90 Never Looked So Graceful!

Can you still look charming at ninety when your knees wobble?

Can you still be as graceful?

Can you retain the poise which you had decades ago?

Yes you can if you are Savita Bhargava- Ghumakkad's aunt who recently celebrated her 90th birthday with family and friends in Delhi.  She continues to be as charming as ever. I travelled from Hyderabad not to miss the family event. Sharing few pictures of the milestone event.

Here is a short video  clip of some of the guests from overseas and India in animated conversations.

The Invite

Sharing below the invite by the nonagenarian's children. To make the event memorable and to enable Savita Mami to meet all the guests and spend some quality time, the 90th Birthday celebrations were spread over two days. The guest lists on the two days were mutually exclusive. A brilliant idea! Well done Ruchi and team.

Early Life

Her daughter Ruchi Ghose writes, "Born in 1936 on 3rd September. The day she was born her father got a job. Very happy and idyllic childhood. Special to her father. Lost him one year after she got married. Has a BSc and a B.Ed. She has a gift of expression - has written stories and commentaries for many programs. Dances and sings with ease."

Few pictures of yesteryears courtesy Ruchi.

   

Geetika - Joy In Music

Her passion for music led her to start Geetika in Kolkata in 1976. A group of women who sought joy in music. They got together once a week to sing. Geetika still exists in Kolkata and Delhi. They have the most fabulous collection of music ( लोकगीत folk songs) and many original compositions. They present wonderful programs from time to time. She has played a huge role in conceptualising and curating many of these. An exclusive event for the Geetika friends was held a day earlier where they presented Mami with a specially curated booklet.

Ruchi adds, "Her hobbies - she is an excellent seamstress and always stitched our frocks. She has six grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Most of all she is special to many many people."

Forever Young Granny

Ruchi continues, "She refuses to grow old - is interested in so many things. Her grand children adore her - in their eyes she is the best cook and worlds best granny- can do no wrong. When they were young they used to go to Delhi alone for summer holidays. Summers with granny form their fondest memories."

Surprise in Bengaluru

Savita Mami and Jolly Mama live in Bengaluru. Four months ago, I had the pleasure of giving her a surprise visit. The surprise formed the opening part of Ghumakkad's post linked below;

Thriving on Surprises - sharing a picture and a video of the surprise visit. Mami can be seen knitting a sweater for her grand children,

Dancing At Eighty

Savita Mami is an accomplished dancer. Ten years ago, despite aching knees she performed at her niece's wedding while seated on a chair! Sounds incredible? Browse the story below and see few of the pictures and a video to admire Mami's grace.

Dancing At Eighty - Grace has no age!

Special thanks are due to Ruchi Ghose, Mami's eldest offspring for all the inputs including the vintage photographs.

I felt truly blessed to have been part of the celebrations. May Savita Mami enjoy many more years of good health so that we get to attend such parties again and again.

Thanks for browsing. Stay connected and do leave a comment. It encourages us.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Ruchi Ghose/ Secunderabad and New Delhi/ 14th September 2026

#90thBirthday #Grace #charm #poise #music #dance #GreatGranny #ForverYoung #abhinaya #SavitaBhargava #RuchiGhose #GhumakkadHarsh #ghumakkadhb #JoyOfMusic #geetika

Windows and Wanderings - Ghumakkad Turns Fourteen

 When your blog turns fourteen, how do you celebrate?

You celebrate by thanking the readers and contributors.  Because it is the readers who have taken the blog where it is. Thank you all.

Ghumakkad continues to wander.

Why do you like Ghumakkad's Blog?

Ghumakkad asked the readers a simple question 'Why do you like Ghumakkad's blog?' Within minutes we started  receiving responses. We have tried to summarise and include as many in the table below.

Reader(s)	Why I/we like Ghumakkad's Blog
KS Venugopal, Amandeep Kaur	A window to the world
Gyan Agarwal	It has a soul.
Lakshmi and NR Ravi, Vijay Uppal, Sharad Kumar, Daleep George,  TSR Swamy, Pramod Goel,  SVS Chary, Anju Tiwari, Surendra B,  Zafar Naseem, Ramya Champion, Vinay Prasad, Premila Basu,  PR Sangam, Vinod Dhanuka,  Pramod Lakhotia, Rachita Mahajan, Nishi and Ashok Jaitly, Mohan Swaminathan, Mani Thomas	Armchair travelogue of unseen and unheard off places. Feels like a 'live' tour with a ringside seat!
Ruma Purkayastha, Rashmi B, Indira Susheel Kumar,	Stories that leave you with the desire to experience and explore
Raman Kumar, BC Jayaprakash, Ruchi B, Vardhaman Tantia,  Poonam B, Joya Ganguly, Vijay Bal, RB Dhavare, Satish Kwatra	Wide variety, depth of research and simple language
Joyshree Banerjee, Dr Pappu, Praveen Garg, Chandreyee Ganguly, Helga Lakhotia	Makes us feel part of Ghuamkkad's trips!
N Sridhar, Pimmo Lodha	It gives me joy
Dr GB Sethi, Rakesh Bajaj, Tejaswini, Chanda Golani	It's uniqueness and educational value
Vinod Agarwal, Pramila B, Seema Jain, Suresh Sharma, Arun Dhupar	Meaningful and vivid descriptions that leave the reader asking for more
Suchitra Chauduri, M Vasudevan, Nitin Dhavare, Sharat Choudary, Mukul B, Shereen Sultana, Rajat B, Chaitanya Shiroor	Insightful, refreshing, authentic and deeply inspiring
Trixie Asirvatham, Shyamola Khanna, Dr Surekha Bhanot	Stunning illustrations and narratives
Pradeep Sethi	Love the small things that you notice!
Dilip Mohapatra, Krishna Prasad, Yella Prakash Rao, Raj K Mehta	Spreads goodwill, empathy and positive thinking.
Manik Srivastava	Your art of storytelling!
Vinay B, Rajinder Singh, GR Nair	Passion with which every story is created.
Padma Ramesh	It inspires wanderlust!
Deepak Jena	It keeps me in touch with my Professor!
Jaishankar	Stories that lie at the junction of adventure, curiosity and wisdom.
Dr Rohini Tiwari	My most exciting virtual travel companion and storyteller!

Am humbled seeing your responses. Ghumakkad seems to have made a wide impact as visible from the variety of responses. Each one of you (and many others not included in the above list) deserve the special badge of appreciation. Thanks once again.

Ghumakkad exists because of you

It took 13 years to reach 6 lakh page views. But, we have added 5 lakh page views in just one year! See the graph below.

Sharing below an excerpt from Amandeep Kaur, my former MBA student now settled in Canada.

"Ghumakkad has been far more than a travel blog to me, it has been a window to the world. 

What makes Ghumakkad special is not just the journeys, but the soul behind them. Your writing carries warmth, curiosity, wisdom, and that quiet humor which makes readers feel like fellow travellers rather than just an audience.

As your student, I admired you in the classroom. As a reader, I have admired the way you turn travel into stories that stay with people long after they finish reading. Fourteen years later, Ghumakkad still inspires people to dream, explore, and look at the world with kinder eyes. That is a rare gift."

------------- 

Thank you Amandeep aka Ammu.

Another regular reader Admiral C Raghuram has sent a short poem on Ghumakkad's 14th Anniversary.

"Your footsteps frame each place with light and rhyme,  
You lift small wonders into song, one gentle chime.

  
Through winding lanes and hush of hills you roam,  
Each travelogue a tender bridge that leads us home

.  
You open doors where hidden mornings gleam and play,  
You turn plain paths to honeyed tracks where memories stay. 

 
Fourteen years your roaming words have charmed the way,  
Forever may your stories lead our hearts, and gently stay."

----------------- 

Thank you Admiral.

Special thanks are also due to all the Guest Story writers listed below along with links to their stories:

Ansh and Nikhil (then 14 and 11): Why Kodaikanal?

Abha and Akanksha: Ladakh: Shades of Heaven on Earth

Ankush: Maya The Tigress of Tadoba

Koushik Gopinath: Male Showstopper - Tigers of Ranthambhore

Abhishek Singh: Winning The Hearts Of People

Akanksha: Women Hiking In Water

Dr Rohini Tiwari: A Squirrel Comes Home

Trixie Asirvatham: Fallen But Not Forgotten

Ankush: Ironman In The Family

Nikhil (then 10 years old): Coyote Gulch- Hiking In A Stream

Sachi (then 15), Syon (13) and Maana (11): Who Says Children Don't Read Books

Naman (then 8 years old): Sketching at Eight

Ankush: 2nd Time ironman ki Kahani Ankush ki Zubani

Mohili and Kabir: Hiking With Two Middle Schoolers

Padma Ramesh: Who Says Adventure Has an Age Limit?

Tushar Bhakay: Birding on a Bicycle

Debashish Mukherjee: Call of the Road - Curiosity, Discovery and Joy

Padma Ramesh: There is Magic in the Air When They Meet -- An account of a Navy Veterans' Reunion

Would you like to see your name in above list? Then share your guest story. We would love to publish it.

Those who wish to browse across the spectrum of our picture stories, may click the link below:

Ghumakkad Enters the Teens - Gives a snapshot of our stories of last 13 years.

Be it the travelogues, environment, wildlife, birds, life lessons from Nature, obituaries or simple observations around our lives-- you have loved it all.

All we would say-- Gratitude with folded hands.

Last but not the least we have to thank our advisors over the years:

Trixie Asirvatham (Blog content)
Dr Chitra Shanker (Environment)
Yella Prakash Rao (Birding)

Thanks for browsing and stay connected. Do share a comment and/or your guest story as and when you can.

    -  Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 22nd May 2026

#14thAnniversary #travlandlifeblog #GhumakkadIsFourteen #WindowsAndWanderings #gratitude #thankyoureaders #OneMillionPageViews #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb #GuestStory #explore #discovery #adventure #joyofsharing #powerofobservation #appreciationbadge #blogreadership

Teachers Who Give Up Everything - Teacher's Day 2024

Teachers teach. They also:

Inspire

Mould

Instill values

Share their wisdom

Make us better human beings!

We have heard it all before. 

But do teachers give up their most prized possession for their pupils?

This is the story of one such teacher, my athletics coach at BITS Pilani.

The year 1968. One month before the National Games of India at Madras. I was selected to represent Rajasthan in my age group.

Our Director of Physical Education at BITS,  Capt Richpal Singh Shekhawat who was my coach, came down with pleurisy a kind of severe lung infection with fluids inside the lungs. He was advised bed rest and not allowed to come to the sports ground. What about my coaching in the crucial month before the Nationals?

My coach found a solution. 

He got his nicely manicured lawn with the home garden dug up and levelled. He created a run up and a landing pit for me to practice broad jump in front of him in his yard every day. Despite his severe illness, he continued to coach and prepare me for the Nationals.

With his selfless dedication, he motivated me to give off my best. I won the Gold medal in Broad Jump at the National Games of India. It was followed by many more golds at national level in successive years, thanks to him. I was also selected for the Asian Games Probables Camp for the Teheran Games 1974. By then I had already been commissioned into Indian Navy. That's another story for some other day.

How many will dig up a flourishing lawn and garden in their house to create a long jump pit for their trainee? Those who have seen the faculty bungalows in Pilani Campus, will understand it better. Is it a big deal to willingly destroy your lawn and garden? Ask all home gardeners. They won't even part with a potted plant leave aside destroying a manicured lawn. They are so possessive of their plants and the garden. My athletics coach did not hesitate even for a minute and gave up his prized possession for his trainee. A possession having more worth than any materialistic asset. He was a living example of 'Teachers who give up everything!'

On this Teacher's Day, I bow my head in gratitude to Capt RS Shekhawat also known as Guruji by all of us at BITS Pilani. Am sharing a picture of him receiving the Champion Athlete trophy from the then Prime Minister Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru. Guruji passed away few years ago in Jaipur. But his values live on in our hearts and minds.

Thank you Guruji for making me what I am today.

Teacher's Day

Teacher's Day is celebrated in all schools and colleges in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr S Radhakrishnan former President of India and a great teacher and scholar. It is also a day for teachers like me for introspection and reflection. Sharing below some of the earlier stories posted by Ghumakkad on Teacher's Day.

Teachers Other Than Teachers - Can Nature, trees, birds, pets, sickness, bereavement also be our teachers? What do we learn from them? Sample it below.

Teacher	Learnings
Nature	Patience, Steadfastness, Managing Change, Team work
Children	Inquisitiveness, Energy and enthusiasm, Love, Trust, Honesty
Parents	Discipline, Love, Compassion, Care, Respect
Friends	Relationships, Team work, Emotional Stability, Trust
Pets	Loyalty, Trust, Love
Births	Joy, Happiness
Sickness	Patience, Emotional strength, Financial planning, Gratitude
Bereavement	Fortitude, Emotional strength
Successes	Happiness, Fulfilment
Failures	Emotional balance and strength
Covid Pandemic	Patience, Self-discipline, Concern for others
Adventure Sports	Spirit of adventure, Risk taking, Self-confidence, Physical and emotional strength
Painting, Music, Dance, Writing	Introspection, Creativity, Self-confidence, Visualisation
Team Sports	Team work, Conflict resolution, Discipline, Physical and emotional strength

Do Teachers Get Bored? - far from it! There is always action all around. Click the link to browse an outdoor activity with MBA students and lessons from a forest!

Covid Couldn't Deter The Teachers - how teachers in a B-school fought the Covid pandemic

A Teacher Keeps Learning - that is the best part! A teacher learns more from the students.

Who Inspires A Teacher - Teachers plant seeds of knowledge

Learning From Students - who keep the teachers on their toes! Specially if you are teaching post grad students.

Harsh@IBS - Journey of a different kind. Browse this story for multiple activities which Ghumakkad did along with his students and faculty colleagues at IBS Hyderabad.

This Teacher's Day, Ghumakkad thanks all his former teachers, students and former students for enriching his life. Picture below shows the confident and beaming faces of the PGDM cohort of 2026 at VVISM Hyderabad. They are the future of India!

Happy Teacher's Day to all the teachers, parents, students out there!

Thanks for browsing

  Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 5th Sep 2024/ Secunderabad

#teachersday #teacher #learner #students #nature #learningneverends #joyoflearning #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #teachersotherthanteachers #learning #teaching #gratitude

Ghumakkad Turns Twelve!

Hurray 12th Birthday! Not mine, though I wish it was! Ghumakkad, your blog, completes 12 years.

Rooted in Nature, Ghumakkad would like to express our gratitude to you for continued readership and feedback. The picture below shot in Pichavaram Mangroves in Tamil Nadu last week, shows the mangroves up close. Like the roots of the mangroves, Ghumakkad's blog is rooted to each one of you who give us energy and encouragement. 

Last 12 months saw a phenomenal jump in the page views from 291,000 to 450,000! Wonder if we can expect similar growth this year! It is the magic created by the readers!

Last year we had shared a snapshot of our content and its variety. We are re-posting it to save our effort. We have added a list of posts most viewed in last 12 months. Read on.

The Journey

Ghumakkad started as a travel blog. Our inaugural story was a set of eight posts on picturesque Bhutan. Initially the blog was by invitation . Naturally it had very limited page views in the first three years. Once opened to public, more readers enjoyed browsing it. See the graph below which shows the current page views at 450,000 with more than 4660 comments. This is the 612nd Post of our blog.

As we mentioned, last 12 months had more than 160,000 page views. See the graph below.

The Content

Our blog has a variety of content with pictures. Some of the themes are listed below with links to connected stories:

• Travelogues like A Train journey in USA, Scuba diving at 65, Hiking up the Tiger's Nest in Bhutan, Toddler on a Hike

• Wildlife including The Big Five of Africa, Tigers of Tadoba, Birds of Ranganathittu, Rescuing a Black Winged Stilt

• Environment including Trees (White Jamun?, Neem Trees Under Attack), plants (Friendship With Plants), insects and flowers (Brahma Kamal)

• Online Contest called Kaun Banega Ghumakkad which has completed 80 editions so far!
• Lesser-known India series Hindola Toran, Devarakonda Fort and more

• Entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship stories like Dreams to Reality, Young Entrepreneurs Bootcamp, Startup Fever Grips VVISM

• Teaching and learning (Ghumakkad is a teacher!) including real-life case studies and Innovations in A Convocation

• Obituaries of leaders like Dr Abdul Kalam and martyrs like Capt Ravi Shankar

• Motivational posts specially during Covid

• Guest stories including those written by the children (Coyote Gulch Hiking in Stream), Covid survivors (I Got A New Life) and Animal Lovers like Rohini

• Picturesque Quotes having one of our pictures with a famous quote like Claude Monet on Nature and another one by a KBG winner.

• Adventure and Endurance like An Ironman in the Family, Women Hiking in Water

The Readership

Thanks to the wider reach of internet, our blog is read globally. Readers from India account for only 45%, balance coming from across the globe. See the colour coded world map below.

Most Viewed Posts (All time)

Capt Ravi Shankar's life story has been read more than 7690 times. We salute his supreme sacrifice

.

Another story on 'Brahma Kamal The Queen of Night' has been read by more than 6810 readers. It shows the readers' interest in environment and Nature related posts.

Most viewed posts during the last 12 months are shown below. Once again, our readers showed their preference for Nature-related posts.

Acknowledgements

There are numerous people who have helped us grow. We place on record our appreciation to the following for their unstinted support.

Trixie Asirvatham our content advisor

Chitra Shanker our advisor on plants, trees, insects and birds

Ramya Sriram logo designer of our KBG Contest

We also thank each one of you for your continued support without which Ghumakkad wouldn't have been here! Do give us your feedback to help us improve.

Onwards to the 13th Anniversary of Ghumakkad next year!

Thanks for browsing. Stay connected

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 23rd May 2024/ Chennai

#GhumakkadHarsh #GhumakkadHB #12thAnniversary #BlogAnniversary #ThrillOfWriting #JourneyOfLife #BringingSmiles #makingadifference #kbgcontest #kaunbanegaghumakkad #wellness #motivation #inspiration #positivity #nature #environment #teachers #learning #india #mysteriesofnature #travelforfun #wildlife #keepgoing #blogger #pictures #photowalks #powerofobservation #students #adventure #lesserknownindia #PQs #picturesquequotes #learningtogether #mangroves