Serendipitous moment

A morning walk. Fog rising off the cold waters of a lake in the Carolinas as the morning sun stirred the surface. Mesmerizing to watch. But a blog by a dear cousin having visited a tea estate in India recently triggered another memory.

It reminded me of my early childhood visiting the Nilgiri (blue hills) mounts of southern India. We were amidst the tea gardens of Ooty. Arriving by cog rail it was nothing like Bombay, a bustling metro even back in the 70s.

Ooty or Udhagamandalam as it is locally known was/is a hamlet that got popular with the arrival of British 150 years ago. With peaks at 7,000 feet or so it was foggy most of the day only clearing around mid afternoon to reveal lush green gardens and forests.

Today it is still quaint I think. Funny how back in the day we traveled without any devices to record the moments except to store it in our hippocampus for archival access later in life.

Today in the days of ubiquitous cameras watching everything could we be losing something in return?

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