ghumakkar.com

I was at Benares and we were mulling over whether to do a trip to Sarnath or not. I was not feeling too well, long driving and June summer was getting the better of me. I didn’t want to stretch too much, since I was to drive to Darbhanga the very next morning. The shorter route from Varanasi to Darbhanga via Chhapra has been ruled out by multiple people. Almost every one whom we called asked the same thing, “Dont make it dark”, start early, dont drive in evening and so on. Finally, we had decided to go via Patna. That meant some extra driving. I have been to Patna many times and I was familiar with the road from Patna to Darbhanga but Patna was still 4-5 odd hours away from Banares. So mulling continued for few more split seconds before we decided to move on and do a quick trip. It would have been a shame to go till Banaras and not visit Sarnath.

(more…)

Rs 250 a night for a room and everything else…

It was the usual Thursday evening when I gave a ring to “Mohit” on a possible visit to somewhere during the weekend and as I predicted, he was all set to go. We were nearing weekend so the only undecided question was “Where to go?”. Being a “Punjabi”, he insisted on going to Mussoorie (Nandan will understand why I am saying so) but after exploring, we finally agreed upon Udaipur. The little more exploration about the transportation, city, tourist spots, staying facilities etc, put the final nail into our plans. So, there we were ready to go to Udaipur - The City of Lakes & Palaces.

As Mewar Express was over booked, we both agreed to go to Udaipur by DTC run Volvo. It started at 6:00 pm sharp from ISBT, Kashmiri Gate; the fair was Rs 700/- and after crossing Gurgaon it caught NH-8 route. The best part was that the seats that were quite easily available. I boarded Volvo from Kashmiri Gate while Mohit caught it from Gurgaon. Bus crossed Jaipur and Bhilwara. From Bhilwara, it took a left exit towards Udaipur bypassing Chittorgarh on the way.
(more…)

Allahabad was our first night-stop on that great drive to orient which I wrote some time back. For a better period of our planing, we were finding ways on how to reach Gorakhpur by first night, we would flip over the maps one more time, calculate the distances again, try to get updates on East-West Corridor by NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) but it still was as far as 750 KMs and hence not a place where we could reach when we call quits on Day1. The constraints were same viz. assume that we are not clocking more then 60 KM an hour, no driving when it gets dark, plan for unplanned stoppages, remember we have a 3 year old baby, also remember that we are just 3 people, and do not forget to remind yourself that we are not driving towards Canada (read Delhi-Mumbai) and rather going towards Mexico (Delhi-Patna) and so on. So even though nothing changed in the realm of geography while we were amidst planning, our appetite for accepting a distance of 650 odd KM as a day-drivable thing grew gradually. Its a very peculiar thing where a next-big number, somehow, doesn’t appear as big. So when one fine day, we thought that why not go via Allahabad - Banaras towards Patna, our plan passed the test. Suddenly we had decided that we would be staying at Prayag on Night 1. I believe Prayag (aka Allahabad) had to happen so it happened.

(more…)

Who has not heard of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi?

The last few lines of one of the most recited poetry in Hindi literature composed by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan on the life of Rani Lakshmibai are here below. During my school days, I’ve sung it too with rousing feelings of patriotism.

Bundele harbolon ke munh hamane suni kahaani thi,
Khoob ladi mardaani woh to Jhansi waali raani thi.

A rough translation of it is:

“This story we heard from the mouths of Bundel bards
Like a man she fought, she was the Queen of Jhansi.”

And that is what I recalled when I had my taxi stop at the Jhansi Fort while on my way to explore Orchha, the twin city of Datia.

(more…)