Ghumakkar Editorial Monthly Digest – September 2013

An early morning drive with the car window half open, a smooth ride and the freshness of the morning unpolluted air, it just cant get any better to make my mood for a bright day! I knew it was an hour long journey and my mind began collecting pieces of information for composing another post for this month’s edition of the digest. Well my dear readers, let’s begin the journey. Come along and we shall meet some new and some famous faces at Ghumakkar!

As every month treats us, September too turned out to be a promising one! This month really saw some variety, in places and in the style. It was a perfect blend of literature, information and photography. Also, the variety was seen in the style of writing too. Though some authors talked about places we have mostly been to, their writing and its shade was so different that it almost felt like a different place! Did you all read these posts? I am sure you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Now is the time for starting off some of the big announcements. Let us not waste any further time and here is our New Author list!

Let us put our hands together and welcome this month’s new comers – Ajay Sharma & Ashu Saxena. Somehow, I feel like calling the duo as Brilliant Boys :) So, let me go ahead and give you all a brief introduction about these Brilliant Boys!

Ajay Sharma is a legal consultant for banks in Delhi. He hails from Allahabad though he studied and was brought up in Jharkhand. He has been residing in Delhi for past 10 years and love to travel anytime, anywhere. Well, fits into our Perfect Ghumakkar category isn’t it? Read more about him here.

Ashu Saxena calls himself an off road traveler who has a boring profession of software engineer, an awesome Nikon D5100 and the best Ride named RE Thunderbird ! He loves exploring where others don’t even look to go, he believes that If he is Riding , he is Happy. He proudly claims to have explored almost all of South India ! Well done Ashu. This only means we have more to read from you!! Take a quick read about him here

On behalf of the entire community, I extend a warm welcome to you both. Welcome aboard, guys!

As an editor, it always gives me immense pleasure to put before you all these facts and figures about how Ghumakkar is progressing! With over 91000 Likes on Facebook, we are spreading our wings wider each day! Let us feel proud and continue to spread the fame of Ghumakkar among our own circles and gather many more friends to our community! Thank you guys for being this supportive and motivating :)

The next title revelation is no surprise guys. But the title is so big and grand that we ought to celebrate it elaborately. It is the coronation of our Featured Author of the Month Reema . Congratulations Reema for being the Featured Author of the Month of September 2013!

Reema has been with Ghumakkar for quite some time now and has 22 stories to her credit. True to being a Gemini, she is versatile, energetic , loves to travel and to write about her travel. Her stories have been adorably good and have received great response from our community. Ghumakkar had a chance to get to know her a little more through a catchy conversation. Here is an extract from that.

…..
Ghumakkar : Do you remember what you were looking for ?
Reema : Yes I think I was searching for travelogues on Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani because that is where we were planning to go that year. And once I discovered Ghumakkar, I liked the stories instantly. It was hard to find such well written real experiences.

Ghumakkar : And then you wrote here. What prompted you to write a story here?
Reema : Actually, before writing here, I had started blogging in 2007 and I simply loved it. In 2007 I also developed my passion for traveling and seeing new places when I went on a family trip to a tourist place (Puri) for the first time. So when I discovered Ghumakkar, I was elated because I could share my travel experiences in form of blog posts with a wider readership.

Ghumakkar : You wrote your first story in 2009, more than 4 years back. How has been your journey with Ghumakkar all these years?
Reema : My journey with Ghumakkar has been fantastic!! Till now I have written 22 posts at Ghumakkar and many others are still pending, entirely due to my laziness ☺ I have visited so many other places via text written by other authors and learned so much from them.

Ghumakkar : And in 2009, you were our ‘Ghumakkar of the Year’. Right ?….

Click here to read the full interview.

I know how delighted one feels to wear this crown of honor and I also know how responsible one feels to pass it on to the next one in line! It is time when I have to request Reema to pass her crown to our next month’s Featured Author who is ready for the Coronation ceremony! Reema , be pleased to pass it on to the next lucky lady DC . Congratulations DC , you are our Featured Author for the month of October 2013!

DC has been around since June 2010 and all her posts have been a delightful read. Friends, please put your hands together and congratulate our next month’s Featured Author! Ghumakkar will get in touch with DC and we promise to get you more information about her and her untold annecdotes in a detailed interview which will be out mid of next month. Watch out for it!

At Ghumakkar, we began the announcement of the Featured Authors about 2 years back. This was then followed by the interview process to throw more light into the personal lives of the chosen authors of each month. So this process has constantly evolved, and now we have some plans of adding more detailing to this process.
The team has decided to celebrate the “Featured”ness of the authors by publishing two of the posts from the Featured Author of each month. While one post is going to be an Editor’s pick, the other is going to be the Author’s pick. This is aimed at keeping the celebration live for a little longer and to relive those golden moments again!
We are hoping to start this new trend from the coming month. While this idea is new, we want to hear from you about your suggestions and feedback. Do write to us and let us know how you feel about it!

It is not an easy task to be an Editor. But let me tell you, it is one of the most pleasurable jobs any one can have! It requires some really tough decisions to make! Decision about choosing one Featured story from a lot which contains highly competitive and popular posts! But as a team, we have managed to come up with a decision and here is the next big announcement for this month. It is our Featured Story of this month!
Let us together congratulate Naturebuff, his series on the Summer Road trip is our this month’s Featured Story!

Here is a snippet from his interesting series:

….
After lunch and a short nap, we are ready to explore the surroundings. Another (Bengali) family is put up in the room just a half level up. The lady is evidently setting out for some birdwatching with camera and guidebook in hand. We tag along quite happily. A hundred metres away is a bridge across the stream which joins the Mandakini here. Right under the bridge is where we are headed. The path which leads us down to the water’s edge is very precarious. All rubble and loose mud which on the steep incline makes us slip and slide all the while hanging onto the (expensive) equipment we are carrying. There is birdsong all around.

Making our way over the small and large stones on the edge of the water, we come to a little space where the water has been channeled away from the main stream into a little pool which serves to attract the small birds for a dip. Taking up positions behind a large boulder, we start our vigil at the ‘swimming pool’ as Negi calls it. We do not have long to wait. Whiskered Yuhinas, White eyes, Western crowned Warblers, Blue-fronted Flycatcher, Black chinned Babblers, Crimson sunbird, Black Bulbuls and a plethora of birds are vying for our attention…..

Read the entire series here.

All announcements done and all introductions made. What is next in store? A note of leave from your dear Editor? Wait I wont go away so soon! Let me share some news from the travel world!

Did you know that the Government of India has launched the “Great Domestic Tourism Bazaar” initiative in New Delhi? The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, and the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) have together come up with this initiative for the third time. The main agenda is to discuss Domestic Tourism; tour operators and travel agents promoting Domestic Tourism; domestic airlines; and surface transporters catering to Domestic Tourism. Watch out for more information about this in most leading newspapers and websites.

In another trend, it was observed that apart from travel, the other sector which is growing faster is the retail e-commerce and one of the key players is Yebhi.com. We scrounge the internet to get you the best offers and we did manage to find one. Click here for Yebhi discount and enjoy a bout of online shopping experience. Coupons also save money.

A recent survey conducted by the BBC World News has revealed that Kerala is the most sought after places among foreign travelers, while UP is perceived to be the state with negative attitude towards foreign travelers. What are the factors that lead to such a revelation? What has been the yardstick to measure? Well, only the sources can justify.

That was some news from the travel world around us. Do you have more to share? Please write them to us. We will do the needful.

Each month as I reach this point, I feel like a huge responsibility delivered, with a humble attempt to make the post interesting and interactive. I hope you guys liked this post. Let us again jointly congratulate all the winners of this month. They have all made an achievement which we shall look up to. Congratulations guys. You make us proud :)

As we come to the end of this fabulous edition of the Ghumakkar Monthly Digest, let us quickly congratulate all our winners. Ajay & Ashu, we welcome you aboard , once again! We hope you are here for long! Reema & Devasmita, Congratulations my dear ladies! You really are worth the title! Naturebuff, your series have amused us a lot. We sincerely hope the trend continues and we read many more stories from you! Congratulations all! We are proud of you :)

As always, my closing note will be a request. A request to urge you to write to us – about your experiences, your likes, dislikes and anything else that you would want to share with us. Please feel free to drop an email at: info@ghumakkar.com. We are waiting to hear from you!

Until next time, here is your Editor signing off, with a promise to be back with more to share and celebrate!

Adios!