Skip to main content

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?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

Charges attract

It is said that opposites attract meaning people with contrary viewpoint sometimes find chemistry to be together.  But I'm referring to a modern twist where people are merely attracted towards a common place because their uber communication device aka smart phone is about to die.  The charging station. From airports to hotel lobbies or even bathrooms, when in need they are attracted to this power outlet like moths to a flame or a junkie to a needle. A whole new business of supplying these hyper connected folks is now born whose lifesaver product is a backup charge. Asian tourists perpetually carry a phone sized battery pack stuck to their latest Apple phone updating their status to folks in Hong Kong or Shanghai or Bangalore as they pose for selfies with weird facial expressions and fingers pointed out in a letter V. Vain? PS:  I dis'charged' my blogger duties making this insightful observation as my phone is about to breathe it's last and my flight gets call...

Veni Vidi and Videod

Julius Ceasar is credited with a Latin phrase that reads - Veni, Vidi, Vici as in he came, he saw and he conquered. The summer vacation for the child meant we needed to do what we do as an annual event.  Go see a new place.  Italy won the draw this year. So we went for a couple weeks.  To check out the land of fairy tales, of great warriors and amazing inventions; birthplace of Christianity and its current CEO, land of Romeo and Juliet, a land in many ways similar to our home state of California. In terms of its geography and populations and their respective shapes CA resembles Italy a lot.  Both have a grand coastline, they both have multi cultural groups of people residing in its lands and mountains, both have northern edges covered by snow covered high mountain ranges that are formed of volcanic and tectonic activity over millenia. What we do not have in the Golden State is the renaissance, the art, the history.  It was a particular interest of our d...