My dearly departed mother once said (loosely translated), “When walking, don’t look up all the time. Remember to look down too.”
So, instead of spending our time being bitter and jealous about things we don’t have, we should spend more of our effort counting our blessings.
More positive!!!

This homeless woman, whom I last saw in 2011, would always make me count my blessings.
When I went back to Kathmandu in 2015, I looked around but I didn’t find her anymore.
I didn’t see her in 2016 nor 2018 either…

ps: As usual, forever and ever plugging my one You Tube video.

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... and this simple candid shot is one of my favorites! :-)

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But, this time it was in Kolkata, India.
When I first went to India in March 2009, due to cheap flight from Bangkok, the first city I went to was Kolkata. Interestingly, the city really prepared me for what India has to offer. This is how I would describe India:

"India, either you love it or you hate it but you would never be indifferent to it."

When I was in Kolkata, I met many western tourists who would say, "I can never take the rickshaw. I cannot be sitting and having another human being pull me. I cannot do that to another person."
I would reply, "If you don't take the rickshaw, then they cannot make a living. However little money they get, they need to work for a living! Hardly any welfare or unemployment benefits here!!!"

ps: As usual, I am pushing my ONLY gallery called WHY NOT???
The obsessively chosen and truly excellent photos there are attention catching, nicely framed, aesthetically pleasing, sharp and clean portraits of children from all over the world.
Please visit the gallery and enjoy.

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This time, an emaciated dog in Varanasi.

ps: If you click 'fauna' on my tags, you would be able to see my other animan shots.

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… was shot at McLeod Ganj, home of Dalai Lama.
I first came here in the middle of 2009, about four weeks after I left Varanasi where I endured a month of heat. In fact, every day I was there, the high for the temperature was above 45°C. I kept staying because, “If 1.5 million Indians who stay here can handle this heat, so could I.”
I am from Malaysia where the temperature would never go over 38°C but I’m just a stubborn person who chooses what to give up and running away from Varanasi wasn’t one of them.
When I was in Varanasi, I saw and felt the Hindu faith. I wanted to feel faith again and that was what that brought me to McLeod Ganj, to see and feel the faith of Tibetan Buddhism.
I didn’t stay at McLeod Ganj but a village about 2.5 kilometres away called Bhagsu. Why? Higher altitude and a lot cheaper.
I thought I would stay there for about a month and move on to see other parts of India but I ended up staying 3.5 months there and used up my Indian visa.
I have been there 4 more times spending about 18 months there in total. But, on my last trip there in 2016, when I left, I told myself that I would never come back.
When I first started travelling in 2008, I met a seasoned traveler who told me he would never go again to a place I wanted to visit. When I asked why, his response was, “Because I wanted to remember the place the way it was.”
Same case for me with Bhagsu and quite a few other places in other countries.

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