Today was a lazy day for me but I was excited as there was an air of enthusiasm. I realised that I had to go out into the street to test my new Canon 5D Mark IV camera. I had just bought it a few days back along with a powerful zoom lens to boost for 3.57 lakhs with discounts included. It was now time for me to test my new baby and what better place to wander in Dehradun than the Buddha Temple.
The temple is situated near the ISBT bus terminal on the outskirts of the city. This was a sleepy and peaceful Tibetan heartland in the valleys with the huge temple bang in the middle. It reminded me of some of my excursions to Dharamsala.
The temple had a huge garden area with the grand stupas and wishing wells. A huge portrait of the Buddha stood tall at the apex of the building. Monkeys ran amok in the garden and looked like the army of Hanuman had raided the place. I took out my camera from the bag and began clicking one shot at a time.
I tried the zoom lens to get closer to my object and at times, took help from Bhartu, my helper, to get better angles of some of the shots. We meandered through the calm and quite stairways of the temple soaking in the peace and enjoying the cool breeze that hit us from time to time.
A few hours and I felt hungry again. We strolled down to a Tibetan cafe for a meal of soup and momo. I enjoyed every bit of the stuff but the chillies were a lot and I felt the need to sip a lot of water at the end. The evening was approaching us and it was time to head back home to see and admire the new photos I had taken. My home was a 30-minute tuk-tuk ride away where my grandmother eagerly awaited with tea and cookies to greet me.
