I don’t know about you, but for me travel is as good as the company I keep on the road. The weekend trip to Dhanachuli stands out in this regard. The fresh mountain air, the breathtaking views, the lovingly crafted properties we visited and stayed in, the delectable food…all these experiences were greatly enhanced and in fact, indelibly etched in my mind by the stimulating conversations we had.

Moreover, I rediscovered the absolute high of meeting new people and finding common ground in a very short period of time; the thrill of being in the company of creative minds that work differently from yours and yet feed into a similar sensibility; the calmness of not being judged and not judging those around you.

For this and more, my thanks go out to Te Aroha and Sumant Batra in particular, whose brainchild this Blogger’s Meet was. To warm up to the exciting series of posts I have planned about the fantastic weekend, I’m including these portraits I clicked of all my new friends. As fellow travelers, their names will crop up often in my ramblings about Dhanachuli and as I said before, they are as much part of the story as the frames taken by my camera’s eye and the words forming in my head!

In his element when he talks about the things he loves and collects, Sumant anchored our trip effortlessly with an energy and professionalism I can only admire and hope to emulate

Poised and bright as a star, Aanchal‘s love for art and eye for detail added a punch to our stay. It was a delight to bond over late night conversation and quirky turns of phrases!

Soft, observant and introspective, Vibha is like a portrait photographer’s dream come true! A writer, poet and editor  with a fantastic memory for old Hindi songs….yes, we even found time to sing around the bonfire!

You could locate Vijay by his penchant for humming and whistling old Hindi songs. I could see that he listens keenly and sees even more sharply and his photographs tell the tale. Check out his website- http://travellingcamera.com/

Divya, cat lover and designer, taught me a thing or two about how to be yourself and not let the crazy world get to you!

And Aaditya of course. All my pictures of him are blurred and my strongest memory of him is of squinting keenly through the camera, in love with the idea of capturing a frame. The sharpest observation powers I have seen in a while… as far as company goes, AA was certainly the icing on the cake 🙂

Oh wait! I did find, a very apt, pic of him!