My general policy with people is to trust until that trust is broken. But as i was sitting in the van, i started wondering what his game could be. "nobody's that nice", i thought. Especially since he was tout for a hotel and has nothing to gain by giving me this free ride. With my suspicions gradually growing, i suddenly jumped out of the van, grabbed my backpack and went back to the pre-paid taxi counter. 
I got a taxi and as i was entering it i realized that i did not have my camera bag with me!!. Calmly, I thought i must've dropped it at the taxi counter but it wasn't there. Then the realization dawned on me that i must've left it in the hotel van that i abruptly jumped out of. PANIC !!, the prospect of losing my camera and lens collection was a little too much for me to digest. I didn't know the name of the guy i was talking to nor the name of the hotel he worked for. As i wandered around, slowly resigning to the fact that i've lost all my photographic equipment, i spotted him by the edge of the parking lot chatting with his buddies.  Hope trickled in. I told him what had happened, and he immediately offered to help...

The Pushkar Mela was the reason i decided to go on the Rajasthan trip during my 'extended' Diwali holidays. Once i knew that the camel fair will happen in the first week of November, there was no looking back and i wasn't disappointed. Read on..

Usually people transport their bikes in cardboard boxes, but i felt that having a dedicated bike bag would be better as it is more compact, has more room for accessories and most of all because of the reason that the bag can be stowed away easily at a left luggage counter or in a hotel and can be used for the return trip as well. That last item was the major selling point for me as i didn't want to run around looking for cardboard boxes especially on the return leg of my journeys. The Btwin bike bag being sold in Decathlon looked perfect for my needs so i went ahead and bought it. And here is its review..

Har-ki-Pauri (meaning the "Steps of Lord Shiva") is a famous ghat located on the banks of the Ganges river near Haridwar. It is here that the Ganges finally leaves the mountains and enters the plains of North India.

Every evening, the local priests perform a Ganga Aarti ceremony to welcome the revered river to the plains of India. It is a spectacular ceremony of fire and songs, participated and performed by thousands of people who gather here from all over the country..

My Agra trip happened as an afterthought, i didn't even consider it initially. Then someone asked me if i'll be going to Agra and i thought to myself "why not ??... if im going all the way to Delhi i might as well visit Agra and get it off the list". It is like the great wall, i didn't visit it when i went to China the first time and i had to endure the constant "Did you go to the great wall ?? Did you go to the great wall ???" questions for a whole year. I didn't want the same to happen with the Taj Mahal, and anyway i wanted to see what the fuss was all about and i was excited about visiting it..

A 4 day off from mundane office life and a drop of goodness at the time of a break up.

Ladakh was the reason why i decided to take my bicycle with me to the Himalayas. The lure of cycling in the mountains with its crisp blue skies and snow capped peaks was too enticing to ignore. I had traveled Ladakh by motorcycle back in 2008, but this time i decided that a bicycle would be a better option. Going by cycle meant going slowly.. a 200km trip from, say, Leh to Pangong lake which can be done in a single day on a motor cycle would take 3 to 4 days on a bicycle. Which means stops in the smaller villages, seeing more sunrises & sunsets, more photo opportunities and more interaction with the local people. I had the one thing which i did not have in my other trips, the luxury of time.
 

Then i thought that if i was going to be cycling in Ladakh then i might as well cycle TO Ladakh. I knew that i was in no shape to tackle the road but i had a get fit plan. It was brilliant, so i thought. First spend a month in Rishikesh learning yoga, then spend the next month slowly making my way to Manali on my bicycle visiting all the interesting places in Himachal Pradesh. Then by september 1'st i'll be in Manali fit and ready to tackle the road to Leh.

Back in 2006 i visited the Ranthambore national park with the hopes of sighting a tiger in the wild. I was lucky enough to see two. During that trip i also saw something which remained with me till date.

A group of canvas tents pitched in the jungle and a bunch of people milling about. I've always wondered what those people were doing in the jungle and how exciting it would be to live in the jungle like that.

Four years and six months later, i got answers to both my questions.

I had modest goals for my first day. Cycle the 35 odd kms from Manali to Marhi, spend the night there, acclimatize and then push towards Rothang pass and beyond. 

Sounds simple enough but the 35km ride does involve climbing from 1900m to 3300m. I've never cycled at any of these altitudes before, so i was a bit anxious and wanted to take it slow.

If i could do it all over again, i would spend more time in Jodhpur. Two days was just not enough to experience the Blue city, it was definitely the most laid back, immersive, historical Rajasthan experience i had in my whole trip. Read on for more details.

The Jaisalmer experience started the moment i got on the train in Jodhpur. The insides of the sleeper coach was covered with layers and layers of fine sand, it was as if the train just came through a desert storm, maybe it did i'll never know. Anyway i was looking forward to visiting the desert city. Heard a lot about it from my friends, about its unique architecture, its well preserved 'living' fort city and ofcourse the sand dunes. I had also planned to spend the night at Kuri, a quaint little village some 40km southwest of Jaisalmer, the prospect of spending a quiet evening with a starry sky up above and the desert solitude to keep you company was too inviting to pass by.

It was a trip where Murphy's law was in full force. Everything that could go wrong did, and some. I drove around in circles trying to find fuel for my motorbike, got lost in the dark on the shores of the Tsomoriri lake, camped out in the wild, got bike's tires punctured and was rescued by the unlikeliest folks possible.. the Changpa nomads living high up in the mountains around the Tsomoriri lake. Needless to say, this was one of my best trips in Ladakh and i thoroughly enjoyed every minute of i

Read on to hear the story of my Tsomoriri trip..

One of the things i'am unhappy about myself as a photographer is my reluctance to take more portraits while traveling. There are some good reasons for it. But still, at the end of a trip when i look back at my photos, the ones that bring me the most joy are the ones with people in them.

If i had taken a portrait of someone, then more often than not, it means that i had interacted with that person before taking the portrait and they had shared a small portion of their story with me. It is those stories behind the portraits that make them so memorable for me. Here are a few such stories from my trip to Ladakh in 2010. 

The early part of my flight back from Leh, was spent staring out of the window, mesmerized by the snow clad mountain peaks and the valleys beneath them. The best part of it all was that i could take in the mountain landscape as a whole, everything.. all at once. As my sight wandered down from the lofty peaks, I could the beginning of a glacier and at its end the birth of a stream gentle at first and then turning into a raging torrent which cut a valley down the mountain slopes, which inturn gave life and space for a whole village. I could see valleys meet and the rivers merge.. mountains giving way to hills (Manali, i think...) and the hills finally meeting the plains where then i could see the birth of the mighty Ganges. The mother of all Indian rivers...

Spotting a tiger in the wild is a once in a lifetime experience for any tourist and the wildlife park officials know it well. A successful spotting means big tips for the guides and they literally leave no leaf unturned in the forest inorder to spot a tiger. 

This is especially true in Ranthambore, the park is well known for its of tiger sightings. The tigers themselves are used to all the attention and dont seem to be bothered too much by the jeeps and canters milling about around them. Hence they are tagged as being 'friendly' by the park officials. 

 How "friendly" they really were ?? Well.. i was about to find out.