The Devdar Prayers

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Down to earth from heaven, our vehicle proceeded through roads making inroads into sea of deodars. Crossing the valleys and forests our next stop was the famous Khajjiar. This is a relatively small Himalyan meadow and a shallow lake surrounded by mighty pines and devdars all around. One of the most favoured tourist stop was but a bit of disappointment. The meadow was dull and lake looked like a pit of stagnated water with lot of rubbish thrown around. And to add to it, there were stalls selling anything from popcorn to buddhee ke baal on the meadow itself. May be it would be more enchanting when it is monsoon green or winter white. Here again a temple awaited us namely KhajjiNag. A typical Himachali temple in wood and sloping roof has a black stone idol of the Nag devta. Nag worship is quite common in this part of Himalaya with Khajji nag, BhagsuNag and many more.
Again travelling down in setting sun and through darkening valleys we finally reached Chamba, located on the banks of river Ravi. Chamba is a part of settlement between 2 mighty Himalayan ranges Dhauladhar in the south and Pir Panjal in the North. Chamba got its name from Champavati, daughter of Shailavarma. The town was founded in 10’Th or 11’Th century. The name of the king is written differently in many places, Sahilvarma, Shalivahan and Shailverma. Chamba looked like a cheerful town with packed shops of fabric, chappals, mithais and chaat. Not to forget the roadside sellers with radishes and oranges and berries. This temple town is home to some of the exquisite stone architecture blended with intricate wood carvings.

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Tense moments

Taste of London

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A lot of people wanted food from this restaurant, and so it took me a good 20 minutes to get out of there with food in my hands, and those 20 minutes were for this microscopically tiny plate of little strands of crispy-fried pork. It was like a golden fried piece of heaven. It had been deep-fried, thus the bacon had gotten crumpled up, but the flavour of the bacon had been retained. There was an almost silky, foreign taste of the oil used. It wasn’t anything in particular. My first guess was olive oil, but it was somehow tangier than that, with a hint of almost a peppery taste in it. One more plus point was that this one wasn’t too salty at all, which is generally the problem with bacon – usually the salt overrides the taste of the bacon. This was, as previously stated, like a crisp-fried piece of heaven.

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Himachal Yatra – ज्वालामुखी

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Jwalaji was buzzing with travellers, passing the main bus stand we reached Hotel Jwalaji run by HPTDC. Jwalaji is well connected by bus to Delhi, Haridwar, Chandigarh, Jullundur and Amritsar. If one wishes to come by train, there are two routes.. one is Delhi-Una by train and then Una-Jwalaji by taxi or bus. Another longer but more beautiful route is Delhi -Pathankot by train and then Pathankot – Jwalamukhi Road by toy train, a journey which you will never forget. From Jwalamukhi Road there are regular bus services to Jwalaji, which is 17 Kms from Railway Station.

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My 12th Amarnath Yatra – Trip Report and Pictures , Part 2

My 12th Amarnath Yatra – Trip Report and Pictures , Part 2

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We get up at 5.30 AM. It was very cold outside. Around 6 AM we came out of tent to proceed further to Holy Cave. We took a bucket of hot water for Rs.50 from Tentwala and wash our face and hands etc. We did not take bath as we were so tired and weather was very cold. We took a cup of tea and stood in the line for Darshan. After Aarti, Darshan started at 7:30AM. Around 8.15 AM we reached in holy cave .All the atmosphere was filled with the Jaikare of Bam Bam Bhole. We forget all our tiredness and body pain after Darshan. We were feeling so energetic. I got very emotional after Darshan. A full size ice lingam was in front of my eyes. As I already mention that this was my 12th Yatra to Holy cave but this year ice lingam size was the biggest I have ever seen. We spent around 40 minutes in the Holy cave and offered some rituals. We came down from the cave. As we had not taken lunch and dinner yesterday, we were very hungry. We took one prantha each and tea from the Bhandara and started journey towards Baltal. It was around 9.30 AM. There were frequent traffic jam on the ways due to heavy rush. At 3:45 PM we reached at Domel and went to Barfani sewa mandal Bhandara. We took lunch there and rested for night at there.

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बुद्धं शरणम गच्छामी ………….आइये सारनाथ चलें।

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साथियों, इस श्रंखला की पिछली पोस्ट में आपने पढ़ा की वाराणसी के प्रमुख मंदिर तथा रामनगर फोर्ट घुमने के बाद हम लोग होटल के…

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Himachal Yatra – Naina Devi

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We reached Anandpur Sahib..brought our car near the main KeshGarh Sahib, clicked some fotos. Anandpur Sahib Gurudwara is a historical place where Guru Gobind Singhji started the Khalsa Panthh to fight against the tyranny of invaders. BUT at the same place Khalistan was also declared by separatists and traitors. The Gurudwara has a complex of many gurudwaras and KeshGarh Sahib is the biggest. Since we had to reach Jwalaji today itself, we postponed the visit to Anandpur Sahib for return journey.

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Ranthambore – Meeting the king of the jungle

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इस बार हमें 2 नंबर गेट से प्रवेश करना था और इस बार ड्राईवर व गाइड भी समझदार लग रहे थे उन्होंने हमें आश्वासन दिया की वो हमें इस बार बाघ दिखा देगे . वो रास्ते मै अपने अनुभव बता रहे थे थोड़ी देर बाद गणपति का मंदिर भी दिखा जिसकी बहुत मान्यता थी मंदिर के बाद जंगल मै प्रवेश किया, लगभग १० मिनट गाडी चलाने के बाद ही ड्राईवर और गाइड आपस मै बात करने लगे और उन्होंने गाडी बहुत तेज दौड़ा दी, हम कुछ समझ नहीं पाए लेकिन कुछ बोले नहीं, ५ मिनट बाद ही वो बोले की कैमरे निकाल लीजिये क्योकि सामने ही एक बाघ था जो पानी मै आराम कर रहा था,

उन्होंने बताया की ये मादा है,हम सभी बहुत रोमांचित महसूस कर रहे थे क्योकि हम बाघ के बहुत नज्दीक थे, अभी १० मिनट ही हुए थे की पीछे से वन अधिकारी की जिप्सी आ गयी जिसमे वो खुद नहीं था लेकिन उसके कुछ गेस्ट थे उसकी जिप्सी आने के सभी जिप्सियो को वहा से जाने का इशारा कर दिया गया, हमारे ड्राईवर ने भी गाडी आगे बढ़ा दी

हमने उसको मना किया की वो ऐसा क्यों कर रहा है तो बोला  कि अधिकारी साहेब ज्यादा देर खड़ा नहीं रहने देगे इसलिए थोड़ी देर बाद घुमा कर वापिस ले आऊगा बड़ा गुस्सा आया और मैंने उसको बोल भी की हम लोग पैसे खर्च करके इतनी दूर सिर्फ बाघ देखने आये है तो उसने बोला की आप इसकी शिकायत कर सकते है। 15 मिनट बाद हम वापिस उस्सी जगह आ गए उस समय वह सिर्फ 3  गाडी थी जिसमे एक अधिकारी की और बाकी 2 भी खास लोगो की ही थी।   देखकर फिर गुस्सा आया की वो खुद क्यों अभी तक वहा है लेकिन किसी को कोई फ़र्क नहीं पड़ा और लगातार उनकी गाडी ही बाघ के सामने रही।

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Makkah – Performing the Hajj pilgrimage – 4

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Tonight, though, the crowds were huge, and we had to really hunt for a good place in which to relax. Our successful location of a nice spot turned out to be a not-so-nice one after all as a police van landed within 15 minutes and started blowing all the on-board horns and sirens. In tandem with them, foot-soldiers began to ask everyone to get up and take themselves elsewhere. We got up, moved a little way off, and waited for the police car and the troops to move before returning to the spot where we had lain a few minutes earlier. This kind of ritual was repeated once, but we managed to remain at the same spot for a few more sessions of prayer. In between, a Saudi guy came and handed over a pizza pack to Dr. Naheed. We all partook some of the pizza and found it hot and fresh. I also visited the Al Baik outlet (to buy some chicken) , but returned as the queues were very, very long.

At about half past two, we left Mina and returned to our hotel in Makkah.

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My 12th Amarnath Yatra – Trip Report and Pictures , Part 1

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Our bus was stopped by one police party at Srinagar and asks to go back as there was some stone pelting incidence on the road. Later we came to know that some fire was broken out at some old Sufi Dargah due to which local persons were creating disturbances in the area. All buses returned 15 Km and took the Gulmarg Bypass road. All this exercise wasted one hour. I was sure that we will not reach Baltal in the evening because we were too late to cross Manigam Camp .Generally all the Yatra vehicles moving towards Baltal are stopped at Manigam Yatra camp after 5 PM. Manigam lies in Ganderbal district and 35 Km away from Srinagar. As feared our buses were stopped at Manigam camp. A lot of vehicles were already parked there. Our bus driver told us that the buses will leave for Baltal next morning at 6.30 AM. There were lots of tents available for night rest. 3-4 Bhandaras were also there for food and snacks. We took our bags and book one tent @100 per head. Then after taking dinner at Bandara we came to our tent for sleep.

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Portsmouth & Bluereef Aquarium

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Portsmouth is a small port city famous for many famous naval ships for example HMS Warrior and HMS victory. It is old dry port and is situated on an Island.
ome facts about Spinnaker Tower

The Tower has been a huge success and has received over 2 million visitors since opening.
The high speed internal lift travels at 4 metres per second, taking you to the View Decks in just 30 seconds.
The concrete used to build the Tower would fill five-and-a-half Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The Tower is founded on 84 piles, the longest of which runs 50m into the ground – the equivalent of Nelson’s Column.
The total weight of the Tower exceeds 30,000 tonnes.
The 27m spire weighs 14 tonnes and was carefully lifted into place by crane.
1200 tonnes of structural steel used to form the Tower’s distinctive bows is the equivalent weight of 12 blue whales.
115 metres up and in high winds, the Tower can flex approximately 150mm.
There are 570 steps from the base up to View Deck 3, The Crow’s Nest.

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Udaipur Vintage Cars

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इस गाड़ी का तकनीकी नाम है GLK21 ! वाह, बड़ाई सोणा नाम है! सन्‌ 1924 के दिनों के तो इंसान भी आज कल मुश्किल से ही मिलते हैं, ये बेचारी तो कार है। वर्ष 2000 के आस-पास मेवाड़ घराने के मन में ये खयाल आया कि हम अपनी कारों की एक प्रदर्शनी क्यूं ना लगा दें। कम से कम प्रवेश टिकट के पैसों से ड्राइवर की तनखाह तो निकलेगी! तो फिर यह खयाल भी हाथ के हाथ आया कि कार देखने के लिये लोग तो तब आयेंगे जब कार बढ़िया हालत में हों । ऐसे में अपने जीवन के फाइनल बसंत देख रही इस कार को पुनः युवा बनाने का अभियान शुरु हुआ। Hofmanns of Henley, UK की राय ली गई और उनके तकनीकी निर्देशन में गाड़ी के एक-एक अंग का प्रत्यारोपण शुरु हुआ। गाड़ी के पहिये न्यू ज़ीलेंड से मंगाये गये। गीयर बक्से की मरम्मत के लिये इंग्लैंड की उसी कंपनी के इंजीनियर आये जिन्होंने इसे बनाने की ज़ुर्रत की थी। यह कुछ ऐसा ही था कि शादी के स्वर्णजयंती वर्ष में कोई व्यक्ति अपने श्वसुर को पत्र लिख कर कहे कि आपकी सत्तर साल की बिटिया का ब्लड transfusion होना है, जरा आकर सहायता करें। जैसे श्वसुर अपने दामाद को “ना” नहीं कर पाते ऐसे ही Hofmanns of Henley कंपनी के श्रीयुत्‌ ग्राहम ने भी मना नहीं किया और गाड़ी के रेडियेटर और गीयर बाक्स को बिल्कुल नये जैसा बना कर दे दिया। धन्य हैं मेवाड़ के महाराणा और धन्य हैं इंग्लैंड के इंजीनियर ! आज ये गाड़ी उदयपुर की सड़कों पर पूरी शान से दौड़ती है। आपको शायद मालूम हो कि रॉल्स-रॉयस कार की सबसे बड़ी पहचान उसका रेडियेटर ही होती है जिसका डिज़ाइन आज तक भी नहीं बदला। O & M विज्ञापन एजेंसी के मालिक ने एक बार लिखा था कि इस गाड़ी को जब बनाया जाता है तो इसकी बॉडी पर stethescope लगा-लगा कर देखा जाता है कि इसमें कहीं कोई आवाज़ तो नहीं आ रही है! पांच बार प्राइमर और नौ बार पेंट का कोट चढ़ाया जाता है, अन्दर कहां, क्या, कैसे चाहिये – यह सब आपकी फर्माइश के हिसाब से बनाया जाता है। ऐसा नहीं कि जो कंपनी वालों को पसन्द आया, लगा दिया। इतना ही नहीं, गाड़ी की हैड लाइट के एंगिल, direction, focus वगैरा सारे समायोजन ड्राइवर अपने आस-पास लगाये गये लीवर से ही कर सकता था। जे हुई ना कुछ बात !

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गढ़वाल घुमक्कड़ी: भविष्य बद्री

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देवभूमि गढ़वाल के कुछ छिपे हुए रत्नों को तलाशती तीन दोस्तों की कभी ना भुला पाने वाली रोमांचक घुमक्कड़ी की दास्तान…जिसमे हमने कुछ बेहतरीन नज़ारे देखे, कुछ अनोखे और सोच बदलने वाले अनुभवों से गुजरे, कुछ खुबसूरत दोस्तों से मिले, कुछ बेहतरीन ठिकानों पर रात गुजारी और बहुत कुछ सीखने को मिला…

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