Author: Dahlia

Hello to everybody and welcome to another round of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week’s theme is Bridges. For this challenge, I have chosen two remarkable bridges – one that is built and the other grown. Don’t quite get what I mean? Dive in Scroll down.

Øresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark. Pic taken from the Swedish side.

Øresund Bridge, an engineering marvel,  is the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge for both road and railway. The bridge connects the Swedish city Malmo to Copenhagen the capital of Denmark. Running across the Øresund strait, the bridge, consists of 3 parts – a bridge, an artificial island and a tunnel.  It runs nearly 8 kilometres from the Swedish coast to the artificial island of Peberholm in the middle of the strait and goes underground before emerging in Denmark – it looks pretty cool from the air. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that but you can have a look here and you can read more about it here.

And as I said, my next bridge is one that isn’t built but grown – have a look 🙂

Living root bridge, Mawlynnong village near Shillong, Meghalaya India

The living root bridges Meghalaya (or Abode of Clouds) one of the seven sisters of the North Eastern states of India, are one of a kind in the world and are a sight to behold.   These handmade living root bridges are tangles of massive thick roots, which have been intermingled to form a bridge that can hold several people at a time. The trek to these bridges is pretty steep (at least by my standards) so despite going to Mawlynnong, to my everlasting regret, I didn’t actually see these marvelous structures and instead had to rely on the pictures which our son clicked.

The local Khasi people are experts at ‘growing’ these bridges. They make the pliable tree roots to grow through betel tree trunks which have been placed across rivers and streams until the figs roots attach themselves to the other side. Sticks, stones, and other objects are used to stabilize the growing bridge. The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they’re extraordinarily strong – strong enough that some of them can support the weight of fifty or more people at a time. Since the bridges are alive and growing, they gain strength over time and apparently survive for hundreds of years.

So what do you think – do let me know and thanks for visiting 🙂

The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge topic for this week is Opposites. And I couldn’t resist posting these photos which are colored but turned out to be black and white! Have a look 🙂

So what do you think? Did it work, any you like? Do let me know!

Thanks for visiting and have a super weekend 🙂

Hello everyone! I am back again with some photos of clouds – remember On Top of the World? Yes well in my defense, this in response to the Daily Post’s prompt Clouds. And these are fresh clouds – not just any fresh clouds but the monsoon clouds – on which almost everything in India is dependent on. About 75% of India’s annual rainfall occurs during the monsoons – between June and September. Oops does that sound too much like a geography class? Anyhow, Delhi is usually the last to get the rains and we often ‘hear’ about the rain lashing this city or that much before we actually get to experience it. But for me the real wonder is to experience contrasts in a matter of hours.

Last weekend we took a trip to Mumbai which is heavily monsooned at the moment and… Hey! How about joining me on a quick trip from Delhi to Mumbai 🙂 Seated? Belted? Off we go!

Rain lashed Mumbai – don’t miss the heavily overcast sky

So how did you like the trip? Do let me know 🙂 And for those of you who like pics and missed it – there are two more that I posted yesterday – Oddball and Walk

This in response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Walks – indoors or outdoors

For a musical treat – click here

This is response to Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge week 26.