Greetings to all my dear readers!
I remember how in our previous edition of the monthly digest post we cherished the sweetness of monsoons and the pleasant showers across the nation. About how I merried in the rain and how much each of us love about the freshness of this weather. In one month’s time, I think our opinions have changed drastically, don’t you think? Well, let us discuss this in the later part of our post. Until we reach there, let me brief you up about the good things we witnessed this month @ Ghumakkar.
As always, a fabulous and promising month June was. No disappointments at all about the trend that continues adding more precious posts to our baggy. Flawless description about some of the most exciting places in India and abroad, involving experiences and mesmerizing narration by most of our authors. I must say, our community is growing strong by the day and mature through time. Great work authors!
There is something special that Ghumakkar has to offer. It is the definite and continuous support and encouragement to the newbies. Our profound authors and the editorial team are more than happy to welcome more and more authors to the group.
Kiran
New author introduction is done. Now what? Some news from inside the team! We have been thinking on bringing a new format called “Ghumakkar Guide”. It will focus on one destination per post and talk about it in full length. It would also borrow content, links and pictures from posts written by our authors together with other relevant information. Does it sound good? We really want to hear from you about your opinion and feedback.
Most often, when we have announcements to make or information to share, we do it through our Monthly Digest post or through Facebook on our Facebook page.’Ghumakkari‘ needs to be spread for the greater good of traveling. So, all you Facebook fans out there, please take some time off and recommend our page within your groups. A matter of pride to mention is that our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ghumakkar) has more than 75000 likes and we are still growing. We will definitely need your co-operation to share our travel info to more and more people!
When I think of co-operation from within our community, the thing that comes immediately to my mind is how all of you stood by us through tough times during this year start (February month, to be precise). We faced a lot of outages and server issues and emerged out successful in fighting all those troubles. As of now, you should see the site loading faster. However, if you still feel that you are getting messages like ‘Error in DataBase Connection’, then please let us know!
The publishing slots at Ghumakkar have been revised a bit. The evening slot is pulled up by 2 hours and now the available slots are :0400 hrs, 1200 hrs and 1600 hrs respectively. The 1200 hrs slot is reserved for special Editorial use while the rest two are open for all. If you have any doubt about this or anything else, please write to us @ info@ghumakkar.com
Well, did I dump too many technical details here? Don’t mind it fellows. I want you all to be aware of what is going on @ Ghumakkar. Ok now. Let me bring to you some interesting details about the people @ Ghumakkar.
Abhee
I am sure you all know who Abheeruchi is. She is has been crowned the Featured Author of the Month of June ’13 title! Claps claps! Congratulations Abhee. You made it!
With a different flavor and style, Nandan interviewed Abhee and got to know a lot of untold things about Abhee. Am sure most of you have already read the interview post. For the benefit of others, here is a snippet of that:
Abhee: Yes, I do. You might be surprised by my date-memory.
Ghum: Go on, Abhee.
Abhee: Ok, It is a general saying that girls/ladies remember dates very clearly. So here is the detailing about my first few weeks of finding Ghumakkar.
Aug 28, 2012 – I found Ghumakkar.com and I had collected information from different posts.
Aug 31 – Sep 01, 2012 – We were at Rameswaram.
Sept 02, 2012 – I returned and in evening itself I had written my first post.
Sept 03, 2012 – Registration in Ghumakkar
Sept 5, 2012 – Send pictures as well the post for review. For next couple of days, there were a plethora of emails from Archana who helped me setup my profile and finally my post was scheduled.
Sept 12, 2012 – My first post got published.
Ghum: Wow. You beat every one of us on this. Have you watched this Amir Khan movie, ‘Dil Chahta hai’? You remind me of a lovable character called, ‘Time Table’….
Enjoying at Nainital
For further reading, click here.
Abhee will be passing on the crown to Rakesh Bawa who is our Featured Author of the month of July 2013. Please give him a big round of applause! Rakesh-ji is a professor by profession and currently resides in Jalandhar, Punjab with his wife. Nandan will strike a conversation with him soon to gather more information about him for you all. Watch out for a spectacular interview with Rakesh-ji during mid next month.
Before making the next announcement about our Featured Story of the month, let me talk about ‘Ghumakkar Insights’. Our author Sushant Singhal has concluded his amazing series on photography skills. His posts have qualified as the Ghumakkar Insights post previously too. We will continue the tradition and award his last post on this series as this month’s Ghumakkar Insights post. Congratulations Sushant.
The post which is titled “Photography:Practical Tips and Tricks”, is a wise-man’s advise on using some simple yet effective tricks in order to capture some of the best and unique photographs. A snippet from this post is here for you:
Repetitive colours create a pattern of their own.
Getting up early i.e. before others, has often been very advantageous to me. Here I remember my Udaipur wanderings in early morning when my wife was either sleeping or simply disinterested in going out of hotel room at those hours. This way, I get entirely different kind of lighting, different aspect of city life which results in different pictures. Buildings, specially ancient monuments (forts and temples etc.) look great in early morning Sun. Moreover, instead of running here and there, I was wandering leisurely – having ample time to concentrate on photography.
The next title too is bagged by Sushant. So, this month’s Featured Story for the month of June 2013 is Sushant’s story on Mandu . Hearty congratulations Sushant! An extract from the post is given below:
संकरी सी उस सड़क पर तीन चार किमी चल कर हमें दूर से एक बुर्ज दिखाई देना शुरु हुआ। रास्ते में जो – जो भी ऐतिहासिक टाइप के भवन हमें दिखाई दे रहे थे, हम गाइड से पूछ रहे थे कि भई, इनको कब दिखाओगे? वह हमें लारे-लप्पे देता रहा कि लौटते हुए देखेंगे पर वापसी के समय हम और किसी मार्ग से वापिस लाये गये। चलो खैर, अल्टीमेटली हम उस भीमकाय भवन के निकट जा पहुंचे जो दूर से एक छोटा सा बुर्ज महसूस हो रहा था। वहां लिखा था – रानी रूपमती का महल ! वहां हमने थोड़ी देर तक इमली वाले ठेले पर इमली के रेट को लेकर बहस की। ये मांडू की विशेष इमली थी जिसके बारे में मुकेश ने बताया कि ये सिर्फ यहां मांडू की जलवायु का ही प्रताप है कि यहां ये इमली उगती है। मैं अपने जन्म से लेकर आज तक इमली के नाम पर अपने परचून वाले की दुकान पर जो इमली देखता आया हूं, वह तो छोटे – छोटे बीज होते हैं जिनके ऊपर कोकाकोला रंग की खटास चिपकी हुई होती है और बीज आपस में एक दूसरे से पेप्सी कलर के धागों से जुड़े रहते हैं।
After all the big announcements and recognitions, we come to that part of the post which we pushed to the last. Not with an intention of undermining the intensity of the event but to reserve a space for it where people really stop, read and evaluate the situation.
This is the part which talks about the mammoth monsoons in the northern parts of India.
Who doesn’t like rain? We all do. But mother nature had her own intention associated with it this time. Should we say the calamity @ Uttarakhand is an instance where nature is showing the mirror to us about what we have just done to ourselves? Is it time we ‘humans’ do things cautiously keeping in mind what our actions will give us back? What will our kids reap from our deeds? Calamity and a distressed life? Well, its is time we thought about it and did the best modification to our lifestyle and habits to promise a safe and secure future for the generations to come.
Have a read about the intensity, impact and devastation the floods in Uttarakhand has caused, by clicking this link.
Another month gone by and so many things that happened. What did you like most and what did you feel needs improvement from our end? Do let us know about it and we will do our best to raise our standard to your expectation.
We shall be back again, next month, with another fabulous edition of the Monthly Digest post. Until then…
Adios!
Congrats to the winners
Thank you SS Ji.
Perfessor Bava Saab, bautt bautt mabarakaan/badaiyaan, aapji ne taan dwaabbay walyaan dee theyn chamka ditti, Jalanderiyan dee baijaa baijaa kar ditti hai, Jee ayaan noon. Baki gahaan intarbihoo wich Nandan diyan bujharthan de jawaban bech dekhangay.
???? ??????,??????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ??????.
@ ?????? ????????? : ?????? ??,???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ????????? ??????? ???? ?? 103 ?? ????? ???? ???? (?????? ????? ?? ??), ??????? ??? ???? ???? ? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??.
Archanajii, this is with due apology, don’t mind please.
Tridev Charan Ji, Thanks a lot in reply to your congratulations . You have tried Punjabi words in Roman script to show your feelings towards Punjab and that is really commendable.
?????? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ?????????? ?? ??? ??? ! ???-??? ??? ?????? ???? ??????????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ! ??????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ???????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?? !
?? ?????, ????? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?? ???? ???? ?? ?? ?? ????? ?? ????, ?????? ?? ????-2 ??????????? ????-2 ???? ? ??????? ?? ?? ???, ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ?? :
????.???? ????, ????-2 ??????/????. ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ????, ?????? ????????? ?? ???-??? ?? ????, ???? ?????? ??. ???, ?????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??????????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ???? ????? ??????.
????-???? : (???? ‘????’ ????????? ?? : ?????-????, ????? ‘????’ ??????/????????)
??/????: (??:- ????? ???? ?? ????, ????:- ???? ????????)
?????? ???: (????? ?? ???? ???? 2/5 ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????)
?????-????? : (?????-?????, ???-??? )
?? ???? ??? : ????????-??????????
???? : (?????? ???/???)
???????? : (??????/????????)
?????? ??????? ??? ??,
???? ?????? ! ???? ????????? ???? ?? ????? ??, ????? ??, ????? ??!!! ?????? ????? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?? ?? ?? ????? ???? ? ???? ????? ?? ?? ??????? ??????? ???, ???? ??? ?? ???? ! ??? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ????? ??? – ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??????? ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ????? schedule ???? ????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ????? ???? – ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? scheduling ???? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??, ???? ??? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ?? ??-??? ??? ???????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ????? ????? ?? ??? ?? ????? ???? ????? 103 ?? ?? ?? ???? ????? 133 ?? ????? ???? ! ??? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??? ?? ??? ????? ????
@Archana Ravichander : Thanks a ton for the appreciative glance! :D I really liked it.
@Rakesh Bawa : Sir Ji, ???? ????? ????? ???????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ???? ????? ? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ????? ????? ????? ? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ?? ??? !
Hi Archana,
Firstly Congrats to the winners, Kiran, Rakesh and Sushantji.
Ghumakkar guide appears to be a nice idea. This sound pretty good – should be the perfect ?????? / ?????? of collective info of Ghumakkars. Look forward to more info on formatting/ presenting the idea.
Thanks.
Congrats to Rakesh and Sushant Ji.
Thanks a lot Venkatt Ji
Upkaaram Venkatt ji ! As far as my knowledge goes, Upkaaram is the Tamil equivalent of Hindi’s ??????? !”
My heartiest Congratulation to Mr. Rakesh & Mr. Sushant.
Thanks a lot Mahesh Ji
Thank you Semwal Ji.
Archana Ji, Thanks a lot for making me an interviewee again after so many years as during job taking phase I had faced a few one. Uttarakhand tragedy is immense and one can not really gauge the loss whether of human lives or property happened there. Ghumakkar Digest is truly a good idea to bring forward.
Congratulations to Sushant Ji for the featured story of the month and his deep insights into the photography skill though frankly his posts were like bouncers of Malcolm Marshall to me, world class bowling and I have failed to hit anyone of hiss ball(understand his insights on photography due to my impatience on this front).
Rakesh Bawa Ji,
This is my utter failure. I had written these posts not to bowl you out but to help you in hitting a century whenever you are on crease.
Please Sushant Ji Don’t do this to me. Because of may lack of interest in photography skills I was unable to understand and apply your expert knowledge in the field of photography. Don’t belittle your expertise.
Many congratulations to Prof. Rakesh Bawa for being chosen as featured author and congratulations to Sushant ji too for his story selected as featured story.
Thanks to Archana for this editorial.
Dear Mukesh,
Thank you very much from my side. I could write about Mandu because of you only. It is actually you who deserve the honour. :)
But yes, Archana’s editorial digest has come up with a brilliant idea of ghumakkar digest.
Namaskar, Mukesh Ji. Just Rakesh Bawa is ok not Prof. as there are very few persons who professes what they believe in. A teacher is a teacher is a teacher.
Congratulations to Rakesh Bawa ji and Sushant Singhal ji.
Thanks a lot Ms. Kiran.
Thanks a lot Kiran Ji. Even I debuted with a post about Udaipur.
Wonderful summary… Congratulations to Rakesh and Sushant and looking forward to read more wonderful stories in July….
Prasad Np , thanks a lot.
Hi Archana,
As always the monthly round up is a delight to read.
Ghumakkar Digest is a good idea – kind of our own Lonely Planet.
Congratulations to Rakeshji and Sushantji!
Yes, its true. We are all responsible for what is happening in Uttarakhand. We all are so callous towards nature, towards our rivers, towards our pilgrimage sites. It is so visible in Delhi where car after car stops in the middle of the bridge over Yamuna – polythene bags and all kinds of debris are emptied into the ‘sacred river’. I just cant understand this ‘Indian Culture’ thing.
How many of us or our children while driving in the hills have just rolled down our windows and threw the empty chips bag out?
When are we truly going to respect our rivers and nature? All we do is lip service.
Dear Nirdesh Ji,
Our govt. is really not interested in fighting the menace of pollution, encroachments, illegal constructions – sometimes for monetary reasons and sometimes because it is politically incorrect to do so. By giving assurance to legalize illegal constructions, our politicians hope to swell their vote bank. They would ‘educate the people’ against the harmful effects of smoking but would never ban the production of cigarettes because they don’t want to forego excise income worth crores of rupees per day.
The people of our country have got the govt. they deserve. I had once suggested that in order to have better politicians, we need to introduce weightage system for casting of votes. Vote cast by an illiterate / semi literate person should be equal to 1 vote, whereas a vote cast by a 10th pass person can to equal to 10 votes. 1 vote of a graduate can be equal to 25 votes. If this system is adopted, the politicians will not go for cheap popularity measures but will address various problems in a more sensible manner. We would have the representatives chosen not only by uneducated people but by educated too.
As regards polluting the river, we are also fighting to save the Paondhoi river of Saharanpur. We restored the river to such an extent that our Saharanpurians witnessed the scene of Ram – Kewat Samvad during Ramlila in the river after a gap of 30 years!
This is a very good idea Sushantji – giving weightage. It will also address the abuse of vote banks by the politicians. The dilemma however is that if voting rights are given as per the Socio-Economic Classification (referred to as SEC by the Census) then aren’t we creating another class system in the already crumbling society? While the biggest problem is that the democracy has become a paradox, breaking it, too, is equally vicious.
Your work in Saharanpur, as it was focussed to the cleaning of river is really commendable and an example for all of us. May be, if the educated and aware can work towards evolving their circle of influence, and present success stories to the ones still devoid of education and blinded by the vote mongers, there is some hope.
I completely agree that the people of country have got the govt. they deserve – by their acts and fluid values.
Congratulations Shri Sushant Ji & Shri Bawa Ji for the title. Both of you are the deserving author.
Warm welcome Ms Kiran to Ghumakkar family and congrats to Wadhwa ji on his century.
Thanks to Ms Archana for monthly digest but every month we found the summry for whole month post but this time it is not there.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot Saurabh Ji
Many many Congratulations to Rakesh ji and Sushant ji.
@Kiran – Welcome to Ghumakkar.
@Archana – Thanks for nice editorial
Thanks a lot, Abheeruchi Ji.
Thanks for bringing the monthly digest to us, Archana…heartiest congratulations to Rakesh Ji (look forward to learn more about you soon), Sushant Ji (for featured story and ghumakkar insights…both series were gems), Kiran ji (for your brilliant debut post on ghumakkar)
Completely agree with Tridev ji’s comment about Praveen Wadhwa ji…his brilliant efforts in enlightening us with his amazing tales is really commendable and must have found a mention on monthly digest along with others…
Mother nature returns back with what we are doing to her…it’s a pity and a learning lesson for all of us…As we all know there is no teacher like travelling and am sure fellow ghumakkars are sensitive enough to inculcate these little (but life changing) eco practices into their kids by lively examples during their trips and also to teach their kids to promote these practices among their mates, this is how we change i believe…
Thanks Vipin Ji , quite agree with you that mother nature takes uts revenge and balance everything. You as a native of hills understand this better than we people who just go there as a tourist. Eager to know morw about Uttarakhand from you.
Congratulations to both Rakesh Bawa, his posts are unique. Also congratulations for Sushant Ji, who did hard work to bring out very informative posts about photography and ordinary mortals like me can use these to learn better photography.
However my own many posts are more towards quantity rather than quality.
Praveen ji your posts are quality as well as quantity like ponting and tendulkar,s matches. Foreign to aapki wajah se hi ghum rahe hain. Thanks.
Heartiest congratulations and many thanks to Sushant ji and Rakesh ji! Looking forward to more.
Namaskar, Smita Ji. Thanks for appreciating the effort. in fact looking for your posts.
Thank you Archana. You keep all of us bounded and bonded by this end of month digest. :-)
Welcome aboard Kiran. Hope you are having an enriching and good time here.
Many congratulations Rakesh Bawa Ji. I guess the correct way to say it, lakh lakh vadhaeeyan. Please excuse me for bad punjabi. :-)
Dearest Sushant – Wishing you many more friends like Mukesh who take you to places like Mandu so that we all can relish it. Congratulations. :-)
And finally a bow to centurion Praveen who has taken us far and wide on many adventures.
Congratulations Prof…now, look forward to know more about you Sir.
Once again congratulation Sushant and welcome aboard Kiran (*unfortunately I missed many posts in last month – will surely read them over this weekend. Wishing you to play a long innings here).
Welcome thought Sushant and I completely agree with you & Smita on this…giving weightage to the voting system. It can also be good if we adopt a balance scorecard system for all of aspiring candidates/elected politicians. After many years of running here & there, when I got my Voter ID card for the second time (after surrendering the first one in WB) few years back, I was excited to cast my vote in Gurgaon, irrespective of my political leanings.
Unfortunately, I was completely disappointed after a small homework on all the candidates qualifications. I didn’t understand how those people can work towards good governance, if elected and I admit that I stayed away – so, we should also have ”Reject your candidate” in the system.
The whole issue is debatable and some best brains of the country are already working on this and I just wish them good luck…and let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Once again congrats to all…
Congratulation to Rakesh Bawa Ji and Sushant Singhal ji for featured author and featured story ,
Congrats to Wadhwa ji on his century of posts during the month.