Paulmathi Sekar Ramasubramanian

 

Mathi Elyunque bromeliad

I was a typical South Indian girl who never even travelled outside Kanyakumari District. Like everyone else, I also followed a routine, of School, College, Job and Marriage. But after marriage, my routines took a wild turn. When there is no routine, always there is room for creativity. Armed with a camera, I started Macros of wild flowers. When I started seeing the wildflowers closer, I couldn’t stop admiring the unique shapes, colours that each flower have. The wildflowers brought me closer to forests and other wildlife surrounding that. Even though few wild flowers, birds, butterflies are in front of us in our daily lives, we don’t really see them, I couldn’t imagine how I missed seeing these beautiful wild beings in my early life. That much I was caught in my everyday routine. To compensate that now I am extra aware about my surroundings. Life is more colourful now. In the past decade, I have seen so many wildflowers and learnt a lot about them. Now I show the wildflowers near our house to my parents, friends and neighbours and love to see the expressions “How I missed this beauty this long in my life!!” in their face. All our journeys are extra colourful, as we always plan to visit the destinations in the right weather when the flowers start blooming. Life is so much fun when you travel with the right person because with right person, there are no wrong destinations. So I enjoy every moment of my journey.

https://www.instagram.com/mathiflowerlover/


Vinod Sadhasivan

kodaikanal magic mushroom vinod

 

From my college days I was clear about one thing, that under no circumstances will I work until normal retirement. I did not have a specific reason except that it felt weird to even think about doing just one thing in your life. So I decided to retire early..Well at 35! I did plan and achieve that, along with my wife. Now what next was the question but it was quite simple actually. Ever since I first visited a forest there was nothing else I wanted to do. It was love at first sight. The natural world is my inspiration for life and all I wanted to do was just visit all the forests of the world to be with its inhabitants. This quest has taken me to different places of the world where raw beauty of nature is in display at its fullest. The human habitations also interest me because of my curious nature but it will always be secondary. Nonetheless I appreciate the complexities of the human world and the beauty it has. This dual nature of my view about the world makes me feel like I travel in two worlds with twice as much to see. The natural world with its raw beauty and the human world with its complexity. Along the way I picked up Photography as it added spice to my travel. Capturing memories and creating art with light made my travel much more interesting. Also because I am a self confessed romantic for sunsets and sunrises, photography gave me a way to freeze those beautiful moments forever. This travel and photography has given me a new take on life, one which I cherish.