Ghumakkar Digest – August 2014

Over the last 7 years of Ghumakkar’s existence, one common and often repeated request was to have some kind of face to face interaction within the community. Many of our community members have met with each other, and have developed long lasting friendships. In fact, at times it is very humbling to know that someone met someone else at Ghumakkar and now both the families not only interact and meet each other but also travel to new places, together. That gives the Ghumakkar crew a feeling of true accomplishment. I, myself, have met many of you and each experience has been a rewarding one. But we never had a so-called ‘Ghumakkar Meet’. What better way to start this monthly digest than to share with all of you that first such organised meeting is finally happening in September 2014 in Delhi. This meet is a brain-child of one of our seasoned trekkers and someone who just moves on with a travel with little to nil planning. Gives me immense pleasure to announce that Vipin Gaur has graciously invited all of us to be together on September 7.

Here are more details, right from the event which Vipin created at Facebook.

Ghumakkar Meet. Sep 7. 1645 hrs. Lodi Gardens. Delhi

I hope you manage to read the rest of the digest so here’s a run down of this month’s dose of inspiration. If you have not been keeping yourself abreast then this digest would at least give you a peek at things. First, let us welcome our new author of this month.

Please welcome, Tipsy Tips, thats her pseudonym, or shall I say the screen name. She took us to this romantic holiday to Matheran, something where we didn’t mind getting drenched, after all the heat wave and El-Nino we have witnessed. In her own words:

Tipsy Tips

“Traveling | Eating | Watching movies | Photography | Drawing | Sipping Coffee | Writing | Shopping | ~ All Economical. In love with my city, Mumbai.”

Welcome aboard Tipsy Tips. Hope to read more from you.

And now it is time for re-visiting the stories. August started with élan with one of our senior most (Mr. Sethi, I believe Mr. Mathai is senior to you, sorry, hard luck, hehe) author penning his reminiscences from 1960s. In this old story Jatinder takes us to the south and shares some of the golden photographs of that era. If you have not read his story then you have not earned enough karma for yourself. To share an excerpt:

“Our trip to Jog Falls, Mysore, Ooty, Kodai, Sherwanorbagola, Coorg by our Herald Car was in June1973—still the days gone by! In Mysore we stayed with my wife’s brother who was working for ESSO. One thing we remember is that a man used to come early morning to the house and bring his cow with him. He will milk the cow in our presence and deliver the milk –bucket-full.”

Here is a link of the full story – https://www.ghumakkar.com/some-memories-of-travels-of-days-gone-by-1960-1975/

The two big highlights of the month were these two series of stories, which interestingly are on the same destination. For the first time, we have two series on ‘Baba Amarnath Yatra’ going on back to back. One from the veteran Naresh Amarnath Sehgal who is taking us via the Baltal route and sharing his experience in hindi and the other is by Anupam Chakarborty who is narrating his tale in English from the Pahalgam route. Both stories uniquely told and inspiringly delivered.

Mukesh Bhai continued to enthral us with his comprehensive, warm and all inclusive logs on Manali and Manikaran. Silentsoul’s photographic treat on Niagra was lapped up by readers and after a brief sabbatical, Abheeruchi returned to give us a tour of Montreal. We hope to see more of Canada via Abhee’s eyes and logs. That also reminds us of Surinder Sharma of Canada whom we have not seen for a while. Along with Abhee, we also saw a return of the mariner Naman with his log on Andamans. Naman is finishing his school in another year or so and then hopefully we would all sail to all parts of the world.

Among road trips, Nitish drove us to Doon. Unstoppable Ajay took us to Deeg Fort, a lesser known marvel which is so close to national capital yet not visited by many. Sharmistha took us to another lesser know place called Kaluk, a weekend destination from Kolkata. And to have a complete trio, we re-published an old gem on another lesser known hamlet of Uttrakhand, a retreat new Jhaltola. Visit all three places after reading all three stories.

That’s the round up of all the stories. And now is the time to announce the ‘Featured Story’ of the month. We have always tried to pick the one which have touched the hearts of Ghumakkar and as long as a story is told with all the warmth and honesty, it makes to the list of ‘Featured Stories’. Congratulations, Sethi Sir. We are lucky to have been a small part of your fabulous and inspiring journey and we feel blessed to have you guiding us. Please give a pat on your back, with or without the Ghumakkar T-shirt.

And takes us to close of this digest. I hope to see many of you at the ‘Ghumakkar Gathering Event’ and the traveling continues. Once again, warm welcome to Tipsy Tips and congratulations to Jatinder.