feat: update to sunglasses llama mascot

content/page/about/index.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: About
-image: "shunya-campfire-hero.webp"
+image: "lama-campfire-hero.webp"
 description: A space for stories, gear, and voices from the Indian cycling frontier.
 date: '2025-04-19'
 aliases:
@@ -18,13 +18,30 @@ menu:
 
 # About the Gearlama Blog
 
-There’s a certain silence on a solo ride — the kind that fills you. A descent at dusk, gravel under tyre, breath steady, mind open. That’s the feeling we want this blog to carry.
+We ride. We test. We tell.
 
-The Gearlama Blog isn’t just a list of products or a content calendar. It’s a shared campfire for those who ride to disappear, to discover, or to dig deeper — into gear, terrain, or themselves.
+No epic overhyping. No mileage counters ticking in neon. Just real stories from roads, trails, and the dusty spaces in between.
+
+Here, the Lama rides too — sunglasses on, notebook tucked under a pannier strap.
+
+Sometimes the trail speaks. Sometimes the gear breaks. Sometimes you just sit by the side of the road and think.
+
+This blog is our campfire. A place for rides that mattered. Gear that surprised us. Mistakes we earned the hard way. Stories worth telling.
+
+If you're looking for AI-generated listicles or top-10 clickbait, you'll be disappointed.
+
+If you're looking for honest rides, calm reflections, and hard-earned wisdom — you're home.
+
+Welcome to the quieter side of Gearlama.
+
+---
 
 ## Why This Blog Exists
 
-Gearlama began as a gear discovery platform for Indian cyclists. But cycling isn’t just gear — it’s people, places, stories. This blog is where all of that lives:
+Gearlama began as a gear discovery platform for Indian cyclists.
+But cycling isn’t just gear — it’s people, places, and stories.
+
+This blog is where all of that lives:
 
 - Real stories from real riders  
 - Honest, field-tested gear thoughts  
@@ -32,31 +49,28 @@ Gearlama began as a gear discovery platform for Indian cyclists. But cycling isn
 - Reflections on cycling culture in India  
 - Voices that often don’t make it to mainstream cycling media
 
-## Who It's For
+We built this blog for the long roads, the dusty ones, and the ones nobody’s mapped yet.
-
-In a world where noise travels faster than thought, there remains a quiet few — readers of the slow sentence, seekers of meaning between the lines. This space is for them.
-
-Where most scroll, we pause. Where most skim, we stay. We believe a story, like a good ride, deserves time — time to breathe, time to unravel.
-
-Whether you're bikepacking through Spiti, circling your local trails, or daydreaming from behind a desk, this blog is for you. If you’ve ever chosen the longer route just because it felt right — you’ll feel at home here.
-
-If you’ve ever paused not because you were tired — but because the light caught the dust just right — this blog is for you.
-
-## Contribute Your Story
-
-We’d love to feature your ride, your thoughts, or that one moment that stayed with you.
-
-📌 [Submit your story](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TqPZX6nmfTptNIvgh3oKeMDuzYBCrgopBYDJHC875c0/edit?usp=sharing)  
-📧 Or just drop us a line at [gear.lama@gmail.com](mailto:gear.lama@gmail.com)
-
-## Built with Intention
-
-This blog runs on [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/), styled simply using the [Stack theme](https://github.com/CaiJimmy/hugo-theme-stack) designed by Jimmy. Because minimalism isn’t just in our saddlebags, it’s in our code too.
 
 ---
 
-*Curated gear. Ridden in India.*
+## Who It's For
 
-Ride light, write true.
+In a world that scrolls fast, this space pauses.
 
-— Bharat, for Team Gearlama
+For readers of the slow sentence.  
+For seekers of meaning between the lines.  
+For anyone who knows a good ride deserves time — and a story.
+
+Whether you’re bikepacking through Spiti, circling your local trails, or dreaming of your next route from behind a desk — this is for you.
+
+If you’ve ever paused not because you were tired, but because the light caught the dust just right — you’ll feel at home here.
+
+---
+
+## Contribute Your Story
+
+Got a ride that left a mark? A gear hack that saved your tour? A thought you couldn’t shake after 40 km of silence?
+
+We’d love to hear from you.
+
+[Write to us](mailto:gear.lama@gmail.com). 📌 [Share your story](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TqPZX6nmfTptNIvgh3oKeMDuzYBCrgopBYDJHC875c0/edit?usp=sharing). The campfire’s always open.

content/post/introducing-the-lama/index.md

@@ -1,55 +1,48 @@
 +++
-title = "Introducing the Lama"
+title = "Meet Lama: The Spirit of the Quiet Adventure"
-date = 2025-04-25
+date = 2025-04-26
-categories = ["Stories"]
+categories = ["Voices"]
-tags = ["lama", "mascot", "ethos", "gear stories", "bikepacking"]
+tags = ["introduction", "mascot", "philosophy"]
 slug = "introducing-the-lama"
-image = "lama-riding-chandigarh.webp"
+image = "lama-hero.webp"
-description = "He’s not a reviewer. Not a guru. Just the Lama — your quiet companion across Gearlama. When he shows up, it means the ride matters."
+description = "Introducing Lama — the calm, confident spirit guiding Gearlama’s journey into quiet, meaningful adventure."
-keywords = ["Lama", "Gearlama mascot", "fixie monk", "indian cycling", "bikepacking character"]
+keywords = ["gearlama mascot", "lama mascot", "gearlama introduction", "cycling adventure", "quiet adventure", "bikepacking india"]
 +++
 
-You’ll see him in corners of the website.  
+Somewhere along a forgotten trail —  
-Tucked into reviews. Peeking out from stories.  
+where dust drifts like old memories,  
-Gliding through traffic. Waiting at a dhaba.  
+and the horizon hums a quiet song —  
-A robe flapping. A fixie humming. A pair of round glasses catching the light.
+he waits.
 
-**He is the Lama.**
+Lama.
+
+Not loud, not hurried, not desperate for attention.  
+Just there.  
+Sunglasses tilted against the evening sun, a battered touring bike resting against his side, bags worn smooth from a thousand silent miles.
+
+He does not race towards the future; he rides into it.  
+Measured. Patient. Eyes open, but heart even more so.
+
+At Gearlama, we believe that gear is not about glamour.  
+It’s about trust — trust that when the road turns rocky, or the clouds crack open, what you carry will not fail you.
+
+Lama knows this.  
+He chooses what lasts, what matters.  
+He believes in setting out at dawn with just enough and never too much.  
+In the joy of small discoveries: the perfect cup of tea at a roadside shack, the quiet nod of another rider passing by.
+
+He is not a hero.  
+He is not a slogan.  
+He is a companion.
+
+A reminder that the best journeys are never about the finish line —  
+but about the grit, the grace, and the gear that gets you there.
+
+Welcome, Lama.  
+You’re among friends here.
 
 ---
 
-The Lama isn’t a reviewer.  
+_We hope you’ll meet him often —  
-He isn’t a salesman.  
+on every page you browse,  
-He isn’t even real — but he’s very much alive.
+on every path you choose to ride._
-
-He’s the spirit of Gearlama.  
-Calm. Curious. Slightly dusty.  
-Completely obsessed with the little things that make big rides better.
-
----
-
-When we find gear that just works — not in a lab, but on bad roads, late nights, steep climbs —  
-you’ll probably see the Lama riding alongside it.
-
-He doesn’t overthink.  
-He doesn’t scroll.  
-He rides. Listens. Waits.
-
-Sometimes, all he leaves behind is one line:
-
-> *“This one stays.”*
-
----
-
-You’ll find him where the journey meets simplicity.  
-Where form follows function.  
-Where a yellow fixie can outpace a city full of scooters, just by showing up with soul.
-
----
-
-So no, the Lama isn’t just a mascot.  
-He’s a reminder.
-
-That even in a noisy world, there’s still space for calm rides, good gear, and stories worth telling.
-
-And this is where his story begins.

hugo.yaml

@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ params:
         avatar:
             enabled: true
             local: true
-            src: img/gearlama_blog_logo.webp
+            src: img/gearlama_blog_logo_transparent.webp
 
     article:
         math: false