'Simple' American houses

Simple ! 

Simple means basic, plain & easy. In other words, uncomplicated in form or nature. In a characteristic manner of putting, Simple could also be 'humble'. 

The life in cities is complicated. It's a mad rush. You earn, you spend and you save; but what you lose is the simplicity of life. Ironically, We build houses more than homes. We earn money more than knowledge and we seek materialistic happiness more than the inner calm. In all this ruckus, we have now even become experts in exploiting, disturbing or let me use the 'simpler' word, Devastating the Nature.

The environment that we live in, is getting worse by the day. The air that we must breathe, is getting impurer by the hour. And; the life that we all get once, is getting more complicated by the minute. 

I travelled to some interior regions of the north-eastern most state of the USA -  MAINE. I created these images near the region of the famous Acadia National Park. Acadia is on the North - Atlantic coast of the States. It is a major tourist attraction in summers and fall but; most of the regions around this National park are totally non-touristy. Some like to use the term - Rural. I stayed in a village near Penobscot and my usual drives & hikes were between Penobscot, Little Deer Isle and Stonington. The weather was bitterly cold. There was a snow storm early in the morning which had piled up about 40 cm snow through the day. 

Till noon, it was still snowing. But it had all become calm. My body had now got used to the harsh weather and my mind was more comfortable in seeing the simplicity of the place. In a span of about 25 miles worth of drives, hikes and random pullovers to create the imagery; I had started to relish the uncomplicated landscape of the place. 

The houses I captured were aloof. Aloof in their location; distant from other homes. They were simple in architecture yet simply beautiful. 

Some were colorful. Some were small. Soon, I could figure out their 'simplicity'. Most of these minimalistic houses have been built by their residents themselves. These people build their homes, eat fresh, locally grown food and moreover, they are really making an effort to give something to the environment by simply not taking too much from it. If not more !

Hiking later that afternoon; I chanced upon some abandoned houses too. I felt a strange melancholy. Although the air was so fresh, the surroundings were ever so calm. I still clunked my camera shutter to capture the humble landscape, where still, there was the ease of pure nature. 

As the evening approached, It had got even more cold. Understandably so. The wind chill had now reached - 17 F / - 27 C. What felt so freezing was still too fresh. There was no pollution. Barely any cars, no phone signals and literally only the sound of the wind blowing, could be termed as noise pollution, if any.

It was just after Christmas, 2015 that I was there. Some houses still had the sweet looking decorations for Christmas. 

The home right above, is where I was staying. I had a cabin(ish) room to me on the right side of this house. Cozy ! Sipping one of my favorite bourbons, Wild Turkey 101; I looked within myself, scrolling through the images I had created. And; I saw, The 'Simple' American houses & even saw how simple life should be, or maybe could be !

With my travel and this abstract piece of writing, I intend to realize and convey the simple concept of a simple life. A more uncomplicated way of living with respecting our environment. 

If all houses, we all have, were so simple, wouldn't life be more easy ? If we all were to live a life this nature-friendly, wouldn't our minds be just way too calm ? Wouldn't there be air, really fresh to breathe in ? Would't the Earth just thank us all for taking its bit more care ? Only if, It was all so simple, Life could be simple !

Simple ? Right ?

© Nipun Nayyar

Boundary Waters

We’d been on the road for past 8 days. Having already stayed at Sandusky, OH; Chicago, IL and Woodbury, MN, I knew we now had to do some adventure. A real adventure. My cousin in Woodbury, mentioned Boundary Waters. That’s it ! We had crashed for a couple of days at his place.

Next morning we left. My NY roommate, an actor to-be and I, hit the road again at the first light. A stop at Duluth, MN (At the US dept. of forest) to obtain the camping permit; another pause at Ely, MN a really small - cute town, right at the beginning of BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area).

BWCA, more than a million acres of wilderness in the absolute North-East part of Minnesota, is a pure raw camping / adventure / canoeing / fishing region. It is a part of the Superior National Forest along the international borders of Minnesota, USA and Ontario, Canada. 

The only way to reach a campsite - Canoeing; following a physical / tangible map which we took in Ely while renting our camp gear from an Outfitter. None of us knew how to canoe. I had kayaked before though; We managed. It took us more than an hour on the canoe to locate and reach a campsite. Finding one empty was tough, more so as we were rookies at canoeing. 

Excited yet scared (of Bears - YES, one can encounter), we started to set up our camp. Little did we know, it would take about an hour to erect our tent. With the sun almost down and a broken lantern (it never worked), we set it up in the faint light of a fire which I managed to have with some dry wood we’d collected soon after realizing that shelter indeed is an utmost necessity of human survival. Unfortunately as an Indian child, very few learn the skills of camping or adventure, unlike such activities common in the Western world. Innocent us, we struggled but managed. Well ! We had to…

Finally relaxed in the utter silence of the wild, a couple of drinks with some camp-special packs of dinner cooked on a propane cylinder stove; A Good night !

Early morning I woke up to a beautiful and peaceful wilderness. Campsites at BWCA are scattered, each far from another. 

Most of that day was spent in canoeing to a portage, hiking in a really dense forest and obviously, careful executions of basics in the wild like no food leftovers that may attract animals and purifying lake water with a handy purifier. Survival rule no. 1 - Water ! No to forget, which was also required with the bourbon we had for the night & after it. Pun intended !

I definitely knew two nights were less. VERY LESS. The whole 2nd night, it poured. The rains left a serene, misty lake-side dawn outside our drenched camp. Within my heart; it was an end to an adventure, an experience. Memories in my camera and definitely more respect & learnings from sheer nature; we canoed again, this time only to be back to civilization. 

© Nipun Nayyar