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

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

Humour despite Covid

Covid is not going away soon. Even after vaccinations, people are getting infected. But yes, because of the vaccination, the infection is mild. But the after-effects like muscle pain, cough, fatigue and run down feeling linger on.

When a whole family is infected, you have to isolate each person in a different room. All others agree to wear a mask but 92-year-old granny refuses. After few days, she starts coughing at night. Another 68-year-old lady had already got infected a few days ago. Now, both ladies are isolated and sleeping in different rooms. From your room, you hear someone coughing. Cough syrup in hand, you wear a mask, go shake up one lady, feed a spoon of cough syrup. Hoping for some relief. Go back to your room and try and catch some sleep. 

Some time later, you hear the coughing again. This time, it seems to be from the other room. Once again, you mask up and take the cough syrup in another spoon. You feed the cough syrup to the second lady. It gives her some relief. You realise that you had fed the first dose of syrup to the wrong patient who wasn't coughing. Case of mistaken identity. You return to your room only to be reminded of a similar incident on a warship some 50 years ago.

A ship at sea is manned 24 hours divided into 'watches' (like shifts in the factories) of four hours each (except the period between 4 to 8 PM which is further sub divided into1st Dog watch and 2nd Dog Watch). These watches are named like 'Middle watch' from midnight to 4 AM. 'Morning watch' comes next from 4 AM to 8 AM and so on. For those personnel required to close up for duty at 4 AM, the quarter master is informed in advance to give a shake-up at 3.30 AM. Depending on the size of a ship, it has number of officers under training (or watch keeping officers as the Navy calls it). These under-trainees live in a small compartment called Junior Officers Mess. It has number of multi-tier bunks. Now the quarter master's assistant comes at 3.30 AM with his torch in one hand. He doesn't know who is sleeping in which bunk. He shakes up one officer and flashes his torchlight saying 'Good morning Sir, shake up routine for morning watch'! The officer mutters saying, 'Not me!' 'Sorry Sir' says the duty sailor. He then shakes up the officer in the next bunk and gets a very disapproving 'Not me!' again. This goes on till one of the officers points him to the corner bunk on top. By that time, the watch keeper had already got up with the commotion caused by shaking up seven other officers wrongly!

My waking up and feeding the wrong Covid patient with cough syrup brought back the memories of our Watch-Keeping days in the Navy almost 50 years ago! Covid can induce humour too. Besides all that gloom.

During the Covid lock down, Ghumakkad kept up the spirit of our readers. Some of the stories which the readers liked are listed below. You may click to browse the picture stories.

Covid Couldn't Deter Us

Take the Virus Head On

A Squirrel Comes Home

I Got a New Life- A Corona Survivor's Tale

Bouncing Back in Lockdown

Stay Home Stay Safe- What a pair of Kittens teach us

Breaking Free in Lockdown

Every Day Is A Sunday

Lockdown Is...

We have to live with the virus and its mutations. Just follow the precautions and get vaccinated. Keep going with your life as usual.

The Contest

We had featured a picture of Covid Testing Strips in our online captions contest KBG-77, the 77th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad. One testing strip showed Negative result and the other had two lines indicating 'Covid Positive'. Our readers were very imaginative in interpreting the picture. We received 47 interesting captions as listed below. We thank all the readers.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-77 Contest
1	Ajai Bhumri	हाय मार डाला
2	Amandeep Kaur	Golmaal hai bhai sab Golmaal hai
3	Anonymous	ज़िंदगी एक लाइनवा, फिर भी घमंडवा
4	Rakesh Bajaj	So Far so Good one or two!
5	Anonymous	Only jabs and precautions will help to eject the unwelcome guest - sorry pest.
6	Avinash Tiwari	Yeh to bas lakeeron ka chakkar hai
7	Avinash Tiwari	Rekhaon ka khel hai mukaddar. Rekhaon se maat kha rahe ho!
8	Bharat Ladha	Negative is the new positive
9	BR Natarajan	It's Now or Never!!
10	CD Sawant	Yeh Line Kuchh Ajib thi, Dusri Line Kuchh Dara Wani Hai |
11	C Raghuram	Read between the lines
12	Deepak Jena	Don't worry.. God is always on time.
13	Deepak Jena	Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day.
14	GR Sreenivasan	Though Covid is unwelcome, testing made easy is welcome!
15	Himani Tiwari	Stay positive, test negative. If you test positive, don't be negative!
16	Himani Tiwari	Do laina sunaariya hoon, oops gala kharab hai, phir milengey quarantine ke baad.
17	J Ramamoorty	This Corona is not a crown but something to be kept away.
18	Jaishankar	One is happy when single
19	Kausalya Govindan	You shall overcome!
20	LS Bhargava	बुखार आया तो लिया दो लाइन का सहारा। लाइन हाजिर है तो परेशानी गैरहाज़िर है तो ज्यादा परेशानी।
21	M Vasudevan	Me, Wuhan born, inetrnational invisible, make many cry, for a few I am the money spinner!
22	Nidhi Bhargava	Two for sorrow, one for joy
23	Peter de Padua	Should happiness lie, in lines?
24	Peter de Padua	With hope in the heart and a positive mind, all difficult lines dissappear.
25	Poonam Bhargava	एक कहावत है-एक से भले दो, कोविड ने इसे बदल दिया-दो नहीं, एक ही भला
26	Poonam Bhargava	Number one is the winner!
27	Pradeep Siwach	Oh My God!
28	Pradeep Siwach	Oh No Not Me!
29	Prashant Jadenavar	Unless we are this corona test, let’s keep our negativity somewhere else
30	Radhika Sareen	Lakshman rekha....Raavan on the other side.
31	Radhika Sareen	One is happy and two is sad..
32	Radhika Sareen	ये लकीर इम्तिहां लेती है। भाग्य की एक ही लकीर काफ़ी।
33	Radhika Sareen	थोड़ा बहुत ज़्यादा की नहीँ ज़रुरत
34	Rajendra Singh	Precaution is better than cure !
35	RB Dhavare	Winning over Covid is like crossing a Hurdle in life.
36	Rekha Bhargava	Hum machinon ke daas hain  ye siddh karta hai
37	Ritu Bhargava	जीवन मैं आप कितने भी positive हो पर वर्तमान मैं रिपोर्ट negative आनी बहुत जरूरी है
38	Ritu Bhargava	The word negative is the most positive word today
39	Ritu Bhargava	Ek rekha se shanti, doosri rekha se ashanti! एक रेखा से शान्ति , दूसरी से अशांति !
40	Rohini Tiwari	A second chance given to live life to the fullest!!
41	Ruma Purkayastha	Standstill ! Endure!! Be patient !!!
42	Shereen Sultana	Ya is paar ya uss paar.
43	Supradeep Sen	Hell on Earth!
44	Veeky Baths	If you stay positive in a negative situation you win
45	Vinod Dhanuka	Unreliable
46	VV Ramani	Beauty and enlightenment
47	Yogesh	Beware, no shortcuts!

The Winners

Our Jury has selected the following five captions as winners of KBG-77. Congratulations to each one of them.

Bharat Ladha has won the KBG Caption Contest earlier too. An engineer from BITS Pilani, he lives in Vidisha MP in the lap of Nature. His caption 'Negative is the new Positive' was crisp and appealing.

Himani Tiwari is passionate about working with people with disabilities.  She is currently working as the accessibility and Veteran's services manager at a Community College. Himani is a foody and enjoys everything that has to do with art and music. A creative person and her caption encapsulated both the pictures of Covid testing.

'One is happy when single!', was Jaishankar's caption which hooked the Jury. It conveys the lighter side of Covid test results. A former Colonel, he has won the KBG contests several times. A blogger and an adventurer, Jai loves nature and wildlife.

'Two for sorrow, one for joy!' was the winning caption given by Nidhi Bhargava. She is no stranger to KBG readers having won the Contest several times. She creates designs with paper, jute, cloth or anything reusable. An environmentalist, she loves to be with Nature. 

Ritu Bhargava's caption in Hindi "एक रेखा से शान्ति , दूसरी से अशांति !" which means 'Single line brings happiness, the second brings misery!'  interpreted the two lines of Covid testing beautifully. Ritu has a masters in English literature from Jaipur University. Her interests are cooking music, dance and writing. She is a regular participant and has won several KBG Contests. 

Once again, congratulations to all the winners.

Despite such a drab and negative set of pictures, the readers continued to be creative. Special thanks to all the readers.

We promise the next caption contest will have a more pleasing picture!

Bye till then.

Stay connected.

                    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/1st October 2022

Postscript 2nd Oct 22

From Col Jaishankar who recalled another anecdote from his rich 'humour in uniform' collection. Thanks for sharing Jai.

Reminds me of my young officer (YO) days when I lived  in the single officers" annexe of the Officers' Mess The adjutant would give unearthly timings to the YO detailed as duty officer for night guard check rounds of the unit area .

This took over an hour going around the peripheral posts, the bada muayna (inspection) at the quarter-guard and  at the kot (armoury)  in a jonga (an army vehicle larger than a jeep). 

The duty NCO (non commissioned officer) would  arrive in the jonga a clear 20 minutes before time and start a loud knocking on the door of the YO detailed as duty officer. He would persistently knock till either you pulled on your fatigues and boots and went out or the senior subaltern yelled at you from his room to get out and let him sleep in peace.

😊😊

#Covidtesting #covidhumour #keepmovinginlife #changeyourperspective #staypositive #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kbg77 #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #takeabreak #captions #creativecaptions #learningtogether #mistakenidentity #humourinuniform