"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink in the wild air"
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- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love traveling and being outdoors.
Over the last few years, I have gone down small rivers, crouching under the overhanging branches at Pantanal, in Brazil, looking for jaguars. I have stood under the open blue skies in Masai Mara watching a huge herd of incredibly nervous wildebeest crossing the Mara river during the Great Migration. I have stood shivering in sub zero temperatures at Drass in Kargil looking for the Himalayan brown bear, walked up the hills in North Darjeeling bordering Nepal to photograph the shy creature the Red Panda is, stood on the deck of a ship, spellbound by the beauty of the Arctic while photographing the polar bears, and spent bitterly cold nights in a tent in Norway, waiting for the black grouse to show up.
Most of the places that I travel to are a little off beat, often remote and the whole experience of being in such places is often as memorable as, if not more, than the images I return with.
In my Stories, I write about the awe and wonder I feel when in such desolate places, in the midst of nature. I capture my interactions, the moments in the wild, which would help people understand better the behavior of the animals, the dynamics, and also, the balance of nature that exists. I try to share an intimate feel of the places I go to, to give a sense of the beauty and an idea of the culture that exists there.
If you are interested in reading that, you can visit my Stories page.
If you would like to get them every fortnight in your mailbox, you can do that by subscribing for “ Escape into the Wild’
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Want to know more about me ?
Most of my childhood was spent outdoors ( causing much exasperation to my parents ! )
Or at least, that is how I remember it now. I was a kid who yearned to be out of the house whenever possible.
I would wait for summer to play cricket all day long under the blazing hot sun. I would wait for the monsoons, to inhale that divine smell parched soil gives out after the first rains, and later, to joyously cycle in rain and over the rainwater collected in the puddles by the roadside. For the winters to see how my breath condenses as I let it out and the joy of a chilly, foggy dusk.
Bliss for me was being outdoors, under the open skies.
However, life soon took over.
I went to do my mechanical engineering and followed that up with a post graduation in management.
The standard corporate life followed. New sectors and new organizations tempted me with their challenges and long work hours became as normal for me as being outdoors used to be. I managed P&L of businesses, ran operations and, in between, also entered the exciting world of start ups, when I joined my wife’s venture and we ran it together till we got acquired.
Along the way, I also became an ICF Certified Coach and did my Hogan’s certification and finally after close to three decades of being in the corporate world, I decided to call it quits and focus on my passions.
Thankfully for me, a decade or so into my professional life, a friend and I planned a trip to the Great Wall of China while on an official visit to Beijing.
It was not to the standard, sanitized part of the Wall that most tourists throng to, but to a wonderfully desolate part where the Wall was stretched out in all its glory, twisting and turning, broken down in parts, whole in others. We walked for a few hours through stunningly beautiful landscapes and by the time we finished our hike, I was clear.
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I needed to get back outdoors again.
Since I was enjoying taking pics while on my outdoor trips, I thought it might be fun to learn more about photography and went down a thoroughly fascinating rabbit hole of discovering wildlife photography. Before I knew it, I was busy planning and doing trips to places which I had never thought I will be going to !
I have traveled to Kenya, Brazil, Svalbard, Norway, some hitherto unknown ( to me ) places in India and its been an utterly fascinating ride.
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I am certain that I will continue to travel. That, in my passion for wildlife photography and desire to explore new cultures and traditions, I will go to extremely interesting, remote places, and get exposed to vastly different cultures and ways of living.
My calendar for the next twelve months is already planned out.
I want to share my experiences.
I am fortunate to be able to travel, can I give you a glimpse into a part of nature that might fascinate you ?
If all this interests you, do sign up for my posts “ Escape into the wild’
I would love to engage with you and hear from you.
Cheers !
