The state of Kerala is situated in south part of India. It is also called as “God’s Own Country”. It is know for its scenic beauty, Back waters. beaches and for Ayurvedic tourism. (Ayurveda is the traditional Indian medical system.) These are some clicks by my friend Nivedita, who loves photography.
Summer can be really soothing despite of having scorching heat. 
In month of October 2008, I accompanied my friend Vishwas NangrePatil and his family. We traveled to Kokan area of Maharashtra, the coastal area. I clicked some photos of virgin, untouched beaches of Kokan.
The beach was full seagull birds, It was just awesome site to watch. There is one shot where the river meets the sea. The area is nearby called Anjarle, my maternal grandmothers hometown. 
ArjunGabriel our son took his first massage yesterday as my wife Cyntia was really keen on it. As an Indian, these massage techniques are not new to us, as this is common practice for us to give massage to the babies. In my country this is an activity that is part of routine baby care. My mother tells me that as kid my grandmother use to give all her grandsons and granddaughter this kind of massage. I was reading somewhere it is kind of Yoga for the little ones. ArjunGabriel really enjoyed the whole process. And As I said my wife was really keen on this. As at present, she is based in Brazil, she did not have access to these massage techniques.
But she found one technique called as ‘Shantala’. This technique was made popular by French doctor called Frederick Leboyer. I guess this was the first introduction to the western world of this massage technique. He learned from a lady called as Shantala. Dr. Leboyer in order to honour of the women, he named the technique after her name. So it is called as Shantala. She not only allowed him to see how the massage is done but gave him the permission to photograph it. He has written book called
“Loving Hands The traditional art of baby massage”. Dr. Leboyer loved the concept; He found this created some kind of connection, emotional bond between the baby and the mother. He was visiting India in 1959 and saw this lady giving massage to her baby called Gopal. It helps parent to know about the baby’s body. Dr. Leboyer says, “I stopped short, struck by what I was witnessing: In the midst of filth and misery, a spectacle of purest beauty. A silent dialogue of love between a mother and her baby.” This was enchantment, relationship, interaction and love, something which always is appreciated by all, even the western world as well.
I heard about all these stories when I was in Brazil. As Indian this is really old technique as old as ancient India. This has been happening for generations and is been passed on from grandmothers to mothers and to the daughters. For me it was really fascinating to learn about the attractions western world has for all ancient things and Shantala was new addition to that big list of attractions.
And yes this is my first post about ArjunGabriel, after his birth, he really enjoyed the whole process and yes after the massage he had nice hot water bath which eventually ended up in deep sleep. I thought of sharing this with rest of the world through my latest post.
You can watch the whole massage on http://www.promatrix.com.br/spip.php?article63
The travels brings across wide variety of people and they make your traveling experience enriching and memorable. During such travel you have to be cautious about people though, as you are going to meet variety of people of various natures. Though I must add over here you should not mingle with them totally as we have wide array of people, and during this process we are going miss out on some good intention crowd for sure, but we are not suppose to forget that travel and watching nature is our major, prime objective and these other things are simply supplementary packages.
Even though I am insisting on caution, vigilance, you cannot forget few faces, like we met this Sikh couple who insisted that we should click their photo because they were going on journey to Hemkund Sahib Temple, one of the pious places for the Sikh community and they made sure to be clicked twice as once they are facing the camera and the other one as they are looking at the nature and they said that clicking such photo of couple going on such pious journey is positive omen for all of us. This last part was really funny and interesting.
There was one sadhu who was preparing one drink and suggested that I should have it as it will show me doors of heaven and of course I politely denied his offer. Indians will understand it, I guess it was”Bhanng”, we have it during our Holy festival. The interaction with locals is very interesting.
But my favorites were the two sisters and the Head of Priest with Orange head gear. The innocence we saw in their appearance and the overall posture of Chief priest made them my favorites, memorable ones.
I was going through photo album in the morning. I saw some beautiful photos which I had clicked during my visit to Brazil.
Everybody talks of Rio, Sao Paulo. But Brazil is full of other beautiful places like Uba Tuba, Bahia. I have put Bahia photos in one of the past posts.( 12th April post)
Now it is turn of Uba Tuba. This is one of seashore which is really near from Sao Paulo city. The small town is based somewhere in the valley, you really have to go down from the top. The journey from Sao Paulo to Uba tuba is also wonderful.The road is full of greenery and nature. I am sure you all will enjoy. These photos are to those who really enjoy nature, blue water and blue sky.
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If you really want to enjoy Brazil you look for some past post put in the month of November, December and January.
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During my trek to valley of flowers and Hemkhund, on our way back from Joshimath to Haridwar, we faced landslide and got stuck on the road for full one day. This included the night as well. I strongly remember this was one of most scary moment of my life. We were on the road; there were huge number of vehicles behind as well as in front and to add to that there were huge, big pile of boulders around us. The driver of our vehicle parked our car in very safe zone, so that we do not get caught in the landslide during the night. The night was the scariest; we all had to adjust to the new territory of Himalayas, you could hear roaring river Alaknanda, on top of that it was raining cats and dogs. This was totally hostile,demanding situation. We could not get any food to eat throughout the day.
But our ordeal got over next morning when we got up we saw some sunlight, our Ray of hope.
Hemkund sahib Gurudwara is one of the major attractions of Uttrakhand state of India. During my trek to Valley of flowers we visited the shrine. This shrine is one of the main pilgrimage site for Sikh community. It is located in Himalayas at the height of 15200 feet and is accessible from the base camp only by foot, a wonderful picaresque place. The shrine is surrounded by a lake, which was in semi frozen condition when I visited. As you go up you pass through Hemkund glacier and number of waterfalls and this place is also surrounded by number of flowers of lot many varieties. I was really stunned by the beauty around.
