“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep” - Robert Frost.
My warm greetings to all of you reading today’s story. In my last blog, I had mentioned about how challenging and thrilling it is for us to bring out something new and unique every time. And as I had promised all of you that I would keep up to these challenges, I start today’s prose with the famous quote by Robert Frost, every word of which truly relates to today's story.
Himachal Pradesh, where every direction turns into a new valley. A different world. The woods, the valleys, the sky, the entire ambience was so spectacular and serene. We travelled a distance of approximately 80 miles up the hills to reach our destination. The beauty of the place left me spellbound and mesmerised.
Coming on to the attire, I was not thinking straight when I designed this ensemble that I am wearing - the “inverted-trouser” top in linen and a “shirt-collared” skirt in tartan checks. The idea was to make something casual and comfortable with an out-of-the-box touch.
I would call this entire look “Back to School in Vogue”. Paired up with black leather dress-shoes from Zara, black Sling bag from Calvin Klein and a boyfriend-shirt in black-n-white ombre from Shruti S, the Shruti S inverted-trouser top and shirt-collared skirt looked very stylish and elegant. And shooting it at this heavenly place was the icing on the cake.
We were approximately 11,000 feet above the sea level. The breeze was so chilling that it seemed as if the snow covered mountains are right next to us. We were to start with the first shoot of the day, but the entire team was so exhausted already due to the long journey. As for me, I am always full of energy (that's what everyone says, coz I can’t sit idle and am always up with something). So I intended for the shoots to be on time as per the plan, as I did not want to miss on the adventure we had planned for the next day (That will be up soon in my forthcoming stories. wink!!!! ).
We were told by the locals that it was about a 5 minutes trek to reach the location. But it turned out that we were no where close to the location even after trekking for about 30 minutes (Please don’t believe people in Himachal when they tell u how much you have to walk to reach a certain place. Maybe they want to encourage you to walk as one might give up already knowing the actual distance! Lol ;) I also feel that walking and trekking up the hills is a part of their living, so distance that might seem a lot to us, is nothing for them). But the wait was worth it. Ah my GOD!! The clear blue sky, pin-drop silence, the snow covered mountains, valley filled with apple orchards, ravens flying, the cold breeze, the butterflies. It's an endless list. Trust me, the surroundings were way too beautiful to describe in words.
I was asked to stand at the peak to pose, I mean literally THE PEAK. One wrong step and I am off the cliff! But to be honest, I wasn’t scared at all. I was rather enjoying every moment of it. Then came the instructions, “Shruti, for a moment please try and forget that you are on the edge of the mountain. Just think that it's a ramp and you’ve gotta walk on it”. The surface was so rocky that I could hardly balance while walking. My eyes were on every step that I was taking. “My dear you have to look into the camera and not at your feet. How many takes you want me to shoot?”. AH!! Sandeep is so bossy at times. Anyhow, after walking and posing on the edge for about 10 times, I could finally balance somehow and deliver some great shots.
Today’s story is one of the many incredible experiences we had on this trip. Stay tuned for more!
Shirt-collared skirt : Shruti S
Photographer: Sandeep Sahdev
Editor: Sumidha Sharma
