Life is an adventure worth living

Welcome to Photovagant!!

If you are paying attention to what is going on around the world, you may be hard pressed to take a optimistic attitude. I want to start my posts with this positive message. Regardless of all the chaos, I still think life is an adventure worth living. The element of surprise and the uncertainty about what comes next excites some people. Terrifies some others. And there are those that treat the vicissitudes of life with great equanimity. Regardless, everyone must go through it.

An adventurous mindset is something that we are naturally born with – the levels and skills vary from person to person. When you start a new initiative, things tend to be more ambiguous and the future uncertain. You don’t know how it’s going to go and how it will end. To weather through the experience you need courage, determination, dogged pursuit, a clear vision, a positive attitude and an open mind willing to improvise and course correct when needed. Moving forward with openness, embracing things as they come, as they are, we must strive to end the journey with a period and not an ellipsis.

Inform, Inspire and Entertain – that is the primary intent behind creating this website. To share my travel stories of my lifetime, through my photos (light), one frame at a time. Hence the tagline “travel stories through light and time”. I hope that the stories and pictures will inspire the traveler and the photographer in you.

I grew up in a small village in South India that was surrounded by mountains, forests and numerous waterfalls. I loved forest bathing and chasing waterfalls then and still do. Some old habits don’t die. My village was on the banks of the legendary, perennial Thamirabarani river – a river that has stood the test of time, but is now struggling to survive. The sand beds and the varicolored pebbles that we collected as kids have disappeared, thanks to illegal sand mining.

The sight of the river triggered the wanderlust in me. Truth be told, the realist in me, wants to see and enjoy as much of the world before it is too late. I lost the chance to see the Old Man of the Mountain, Darwin’s Arch, Jeffrey Pine, the Azure Window, Wall Arch, Elephant Rock, the Tunnel Tree, God’s Finger and the Basking Ridge Oak Tree, one of the oldest Oak trees in North America, that was just a few miles away from where I live.

I read this morning about a coral reef in a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, near Kiribati, that was once doomed to death has somehow miraculously resurrected itself. For those interested, here is the link to the article from NPR – Coral Reef Resurrected Itself. News like this make me hopeful, that not all is lost.

Our planet is a magically beautiful oasis amidst its rocky and gassy neighbors and there is tons of good stuff to see, immerse and enjoy.

So get out, see and enjoy the world and don’t forget to share your stories.