Images: Gaur
Wild Gaurs from Kanha National Park
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Five Years of India Travel Blog
“I have done a decent amount of travelling in last few years and the places I have seen are plenty. But I have not managed to keep a good record of these journeys. Often, when some one asks about some information on a place I have visited long ago, I end up guessing it badly or giving some abstract information. I hope to record my journeys in this blog so I can have a good track of everything I did. “
These were the first lines written on India Travel Blog more than five years ago.
I often forget birthdays. I forgot the fact that India Travel Blog completed five years of existence about a month ago. It came more as a discovery even to me when I was going through the archives and looking for something yesterday.
This blog, which started as a place to log my journeys, has since become much more than that. Although I do not entirely wish to admit it, it is perhaps true that India Travel Blog had a major role in changing many things in my life. It is because of this site that I received my first requests to write for travel magazine. It is this blog that helped me reshape my career as a photographer and travel writer from being an IT professional a few years ago. It helped me meet many people from whom I could learn a great deal about travel, photography, writing and even to live better.
If statistics were something that mattered, I think I have some decent numbers to show. These five years have seen more than 750 posts on the blog, seen by more than one million visitors. It gets more than a thousand people coming in every day looking for stories and information about travelling in India and has nearly 2000 subscribers who read the blog regularly. I do not know if this is impressive or not, but my own targets today are slightly different from achieving any kind of numbers.
I would like to make India Travel Blog to be full of highly readable travel stories that cover every aspect of travel in India. I have often been trying to find out what makes the best travel writing and have experimented different writing styles on the blog, but have not yet come up with the perfect answer.
My own idea of good travel stories will contain plenty of information about places and sights conveyed in such a manner that the reader doesn’t feel that he or she is reading a boring encyclopaedia. The writings should perhaps embed plenty of information in a smoothly flowing story that includes many anecdotes, some humour and wit that involves a lot of interaction with people at the destination. There are some posts on the blog where I have tried to build stories in this manner, but there are many that have not exactly met my own expectation. Good stories perhaps should also include analogies and metaphors that not only makes the reader get a good perspective of the destination, but also make him laugh at comparisons. I must also admit that embedding humour in my stories is not exactly my strength and it needs a lot of work, an improved sense of observation and finding new perspectives to every interaction. While I do make some attempts at it when I scribble my notes, I have kept away from making half-witty remarks or make desperate attempts to make something look funny. When it comes to including information in my stories without making it look heavy, I get a feeling that I have met some degree of success in embedding them within my experiences. But eventually it is for readers to decide.
Today, my goal with India Travel Blog is to consistently produce good quality photographs and travel writing that informs and entertains my readers. I would always like to hear from you on what would you like to see more on India Travel Blog, be it more serious travel writing, more humour, more information, more pictures or something entirely different. In the past, I have kept away from a few areas that every international travel e-zines or blogs often tend to post. That includes hotel reviews, giving too much advice and how-tos (like how to meet fellow travellers on the road, how to interact effectively with locals,..) to travellers, top-10 posts and such things which, I am not entirely sure, really helps the reader. But I know that when I made small attempts at such things before, they have been received well. It would be great to know your opinions on what would you like to see on this blog in the coming years.
Thank you for being with me in these five years.
August Newsletter
India Travel Blog Newsletter is sent approximately once a month (sometimes less frequently), summarizing the previous month’s activity and giving a glimpse of the coming month on the website. Subscribe to the newsletter by keying in your email address in the box on the top of the sidebar. Here is a copy of this month’s newsletter, dispatched today.
Hello,
Here is the August edition of India Travel Blog Newsletter, bringing you a summary of major stories on the blog in last two months and an insight into stories that you will get to read in the coming days. Below is a quick look at the contents of the newsletter.
1. Desktop Calendar
2. Stories from Ladakh (Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri)
3. Thrissur Pooram
4. Wildlife images from Kanha
5. Monsoon stories 5. Buying photo prints for your wall
Calendar. August 2010 desktop calendar features a portrait of Sambar Deer from Kanha National Park. Download the image at 1280×800 or 1024×768 as a desktop wallpaper calendar for this month.
Bike Ride to Pangong Tso. The main feature story of June-July was on a difficult bike ride from Leh to Pangong Tso, during which my bike broke down once. I had great difficulty crossing a rogue stream and riding on bad roads. Yet, the fabulous views of the lake was worth all that trouble. Read the six-part series on the Bike Ride to Pangong Tso.
Tso Moriri. Tso Moriri is another beautiful large lake in Ladakh. Read about the first impressions on the lake in an ongoing series of posts.
1. Arriving at Tso Moriri
2. The first impression
3. Images of Tso Moriri
In August, look out for stories on a monastic festival at Tso Moriri, where I saw high spirited Ladakhis hanging out watching the monks perform mask dances.
Images from Kanha. I spent a few days in Kanha National Park this summer, just before the park was about to close for monsoons. I have been posting images of birds and animal life from the national park. See them all here.
Images of Thrissur Pooram. Thrissur Pooram is a grand celebration involving a large procession of elephants, held every summer in April-May. See images of this year’s Thrissur Pooram celebration.
Monsoon Stories on India Travel Blog. If you are looking for some travel ideas for for the monsoon months, see this post on a compilation of all that is ever posted on India Travel Blog about the monsoons so far.
Buying photo prints for your wall. Now you can order prints of all images posted on India Travel Blog so far and get it delivered at your doorstep. The images will be printed on one a very high quality printer using imported paper. You can also opt to get it framed. If you are looking for something beautiful to hang on your living room wall, go here and request for prints.
This year, Ladakh has been seeing a huge surge in number of visitors, thanks to the resounding success of the movie ‘Three Idiots’. This mountain region will continue to be the focus on India Travel Blog, though it will be mixed with several other features. In the next month, I will be posting stories from Tso Moriri, several images from my recent trips and posts from Kerala and Kanha National Park. Do drop by to read more stories. Now you can also see a series of posts on Ladakh on one page.
Thanks!