Cities

Mehrauli – The Second City of Delhi

By Nirdesh Singh

Mehrauli quickly became a hotspot for construction which continued for centuries and today perhaps boasts of more monuments than any other part of Delhi. The building of Mehrauli started just a kilometre away from Fateh Burj where Ghori and Aibak entered Qila Rai Pithora after defeating Prithviraj.

Lake City Udaipur

By Kiran

Other important landmark in Udaipur is Maharana Pratap Smarak on Moti Magri. On top of small Hill, this smarak is located, where we can go in our own vehicle. There used to be “Moti Magari” mahal built by Maharana Udaising. Light & Sound show is organised here every evening. The smarak has big statue of Maharana Pratap and a small garden surrounding it. The smarak also has one museum where different weapons and models of forts- Chittorgar, Kumbhalgar and battlefield of Haldi Ghati are depicted in nice manner.
The history of Mewar cannot be complete without the great Maharana Pratap, who never surrendered to the enemy, while other Rajput kings decided to surrender or established relation with Akbar by wedding their daughters to Akbar. But Maharana Pratap had taken oath not to live in Mahal, not to sleep on bed and not to eat in Utensils until he could free all his kingdom from enemies. He lived in forests, slept on straw bed and ate meals on hand for twenty six years. What I came to know here that Maharana Pratap used to keep two swords with him as he would never fight with anyone who did not have weapon. When local people tell the history of great Maharana Pratap, you can sense the proud feeling they have about their Maharana. Such a great feeling to witness the heritage!

A Weekend Trip to Agra

By Gaurav

Next day we checked out of hotel to visit Taj, and as we were approaching Taj Mahal, a number of people stopped our car seeing the Delhi number plate, and tried to lure us on some pretext or other. Some said, “Bauji, Taj Mahal se 4 km tak koi parking nahi hai, main apki car bhi park kara dunga aur auto se le chalunga” -“Sir, there is no parking within 4km of Taj Mahal, I will get your car parked and take you there in the auto”. We overheard all those guys and parked our car at Shilpgram parking, buy tickets from the counter, hired a battery cab in just Rs 10, that dropped us close to Taj. Battery operated cabs hop between authorized Taj parkings and Taj Mahal.

Reaching there, we were welcomed by a long queue of tourists getting restless to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The guards were checking the entry tickets of each visitor and randomly asking for identity proofs of tourists (There was no standard rule for checking authenticity of individuals). Soon after entering, there were rooms made of red sandstone which used to be the rooms of guest of the Shah Jahan, made in almost the same manner as the ones in Fateh Pur Sikri. After entering a huge gate, the sight of marvel made of white marble got visible. The Taj is magnificiently built structure of equal dimensions from all four side and even its distance from the mosque at both its sides are at same length. The entire dimensional symmetry of this architectural marvel is a treat for viewer’s eyes.

Photography : Practical Tips and Tricks

By Sushant Singhal

This is true of every ghumakkar. If Vishal Rathore, DL, Amitava, Ritesh, Manu, Abhee, Jat Devta, SS, Praveen Wadhwa, Nirdesh, Vipin, Mala, Devasmitha and Sushant (or any of the rest of authors here) were wandering together in a city or village with our cameras on our shoulders, each of us would aim at different objects and would shoot from different angles and for different reasons. It hardly matters whether we own a DSLR or a mobile phone as far as selection of our subjects is concerned. Well, here are a few things which I have learnt in photography in all these years. May be you would find them interesting and useful.

Trip to Riyadh: Sunday 12th May 2013 to Friday 17th May 2013 – II

By Taher Kagalwala

After asking around, I finally managed to find the entry to the lift that took people to the top floors of the building. There is a charge of SR 35 to go to the Sky bridge that connects the two arms of the top 20 storeys to each other. The Sky bridge is an attraction not many people miss when they visit Riyadh, and it offers glorious views of the entire city of Riyadh. I purchased one ticket. The journey is made in two lifts. The first lift (which has an interior that resembles a starry night) takes you to the 77th floor.

इन्दौर – सैंट्रल म्यूज़ियम और ज़ू दर्शन

By Sushant Singhal

संग्रहालय के मुख्य द्वार से अन्दर घुसा तो देखा कि टिकट खिड़की बन्द है। मुख्य भवन के बाहर भी नाना प्रकार की सैंकड़ों मूर्तियां वहां पर सुसज्जित देख कर मैने कैमरा निकाला और बकौल नन्दन झा, न्रीक्षण-प्रीक्षण शुरु हो गया। एक सज्जन मेरे पास आकर बोले, कैमरे का टिकट ले लीजियेगा, अपना भी। अभी थोड़ी ही देर में टिकट काउंटर खुल जायेगा। मैने पूछा कि तब तक मैं क्या करूं? इंतज़ार करना पड़ेगा? वह बोला, “नहीं, नहीं, आराम से देखिये, जहां भी चाहें, फोटो खींचिये। मेन बिल्डिंग में भी बहुत कुछ है। रास्ता इधर से है।” धन्यवाद कह कर मैं बेधड़क इधर-उधर घूमता फिरता रहा और एक डेढ़ घंटे में पूरा संग्रहालय उलट-पुलट कर देख डाला।

Udhampur to Nunwan Base Camp (Pahalgam)

By Naresh Sehgal

We reached Kud town at around 8 o’clock. Many shops were closed in the market at that time but only a few were open. We purchased 2KG Patisa from Prem sweets which is one of the oldest and famous shops at Kud.
“Kud, a place of extraordinary scenic beauty, is located on the Udhampur Srinagar Highway, Jammu and Kashmir, India. This popular resort is situated on the Jammu-Srinagar highway at an altitude of 1738 meters. It is 95 KM from Jammu and 37 KM from Udhampur city; it is just short of the tourist spot of Patni Top while driving to Patni top from Udhampur. Kud is famous for its sweet shops that make hot and fresh Patisa, which is very popular with the tourists.”

Journey to Riyadh – An overview

By Taher Kagalwala

It was a delight to pass sand-eroded hills, empty roads, beautiful desert landscapes and so on. At the same time, it got lonely at times, and one actually yearned for good music or company while doing such a long journey.
It was about half past one when I saw the emerging suburbs of Riyadh (Fig 9), and then, I was past them and into the heart of the city. Asking around, I managed to locate the way to the venue of the university. It seemed like a prudent thing to do, so that I would be able to decide where to take a room in a hotel. The condition would be that it should be near enough to the University.

North Bengal Trip

By Sharmistha Dan

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.

A trip to Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

By Naughty Pandit

From Sankat Mochan Temple, Tara Devi is 20-25 mins drive depending on the skill of driver. This includes a steep uphill drive of 3 kms. This is a very quiet temple, you won’t find much crowded here except in Navratra or on special occasions. Height of Tara Devi temple is same as of Jakhu Temple; moreover you can see Jakhu Temple from Tara Devi. Temple has close to 100-150 stairs which are hard to climb for the person having breathing or knee problems. Apart from spiritual interest this place has great scenic beauty. We clicked lots of photographs here. After offering our prayers, we asked our driver to take us to some local restaurant for lunch. He took us to a road side dhaba at Shogi where we had Rajma Chawal , which were very tasty.

Finding Delhi – Sunder Nursery

By Nirdesh Singh

Sunder Bagh, then known as Azim Bagh housed rare plant species from different British colonies across the world. It was also used to experiment with trees that were proposed to be planted in the new city. About 1500 shady trees we see today along the wide roads of Lutyens’s Delhi came from this nursery. Those days, Azim Bagh stood on the historic Grand Trunk Road between Humayun Tomb and Purana Qila.

आज की शाम – मुकेश भालसे के नाम !

By Sushant Singhal

सुबह शंख ध्वनि, घंटे – घड़ियाल की मंगल ध्वनि से आंख खुली तो देखा कि 7 बज रहे हैं। कविता घर में बने हुए अपने मंदिर से बाहर आ चुकी थीं और बच्चों को हिला-हिला कर जगा रही थीं कि घूमने चलना है अतः अलस त्यागो और फटाफट तैयार हो जाओ ! बच्चे पहले तो उठने के मूड में नहीं थे क्योंकि रविवार का छुट्टी का दिन था पर जब ध्यान दिलाया गया कि पिकनिक पर जाना है तो फटाफट बिस्तर में से निकल आये। शिवम्‌ को यह भी लालच दिया गया कि नीचे चल कर कार की सफाई में भी उसकी सहायता ली जायेगी। लड़कों को पता नहीं क्यों ऐसे अजीबो-गरीब कामों में बहुत मज़ा आता है। मेरे बेटे भी जब छोटे थे तो खेल – खिलौनों के बजाय प्लास, पेचकस, संडासी जैसे सामान में अधिक रुचि लेते थे।

मुकेश ने गैराज़ में से अपनी शेवरले स्पार्क निकाली और फिर शिवम्‌ के साथ एक बाल्टी पानी, कुछ अखबार और डस्टर आदि लेकर नीचे पहुंचे। मैं भी अपना कैमरा उठाने लगा तो बोले, अभी इसका क्या काम ! जाने में तो अभी दो घंटे हैं। मैने कहा कि पिकनिक तो उसी समय से शुरु हो जाती है जब हम यह निश्चय कर लेते हैं कि पिकनिक पर जाना है। उसके बाद में की जाने वाली सभी तैयारियां भी पिकनिक का अभिन्न हिस्सा हैं। कार की धुलाई – पुछाई – सुखाई सब इस अविस्मरणीय पिकनिक का अविभाज्य भाग है। इसलिये इन सब की फोटो भी जरूरी है! सब कुछ पिकनिक की भावना से करो तो हर काम में मज़ा आने लगता है। आधा घंटे तक MP 11 CC 0470 कार की मस्का पालिश की गई। फिर ऊपर आकर नहाये – धोये ! कविता तब तक धांसू वाली स्टफ्ड पूरियां और सब्ज़ी बना चुकी थीं जिनका हमने जी भर के भोग लगाया। बच्चों ने कार में सारा सामान बूट में रखा। भोले बाबा को बारंबार प्रणाम करके हम सब फ्लैट से नीचे उतर आये और मुकेश ने कार की चाबी मेरे हाथों में सौंप दी।

1 Nirdesh Singh Charming Chanderi – of Baiju Bawra, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and 1200 Baoli

Hi Nandan, Hope you are doing well! What a pleasant surprise seeing the notification and your comment at the end of this wonderful Ghummakari filled year. The days on Ghummakar…
2 Nandan Jha Charming Chanderi – of Baiju Bawra, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and 1200 Baoli

A close friend and an avid traveller, Srijan (https://www.ghumakkar.com/author/srijan/) calls me to share he finally managed to run-out of Noida and AQI of 600+ to Madhav National Park and is…
3 Rakesh Mehta Experiencing the temple town of Puri, Oddisha

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4 Sunderban National Park The Sundarbans : A long cherished dream

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5 walter richardson Call for a Journey Inward

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6 Jaipur Delhi – Goa – Delhi Road Trip : A quick guide

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7 Bhraman Together The Sundarbans : A long cherished dream

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8 venketesh iyer Cool Coorg

Coorg also called Kodagu, is a magical hill station filled with lush coffee plantations and rich traditions. It�s a peaceful escape perfect for nature lovers seeking calm and culture. Discover…