01 Jan

कुर्ग या कोडागु – स्कॉटलैंड ऑफ़ साउथ इंडिया

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कोडगु या कुर्ग  कर्णाटक प्रान्त का एक जिला है। इसका मुख्यालय मडिकेरी में है। पश्चिमी घाट पर स्थित पहाड़ों और घाटियों का प्रदेश कुर्ग दक्षिण भारत का एक प्रमुख पर्यटक स्‍थल है। यह खूबसूरत पर्वतीय स्‍थल समुद्र तल से 1525 मीटर की ऊंचाई पर है। यहां की यात्रा एक न भूलने वाला अनुभव है। कुर्ग के पहाड़, हरे-भरे जंगल, चाय और कॉफी के बागान मन को लुभाते हैं। कावेरी नदी का उदगम स्‍थान कुर्ग अपनी प्राकृतिक खूबसूरती के अलावा रिवर राफ्टिंग, हाइकिंग, क्रॉस कंट्री और ट्रेल्‍स के लिए भी मशहूर है।

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Atla and Nalateswari

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Next day we have time in hand so we decided to visit a Shakti peetha called “Nalhateswari Devi” According to the mythologies it is here where the “nala” or throat of goddess Shakti had fallen and so the shrine came to be known as the Maa Nalateswari. It is located in Nalhati, a municipality in Birbhum District of West Bengal near the West Bengal – Jharkhand border.

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Doha: Bridging the Gulf

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Nevertheless, Doha’s a well-planned city for sure. The roads are wide and traffic is quite organised. The best thing about Doha’s roads is that pedestrians are always given right of way. Since I was not aware of this on the first day, I stood on the pavement, waiting for the traffic light to turn red. To my surprise, all the cars stopped to let me cross. For a moment, I hesitated. Only when one of the drivers signalled for me to pass did I realise what was happening. Guess our desi car-owners can pick up a tip or two from Doha’s drivers!

However, our hotel was a complete letdown. It was supposed to be a five-star hotel, but didn’t seem to be worth even two stars. For one, it was just an unassuming brick building, lacking the grandeur and polish usually associated with Indian five-star hotels. Second, the bathrooms didn’t even have a bar of soap, leave alone any toiletries. When we asked for some water, the bell-boy, who happened to be an Indian, advised us to buy a mineral water bottle from a general store, which would cost us 1 Qatar Riyal (QAR), while the hotel would charge us 5 QAR. Rs 70 for a glass of water? What a rip-off!

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Kolkata to Kumayon- at the holy city Varanasi

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We started at 0700 hrs from Lucknow, had our mobile breakfast on the way keeping in mind to cover the distance of 314 kms to Varanasi within midday or a bit more to enjoy the essence of the holy city “Varanasi”, as we only scheduled there for only a day. I purposely avoided the NH 30 and NH 19, which went through Allahabad, remembered the situation while we started through Allahabad in the beginning, though there was no special cause of traffic jam that time but didn’t take the risk.Hence took the NH 30 and to NH 31 after Raeberilley from “Modhupuri”. It took the clock 6 hours to stuck 1300 hrs when we reached at Varanasi.

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The legendary Tarapith temple

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 In next 30 mins we were at Rampurhat station, for going to Tarapith one needs to take means of transport from here only. There are numerous mode of transport starting from e-rickshaws, Van-rickshaws, Autos and maruti omni.We hired an  Auto rickshaw for INR 300 and dumping our luggage we sat in bliss and waiting to reach our destination as soon as possible. The entire way towards Tarapith is now becoming commercialized day by day due to increasing number of devotees and mostly its now a weekend getaway as it serves both spiritual and fun peaceful sojourn for travelers.

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Casa Loma – Toronto’s own Camelot

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On the right side of Great Hall there was Billiard Room and Smoking room.In the Billard room Management of Casa Loma has arranged a small documentary about Casa Loma which is included in the ticket.It is very nice documentary and give all the tourist idea about Sir Henry Pellatt and his life’s up and downs.After watching documentary  I realized one thing “Samay kisi ka nahi hota” or you can say all that has happened in his life was “Grahon ka khel”. Richest company   turns into Bankruptcy. I was so sad after seeing the documentary. Sir Pellatt himself has to  abandoned his dream of Castle for a fraction of worth during bad time.Then we went to next room Sir Pellatt’study room

Study Room : This is another beautiful room with nice wall paneling , beautiful artistic work around fire place.This room has a mahogany panel which conceals the secret  door on either side of the fireplace that leads to staircase leading to First floor.

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Sojourn in the Misty Lansdowne

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They joyously agreed on my Lansdowne suggestion and persuaded me to arrange for some good accommodation. I must thank our family friend Gen Mohan Bhandari, who graciously agreed to do the needful. . On instructions from my daughter from New York, I had given a bath to ‘Happy’ 0n 1 Oct- a day before our impending holiday.

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Nandi Hills – Nice picnic spot.

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Nandi Hills ke liye hamne Outer Ring Road pakdi towards North aur uske baad liya NH 7 to Hyderabad. Road shaandar thi till Devanhalli Airport, 60 KMS ka pata hi nahi chala, uskebaad 1 village road li for next 12 KMS, wo road typical village road thi, and then another 8-10 KMS pahadi chadhai.

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सुनो नंदी

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नवीं सदी में बने इस मंदिर में पहुंचने पर तुम्हे वहां विराजमान देखकर बच्चों को समझ आ गया कि भगवान शिव का मंदिर है. और ये भी कि नन्दीश्वरा का अर्थ है नंदी के ईश्वर। किन्तु एक बालिका को तुम्हारे कान में कुछ कहता देख अचरज़ हुआ. कौतूहल

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A visit to Taragarh Fort, Ajmer

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Hakim requested me to park the car in his locality where a local lad would be taking care of the car. But, it was not easy to believe a total stranger and so I did not heed to his request and parked the car in the official parking lot which was very congested. It required great skill to park and more to retrieve the vehicle. Somehow I did it. After parking the car, we went to see the dargah along with Syed Abdul Hakim. He introduced us to the nearest structure as Karbala built in memory of the Mohammed Ali, who was the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and who was martyred by the Khalifa. Every year they mourn his killing in the Karbala. It was a settlement of Shia Muslims. According to Hakim, the population of that place was about 5000 for which a separate polling booth is arranged during election time.

From Karbala, Hakim took us to his shop-cum-office, where his relatives were selling the Chadar (Shawl), Flowers and incense sticks etc. and persuaded me into purchasing the items from their family shop. Though his shop was not cheap by any means, we had no option but to purchase from there itself. So, we purchased the items from Hakim and his relatives carefully choosing the items that were being sold at the lowest rates and proceeded towards the dargah. My son, Ruchir looked good when he walked upto the Akbar gate carrying the chadar on his head. After entering the premises, we saw a massive silver sword at the top of a building. Hakim told us that it was Jafarani sword given to the Dargah by Mughal Emperor, Akbar.

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Kolkata to Kumaon – At Lucknow

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It was around 1330 hrs when we completed the places and headed for our hotel, which was not very far. Had a lunch and in the afternoon went to the tomb of “Saadat Ali Khan”.

Just almost opposite the tomb was “Begam Hazrat Mahal Park”, which was build in the honour of a beautiful and courageous woman, dated back in 1962.

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