When it Snowed in Shimla

by
Sitting at Quila

Sitting at Quila

30 December 2010

Quila, a new theme cafe in Shimla.

Its around 7:30pm.

The dim light of two candles lighting us all, as we talk about few ghost stories from around Shimla.

Its been a week, and without a fail, we all have been spending our evening here. Its feels like our living room now.

We here include, Ankur, Harsh, Aasheesh, Maggot, Aaditya and me.

Ankur Khachi or Khachi, as we know him, has a different genre of humor, that is still to be explored and named by english scholars.

Harsh Kalta is busy with his camera that will always show a Battery Low sign flashing in red but will never run out of batteries.

Aasheesh has long hair. Longer then you just thought.

Maggot loves animals. Even snakes.

Aaditya once trekked up to Kinnar Kailash alone.

( Thunder, Lighting and Rain. )

I ran towards the window. Its all white outside, but its not snow. It was a minor hailstorm  that covered Shimla with a white layer. We call it fake. Still we go out to experience it.

Its been more then 7 years without snowfall in December and more then 4 years of proper snowfall in Shimla City.

We went home. We slept.

Its midnight.

Kalta sends me a text, ” Look Outside !”.

I went outside and saw huge snowflakes merging with the white sheet of snow on the roof next to my house.

Day Two

I wake up . Everything has melted but its still cloudy.

I get ready . I take my camera rain cover with me and reach Tripti ( a nice restaurant ) , Kalta and Aasheesh are already sitting their.

We meet Aaditya and we all made our way through the crowd. Its New Year.

Friends in Snow

Friends in Snow

We decided to climb up to Jakhu.

It was a good decision

We came back to tripti where Kalta (Harsh) tries to dry his socks in front the heater.

Happy New Year !

THE END


Shimla in Snow 2010 – Images by Himanshu Khagta

New Design of my Website launched

by
Screenshot for the new design.

Light colored design inspired by snow.

Today, after working for about a week with my friend Rohit Kaundal, I launched the new design for my website. This monochromatic design puts less strain on the eyes and removes all the clutter that was found in the previous version.

Features :

  • Eye friendly Colors.
  • ‘Where am I ?’ feature that uses Google API to automatically update my Location with my GPS enabled phone.
  • 6 Newly uploaded photos on the main page.
  • New Blog Article and Latest Articles List on the main page.
  • Facebook Like button on Articles and photographs.
  • Buy Prints Button on the Right side of every photographs.

Behind the Scenes :

My childhood friend and neighbor, Rohit Kaundal and I sat together for three or four days to make my website clutter free and make it a better browsing experience for visitors.

I choose the new monochromatic shades of Black and he tried to create a symmetry in the design.

I also required a Where am I ? box that could update automatically with my phone. That was possible with Google Latitude but google didn’t have any text version on their badge. So, Rohit plunged into Google API and created a PHP code that would display my current location through my GPS enabled phone.

Other Details :

  • Only Ginger – Pepper Tea was used while working.
  • Lounge Music helped a lot .
  • Many trips were canceled in the past few days.
Rohit Kaundal - Freelance Software Developer

Rohit Kaundal helped in the complicated programming of this website


Powerer by :

Theme by Graph Paper Press for wordpress was used as the starting point for this design. The Photo gallery is powered by Photoshelter, the leader in portfolio websites, photo sales, marketing and archiving tools for photographers.

If you also want your photoshelter account then you can get discount of up to 30$ if you use the following discount code or click on this link.

HY7KH5LJ44

Winter Sunrise Trek at Shimla

by

(Photographer: Himanshu Khagta)

As the snow melted in the mountain town of Shimla, which was covered in few inches of snow after many years, I, being accompanied by three of my friends went out to see the morning rays of the sun falling on the city.

It was 6 am in the morning when the phone rang. After ignoring it for some time, I picked it up to hear the happy and enthusiastic  voice of my friend Harsh Kalta, who seemed to be impatient and excited at the same time about the trek told me that he had already called Khachi (Ankur Khachi) and he is also geting ready. So, from this point of view, I had no excuses. I had slept for less then an hour, because I helped my friend (Aasheesh Mehta), to design a website about metal. So, I told him to wake up and get ready. He was not in a very good mood and he also had a strong cold.

Around 6 30 am, after meeting Khachi we picked up Kalta and went straight to Tara Devi, a temple situated in front of Shimla, which offers a great view of snow-clad mountains around the town. Strangely, it is impossible to see them from the Ridge of Shimla. We reached the temple and started gazing at the town. the main reason is that some weeks ago when I posted a photography of Shimla ( below ), some ignorant people thought that the mountains never existed because they have never seen it, and said that the mountains have been added by me with a photoshop. I really disliked it. For the people who still don’t believe it. I would advice them to visit Tara Devi and turn your face towards right. Simple. Isn’t it ?

Shimla with Snow-clad mountains

Picture of Shimla with Snow-clad mountains i took last year during sunset

So, we started our trip to a secret location nearby, explored by us last year. Unbelievably, Aasheesh got strenght and got back his natural mood and claimed that he cannot recollect the journey we just did.

We had pur picnic on the cold grass and my friends collected dry wood and lit a fire. I was thinking about  the curry rice that is being served in Langar at Tara Devi Temple (MANDHIR) every Sunday and Tuesday. We stood their untill 1 pm when we were sure that the langar was ready for us.

Here are some photographs. Hope you like them.

Cheers!


Winter Sunrise Trek at Shimla – Images by Himanshu Khagta

Himalayan Landscapes

by

Thiksey Monestry, Ladakh, India

Thiksey Monestry, Ladakh, India


First of all, I would like to thank you for all the love and support in the form of comments, emails and visits on this website.

I couldn’t update the blog because of my frequent visits to The Himalayas. I also visited Ladakh twice in the last two months and I uploaded few more photographs from the different ranges of The mighty Himalayas.

So I present to you a collection of serene landscapes from the Indian Himalayas.

The slideshow includes photographs from Himachal and Ladakh.

I hope you’ll like it.


Himalayan Landscapes – Images by Himanshu Khagta