ghumakkar.com

Year 2004, It all started with one of those coffee chats somewhere right next to the Okhla vegetable market. Me and my two other colleagues Noel and Srinivas were working with you guessed it right, a *software development company* called Induslogic and we were discussing the media hype created over the upcoming cricket series between Pakistan and India and the madness that’s been happening around grabbing a Pakistan “Cricket” visa. Yes, there was this special 3 day Visa being issued by Pakistan Embassy. Thanks to a dormant Laalu ji and some other news makers like Mallika Sherawat’s vacation from their quest for attention, we discussed the cricket visa daily for a week. And then this one day, Noel suggested that we should give it a try. Since we were doing nothing important in life and just working on some software projects, we had nothing much to lose. My then Project Manager, Rakesh Gupta, wasn’t my best buddy then, so getting a couple of days off during a tough schedule was a big issue. I rang up Mr. Gupta in the evening and said that we are planning to go to Pakistan and needed a couple of days off. Surprisingly, he said yes and even better he got nostalgic about him missing the India Pakistan hockey(he preferred to call it Haaaki for reasons unknown to me) test match in Delhi . So, we were good to go. We only needed to do a few things in little time, we had the tickets booked on the web and there was a special train(Cricket Special) running for the series to Lahore(Wow!).

Chapter One(Pakistan Embassy, Chanakya Puri)

Fill the form, stand in a queue of 1000, submit it to a rude official(now when a guy from Delhi calls someone rude, he must be RUDE), come back and collect it later. Except for the waking up and reaching embassy at 6 part, which was a challenge, all you had to do was just stand in a long line for hours to submit the application. There were three options to travel from which we had to choose: Road, Rail and Air. Just to be on the safer side, I decided to have a plan B and checked with the official if we could cross Wagah by road. He just said, “Aapke mulk ki sarkaar agar aapko jaane de to chale jaiye”.  3 days later we got the Visa(my first visa stamp on the passport)
(more…)

Finally it was destination Singapore. We reached Singapore by Malaysia Singapore rail route…a six hour journey from Kuala Lumpur. . I was in awe as I moved into city. It’s a city that has been meticulously planned and every care is being taken to nourish it. Its CLEAN.

We reached late in the afternoon and moved to Little India for spending the evening. It was a Sunday and LI was brimming with all Indians and Bangladeshis jamming in there for the week-end. Well never expected that kinda crown in Singapore, so it came in as a surprise. We had a delicious dinner at Punjabi Restaurant, spent some time at the all so famous Mustafas which didn’t have anything so great or at comparatively low prices except for a few electronic items.

The morning next day, we were off for a city tour passing through the national buildings, telecom centers, parks etc. We reached our first destination, The Merlion. Merlion is Singapore’s icon to the world. It’s a lion head with a fish body resting on a crest of waves. It was first designed as an emblem for the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1964 and since then has been made to be a famous tourist attraction. The Merlion gets its name from ‘Singapura’ meaning city of lions in Sanskrit and represents Singapore’s earliest occupation i.e fishing.

(more…)

Bugged by the exasperating workload, we headed off to Shimla this weekend, to find solace, but only to bump into the whole of Delhi crowd blaring horns in its characteristic fashion. So we bid farewell to the chaotic place, flipping through a local guide book and zipping away on the twisted road, we reached the surprisingly isolated Narkanda (2700 mts), 67 kms from Shimla, which proved to be an ultimate holiday destination. Also, along with Thanedar and Kotgarh, Narkanda forms the apple heartland of Himachal. Thank God for the relative bliss. The place was a welcome delight. After the wacky journey there was peace.

(more…)

भारतीय शहरों में आम तौर पर सरकारी चारदीवारियों को उनके अपने वास्तविक रंगों में कायम रख पाना एक टेढ़ी खीर है। राजनैतिक दलों के आह्वानों से लेकर, कागज़ी इश्तिहारों , पान की पीकों और यहाँ तक की मूत्र त्याग से ये दीवारें सुशोभित रहती हैं। पर उड़ीसा सरकार और खासकर भुवनेश्वर (Bhubneshwar) के म्यूनिसिपल कमिश्नर की तारीफ करनी होगी जिन्होंने एक ऐसा तरीका ढूँढ निकाला जिससे ना केवल शहर की दीवारें सुसज्जित हो गईं, बल्कि यहाँ के कलाकारों की पूछ राज्य में ही नहीं पूरे देश में हो गई।

तो क्या तरीका अपनाया यहाँ की म्यूनिसिपल कमिश्नर ने ? इन दीवारों को उड़ीसा के कलाकारों को सौंप दिया गया ताकि वे अपनी कला के माध्यम से उड़ीसा (अब ओड़ीसा) की समृद्ध कला और संस्कृति को उभारें। इसके लिए कलाकारों को जो पैसे दिए गए उन्हें राज्य में कार्य कर रही निजी कंपनियों द्वारा प्रायोजित किया गया। बाद में जब अन्य राज्यों के प्रतिनिधि भुवनेश्वर आए तो अपने राज्यों में ऍसा कुछ करने के लिए इनमें से कई कलाकारों को आमंत्रण दे डाला। तो चलिए मेरे साथ आप भुवनेश्वर की सड़कों पर और कीजिए कला और संस्कृति के विविध रूपों का दर्शन, इन दीवारों पर उकेरे गए चित्रों के माध्यम से..
तो शुरुआत यहाँ की ऐतिहासिक धरोहरों से। ये रहा खंडगिरि (Khandgiri) और उदयगिरि (Udaigiri) का चित्र और उसके नीचे के चित्र में बाँयी तरफ नजर आ रहा है धौलागिरी (Dhaulagiri) का बौद्ध स्मारक

(more…)