Sravana.us

Just to let you know that we’ve updated Sravana with a few raw video and audio clips we were unable to post from India.

We’ll be adding more photos to the Sravana set on Flickr when we get the opportunity.

Mathias and Emma are selecting their photos and videos and we’ll add them here too.

Enjoy.

There is less than 72 hours left before we take off on our family adventure back to beloved India.

This is when the pressure increases as you list all the thing remaining to do, and start deleting those you won’t manage to complete. I remember previous journeys when I worked up to the last minute, and jumped into the Air India 747 as I would have jumped into the bus to work. Adrenaline rushing while I tried to remember what on earth I’d forgotten to do or take. That lead to unforseen surprises…

But not this time. Having children helps you get organised ahead of time if you want to avoid chaos. Not that my children generate any particular chaos, no, it’s just that in order to enjoy the moment, you need to be a little prepared.

Lessons were learned and this trip was planned well ahead of time, in our hearts and then in our heads. We’ve booked hotels, guesthouses or homestays at strategic landing points, leaving the in betweens to be discovered en route.

The gear was sorted out last week. We reverted from our initial choice of taking off with our faithful backpacks in favour of a couple of new duffel bags. The contents will be arranged in small to medium cordura stuff sacks, incredibly light and compact.

I bought extra memory flash cards and batteries as each member of the family is leaving with at least one camera. Unfortunately, I also needed to pack 5 different power chargers, one for each type of camera, iPod and iPhone or Kindle.

I’m still not sure about the Kindle though. It’s packed with books and guides and reveals to be really useful in bookmarking the relevant information. But I have a habit of using my travel guides as a doorstopper, a money concealing device, a notepad or a mosquito terminator. The Kindle is feature rich, but lacks the latter.

I’m not quite fixed on my personal camera gear either. Especially the lense choice. Versatility vs weight. We’ll see.

Otherwise, I closed the studio well ahead, enjoying the free time to sort out my favourite or personal projects. Such as pimping up the look and feel of this weblog.

The travelers checks should be delivered any minute now, and that will complete the initial setup.

Either I’m getting old, or I’m getting better at this…

This weblog was designed to aggregate data from different sources during our trip back to India this winter.

We are leaving laptops and netbooks behind, so our iPhones will be our sole mean of sharing information with you. Tumblr is well designed for this kind of situation. The Tumblr iPhone app (iTunes link) enables you to post text, pictures, sound or video directly to your weblog.

Moreover, I’ve setup services to aggregate the Tweets and Flickr pictures we shall also try to post on a regular basis.

I didn’t intend to talk much about sravana.us to anybody, and keep it to myself as a personal tumblelog. But the word got out and spread among friends and family, so now not only must I brush up the look and feel, but I’ll need write real phrases with real words in them as real people will be reading…

I hope to get Fabienne posting bits and bobs too from her iPhone, so expect multilingual entries.

Otherwise, there is no rule to what will appear in here. Chances are nothing will be posted once we leave Europe. Postings might be few and far apart, or frequent. I don’t know. The bottom line is that I’ll do my best to post moments, but the words might all end up in my real world physical diary instead.

So don’t rise your hopes.