Weekend-Delhi

A trip to Mewar, Raj – Jaipur Once again

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painting section: Second floor of this magnificent museum consisted of some rare books on display and a series of Raagmala paintings on display.These paintings are based upon different Ragas and Raginis of Indian classical music system. Different types of Raagmala series have been painted in different parts. Pahari style, Deccan style, Rajputana style. Each Raga is personified by a specific color, mood , time of its singing is mentioned on the painting and a story is told about a Nayak and a Nayika. I had read about tese paintings but was seeing these for the first time. I also had the privilege to see the paintings based upon stories from Hitopdesha and Panchtantra.  Just beautiful. Another surprise for me was the the presence of classic book JANGNAMA by Shah Muhammad(original).

Overall we spent about 2 hours in the museum and were tired. The big walls of this museum are adorned by the life like portraits of erstwhile kings of Jaipur state. Now was the time to have some snacks for the evening and visit the famous zoo of Jaipur, if not so big then not too small also. Dear Pavani’s desire was to have a look at the lion and the tiger which was duly fulfilled here.

THE ZOO: The desire was of Pavani was duly fulfilled as the first cage in the zoo was that of Leopard and next to it lay the cage of Tiger (wish double fulfilled).

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A trip to Mewar, Raj – Pushkar and Jaipur

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A small and picterusque town famous for one and onky temple of Brahma Ji, the town is also famous for the foreigners coming to the time to learn Yoga and instrumental music in the streets of Pushkar and numerous cafes adorning the streets. I can vouch for only temple perhaps my main motive was that only so I did,nt bother to look out for the guests from abroad or cafes. After inquiring my way to the temple of Brahma Ji, I straight away drove in that direction until I reached the place where Ghats were located. I thought may be temple is located in the centre of the sarovar there. So we all went towards the Ghat area and the thing that I  wanted to avoid at all costs followed us , hounding by various priests(pandas to have one or other form of puja for salvation of soul. As a person I m dead against these things as it seems to me more as an economic activity of these priests, nothing more(my personal opinion). Many persons were involved there in one or other ceremonies per their beliefs. But I did,nt want to listen to these priests about all this. One priest said “Unless you take bath in these Ghats and perform a puja your visit to Brahma temple would be incomplete” Why so? I just asked myself. After enquiring again about the temple from a family , we came to know that it was just on the next end of the street. I just pulled my family members from there hearing this. While walking towards the temple, in one corner , there was a small shop(PANDIT JI KI LASSI). Iski story baad mein bataoonga.

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A trip to Mewar – Haldighati

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How one could forget  the deep loyalty of Chetak towards its master when in todays time loyalty is missing amongst the human beings. We were also thrilled to find so many peacocks in that area. It was just beautiful. I had never dreamt of visiting the famous Haldi Ghati battlefield site that also along with my closest kith and kin and that also driving my own car. After a few minutes we were on highway and from there Nathdwara town was about 4 km towards left. The beautiful evening was soon on the verge of merging with the queen of night as it was winters though the time was just about 5.20 p.m. Mausam khushgawar tha,door ghar baar tha , main apni car mein sawar tha aur kuchh hi doori par Srinath ji ka dwar tha. And the song playing in my mind at that time was yaara sili sili birha ki raat ka jalna from the movie Lekin. Lekin kyu….. pata nahin.

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Road to Leh Part 2 : Manali-Keylong-Sarchu

Road to Leh Part 2 : Manali-Keylong-Sarchu

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The entry to Sarchu was amazing. After crossing the curvy path of mountains and snow, one suddenly comes across a vast plain between the high mountains but with little snow cover. There are gorges on one side where a thin stream of Yunam river flows. These gorges have very strange formations which look like pointed erections, possibly caused by wind erosion. The place is bone dry with cracks appearing in the soil with little precipitation even in severe winter when temperatures plummet below -30 degC. However, the place is very windy with wind velocities possibly approaching 40-50 Km/hr making the temperatures feel subzero despite actual temperature being about 5-10 degC. Here, no one lives permanently except a few Army settlements. Reception of cell phone is nonexistent and one really need to live like nomads. We found a camping site where we stayed in the camps. These camps serve you food and bedding and some of them also provide toilets which is indeed a luxury at this place (exposing your bum to morning frost is no fun :) ).

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A Road Trip to Enchanting Mukteshwar

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With all the theoretical knowledge collected through blogs, we had few recommended names for our stay. We started having a look on hotels. First and the very pleasing one was MT- Mountain Trail. Ambiance/view here was awesome. After discussing about the tariffs we moved on to other hotels. We were more concerned for a captivating view rather than the tariffs. We went ahead to few more lodges along with PWD Guest house. But, we had already lost our hearts to MT. So we called back the manager and asked him to book 2 rooms for us.

We parked our car near the entrance of Mukteshwar temple and started taking a walk towards the main tourist attraction point “Chauli ki jali”. After putting in few efforts in climbing the rocks we finally reached on the top of the cliff. The cliff gave a splendid panoramic view of snow-white Himalayan ranges. Captured the “Orange- setting Sun”, did some archery. As it was getting late and the temperature started dropping with Sun, instead of going for Rock climbing we opted to just give a pose :)

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A trip to Mewar – Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur

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The drive looked like very good till I encountered a steep slope drrive as in hills. Though I had driven the car a few times in hilly area but God knows what happened I just lost the confidence here when I saw that it was down and down and down. Oh God what to do now. I was trembling with fear and had put my car on to first gear . My wife and Bhakti just motivated me to carry on slowwly and remember our sojourn in the hills. I saw  Mahindra scorpio coming uphill. I just stopped him and asked him about how long it would continue like this. It was about 5 kms like this, according to him. and the situation became hilarious when he also asked how it would be like this uphill .

hahahahhaha……….. Any way the ordeal became less and plain road was there .  We were passing through  the forest area now and after a few minutes we entered the temple complex. So serene was the atmosphere there and about 30-35 vehicles parked inside the complex. Main reason that I found for heavy rush was that people from Jaina community revered the place and comee there just as they have Dilwara temples at Mount Abu. So a mixed crowd of foreigners and Indians there. And there stood the vast sprawling temple structure in white marble, so clean and so serene and so pious.

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A trip to Mewar – Karni Mandir, Ekling Ji and Sukhadia circle

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It was about 3 p.m that we exited from ahar museum and decided to go to Ekling ji which is situated on Udaipur-Ajmer highway before the historical Nathdwara town. When I was on my way to Ekling Ji just after 7-8 kms it resembled as Iwas driving in some hilly state(hills on one side and deep gorges on other side was the scenic view. So it was now only 2nd and 3rd gear for me. Frankly I didn’t expect such a terrain in Rajasthan. We as a unit were awed by the beauty this stte was offering. When we reached EKLING JI, the temple was closed and it was full one hour foe the gates to open. We paid our obescience from outside only and vrooom back to Udaipur. I would like to mention here that the temle is under maharan mewar trust and security guards posted there also bore badges of mewar security. Historically it is said that Bappa Rawal, founder of Mewarkingdom got blessings at this place only from god Ekling Ji to esrtablish the mewar empire.

SUKHADIA CIRCLE
It was fourth day in Udaipur and now it looke like this was my own city. I  felt so attachment with this city.Clean roads, sensible traffic sense, good ambience and culturally strong, this city had just cast its spell on us. I don,t know which route I took but that route took us straight to Sukhadia circle which looked like a min picnic cum entertainment spot. More than me, Bhakti and Pavani were happy on reaching there. The spot which excited Bhakti and me was a large common place with about 30 shops under one roof filled with street food and fodies we are though I try to control this urge(plz insert 20). And the square (Sukhadia circle) was in form of a very small lake (gol-gol) with small boats in the shape of ducks in it(that excited little daughter, Pavani). I think the place got its name from Mohan Lal Sukhadia Ji, if I am right or someone kindly correct me.Agenda at Sukhadia circle:

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Rewalsar Lake – चोरी-चोरी जब…..

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I had fallen in love with Rewalsar Lake when I saw Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film “KAREEB”. I had travelled on Manali route many times, but no one ever told me about this lake. After seeing Kareed, in 2004 I alongwith Laxman while coming back from
Jwalaji visited this beautiful lake and missed our families then.

Rewalsar lake is initially connected to Lomash Rishi, who had been searching for a place for his tapasya, and who was told by Lord Shiva about Rewalsar, which is abode of gods and various gods reside there as flowers, trees, fishes and water bodies. Rishi Lomash came to Rewalsar and did his penance. There is an ancient temple of Lomash Rishi on the bank of the lake, and perahps the first ever temple here.

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The Spell of Bundi, Rajasthan : Reaching Bundi

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Hence, our first stop was at at ‘Salim Paper’ at Sanganer. From what we had learnt, this would be a cottage industry like place where one could see paper making and block printing. So we reached after going circles in the village, and ultimately realising that the place was right at the beginning. If you tell them that you are from ‘Arya Niwas’, they take you through a guided tour of ‘Paper Making’. This was our first visit to a ‘Paper Making’ factory and it was an extremely educative experience. The place was large, expansive and had sections where different jobs took place. The lady took us through the entire process with a lot of patience. The first step is to make the pulp by mashing waste cloth-cuttings that they procure from all the factories around. So essentially the raw material was waste organics being recycled and that was heartening to know. The cloth is shredded to very tiny pieces that are kept submerged in water for a few days. After that the whole cloth-water solution is rolled over and over again to form a thick pulp. This pulp is then further rolled to form a smoother paste. Color and condiments like rose/marigold petals, leaves are added now. Then the paste is spread on metal sheets and left to dry in the sun. Each sheet individually! Hence the paper is born. The dried paper sheet is taken off the metal based and pressed through machines. And thereafter, different actions are taken to make use of this paper. So we saw techniques of cutting, printing, pasting and finishing.

To give the viewers an experience to take home, and of course as a model for this tour fee, they also have a small shop/display counter. The only way we could have reciprocated the gesture was to buy some stuff so we bought quite a lot. Most of that was exciting and relatable as we were purchasing exactly what we saw being made right then. All of it was for European and American markets and were indeed of supreme quality. So we made a good collection of fancy paper bags, craft kits, various kinds of papers etc. that my daughter is waiting to rob off her mother for her school projects.

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A Trip to Mewar – Udaipur Sightseeing

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JAGDISH TEMPLE: The temple was an historical one in grey stone.  Lord Krishna, we bow to you. Had a  PRIKRAMA  around the main garbha griha. clicked some photographs for yaadein and came downstairs. We had planned to walk through this market to our car parked on the other side of the palace. The bazaar was known as Bhatiyani chohatta. It was full of shops selling handicraft items, Rajasthani clothes and souvenirs. It seemed paradise to Bhakti and Savita, my wife. So t one shop after hard bargaining a dress for Pavani was bought. And at one corner shops some souvenirs were bought to gift to dear and near ones. After that we reached at the parking place. and there it was our trusted maruti. Our next stop was fatehsagar lake and shilpagram.

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