Weekend-Delhi

Corbett and I

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it is not possible for those who have never lived in the upper reaches of the Himalayas to have any conception of the stranglehold that superstition has on people who inhabit that sparsely populated region…with us we had fifteen of the keenest and the most cheerful hillmen…one of these men, Bala Singh, a Garhwali, had been with me for years….i noticed that Bala Singh was sitting apart near the camp fire with a blanket over his head and shoulders. After breakfast I walked over to him,….Bala Singh saw me coming and made no attempt to greet me, which was very unusual, and to all my questions he returned the one answer — that he was not ill. That day we did our two-mile march in silence…it was quite apparent that whatever had happened to Bala Singh was affecting the other fourteen men, for they were performing their duties without their usual cheerfulness…after a lot of hedging and evasive answers I eventually got Mothi Singh’s story, which, when it came, was short and direct…’while we were sitting round the camp-fire last night and singing… the demon of Trisul entered Bala Singh’s mouth and he swallowed him

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Chittaurgarh Fort, an enigma with a thin line between history and mythology -I

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“यह है अपना राजपूताना, नाज़ इसे तलवारों पे, इसने सारा जीवन काटा बर्छी तीर कमानो पे, यह प्रताप का वतन पला है आज़ादी के…

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Peacefully Loud & Violently Quiet – Renukaji, H.P.

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Renukaji in Himachal Pradesh is a tourist destination with religious significance. The place is a scenic combination of a lake, a temple, an HPTDC hotel, a wildlife sanctuary, and all these are surrounded by high mountains. One can spend a few peaceful days watching the mahseer swimming in the lake or the leopards, bears and lions (got to be lucky to see them) in the sanctuary. We were four guys on two Royal Enfields on a fun trip and we found Renukji to our liking.

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Oak Grove Inn, Lansdowne – Review

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There aren’t too many options to stay and most of them offer very basic amenities. After a lot of research on the internet, we realized that all the hotels with decent reviews (Blue Pine Resort, FairyDale Resort, GMVN Tourist Guest House etc) were booked for the weekend. I was trying to get in touch with anyone who’d give us a room to stay so that we could escape the city and accidentally found just one review of Oak Grove Inn on one of the hotel review websites. That gave me a lead, I googled further and got to the hotel’s website with contact information and called Colonel Rawat (the owner) to check if they had any space left. To my surprise, he plainly said that all the rooms were available and we’re welcome to stay over the weekend.

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