst Fairy a.k.a Pozu the Elephant

A new school event was coming up, and this time it was a fancy dress competition with a fairy/goblin theme. Gozu was all charged up to make a DIY costume for the event and a lot of youtube searches were made to finalize on one design. I was a bit skeptical at the beginning on whether it was worth the time and effort to make things at home vs buying a ready made costume.

Now we didn't really know too much about fairies except Tinkerbell, but with a little help from Google we figured that there are different types of fairies etc. Amy, the Amethyst fairy was chosen since her name started with an "A". Apparently, she's a fairy who can make things disappear and that's not a new thing for Pozu.



The prior weekend was spent in gathering all the raw materials required for the tutu skirt and the tiara etc. The only thing that was remaining was to get the wings made from the wire hangers that we use for clothes. Finally one day, Gozu got me and showed me the demo of how to bend the hangers to make those wings. It wasn't all that difficult at all and in 10 mins we had the wings sorted out.

I hadn't seen the final dress until the day she wore it, and it really looked pretty I must say. Everything just fitted in really nicely to transform the naughty little Pozu into an adorable fairy. And best part is, she won the competition!



It's amazing to see her grow so fast, sometimes I sit and tell her stories about how she was so tiny that I could fit her in my forearm and now she's half my height already. I've gotten so many pics of her when she was a baby, but that's coz she couldn't run away from the camera. Now, its not the same anymore, she won't pose for the camera that easily. It takes a lot of patience to get her to stand in front of the camera and a lot of times I don't end up getting even a single good shot.

But there was this one day where I was testing a lens that came back from service and she knew I wasn't really doing a photoshoot. I casually got her to stand to see if the lens was tracking the focus points etc. It was only a few weeks later that I happened to see those pictures and found a gem. When I showed her the pic, she instantly said it was Pozu the Elephant (that's what she likes to call herself). This one's definitely one of my favorites from the recent times and will make it to the wall in my next batch of prints.

Life Skill #3: Learning to Swim

Last year during the summer vacation I wanted to get Pozu enrolled for swimming classes, but the instructor had asked me to wait another year before she started. So this time without fail, I started familiarizing her with the swimming pool and the fun she could have in the water. The main motive I had was to make sure she had no fear of the water once she started her lessons because then she could focus more on technique rather than fighting her fear.

We practiced for about a week prior to her starting the swimming class and by then she was fearless to the extent that she could jump in the pool without even knowing how to swim. She used to have a pair of arm floats that gave her enough confidence to take risks and move around by herself. We also explored the underwater scene often so she knew that there was nothing to be scared of. The GoPro Hero 3 helped in capturing some of those precious moments that are showcased here.

As expected, her class began pretty smooth and she was already swimming independently from the second day onwards. The instructors were pretty good in working with children and could easily teach her the basic techniques of keeping her head in the water and coming up to breathe etc. By the end of the second week, she was able to complete a full lap by herself which was quite an amazing feat for a 4 year old. Not to mention that she was the youngest in the training batch and so she received the most amount of attention from both the trainer and the other students as well. 

At the end of the season, I was pretty happy that she had learnt to swim reasonably well and over the next few years she should be able to master it as well. The only downside of being in Bangalore is that the weather doesn't permit the use of swimming pool through the year. So even though she could theortically practice everyday, once the school has started, we've had very few occasions to jump into the pool.

Day Visit to Maidenahalli Blackbuck Reserve

Just as we returned back from Kabini, a casual conversation led to an impromptu trip to the Maidenahalli Blackbuck Reserve near Madhugiri. The onward journey was filled with surprises as we got lost a bit and took the "roads less traveled" to reach our destination. The mis-adventure delayed us by at least an hour as compared to the regular route. Given that we were five of us including Pozu in the jeep, the rough ride wasn't exactly something that we were thrilled about. The only silver lining was that it didn't matter if there was a road or not, the jeep could potentially navigate through anything.

We reached the place at around 10AM and even before we entered the gate, we had already encountered our first herd of the antelopes and the cameras were in action. 

As we entered into the sanctuary, we tried to get in touch with the guard at the office but nobody was available so we said we'll come back again during lunch time and check. We continued through the marked trails, tracking the herds in an attempt to get them in range but the shy creatures kept moving away from us. 

We saw a few harriers hovering around but didn't get a chance to get a photograph them. There were a couple of spotted owlets who made us run around a bit to get a reasonably clean background. 

An Indian Bushlark was kind enough to hold it's position while we got some shots. 

The return journey was a lot better since we took the normal route via Madhugiri and we were able to make it home in a little over 3 hours. Overall, it was a good day spent out in the wild, and that's all that matters!

Life Skill #2: Roller blading is fun!

With the cycling skill already in her box, Pozu had now set her eyes on roller blades. There are quite a few kids in our apartment complex who come out with their kits to practice and it's fascinating to see them roll past in style. Wonder how we grew up without all of this and never really missed it!

Now I had no prior experience of skating or roller blading, so I had very little to offer in terms of advise. All I could do was read up a few techniques on the internet and ask her to implement those. So to begin with, I chose to let her try on her own and not really influence her process of self-learning. To my surprise, it took her less than a couple of minutes to get on her feet and stand without any support.

She was now ready for her first attempt to roll, and I was left amazed by the way she did it! There was no sense of fear in her, it was infact a cake walk. Soon she was striding around on those wheels trying out various techniques that could help her propel faster. This is where I could use some of my academic knowledge about skating techniques and help her learn how to position her body and let it flow in a rhythm.

It wasn't more than a couple of practice sessions that she could navigate herself and also stop when required (although the stopping part is still a bit random even now!). In the process of learning, she fell quite a few times, actually a lot more than when she learnt to cycle. Some of the falls seemed harmless and some were a bit scary, luckily she never got hurt because of all the protective gear she wears. But she's never had an element of doubt on whether she wanted to continue or not, she just shrugged it off and moved on. That's what makes her so amazing!

Life Skill #1 - Learning to Ride

Sometime in late 2013, I had removed the trainer wheels on Pozu's bicycle and planned to teach her the fine art of balancing a bike. But that plan never really materialized and I never got the chance to put the trainer wheels back as well. So in January 2014, the effort to teach cycling was revived again.

I was thinking it will be a time consuming affair and I will be mostly running behind her holding the bike at the back like how they show in the movies. And then at one point in time the dad lets go and sees the kid pedal off to glory, with tears in his eyes. But it wasn't meant to be like that, we just went down with her cycle, I asked her to sit and told her to look straight ahead and start pedaling. All it took was one push and she went off cruising on two wheels effortlessly.



A couple of more practice sessions and she had already learnt how to maneuver around and do a complete circuit without touching her feet on the ground. Never knew it could be so easy!


I had gotten her the set of elbow and knee guards along with her helmet to ensure that there was minimal risk of injury even when she fell hard. But the best part was that, in her own mind, she had made peace with the fact that falling wasn't a bad thing at all. I think this was the single most important factor for her to learn so quickly - she had virtually no fear of falling and every time she did, she just shrugged it off and kept moving ahead.



Though she had learnt to ride nicely, the size of the bike was becoming an issue. She had clearly outgrown the green bike and it was time to give it away. So, in May 2014, Pozu got an upgrade to a spanking new Firefox 14” bike which she lovingly calls YellowFox.

Xmas Tree at Leela Palace - Dec 2013

Gozu was out on business travel through the first half of December, and that meant that the father-daughter duo had to find things to do over the weekend. One such weekend, we joined a couple of more friends on the expedition to go see the big Xmas tree that is put up at the Leela Palace Galleria. Not knowing how big a tree it was going to be, I wasn't carrying a wide angle lens (big mistake). The tree was about 3 storeys high and with the limited area to shoot around it, it would have needed atleast a 16-17mm lens to fit it in the frame.



Anyways, the tree was an exciting thing for the kids, they had a fun time around it as well as at the cookie house where both of them got their share of goodies.

Pozu Turns Another Year Older

Pozu had good fun in October with an unplanned trip to Pune, enjoying the awesome company of her elder cousin. The two girls were ready to bring the house down, literally!



Come November and it was time to celebrate Pozu's 4th birthday already. This time it was a super yummy Winnie the Pooh chocolate cake on popular demand. No points for guessing who chose the flavor!

Pozu Turns 3eee

The clock has been running really fast ever since Pozu has been born. End of November and it was already time for us to celebrate Pozu's 3rd birthday. The feeling that our daughter has started becoming big hasn't really sunk into either of us but Pozu makes sure to remind us that she's a big girl now whenever a reference is made to her as a baby.

This time we knew it would be a bit special for her since now she could relate to the birthday event more easily than the last two years where she didn't really know what the celebration was about. Moreover, since it was a weekday, she could even celebrate her birthday in school by distributing chocolates to her friends and teaching staff.

The birthday cake was ordered based on her most recent favorite disney character - Mickey Mouse. She actually wanted Mini and Goofy to be included as well, but the cake shop had no designs with all three of them.



The evening event was a small congregation of the regular weekend crowd that we hang out with and the kids had a nice time playing around in the lobby. At the end of the day, Pozu didn't want the party to end and expressed her displeasure when everyone was leaving. It was a day that she still remembers and she's now able to make references to her birthday and her age.

It has been so wonderful having her around and we will always cherish these days as she keeps growing and amusing us with a new learning everyday.

We love you darling....

Mum & Dad

The Ladakh Chronicles - 5 Years Of Soul Searching In The Himalayas!

nir-va-na /ner'vana/

Noun:

• A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of...

• Liberation of the soul from the effects of karma and from bodily existence.

I just finished my 5^th trip to the Himalayas over the last 6 years and now I can confidently say that I’ve reached the state of emotional contentment about all the time that I’ve spent in those mountains. It’s only after this trip that I’ve finally decided to move on and may be start another exploration to the north-eastern region next year onwards. It’s very similar to Nirvana coz when I think of the fact that I may not do another road trip to Ladakh anytime soon, there’s neither anxiety nor sadness about it!

When I started thinking of the travelogue for this trip, I knew it had to be more than just what we’ve covered this time, otherwise, it just wouldn’t give a full picture of how thoroughly I’ve enjoyed being there each year. I always used to call it my pilgrimage trip to the mountains and I still feel deeply connected with the people who live a ‘happy’ life in the Ladakh region despite all the hardships. It is here that I realized that money can’t buy you peace and that you can live happily ever after only if you’re able to find happiness in the smaller things you do every day.

So like a classic Hindi movie, this travelogue is going to start with a flashback and have snippets of each year that I’ve wandered around in these mountains. But, before we begin our journey into the past, let me show you one of the most precious moments of this years’ trip!

This was shot at Rangdum where we pitched our tent for an overnight stay and literally soaked ourselves in the beautiful Zanskar valley. Undoubtedly the best place we’ve ever stayed and considering that it cost us just INR 100 for the whole day, there’s definitely no other place that can match this value proposition.



Here are the quick links to the different years of my travel...have fun!
Trip #1: August 2007: Our first ever trip to Ladakh – this is how it all started!
Trip #2: July 2008 - Spiti + Ladakh – A bigger plan comes alive!
Trip #3: June 2009 - My most leisurely trip to Ladakh!
Trip #4: July 2010 - Yet Another Exploration Ride To Ladakh
Trip #5: July 2012 - Pozu's First Trip to La'L'akh