We have been doing the end of month newsletters for a while now and deliberating on making this available at the website as well. Finally, the day has come when it is here. Hopefully we would be able to continue this for coming months and improve the look and feel and overall readability. Without further ado,

In this issue

Top Winter Destinations
Welcome New Authors
Ghumakkar Insights
Editorial
First on Ghumakkar (FoG)
Author Bootcamp
What’s Up?
Inside News
October 12 Featured Author Interview
October 12 Featured Story

Top Winter Destinations

Winter is just around the corner. Haven’t you planned any Ghumakkari yet?

Come winter and we are sure to pack our bags and escape to the sunny destinations in the north or some sultry yet welcoming beaches of the south. With such fantastic diversity of landscape in India, it surely puts us in a fix when it comes to deciding on where to head out.

If you wish to beat the winter blues, head out to a bright sunny place or if you are the kind who wishes to enjoy the winter in its best form, you surely must visit a chilly or snowy place! So many choices and such limited time, let us not waste it much and quickly explore some options that we can think of for a fabulous winter vacation.

In no particular order of preference , we have enlisted 10 best winter destinations of India, traversing from North to South. Referring back to the posts on Ghumakkar , we have picked the most popular and most recent posts which map to these places. And the list is as follows:

Glittering Gulmarg (Jammu & Kashmir): With love from Kashmir and Gulmarg: the meadow of flowers
Noteworthy Narkanda (Himachal Pradesh): Ambitious drive to Jalori Pass and A trip to Narkanda, Sangla …
Mystic Manali (Himachal Pradesh): Kaza to Manali – a road less traveled and Manali : Natural Beauty….
Jubiliant Jaisalmer (Rajasthan): Journey to Rajasthan and Jodhpur-Jaisalmer-Bikaner in 5 days

The Golden triangle of Delhi–Agra–Jaipur : In the mystic alleys of Delhi , Taj Mahal , Bienvenue à Jaipur: Ville Rose , दिल्ली दिल वालो की, Dancing peacock at Nahargarh fort

Poignant Puri (Orissa): The Puri Trip and A walk of life : Chandrabhaga Beach, Puri
Gorgeous Goa (Goa): Delhi-Goa-Delhi Road trip and A journey to Nowhere : Goa to Castle rock
Charismatic Chattisgarh: Chattisgarh – Full of surprises and जादू मानसून का : जब छत्तीसगढ़ ने ओढ़ी धानी चुनरिया !
Coffee-rich Coorg (Karnataka): Coorg Coffee country and Destination Coorg
Magical Munnar (Kerala): Monsoon magic at Nelliyampathi and Southern sojourn to God’s own country

Welcome New Authors

Mukesh – “I am an Engineer and Business Economics graduate and working as Business Analyst in Delhi…”

Nirdesh Singh – “Never met a Fort I didn’t like and never missed meeting a Fort within 200 kms. I love history and archaeology and wildlife and nature and books. Wish I was a historian or archaeologist. Currently travelling and discovering India….”

Raminder Singh – “I am an engineer working in Microsoft. I live in New Delhi. I ride a Honda CBF Stunner and love to visit mountains and hill stations on my bike…”

Vipul – “Vipul Rikhi has worked as scriptwriter, editor, teacher, and translator, among other things. In 2010-11, he was fellow for literature at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany. Vipul is currently based in Bangalore….”

Ghumakkar Insights

Do more with Smart Phone-Camera in Hills by VJ Sharma
Camera is a special ingredient in the recipe of travel which is not just a taste-maker but is also vital in making the recipe a big hit.

With the advancement in mobile technology, phones are simple substitutes for the genius but bulky cameras. VJ Sharma has his version of the story to tell us how he has been putting his mobile-camera to its best use in most of his journeys. Here is an extract from his tale:

“…..Recently I have been using my Mobile-Camera a lot and it’s been quite easy and hassle-free to capture videos & stills with great quality. I belong to the hills and love to roam around the hills, which are often surrounded with clouds. Many of you would be able to relate to some of the common challenges we face while clicking in Hills. One of the basic one is to capture the frame with maximum details around you…..”

Editorial

There is no stopping us
“…Imagine living in a world where the knowledge that the earth is round and not flat is relatively new. And you are a traveller. Ideas are popping in your head and you are dying to try them. Logic tells you that you can sail around the world and not fall off the edge as people had earlier feared.

First on Ghumakkar (FoG)

In this edition, we proudly inaugurate this fresh and new section of our newsletter. The section brings special focus on the month’s posts which talk about places which we have not discussed in our community before.

They are stories which highlight new places , nostalgic memories and candid experiences. This month has accrued 4 FoG posts. Please click the links below to read through the entire articles:

The Stupendous Chitradurga Fort
Great Smoky Mountain Railway of America
Doha: Bridging the Gulf
Qutub Shahi Tombs-An Empire Rests Here

Author Bootcamp

The purpose of this exercise is to equip the authors with the necessary skills and information to publish their own stories at Ghumakkar. Authors who have been through the bootcamp can schedule their stories without requiring a review from the Editorial team at Ghumakkar. Also, their role is changed from a ‘contributor’ to an ‘author’.

This month, Sushanth Singhal has completed the bootcamp. He can schedule his stories independently now.
If you think you are ready for the responsibility, contact the editorial team at infor@ghumakkar.com and we will take it foward from there.

What’s Up? – News from the Travel World

Anantnag host traditional festival to boost tourism
“These festivals are very important for us as these are old segments of tourism. Tourism will generate employment and we think that there is need to popularize the tourist spots and this is a fruitful step for the development of the area and for promoting tourism,” said Mr.Bakshi, a tour operator.

Local carriers to cut flight operations by 19% this winter
Full-service carriers, Air India and Jet Airways, along with their no-frill subsidiaries Alliance Air and JetLite, would operate less number of flights, while all no-frill airlines — IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir, would significantly increase flights and augment capacity this season, according to the Winter Schedule of flights approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Supreme court lifts ban on tourism in some tiger reserves:
Sources in the government say safaris across all tiger reserves in the State will be permitted soon after the receipt of a copy of the Supreme Court’s directions which have mentioned that all States will have to adhere to guidelines issued by the Union government on tiger safaris and conservation.

Inside News

“Ghumakkar of the year “is the year’s much awaited event in our community .With the year 2012 closing in another couple of months, we are urging our authors to write more and write better and be a definite candidate in the race for excellence.

The selection process is highly transparent. The content, completeness and the posts’ popularity are the only yardsticks that we use while awarding the author with the title.

The competition has always been tough and the decision making for the Editorial crew has been tougher.
Take a sneak peek at the winners of the past. Get inspired and get your best posts out!

Ghumakkars of the year 2009
Ghumakkars of the year 2010
Ghumakkars of the year 2011

October 12 Featured Author Interview

Ghumakkar Featured Author Interview – Presenting Romantic Ritesh Gupta

Making every trip memorable with his interesting stories, Ritesh Gupta is our Featured Author of the month. His stories are mostly a series with complete information about several Indian Tourist destinations. His writing is very well received and appreciated in our community and we are not exaggerating when we say he has a huge fan-following within Ghumakkar ! In conversation with romantic Ritesh, here is what we found out about him, for you:

“घुमक्कड़ – रीतेश जी, नमस्कार और बहुत बहुत बधाई |
रीतेश – नमस्कार नंदन जी और समस्त घुमक्कड़ टीम | मेरे लिए बहुत ख़ुशी की बात है |

घुमक्कड़ – आपके परिवार में कौन कौन है, थोडा अपने परिवार जन को घुमक्कड़ समूह से परिचित करवाएं |
रीतेश – सर्वप्रथम घुमक्कड़ के पाठकों और लेखकों को मेरा नमस्कार । मैं एक सयुक्त परिवार में रहता हूँ, मेरे घर में सबसे बड़ी मेरी दादी जी, उसके बाद मेरी माता, पिताजी हैं । हम चार भाई हैं, जिसमें सबसे बड़ा मैं (रीतेश गुप्ता ) हूँ , मेरे जिंदगी और मेरे हर सफ़र के साथी मेरी धर्मपत्नी रश्मि गुप्ता और मेरे दो बच्चे जिसमे बड़ी बेटी अंशिता गुप्ता (सात साल) और छोटा बेटा अक्षत गुप्ता (तीन साल) हैं । आपको मेरी बात कुछ आश्चर्य में डाल सकती हैं कि मेरे दोनो बच्चो का जन्मदिन एक दिनांक (29 मई) पर पड़ता हैं ।

October 12 Featured Story

A biker is often engulfed by an insatiable thirst for exploration. Different terrains gives these bikers a high and they cannot be stopped until they decide to!
Our biker Rishi Raj has a set of entertaining and adventurous stories in his motorcycle diaries. Here is a snippet from once such tale:

“….I am sparing the readers with details on what I saw at and around Rohtang – surprisingly, I didn’t find this Pass any tougher than Bara-lacha la. If it were not for slush and traffic, it would’ve been a smooth sail. However, I must say, riding amidst the clouds atop the Pass was some experience I would never forget…”

Motorcycle Diaries. Road to Ladakh…Riding Back Home…

Congratulations Rishi.

As always, we welcome your valuable feedback and suggestions. For any queries or post submission, please do write to us at: info@ghumakkar.com.

This is our first attempt and in coming months, we are going to make this post more colorful. Hopefully our selections were meaningful and wishing you all a traveling winter.

Sincerely,
Archana