Winter Spiti, just before the lockdown (in 5 days)

This picture is from a beautiful, small village in the Kinnaur Valley of Himachal Pradesh - Kalpa. Even though the place is quite popular for its beauty and other reasons, the experience of visiting it still managed to outshine our expectations.

When I reached Kalpa, the place was covered with fresh snow and right from the foothills, the gigantic Mount Shivling started to rise. So, we could see a huge range of snow laded mountains in front of us, covered with floating clouds and it was an utterly beautiful sight.

During my visit there, I stayed at Farmvilla homestay, a cosy abode in the place. The part I loved the most about staying at Farmvilla, was the sight I caught when I stood in its balcony. Mount Shivling was right before my eyes and the clouds were floating at eye level, which gave a misty aura to everything around and created a scene out of a book.

In fact, I took this picture when I was going to the homestay. I caught leading lines, which were the tyre marks as you can see in the picture. The sunset was a few moments away and the frame was just too beautiful. After this, I had planned on going towards Tabo, so this picture was one of my favourite souvenirs of Kalpa.

I took this picture during a night in Tabo, a pristine village in the Spiti Valley. On the first day, around 1 am, I went to the homestay's terrace and tried to take this shot. The temperature was as low as -15°C and I remember, I had taken my gloves along with me. To click on the screen in order to take the picture, I would remove the right hand's glove and within those few seconds, my hand would already start to shiver.

This shot is actually a combination of two shots. I had initially planned on taking a single shot of the trails, but when I did so, the exposure for the foreground came out too high and the picture was not close to doing justice to what I was seeing before my eyes. So, for the bottom part of the picture, I set the same frame and a lower exposure - and combined the two shots to produce this. For the trails, the shutter speed was around 8 minutes. After taking a couple of shots, there was a room on the terrace and in order to take a quick, warm break and just escape the chill - I found my home there for a couple of hours.

After this, I had planned on taking a time lapse of the stars. My plan was to shoot for 3.5 hours to produce a 16 seconds long time lapse. So, I set the tripod up and slept for 3.5 hours only to come back and see that the camera had only recorded completely dark images. When I tried to find out why, I realised the shutter speed that I was supposed to set for 30 seconds, had been set for 1/50th of a second. It was a bit disappointing, not going to lie, but doing these things frequently, I am used to this and this is definitely a memorable parcel of the journey.

Nevertheless, I am sorry I wasn't able to shoot the time lapse during the night and put it out here. However, the real life video was just as fulfilling.

I have always been someone who has done things - firstly, out of the need of gaining satisfaction from it and secondly, because of the outcomes. This is not something I learnt with time but it has always been an intrinsic part of me since a young age.

Like, about two months ago, I used to teach economics at two institutions. One month ago, as the new session was rolling in, I thought I would gain more time to travel and make content (things which I wanted to give time to) and hence decided to stop teaching at one.

I have been also told many times, that I should make content for Youtube. However, video editing and making takes way more time than photo editing, but I know, if I decide to learn it, I will be able to. Even photography, being a teacher, was never my forte. It was something I decided to learn on my own.

As soon as I stopped teaching at one institute, the incident of coronavirus happened. I have also been quarantined and obviously can't travel right now, so my purpose for leaving the institute failed for the time being.

At a particular time of life, I felt that I should take a risk in my life. My decision wasn't impulsive, it was a well though out, calculated risk to follow my heart. But as soon as things unfolded in the future, my decision for that time being did not amount to anything. However, the situation that rose is also something that is out of my control and that's okay. You can't control everything in life and all I can do is just give my best.

Life is nothing without uncertainties and I refuse to be disappointed by the outcome, because the decision I took was solely my own and I am proud of that. If it was successful or not, does not matter, what matters is, whatever the outcome, I will totally be accountable for it. It's not like I am completely hopeless right now. These are timely things and I am sure, in the coming times, I will get the chance to do all the things that I wanted to.

This picture is from Chicham Bridge. I have visited this place twice and both the times, the experience gave me a lot of memories to keep. The first time I visited Chicham was in November 2018. I remember, I was accompanied by three of my friends and we were having a chat when one of them, @devyani_g , suddenly asked me to click a #followmeto picture. I grudgingly lent my hand for the same and that memory came back to me, this time when I visited the place.

So, I decided to create a replica of the 2018 version, and asked @mariyadarakshan to get a similar picture clicked. Everything about this place -the view, the memories, the coming back feeling - was amazing.

If you think about it, there are a lot of things that you cannot control. You cannot control how someone thinks. You cannot control someone's actions, for the most part. You cannot control things changing everyday.

The only thing you can control, are your actions. The only way, you can learn, to let go of extra stress and overthinking, is by realising that. Sure, we can change things in the world by making our little changes, however, if you think so, go out and do it.

The only thing that has a fundamental, physical impact on the world is what you are doing, not what you are thinking. You also can't fix things once they are done. The bell that has been rung cannot be unrung. Maybe, the only thing that makes a difference is you making sure that it is never rung again by you.

So, focus on the things that you can control, rather than the ones you cannot and give yourself the space to breathe, to sit back and to introspect.

And ofcourse, don't forget to enjoy these videos: