Traveling is good
Monsoons have set in and have sprinkled the magical showers in a few places already. They are still grooming to take their best form. For the mischievous, entertaining and lovable climate, don’t you think a fest ,a party, a carnival or maybe some great escapes to the season’s best locations is a good idea? How are you all enjoying in this fantabulous weather?
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इस संस्कृत विश्वविद्यालय का नाम अशर्फी महल क्यों कर पड़ गया, इसके बारे में मैने दो कहानियां सुनी हैं – एक उस गाइड के मुंह से जो मुकेश भालसे ने मांडू दर्शन कराने के लिये तय किया था। उस गाइड के अनुसार, “मुगल बादशाह जहांगीर की बेगम बहुत ज्यादा प्रेगनेंट थी और अशर्फी महल की सीढ़ियां चढ़ने में आनाकानी कर रही थी । इसके लिये बादशाह ने प्रत्येक सीढ़ी पर चढ़ने के लिये बेगम पर अशर्फी लुटाने का वायदा किया। अशर्फी के लालच में बेगम अपनी प्रेगनेंसी को भुला कर सीढ़ियां चढ़ती चली गई।” दूसरी कहानी आर. बी. देशपांडे अपनी पुस्तक “Glimpses of Mandu: Past and Present” में उद्धृत करते हैं, जो वास्तव में बादशाह जहांगीर की मुंह जबानी है –
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The meadow of Jesus , yes , as per some oral tradition Jesus lived in Yusmarg for sometime during his visit to Kashmir. Some even believe that Jesus is buried somewhere in Kashmir only. If anyone has read ” Rozabal Line” by Aswin Sanghi, he also has dwelled on this topic in his novel. Yousmarg is a beautiful meadow situated at the height of 2396 m from sea level and Pine and Fir trees are abound at this place. The place is under Yousmarg development authority and lies in Budgam distt. Yousmarg is no doubt, the quietest of all the tourist points of the valley , very suitable who want to enjoy the tourist place away from the tourists. Basically this place is a Trekker’s paradise as we found out after reaching the place.
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कुछ देर फोटोग्राफी करने के बाद हम लोग चोपता की और निकल पड़े। आराम से चलते-चलते करीब एक घंटे बाद हम नीचे पहुँच गए। सीधे जाकर दुकान मे घुसे और चाय का ऑर्डर दिया और दुकानदार को बोल दिया कि हमारे फ्रेश होने के लिए गर्म पानी भी कर देना। इस समय यहाँ पर एक जीप कुछ सवारियों के साथ रुकी हुई थी। लगभग अँधेरा होने ही वाला था एक अजीब सा सन्नाटा था। देख कर ही समझ मे आ रहा था की ये सवारियों की आखरी जीप होगी इसके बाद यहाँ कोई नहीं आएगा। सामान वाला बैग रखने के बाद हम लोग रूम के बाहर आ गए।
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एक फोटोग्राफर का प्रकाश के जिन पहलुओं से जन्म – जन्म का रिश्ता होता है, वे हैं – प्रकाश का कोण (angle of light) की दिशा direction of light, प्रकाश की मात्रा (luminocity या brightness), तीव्रता (intensity), और कंट्रास्ट (contrast) ! सबसे पहले प्रकाश के कोण की बात करें तो हम कह सकते हैं कि हम सब प्रकाश को ऊपर से नीचे की ओर आते हुए देखने के अभ्यस्त हैं। सूर्योदय से लेकर सूर्यास्त तक हमें सूर्य धरती के ऊपर से ही धरती पर प्रकाश बिखेरता हुआ नज़र आता है। हमारे काम आये या न आये, चन्द्रमा का प्रकाश भी ऊपर से नीचे की ओर आता प्रतीत होता है। हमारे ठीक सामने से प्रकाश आये ऐसा शायद वाहनों की हैड लाइट के मामले में ही देखने में आता है या फिर कैमरे में लगी हुई फ्लैशलाइट प्रकाश सामने से हमारे चेहरे पर फेंकती है। चूंकि हम जन्म से लेकर अपने अंतिम दिन तक ऊपर से नीचे की ओर आते हुए प्रकाश को ही देखा करते हैं अतः घरों में भी हम बल्ब और ट्यूब छत के आस – पास ही लगवाते हैं, न कि फर्श के आसपास। फोटोग्राफर भी अपने स्टूडियो में लाइटें मॉडल के सिर के लेवल से ऊपर ही फिट करते हैं, नीचे नहीं ! प्रकाश का स्रोत अगर धरती के आस पास हो तो कैसा लगेगा, यह देखना हो तो कुछ हॉरर फिल्में देख डालिये ! ठोडी, होंठ, नाक, आंख आदि की छाया जब नीचे के बजाय ऊपर की ओर बनेंगी तो अपनी अर्द्धांगिनी की शक्ल देख कर एक बारगी तो डर ही जायेंगे।
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We also took tickets for a round trip in boat. These tickets were valid for one hour for return journey. It means we had sufficient time to bath and roam at another side of Ganga Ji. The boat took us to another bank in just few minutes. As it was Baisakhi day, a lot of people were taking bath on Eastern Ghats. We also took bath in Holy Ganga ji.
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This is all I experienced in my one month stay at Toronto. So, In a way I am kind of liking it. Let see what is store for me in future. I will share soon.
In the first week of our stay here we went for apartment hunting. We had taken subway and got down at St. Andrew station. We actually reached 1.5 hours early at the place just to get the feel of city. When we were exploring areas around St. Andrew station, we reached right in front of CN tower. I couldn’t resist myself and somehow convinced my hubby that we should see this. As it was Saturday the Reception hall was full.
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The Darjeeling Mail which leaves Sealdah Station at 10.05pm reached us New Jalpaiguri Station(NJP) the next morning. I was quite pleased to see the easy availability of cab at the station. After a quick bite we took a cab and set off for Darjeeling. Narrow meandering roads reached us Darjeeling at noon that day. We just could not take our eyes off the picturesque view through the window panes of our hotel room. We could not wait to visit the famous Mall at Darjeeling. We had a pre-concieved notion(from people around us) that The Mall is a very congested, dirty and such other things.
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There are few more temples in the complex: There is a 7th century Suryanarayan Temple with a Rekhanagar (curvilinear) shikhar; Badiger Gudi, a 9th century Surya Temple with a stepped well and ‘Twin Temples’ for lack of any identification sign. Most of the photos carry rear views as all temples in the complex are east facing. With the low Sun shining brightly in the late afternoon western sky it was practically impossible to photograph temples from the front.
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After breakfast, we were dropped off at the airport at Baltra. We flew to Guayaquil and back home. It was fantastic trip. We visited 24 points in 10 islands and traveled 534.5 nautical miles. We crossed the equator twice. One night while relaxing in the deck, we saw a shooting star. It was a memorable experience. I will always remember the forget-me-not blue waters, the adorable sea lions, the smug iguanas, the cute giant tortoises, the lovely blue footed boobies and the beautiful penguins! I think my wish to visit Narnia came true with this trip :)
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en comes Giriraj bhai, I was smitten by his scholarly and informative writing style that conveys his knowledge about the places that he explores. Recently after a chit-chat, I got an opportunity to wander with this amazing wanderer through some lesser known treasures of Aravalis. He is a fountainhead of knowledge when it comes to lesser known places in Rajasthan especially the less explored architectural marvels, his fondness to these structures is just wow!…He is a gem of a wanderer be it any sort of condition…one of his featured story on Kota gorge (https://www.ghumakkar.com/2012/03/04/chambal-ki-ghati-kota-gorge-through-the-hadoti-belt/) conveys his prowess…I have some other trips scheduled with Giri bhai in near future.
Ghum: It is such a warm thing, just to listen to. I guess it must be a very special feeling.
Vipin: It is so encouraging to see that ghumakkars are meeting and travelling together. A very recent example of this is Sushant Ji’s trip to Indore and meeting with Bhalse family, similarly the well documented meeting of 2 famous ghumakkar families Rathore’s and Bhalse’s, then Panwar’s (Sandeep bhai & family), Gupta’s (Ritesh bhai & family) and Bhalse’s (Mukesh bhai & family) and many more like wise. All praise and thanks to ghumakkar for giving us this platform to share our tales and views and to make such wonderful travel companions and friends.
We can say , a pocket size dynamite that engulfed the visitors with its charm. The garden shows the same Mughal feeling as the bigger gardens around the lake. The spring around which this garden is built bumbles up in a large stone vase that hovers up in a hall like structure and this is specialty of this garden.
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First of all, sending my good wishes to all of you to stay safe and to fight against Covid. We all know how terrible…
Time of travel: January 2021 Places covered: Tehri Dam, Tehri boating point and Dobra Chanti Suspension bridge Tehri is a place, where we wanted…
You are really spoilt for choice when it comes to restaurants in Goa. Besides the beach shacks, where you can sit on the sands and gaze out at the sea, sipping on a drink, while waiting an hour or two for your meal to arrive, there are many restaurants inland which also serve excellent food at very reasonable rates. There is a fusion of East and West, Portugese and Indian, meat and vegetables, which makes Goan cuisine unique. Coconut is used liberally, along with other Indian spices in the cooking. ‘Fish curry rice’ is the most common food and available virtually in every restaurant. The different types of seafood on offer in Goa includes pomfret, kingfish, ladyfish, mackerel, tuna, shark, crab, prawn, lobster, squid and mussels. Chicken, pork, mutton and beef dishes are also on offer at all the restaurants, cooked in the popular Goan flavours such as vindaloo, balchao, recheado, xhacuti and caldin.
We had already planned that we would include at least one meal out at a shack or restaurant in our daily sight-seeing itinerary. One precaution we always took was to carry our own drinking water if we did not want to order a drink, or pay for a bottle of branded mineral water.
Table of Contents : Part 1 : Kumarkom – Backwaters n Houseboat Part 2 : Munnar – Unspoilt Hill Station It was beginning of…
Part-2 : Udaipur to Mumbai Next day we checked out from hotel and started our journey at 6:15 AM from our hotel in Udaipur….
