In search of mountains: photos from Auli & Chopta

I had the privilege to travel to the Himalayan Foothills a few weeks ago. These are a few of my favorite photos from that adventure. I am going to try & do a few more of posts like these in the future as it combines my love of photography, traveling, & writing.

While this is not the first picture I took of the trip... I believe it does the best job of setting the story... I am a lover of mountains... I am most at peace surrounded by trees with few people around... That was the whole point of the trip for me - A bit of a life reset through natural beauty. 

Auli is known as a ski resort... Although when we visited there was almost no snowfall accumulation. It is a beautiful resort... Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, but in range to still see some of the peaks. This is Nanda Devi which is a sacred mountain in Hindu traditions. It was actually believed to be the tallest peak in the world until 1808 when additional surveying proved otherwise. It is still the 23rd tallest highest peak in the world & highest I have seen so closely before (I got to see Everest from afar on a plane while traveling to Manipur, which I do another photo story in my other blog).

Mountains... For as far as the eye can see... Although I have only gotten to go to this area known as the Himalayan foothills twice - I am in love. To be more precise it is the type of love that can never be reciprocated, which I am content with... I will travel to this area as much as I can before leaving India & hopefully visit for many more years.

This is the last picture I took before leaving Auli... I think of this picture as hope... A beacon of light guiding travelers home... a lighthouse of sorts... When I was living in Boston my "lighthouse" for many years was the Prudential tower. I knew the angle the tower should face from outside my front door... So from there I would guide myself home...  The Prudential for many years was my friend walking home with me when I was living in Boston. Even though I was thousands of miles away - seeing this ski tower reminded me of those nights walking home.

Inside jokes are the glue that keeps friendships together... They are a sort of secret language of ridiculousness that you share with only a few people... For this trip one of the inside jokes were the snowmen that we would make... This is Jon Snow 2.0. We created his other brother Jon Snow 1.0 in Auli, but Jon Snow 2.0 is the decidedly more handsome of the two... With a dashing sense of style... He is sexy & he knows it... This picture was taken on the first day we arrived at Chopta - after eating some food & venturing around we set upon creating a Jon Snow 2.0. 

My friends for this trip... This is us hiking up Chopta... Priyanka (In the red) & I traveled the whole trip together from Delhi. She had planned most of the itinerary as I had never been to this region before & could not have done the trip without her. Rishi (Red hat) Was traveling with DJ (black coat) who are childhood friends. I was so grateful for having met them as soon as we arrived in Chopta. Both of them are well traveled & easy going to be around... Quick to make a joke at their own expense to brighten up the mood. A lot of traveling is the stories of the people you meet just as much as the places that you go...

And then it began to snow... Quite a bit in fact... The night before all 4 of us went outside to experience Priyanka, Rishi, and JD's first snow... It was this magical almost childlike experience... It is still a bit of a cognitive dissonance to me having grown up in New England that people have never experienced snow before... This was my first time taking pictures in the snow - I still have a lot to learn with the lighting & a few other components... But I was happy with this one the pathway was slick & we had to figure out if it was safe to continue further as the snow was a bit more than we bargained for... We ended up taking refuge for a bit in the hut in the background...

One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip... This was while all 4 of us were taking refuge from the snowstorm in the hut... Priyanka looking out into the storm...  The way snow is casually tangled into her hood makes the shot in my opinion...

I quite enjoy people. I believe in people maybe more than anyone I have ever met... I like dogs even more than people most of the time... On our way down from the hut we made friends with this amazing dog. Much like the ski tower light in Auli - this dog was our guide for the rest of the trip down the mountain. Priyanka affectionately called him "Kaalu" which means blacky. I cherish this picture because it was mid "smell test..." when you are first reaching out your hand for a dog to smell then they smell your leg to see if you are to be trusted or not... If they accept your hand, then you can scratch a little bit behind ears or head. This process works with most dogs & I have found not to be country // culture specific.... You're welcome...

The hut we had taken refuge in from the snowstorm from a distance... We had originally planned to hike until we reached Tungnath Temple which is the highest temple dedicated to lord Shiva in the world... The snow was a bit much for us in regards to just not having the best equipment for it... I loved being able to take pictures in the snow, it reminded me of waking up the morning after a snowstorm & walking around... I am most at peace in those moments with a cup of Colombian dark roast coffee in hand exploring the new world after a snowfall. The following are a few of my favorite shots I took of the snow // trees.

Thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed reading a bit about my adventure to Chopta // Auli... For seeing natural beauty for a relatively low cost I would recommend this area. I am happy to be joining my passions of writing & photography. Would love to hear peoples thoughts & feedback for future posts.

-Tim O'Sullivan

I have become desensitized towards mass/school shootings.

I remember in High school we had an assembly where members of Rachel's Challenge told us the story of Columbine (this is a charity based on the life & poetry of Rachel Scott who was one of the students killed in the Columbine massacre). We as young students, learned in an intimate way about this historic event & how it impacted the lives of the families & surrounding community. It seemed important to memorialize Columbine. Each of us students left the assembly with a sense of urgency - a mixed with a twinge bit of disbelief. At the time The Columbine massacre seemed distant & far off... A sort of holocaust-esque event, not directly affecting our lives - but important for people to know about... Educated about... So that it would never again happen in history... We were naive. I think I was about 14 or 15...

Photo by Edwin Andrade

Now I am 26 & while I have been living in India for the past 9 months I have made the startling realization that I have become desensitized towards mass/school shootings... (As a side note I do not know what the categorical difference would be aside from one taking place at a school.) I don't have a solution for them at the present moment, but wanted to just write this to vent & maybe start a larger conversation with people. However before continuing. I do consider my personal desensitization towards mass/school shootings a problem/bad.

I don't know how to keep track of all the mass/school shootings... So I just don't. This is a conscious decision on my part - perhaps a cop out on my behalf... But I doubt I am alone in this. At least with hurricanes or snowstorms we can differentiate them by the years in which they occur... I believe in 2018 this is still possible... But it probably has to do more with mass/school shootings are so geographically diverse because the frequency is only increasing.

The easiest example in regards to school shootings frequency would be that if I told someone that I knew someone who was attending Virginia Tech when the shooting happened (I do/did not to my best knowledge). The first question they might ask would be which Virginia Tech shooting are you talking about?

I am not qualified to write legislation or know the intricacies of policy. I write this post with the sole intention of starting a conversation. I do not write about my desensitization towards mass/school shootings proudly, I just know it to be true in the same way my name is Tim.

In the more than 20 yrs since Columbine mass/school shootings have become a part of American culture. We should be disgusted by this, as it is an embarrassment to a country I love dearly. To put it into perspective for the past few years there have been more mass/school shootings (combining the figures. data from https://www.massshootingtracker.org/data/) than regular season NFL games (256). Conveniently enough you do not have to wait until Sunday/Monday/Thursday to get caught up on the most recent mass/school shooting in America.

I do not know anyone who has lost their lives in a mass/school just yet. I am grateful for being lucky in this way, yes luck is the best way to describe it. I am sure that many people reading this know someone who has lost a loved one to mass/school shootings. A tragic human phenomenon is that something does not become real until it personally affects people. Even though I am desensitized, I consider the issue very real & in need to fixing in as comprehensive way possible.

As a final note, thank you for reading. Let's now begin a conversation that can create some real change. When I was writing this I misspelled Columbine - I did not realize there was a "U" in the word. The spellchecker I use was kind enough to correct me due to the historical understanding // significance of the event. I say this because I have a fear of in the future spellchecker not keeping up to date with Sandy Hook, New Town, BlacksBurg, Sutherland Springs, and San Bernardino. But that is up to us rather than spellchecker. So let's do something about it.

-Tim O'Sullivan