A poem by Auden which has greatly moved me. 

                                                                   THE PLIGHT OF AN AVERAGE PERSON (emphasis purposely given)

Cherapunji

 Cherapunji falls at its most majestic      c. 2013

Phewa Tal

Phewa Lake
Originally uploaded by SSngh

Oh, to be in Pokhara is bliss. The place to stay in Pokhara is lakeside offering a large number of hotels to suit everyones pocket. Though situated on the far side of Phewa lake, Litchi Garden Resort is a nice hotel to stay. Boat service by the hotel can be arranged to come to the bustling, throbbing and lively lakeside . But take care because Phewa lake can become rather choppy in the evenings, specially if it rains. Moreover these boats lie quite low in the water and run on a pocket size electric motor running on a car battery. It requires ingenuity by the boatman to keep the electric connections dry even in a light drizzle. This I am speaking from experience as one time around 8 PM while crossing we got becalmed in the middle of Phewa tal due to a very light drizzle. The leads and connections had to be dried out and the lake-crossing took about 1 hr instead of the usual 10 min. I don't know if I am correct in calling it 'becalmed' in those choppy waters. Though I must admit that despite low gunwales water did not slosh in. By God, those pocket sized electric motors have to be seen to be believed. All of 1/10th of a horsepower, I swear. Staying at Litchi Garden one would miss the bustle of THE lakeside. Alternately, the thriving, throbbing and lively lakeside offers myriad hotels to choose from.

My first visit to Phewa Lake was more than 30 yr ago, in 1980. The now populous side of the lake had only a couple of hotels, catering and hankering for the white backpackers' brigade. There was no lakeside road then (which now snakes around this side of the lake in almost its entirety) and not more than a couple of restaurants offering victuals should their need arise. Our hotel then cost us a princely sum of Rs 03/- a day/room which now costs 1000/- (inflation, inflation).

Humpty's fall

I am happy to say that Humpty has put himself together again. He is fully functional, doing all his work. Not exactly firing on all four cylinders. One cylinder occasionally starts knocking. But getting there slowly but surely.

Hunting with camera

I vividly recall that (about 40 yr ago) I considered it an absolute hogwash that shooting with a camera was so much more enjoyable than hunting. I strongly proclaimed that this was a typical Brahminical Hindu nonsense which has been hysterically fixated due to the staunch vegetarianism being followed since ages. Mr MKD Gandhi with his tenet of non violence was also blamed (by me) as one of the reasons for this. I very strongly felt that when one spends so much time in the jungle tracking the animals and birds then one might as well gather one's reward by shooting one or two down. Specially, as we humans have clawed our way so high up in the food chain.

Four decades down the road the effort to make arrangements for hunting seem too much and hardly worth the trouble. Add to that the dwindling forest cover and illegality per se of hunting make it a poor choice as a recreational pastime.

In these environmentally conscious times one muses about the size of the substantial carbon footprint of modern day hunting. When one adds up the logistics involved and the material consumed. I would wager that carbon footprint of hunting with a film type camera may be comparable to gun hunting.

The same is certainly not true in today's digitised world. Digital photography is all the more gratifying for the results can be viewed almost instantaneously on the camera itself or on a computer after the upload, a matter of a mere few minutes at the most. The carbon footprint of digital photography is small if one does not take any printouts.

Nowadays, I do my shooting with a D40 Nikon and am very satisfied. Quality of its lenses are extremely good.

Dragon ashtray

Dragon ashtray
Originally uploaded by surensin

I use to call it Dragon's ashtary when I was smoking. I got it last year from a quaint little shop in Thimphu

Bougainevillea

Bougainevillea
Originally uploaded by surensin

i do enjoy flowers. even if they are from neighbor's garden