12 Dec

Mystical monsoon visit to Nahan, Paonta Sahib and Dakpatthar – Part II

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There was a stretch of over 5 kms with heavy traffic jam for a brief half an hour well into the middle of our journey just before we reached Roorkee. We had no inkling as to what cause the whole furore. But then 1 hour of slow snail-pace driving and we came to the action point. And almost all of a sudden, we realized we were driving into what seemed like a muddy pond. A lot of on-lookers were standing in higher and safer grounds on both sides of the road. And they were hooked on to the passing vehicles enjoying the drivers’ and passengers’ consternation in the hope of experiencing the cruel enjoyment of seeing a water-logged stranded car with helpless passengers inside. At least 50 odd two-wheelers were seen tugging along their vehicles wading through waist-deep mud and slosh with little children in festive clothes sloshing and pushing the two wheelers from the back, yelling and cheering each other.

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गढ़वाल घुमक्कडी: रुद्रप्रयाग – कार्तिक स्वामी – कर्णप्रयाग

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उपर के नज़ारों ने शरीर को तरो ताज़ा कर दिया था, इसलिए उतरते वक्त ज़्यादा समय नही लगा और उतरते ही पैदल यात्रा आरंभ. कुछ एक किलोमीटर ही चले थे कि दोस्तों को थकान लगने लगी, सोचा चलो जो साधन मिल जाए आगे तक उसी मे चल पड़ेंगे. अब चलते चलते हर एक आगे जाने वाली गाड़ी को हाथ दिखाकर रोकने की कोशिश करते रहे, पर सब बेकार. किस्मत से थोड़ी देर बाद एक ट्रक आता हुआ दिखाई दिया, आधे मन से इसे हाथ दिखाया और ये क्या! ट्रक तो थोड़ा आगे जाकर रुक ही गया था.

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Musical trip to Mahakal Nagri via Mecca Madina – 1

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So we entered in General coach. The train was full at 0715 hrs. First section was full of daily goers, some were reading news paper, few were sleeping and few were talking. There were few students also who were studying. The second section was full of ladies. I requested one of the ladies if she can shift and adjust us in one seat. They have shifted. So we got approximately 1.25 seat to accommodate 2.5 of us (me , my husband and my kid). Then I just turn around and was taking a glimpse of a train. It looked like as If I have rewinded my life and I had reached 10 years back when you are actually comfortable travelling in General coach. All beautiful ladies with beautiful bangles , nicely cladded saree or salwar suits , beautiful payal , toe rings etc etc. All were looking so beautiful and I was feeling jealous as my two gold bangles was nothing in front of colorful bangles. Being at Chennai Gold always means a lot here. But at Indore I was attracted towards those beautiful colorful glass bangles. Suddenly, I heard a song.

“Dheere Dheere se meri zindagi me aana, Dheere dheere se dil ko churana “..

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Romancing the Train – Pune to Nasik

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My favourite travel author Paul Theroux says in the opening paragraph of ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’ – the best travel book ever written – “I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it”. One simple sentence summarizes the entire romance and mysticism around the trains. It conjures up the sights and sounds of unknown exotic destinations. It is as if you don’t care where the train goes; you only want to be someplace that is far and not seen before. Someplace where people look different, language you can’t understand but sounds musical; and food is an adventure everytime.

Meanwhile, the train chugs along several stations. It is the perfect weather to buy chikki in Lonavala and feast on hot vada paos. The taste brings back memories from the past. It seems as if the chikki and vada tastes have been standardized like McDonalds. You remember the taste from times long gone when you took the Madgaon Express from CST to Goa every month on the Konkan Railway Line.

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The Stupendous Chitradurga Fort

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Most of the forts you visited were predictable. But this fort has a surprise waiting at every gateway corner and beyond every wall. It is like being rewarded for your huffing and puffing at every level of this Wii game. You feel like a child bounding up every which way. There are water storage tanks with elaborate planning for rain harvesting, granaries, oil pits, natural sources of clean cold water and temples.

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Timeless in Sanchi

Timeless in Sanchi

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Before the stupa, let’s dwell a little on the township itself (we are after all travelling, not just visiting a place on the tourist map). It’s a small, small place, and if you are here to stay, practically everyone will know that you have arrived before the day is out. At least that’s how it feels. If you have a white skin, you can be sure of it. And yet, unlike many other Indian places, there is no one to hassle you, with postcards to sell or hotel rooms to show. The place itself is almost Buddhist in its quietness.

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Golmaal 3 in the evening

Mystical monsoon visit to Nahan, Paonta Sahib, and Dakpatthar – Part I

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Intermittently, when the Rain God seemed to have become a bit weary and softened the intensity of the downpour to smaller and scantier drops, we took a round of the rain-washed outskirts of the resort. But a look up above in the sky at the over-burdened cloud mounds, we knew it might start raining heavily any minute and so did not venture far and also had thoughtfully equipped ourselves with umbrellas. Everything looked so fresh and green early in the morning. The leaves were dripping wet and glistening with droplets of rain water hanging from their edges. The rains seemed to have breathed a fresh lease of life to the flora and fauna.

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Sections of the Inner enclosure

Trees Trounce Temple

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What distinguishes this temple from other Angkor temples is the saddening spectacle of gigantic silk-cotton, banyan and strangler fig trees, some of them more than 40 metres high, swallowing up large sections of the temple. This is the only structure that has been left as it is by the French, – the École française d’Extrême-Orient – who were doing renovation work, to bear testimony to the wrath of nature against man-made objects.

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