French Frames

 

It seemed like an ordeal then walking through the city in the nights, pub hopping, camera kits on shoulders with buzzing heads finding frames intermittently… but in the end, apparently it turned out to be worth the while!!  The food, the wines, the bunch of friends-like family- and the French hospitatality – would love to live it again & again & again!!

Catch you soon.

Lots of Love

Manav

P.S. Please please please travel travel travel!

Back in DAILY Action!

PS- My new avatar ;)

Dreams Rekindled!

As life meanders through the beautiful streets of achievements at times and at times through the rough patches on the highway… I ask myself…
Do I still have it in me? The fighter, the dreamer. Or has the little success made me complacent?

How desperately I wanted to win once!! Just ten years back when I was new to Mumbai… with all the directionless passion and the reality fraught with uncertainties, I still had an assurance of achieving my dreams.

As I was in the process of pondering through these thoughts, a dear friend shared this with me. It urged me to rekindle the fire, only this time with more equilibrium.

“Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not out Darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Speech,South Africa,1994.

I want to dream… and dream big!! My dreams, my aspirations cannot belong to me alone. My undefeated presence & my success have a lofty purpose. It transcends the realm of ‘I ME MYSELF’. I owe it to the mystic power that once assured me of my dreams, ten years back.

Thought will share it with you.

Love,
Manav

Wild Saurashtra

I guess it doesn’t just suit me, my name or my personality…the ’sinh’(lion) factor that generally the Rajputs of Saurashtra affix after their names, like the couple of cousins I recently travelled with. The one from Paris, an artist, is called Lalsinh and the one from UK is Siddhrajsinh Gohil. Both adorable souls though… but this ’sinh’ thing just does not set in with me!!

I could have easily been called Divyapratapsinh Gohil or Bhagiratsinh Gohil…and look like this -

Not bad maybe… but I think Manav works fine for me ;) .

The lack of ‘Sinh’ in the name though does not make me feel any less attached to the land I belong to. Sure Lalsinh and Siddhrajsinh will agree :)

Two days- Reunion with cousins-Wild GIR forest- 44 degree C- Had a blast!

My heart clearly belongs to that land. It was a beautiful feeling to have travelled all the miles & the years back, where it all began for me.

A photographic memoir of the trip -

 

Travel. Explore…There is nothing more enriching!

Love

ManavSINH (Yeah Baby) Gohil