01 Jan

Of Seven Capitals and New Delhi: Chapter II – Hauz Khas Village Complex

Of Seven Capitals and New Delhi: Chapter II – Hauz Khas Village Complex

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Walking down the alleys of history, the road – Delhi Metro to be more precise – led me to Hauz Khas on an unbelievable Sunday. I say unbelievable because of the stunning clear blue sky which is a rare sight in Delhi especially during winter. Hauz Khas Village is part of many capitals but is best known as important site for: Siri and Firuzabad, with Siri being the third capital city and Firuzabad the fifth official capital and last of the Sultanate of Delhi.

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Ground Zero

New York: The Big Apple

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The only sound in this serene neighbourhood was the constant whirring of the security choppers patrolling the Hudson. Though there wasn’t much to see in New Jersey, I found its peaceful charm quite endearing. Whether it was driving through Harrison, or checking out the sprawling campuses of New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers Institute at Newark, or bagging great discounts at Newport mall, Jersey Gardens mall, Macy’s, Wal-Mart, BJ’s and Shop Rite, or simply walking along the Pier… New Jersey really appealed to my senses in a way that very few can comprehend.

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Sultanpur National Park: Pathos for a Sitting Duck

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The marshland appeared more like grassland with bushes blocking the way everywhere. There were more grazing cattle inside than birds – I mean the birds which were supposed to be there according to the article. The ambience inside the park was more allusive to the Eliot’s Wasteland than the Wordsworth Tintern Abbey. You must be thinking I am totally nuts…talking like this :-) Well the thing is that I am writing this line on a few miles away from Sultanpur National Park, on revisiting the banks of “not quite” marshlands of the park and 15 months had passed since my last visit to this one time birder’s paradise.

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Raven

Paradise on Earth- Jammu and Kashmir (Part 3)

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We passed the first town enroute – Ganderbal, within an hour. It was after Ganderbal that the real beauty of the drive commenced. After Ganderbal, the snow-capped Himalayas greeted us bang on. Every turn gave us panoramic new scenes, which always seemed to better than the previous one. Complimented by the untouched beauty of the Sindh River, the landscape was picture perfect.

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Of Seven Capitals and New Delhi: Chapter I – Rai Pithora & Mehrauli

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Qutub Minar of yore was entered through its four monumental gates of which only the Southern one renowned as Alai Darwaza remains standing till date. Along the western periphery of the precinct runs a giant wall with pointed archways, creating a ‘Qibla’ or the decorated prayer wall. There are several buildings in the complex most of which lay in ruins except for the exquisitely carved tomb of Iltutmish which is still in fairly good state. The structure of note inside the complex includes the magnificent Qutub Minar, Ala al-Din Khalji’s madrasa and the Imam Zamin Mosque.

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The River and the City

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The airport is located in Babatpur, a slightly funny name but when you see the airport name displayed in bold letters as Lal Bahadur Shastri aiport, suddenly it gains stature and you feel a connection, a long lost memory jogged. And you remember a story of young Lal bahadur swimming across the Ganga for his studies.

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Auli – Land of peaks, forest and flowers

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It was a clear day with sun rays warming our bodies that have gone numb due to the chill in the air. High snow clad peaks bordered with Golden oak and deodar kissing the deep blue sky above, welcomed us to Auli. A look at the place and all our tiredness of long journey through zig zag roads, landslides and pilgrims traffic is gone.

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Alexandria, the pearl of the Mediterranean

Alexandria, the pearl of the Mediterranean

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Alexandria was home to Egypt’s second wonder of the Ancient World: the famous Lighthouse built by the Ptolemies in the 3rd Century AD. Soaring to a height of 140 metres, its beacon was visible to seamen over 50 km away. It was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world for centuries till a powerful earthquake destroyed it in the 14th century.

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A Memorable Tour to Kutch- Part 2

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Mandvi is known for its 400 year old ship building centre. The local carpenters still make ocean going Dhows in much the same way that their ancestors had done a century ago. One can go and visit the men at work, shaping the great vessels with hand tools and coaxing the seasoned timber into shape. The predecessors of these very same ships had roamed the Indian Ocean and made Kutch a maritime power. Hand made models of these Dhows can also be procured from local artisans.

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Pyramids: sepulchres of the Pharaohs

Pyramids: sepulchres of the Pharaohs

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The sides of the Pyramids were originally clad with highly polished white limestone slabs and were topped by gold-plated capstones called pyramidions which picked up the first rays of the sun and these rays reflected off the cladding to make the entire pyramid glow with solar luminescence.

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A Memorable Tour to Kutch – Part 1

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Meanwhile there came two foreigner tourists and they asked me about bus for Bhuj, The same bus in which I had to board was going up to Bhuj so I informed them about the bus. They also had a long time to wait for bus so in order to pass the time they started talking me regarding the India, its culture, tourist places etc. Though they had a very good hand book containing complete information on India tourism destination but still they were very enthusiastic about India. They were from USA and one of them was Kevin who later became my friend as we had to travel together for next 7-8 hours.

It was 11:00 O’ clock and I was feeling hungry, I saw a small shop having garmagaram Jalebi and Fafda, I along with Kevin went there to taste this delicious Gujarati breakfast. It was really tasty and Kevin also liked it, Jalebi was a miraculous dish for him.

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Cairo, the city of a thousand minarets

Cairo, the city of a thousand minarets

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ghumakkar loves serendipitous moments, when one comes across something remarkable but totally unexpected. I had such an experience a few minutes after landing in Cairo. The drive to the hotel from the airport was rather uninteresting as the architecture was pretty drab, just row after boring row of grey, rectangular concrete blocks . All of a sudden, I saw a building which looked like a Hindu temple…

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