Uttar Pradesh

Delhi – Moradabad – Sitapur – Lucknow : Road Review

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Anway, so about two weeks back, I drove till Maigalganj (40 odd KM ahead of Shahjahanpur) on the way to Lakhimpur. I didn’t intend to write this post since I have not really done the complete stretch but I met Aditya the other day and he convinced me that it still makes lot of sense to do a small review. For the remaining stretch, he promised me to get inputs from other people so here it is.

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हस्तिनापुर के राजा परीक्षित का शुक्रताल: मुज़फ्फरनगर, उत्तर प्रदेश

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यहाँ पहुँचने के लिए गूगल मैप्स के भरोसे ना रहें क्यूंकि मैप में शुक्रताल को लोकेट नहीं किया जा सकता. वैसे रास्ता बहुत सरल है और मुज़फ्फरनगर बाई पास से मात्र ३५ मिनट में सुगमतापूर्वक आप शुक्रताल पहुँच सकते हैं.

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Music by the ghats of Varanasi – The Mahindra Kabira Festival

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Mrs. Sucharita Gupta. While Harpreet sang some soulful self-composed pieces on Kabir, Mrs. Gupta worked her magic with thumris, bhajan and you-name-it on Kabir. It is another level of performance when the artist herself feels elated and wants to continue performing bringing out new stuff from the bag. And classical/semi-classical Indian Music works well with our taste and sensibilities. So it was, as they say, magical!

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The Residency – India’s Alamo

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The Residency is a wonderful piece of history. It tells us of the resilience of Indian troops during the mutiny. Studies tell us that they were defeated due to the lack of officers. Any army needs officers to coordinate fire and chalk out strategies. This was sadly lacking and the revolution petered out. The British on the other hand realised that they could not be masters for long in a country not their own. The Residency stands today as a testimony of the rule of that day.

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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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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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Kolkata to Kumaon – A stay at Allahabad

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In Hindu tradition Triveni Sangam is the “confluence” of three rivers. Sangama is the Sanskrit word for confluence. The point of confluence is a sacred place for Hindus. A bath here is said to flush away all of one’s sins and free one from the cycle of rebirth.One such Triveni Sangam, in Prayag (Allahabad) has two physical rivers — Ganges and Yamuna — and the invisible Saraswati River. The place has religious importance and the site for historic Kumbh Mela held every 12 years,

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Kushinagar – Where Buddha breathed last

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The actual cremation ground is a bit away and I didn’t go there this time. The area has lots of temples built by many countries which practice Buddhism. There are good hotels as well, including Taj and I clearly remember that there were internet kiosks five year back.

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Delhi to Lucknow in 5 hours via YEW and Agra Lucknow Expressway

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It was a pleasure driving on this road. I counted 57 vehicles while going towards Lucknow on this expressway which means a lot of people are still unaware of it. I tried to maintain a consistent speed of 120 kmph on this road, but to my surprise I found I was driving at 130-135 kmph. There is very little noise while driving on this road. I encountered total 4 small diversions (diversion means when you have to drive on the wrong side of the expressway).

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Holi at Holy Place of Mathura-Vrindavan

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When you will reach Temple, you can see people doing arti at Temple gate, as inside of Temple was quite crowded. Then everyone was entering inside through bit random queue, Priests were throwing colors on crowd, even everyone was throwing colors inside temple to show their happiness in celebrating holi with Lord Krishna, It’s an unbelievable experience to be a part of this event. When you are there you can’t see everything but just feel the blessing of that divine environment.

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