Over the last complete year, Ghumakkar.com celebrated more than 700 submissions of pure, honest and inspiring travel experiences. To be precise, 2012 gave us a total of ‘710’ travel stories, which translates to almost two stories every day. WOW! A lot of us have read have had our own moments of exhilaration, joy, pain, delight, warmth and inspiration. The process of growing and evolving from inside continued as we read these stories, read the comments, wrote our own comments and followed the oncoming views. As for me, I cannot forget the first post on Iceland by ‘Silent Soul‘, right in the early days of January 2012, when I came close to a reality that not only I never was aware of, but also could never imagine! Later in the month, I had the opportunity to talk to ‘Mukesh Bhalse‘ who was christened our first featured Author for that year. That set a great pace for the year that was to welcome many new authors joining us every month, taking us to new places and showing us new horizons.
As we look back, it is humbling to find that ‘Sandeep Jatdevta Panwar‘ has already written 100 stories during last 20 odd months. A century of posts which probably calls for celebration by itself. Good show Jatdevta!. Along with Sandeep, another name that comes naturally, almost as a partner-in-crime, to me is of Manu Tyagi. Manu has been a whiff of fresh air, a die-hard Ghumakkar, who is more on the road and has taught us the tact and the thought. I wish to see more of him in 2013. And Hindi being a strong common thread between the two, the story wont be complete without a strong mentio of Ritesh Gupta. Sandeep’s agility, Manu’s constant Ghumakkari and Ritesh’s control probably constitute the Hindi trinity of Ghumakkar. Amen.
I am not sure on how many of you are aware of the statistics but Vishal’s post on ‘Somanth and Dwarka’ has, and still is, helping a large number of devotees. Do not be surprised if you see this mini-celebrity going places in years to come. In its short stay of 9 months, this story has seen close to 20,000 views, 150 comments and most importantly 11000 shares! The trail of recent comments shows Vishal’s in-valuable contribution towards the larger cause of Ghumakkari and sharing information.
Much has been discussed over social media over why a change of year needs to be celebrated, and why not! For us, a change in the year lets us take a breather, look back, feel good about all the great stories, new friends we make and celebrate all of the above with applauding some of our friends who inspired the most. Vibha, our former Editor, has beautifully summarized this in her post on ‘Pat on the Back‘. So here comes the award for the ‘Ghumakkar of the Year’.
Continuing the traditions of 2009, 2010 and 2011 the Editorial team has lost many a sleep for all the reading and research. Our first job was to find an able panel of jury members and we are thankful to have Manish Kumar, Vibha Malhotra and D L agree to this.
Our association with Manish goes far back in the time. He is one of the much respected and widely admired Hindi Blogger in the blog-o-sphere. Manish wrote his first log in April 2009 at Ghumakkar and since then it has been a warm and pleasant journey with Manish. Manish currently lives in Ranchi and works for a large public sector unit. To know more about Manish, please read this conversation that I had with him a while back.
Vibha needs no introduction at Ghumakkar.com. An old friend and a close associate at Ghumakkar, she was leading the Editorial side almost till the wee months of 2012. With a strong literary interest, she runs her organization Literature Studio and works as an Editor in a leading publishing house as her day job. She lives at Delhi and believes that miracles do happen.
DL is everything. Youngest among the three, (ONLY) at Ghumakkar, DL guides us and is the light-house (psst.. he has some oil exploration connection as well) for all. To know more about him, his family and what drives him, do read our tet-e-tete . Trust me, you would come back more learned and inspired.
A big thank you to Manish, Vibha and DL for allowing us to stalk them, bombarding them with conflicting parameters, contradicting and cajoling them on every opportunity and being the source of constant worry for the last two weeks of 2012.
To share with you all, the Editorial team, after its own research and reading came up with 12 possible contenders for the coveted award and these are as below, in the alphabetical order.
1. Amitava
2. Auro
3. Jatdevta Sandeep
4. Mahesh Semwal
5. Manu Tyagi
6. Mukesh Bhalse
7. Praveen Wadhwa
8. Rishi Raj Gupta
9. Ritesh Gupta
10. Sushant Singhal
11. Silent Soul and
12. Vishal
All of you are the biggest Ghumakkars for me and the Editorial. Go and Celebrate.
After that, we agreed on some common guidelines and shared them with our esteemed Jury and the game began. After multiple rounds of conversations, jigs and re-jigs, we arrived at the final list. But before I announce that, a special shout out for Rishi Raj Gupta, Sushant Singhal and Praveen Wadhwa for giving the winners a fighting finish. All three of you were favorites to more than one Jury member and need a special hug. Congratulations.
And now, to the blow of a thousand trumpets, here’s the announcement of the fab final four Ghumakkars of the Year 2012, in reverse alphabetical order:
Vishal Rathod: A spiritual soul blending with a wandering body can only result in extra-ordinary Ghumakkari. With posts on several religious places and a few but exclusive posts on family-entertaining places, Vishal has made himself a renowned author in our community.
Vishal believes that he should write in order to relive those wonderful experiences that his trips brought to him. Tired of materialistic pleasures but fond of “Bhakti”, he pursues traveling especially to religious places. His posts are read, appreciated, re-read and shared many times till date on Ghumakkar. And what awaits now? A true justice to this deserving candidate.
Vishal Rathod is one of the Fabulous Four Ghumakkars of the Year 2012. Let us give him a big round of applause. Vishal did you hear the non-stop applauding? Well, you deserve it!
The next and equally celebrated w.r.t winning the hearts of many, SS/SilentSoul is the next of the Fab Four Ghumakkars of the Year 2012. How many of us remember that our SilentSoul’s name is P.S.Tewari? If you know then am sure you have read his interview! His silent soul has earned him this name and his expressive body and openness has helped him write several enjoyable and praise-worthy posts. He is a globetrotter, literally, and his posts exhibit a diverse flavor. His travelogues span from tales on mystical Madrid to stories on the splendid Himalayas. For him, the spiritual energy, the excitement, the adventure and the danger that the Himalayas offer is good enough reason to frequent them. While we feel there is probably no place SS hasn’t been to, he humbly admits that the continent of America, Africa and Europe are beckoning him for a maiden trip! With so many posts to his credit and such wonderful response to all of them, he surely is a winner already!
Our job is still undone if we do not formally announce him as the next of the Fab Four. Congratulations SS ! You are our next Ghumakkar of the Year 2012.
Ghumakkar Mukesh Bhalse ,along with his family, is a great devotee of Lord Shiva. You need a proof for this? Well, his posts say it all! He is the man who has vowed to pay a visit to one Jyotirling every year and who has been writing extensively about his magical experiences. His ease at writing in both English and Hindi has blessed him with many fans. Mukesh lives in the ‘Dil of Hindustan’ and his contribution to Ghumakkar also comes straight from his heart. Let us together congratulate him for not just winning our heart, but also for being one of the Fab Four who share the Ghumakkars of the Year 2013 title!
And finally the fab four finishes with a fantastic fella Auro. Someone with a varied line of interests; Aurojit is a popular Ghumakkar amongst us. He too, like a lot of us, is drawn to the mountains. His posts on the Himalayas have won several accolades and his recent Thailand series is a must read for those who want to stretch further! Auro, with his family has traveled to many places across India. Ranikhet, Kasauli, Nainital in India, Thailand, Bangkok from abroad are some of the places he has written about extensively. Talk about diversity. Without much ado, let us wish this voracious reader and a fabulous writer for his win in the race of the Ghumakkar of the Year 2012! Auro, Congratulations! You have made it and made it big :)
Congratulations Auro, Mukesh, Silent Soul and Vishal for the much deserved, much celebrated ‘Ghumakkar of the Year – 2012’ award.
May you continue to inspire, continue to enthral and continue to lead us, ever.
Wishing each one of you, along with your loved ones, a great new year. May 2013 bring with itself a whole new paradigm in thought, action and experience. Shabba khair!