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Tag: India

  • The 28 hour Recharge

    Just around midnight on Saturday, me and Tushar leave home for somewhere… During our walk on the road, while looking for an auto to ISBT, we discussed our options to go in all possible directions, but froze on Rishikesh … His responses to a 24 hour trip to Bharatpur, Agra, Jaipur were funny, keeping in mind the Gujjar agitations happening around these areas 🙂

    And it was interesting how our families let us go… with a disclaimer that we had lost it !!! and that nothing could be done !!! what else would you say about two guys, who just pack and go somewhere at midnight !!!

    Just then, an auto stopped, we hopped on, reached the ISBT and took the bus after a few difficult choices of a bad bus, a not so bad bus, a not so good bus, the UP Roadways or Uttarakhand Roadways bus stared at us in the face… We finally took a decision and took the UK (Read UttaraKhand) Roadways for Rishikesh 🙂

    Tushar did overhear a small issue when we boarded the bus, but too bad that we did not take it seriously… We realized after 15 minutes that one of the twin tyres at the back of the bus had a puncture and we could not move at more than 30 kmph till the time it gets fixed…. Which was a major disappointment as this clearly meant that our plan of reaching Rishikesh around 0600 hrs was fukked up pretty bad !!!

    Li’il that we could do, but laugh at the situation 🙂 for some reason we did enjoy the slowness on the road… Every vehicle honked and passed us while we were cruising at a top speed of 30-40 kmph on the HIGHWAY !!!

    The first pit stop was at some Nataraj Restaurant, in front of the Cheetal Grand, Khatoli ( some 40 odd kms ahead of Meerut)… This is where the driver found a Puncture Shop and decided to give the tyre for a repair… It was around 0415 hours that the guy removed the tyre, and though the conductor said we should be good to go in some 30 minutes, I had a feeling it was not going to take anywhere less than 60 minutes, maybe more !!!

    Me and Tushar walked around the place, discussing the entrepreneur skills of the guy at the tyre shop, who was managing the operations, the finances, and infrastructure etc etc all by himself !!! I had a cup of warm sugar with bits of coffee in it !!! We also discussed taking a different bus to Haridwar just to save sometime, but did not do it thinking that it would make a difference of about 30 odd minutes only… the slower part of the journey was already over… We finally moved at 0545 hrs ( as expected ) and dozed off almost immediately.. All I remember was that the driver suddenly had changed the entire tempo of the journey… It was his turn now to honk and pass !!! and he made a full generous use of the pressure horn in the otherwise not so quiet bus 🙂

    The Laxman Jhoola…

    We reached Haridwar around 0800 hrs and had to wait for another 20 odd minutes before we got another bus to Rishikesh… We reached Rishikesh, and then took a Tempo to Ram Jhoola… Breakfast was planned at Govindji’s Prasadam (one of our favorite eating places in Rishikesh, for its hygiene and tasty food at decent prices, but extremely slow service and a strange combo of Tea, Lassi, and Curd in the same combo breakfast)… Unfortunately the quality has deteriorated over the last 3 years… Anyway… this is where Uncle God decided to start playing a few games 🙂 and it started raining… Our entire plan could have been washed out, had it not stopped raining in a while… It thankfully did, and we were now ready to move too… A long walk and we were on the other side of the Ganges at the taxi stand for Neelkanth Mahadev Temple…

    The Rains left us with some lovely pearl like momentos ready to be captured 🙂

    A very interesting door I saw while walking around… this ladder is the only way to reach the door…

    Buddhist Prayer Flags on the Laxman Jhoola

    Neelkanth is about 25 kms (drive) and 14 kms (Trek) away from Rishikesh… The taxis are available near the Ram Jhula and Laxman Jhula, near the Choti wala Restaurant and Trayambkeshwar Temple respectively… It’s a little tricky to get a taxi here, because the drivers/operators are not keen on any empty seats and because a lot of people travel in groups, it’s tough to get the exact number of seats in a cab… We were lucky and an operator helped us get an Amby shared between the two of us and family of 3… The travel time to and back from Neelkanth was not much thanks to the good quality car and very efficient driver…

    Pooja Thalis at a shop near Neelkanth Mahadev…

    Pooja Thalis at a shop near Neelkanth Mahadev…

    Tushar’s Thali… The Plastic glass has Gangajal, Honey, Gulab Jal and Milk mixed in it…

    We however were stunned to see the amount of people who were there at the temple… We took the pooja thalis and moved towards the end of the queue, walked for about 10 minutes before we saw the last person in the queue… And this meant that there were at-least 200 people in the queue ahead of us…

    A part of the loooong queue….

    Just a tap… nothing specific… I click leaking taps…

    It was already pretty hot by then, and I was in no mood to stand there… Tushar did not either, and we turned back towards the temple where we offered our prayers at a different Shivling, lucky us that we realized there was a view of the main temple and Shivling… and offered our prayers through that window 🙂 smart US 🙂

    The place for Incense Sticks and Dhoopbatti…

    Another view…

    A lady tying the Holy Thread (Kalava) on a grill…

    A Lady looking at the interesting roof of the Neelkanth Temple… Though it’s in the north, the temple’s roof and top resembles the temples in the South a lot…

    Kids need Papas and Mamas to ring the Temple Bells 🙂

    Friends of all ages were around too 🙂

    Tired, and yet managed to smile a bit 🙂 Tushar must have said something cheap 😛

    We moved back from Neelkanth, got down at the Laxman Jhoola, took a few pictures and walked for about a km or more in the heat looking for a Tempo towards Ram Jhoola… we finally got to enjoy the best ride of the trip with our bags inside the tempo and we standing outside with the cool breeze whooshing past our faces drying up all the sweat and fatigue 🙂

    The Trayambkeshwar Temple, near Ram Jhoola, has 11 floors in all, here is a list of all the Gods you can meet there 🙂

    A view from the top of Lakshman Jhoola

    The motor boat near the Laksham Jhoola… The same As#$%#le had hit our raft head on at full speed on one of my rafting trips… It’s only Gods grace that I am alive right now, otherwise he had made sure that the people on the left of the raft had their heads ripped off from the bodies… No idea how we managed to survive… Thank you Uncle God 🙂

    We reached the Ram Jhoola, and spent sometime trying to figure out which beach/Ghat we could go to take a bath… It was not a very difficult decision, however once we were there, getting inside the water which seemed freezing cold was tough !!! took us a while before we decided to give up all our fear of the current, and cold water and just jumped in !!! spent some gooood 45 odd minutes before we decided to leave…

    I could try some splashes too after clicking some on the recent trip to Kurukshetra 🙂
    And I emerge a winner 🙂 against the current and the cold water !!! Omie you rock !!!

    Some relaxing time pass too 🙂 By this time I was ok with the water 🙂

    And then I made Tushar do some chapaak chapaak 🙂 He is lighter… you can see his head going in… with me being atleast 100 kgs heavier than him 🙂 my fall was quicker 😀

    But the two brothers were very happy after the 20+ dubkies, the throwing water at each other, the running out of water because it was cold, and the chapaak chapaaks 🙂

    Had good food at the Chotiwala… waiting for a bus at the bus stand… thought of coming via Dehradoon for the charm of AC buses running between Delhi-Dehradoon, but finally took a decent Pawan Gold to Delhi… slept most of the way in awkward positions on the seat 🙂 just to wake up at times with a painful lower back, or a pulled musled in the neck, or legs 🙂 change the position and sleep again 🙂 This time as well the journey took much longer than usual, thanks to the freaking jam at the border near Dilshad Garden… must be about 2 kms long and it took about 100 odd minutes to pass !!! We managed to reach the ISBT, Kashmiri Gate around 0400 hrs and then home around 0445 hrs….

    The Ram Jhoola…

    What a trip it was !!! just the perfect 24 hour recharge that my mind required… I can now wait for some 10 days before I start getting itchy about another travel 🙂 hehehe…

    I did not know that Lakshman Jhoola was this old… Now I do…


    Some more information, not necessarily about this trip but for the Delhi- Haridwar- Rishikesh Route:
    1. Distance
    Delhi – Haridwar : 208 kms; Delhi- Rishikesh : 230 kms
    2. Approximate Time :
    Delhi – Haridwar : 4-5 hours, Depending on the time of the day you are driving
    3. Best way to travel:
    Hire a cab or drive yourself…I would say hire a cab, its better to be driving around on the bad roads instead of punishing your own vehicle… The 4 lane highway is under progress for good on the stretch, however it would take a good couple of years before it can get fully operational..
    4. Eating options enroute and on location:
    Cheetal near Khatoli, Moolchand just before the Muzaffarnagar bypass; Mohanji Poori wale near Har Ki Paudi, Chotiwala Restaurant near Ram Jhoola, Govindji’s Prasadam near the parking in Rishikesh
    5. Bus Tickets and other fare : Rs. 150 per person (Delhi Rishikesh in the UP Roadways bus); Rs. 5 for the boatride one way near the Ram Jhula; Rs. 5 for Tempo per person from the bus stand to Ram Jhula in Rishikesh; Rs. 600 for the Amby ( Seats 5) for Rishikesh-Neelkanth and back
    6. Staying options: Many hotels ranging from Rs. 500 per night for a double occupancy to Rs. 2500 double occupancy

  • Flying with a Broken Wing…

    A Bird with broken wings… yea.. thats what I have been feeling for a while now…


    but something to make me feel better happened this weekend, though the start was not the best of it… I hope God Uncle is looking after everything just right !

    Anyway…

    I just come back from a very refreshing break….


    Here is a photo preview… enjoy !

    Yes yes… I drove… not too long though 🙂 but long enough to make me feel nice…








  • MP Diaries : The Rock Paintings (Blast from the Past)

    The story so far:

    Delhi – Kanha
    Kanha and around
    Kanha to Bhopal
    Bhopal to Bhojpur and Ujjain

    The next morning we did wake up as required… as early as 0400 hrs and were out of the hotel and in the temple on time… We had a small argument with the police there over the temple opening early and no cloakroom available to keep our stuff there…

    We entered the temple… waited in a not that small queue, and finally got a seat near the Shivling… The Arti was already on and we watched the entire proceedings on the TVs fitted outside the Garbhagreh… The most typical of the morning arti at Mahakaal Temple is the BhasmArti where ashes from a still burning pyre are brought to be used in the arti…

    What caught my attention was a Naga Baba who was standing still throughout the Aarti but suddenly he started moving as if he has the most energy in this world… For the next 20 odd minutes throughout the time when Bhasm Arti was going on, he was the person to look at… AWESOME it was….

    We rushed back, picked our bags and rushed to the Railway Station to catch the 0715 Intercity Express back to Bhopal… We were just in time to take the tickets and this time we took the reserved compartment, to see if we could make up for the lack of sleep and manage some during out 4 hour journey back to Bhopal…

    The Ganeshji 🙂

    The next 4 hours did not see a lot of activity except me not letting Aro sleep when I did not get to sleep well…

    The train reached Bhopal on time and we quickly found a hotel near the station only and planned for the rest of the day… We wanted to go to BhimBethka ( to see the rock paintings) and then again to Bhojpur ( We could not get enough of the place the last afternoon)…

    A Bison attacking men…

    So we changed, hired a cab and set off to Bhimbethka… The place was without a doubt magical with all those colorful paintings all around… You can read more about the paintings here. and the pictures you can check out below…

    The Flying Man…
    Ready to go hunting…

    Community Dancing and Festivity…

    Hunting in Progress…

    Mammoths…

    The Rock Shelter popularly known as the Zoo Rock…

    Community on Rocks… There is a King as well whose horse has flowers all around…

    Another one of the paintings…

    After a while we moved towards Bhojpur again and spent the rest of the day there…

    The Gold that INDIA produces… Wheat…

    Harvesting Wheat…

    The Shivling at Bhojpur…

    Sunset from Bhojpur…

    The place is in our hearts… Visible in the shades right now…
    The platform at the Bhojpur Temple…

    By evening we were back in Bhopal and in the new market area… Did some shopping in Mrignayani and had the best pan in the world at Banarasi Pan Bhandar… I was happy to see that the taste had not changed much in the last few years…

    The day that started a li’il too early finally came to an end around 2200 hrs with no plans for our final day in MP… there was a certain amount of satisfaction though in whatever we had in the last 5 days !!! had lived INDIA the way we liked…

    and tomorrow was yet another day 🙂

  • The Day of Plans and Decisions

    The plan was to wake up early and leave for Pachmadi… But then sleep being one of the best things to rest with, we were just not ready to get up… finally managed to leave the beds around 1100 hrs…

    Oh.. but I think before I start the story, I need to remind you of what we were doing so far…

    Read HERE, for our trip from Delhi to Kanha…

    and HERE for Kanha to Piparia…

    Ok, now back to the morning in Piparia…

    A Hair Dresser/Salon Board in Piparia 🙂

    The foot was better now, thankfully yesterday night’s sprain was not there… there was not much thinking to do today… it was just getting up and moving to Pachmadi, which was to be our bunker for the next two days with us intending to walk around the place and explore as much as we can…

    The station was not too far, and the buses/jeeps for Pachmadi were on the other side of the station… so we walked up the over-bridge and crossed to see many jeeps, one of which was to take us to our destination…

    One of the platforms at the Piparia Station

    We hired one, and had to now wait for more passengers to join the jeep before we could move…

    Meanwhile, the taxi guy suggested having some food at a nearby restaurant called Naivedya… We ordered a parantha and chole poori there, and manh were they tasty or what !!!

    I think we then ate atleast 7 plates of chole poori… paid the bill to Mr Hansmukh Jaiswal who runs and co-owns the place…

    7 Up Bottles in Naivedya

    The taxi was not still full.. rather we were the only two passengers yet… what followed was a wait of about 1.5 hours before we finally moved…

    The Wall of a Deserted Building with an Adult Movie poster near the Taxi Stand in Piparia

    People come people went… people stayed people waited and came and went in those 90 minutes… basically I don’t remember getting bored at all…

    Like I said, People were coming and going…

    And Some enjoying their smoke…

    The Tempo Gama finally moved… and about 54 kms and and another 90 minutes later we were in Pachmadi… It was interesting to see Deepak, the helper of the taxi, to use the tyre at the back of the car as his seat for these 54 kms… Infact thats where the helpers sit… there is no space for them in the taxi after a total of 14+1 passengers sit in that 8 seater vehicle…

    The Tempo Gama…

    Someone at our pitstop between Piparia and Pachmadi

    Its more or less a jungle Area between these two places… Can imagine how beautiful this would look in rains…

    The Developing Country… I see it… Do you?

    Spend about an hour roaming around with the taxi wallah to find a decent hotel for ourselves, but did not really find anything interesting… so we moved up hill to see if there was something away from the town… though the taxi guy strongly opposed the idea, we still wanted to check a few places out, which we did and after a while, we asked him to drop us and leave…

    A flower in one of the hotels in Pachmadi

    I guess me and Aro were not comfortable with the way he was trying to guide our thought process of taking up a room etc… so there we were.. about 3 kms from the main town, and looking for a place for ourselves… checked two hotels and on our way to the third, we stopped to take some rest… i was sitting on the road and i suddenly turned towards Aro and said, lets go back… I don’t like this place !!!! And Aro almost freaked out !!! he told me he would have said it in a minute, if I had not…

    And the only other photo from Pachmadi 🙂

    so a quick decision later we were laughing and moving back to the taxi stand making the next best plan… where to go now… Indore, Ujjain or Bhopal? or maybe back to Jabalpur and stay put there…

    Walked a while, took a lift from a gypsy fellow and reached the Taxi Stand… Some people recognised us from the taxi stand in Piparia, and wondered why the hell were we going back… did not have a convincing answer for them anyway 🙂 However we got talking to a few local there and made a new plan !!! the first leg of which was to reach Piparia and then take a bus to Bhopal !!!

    The drive back to Piparia was not the best of all, as there were six people in the last two seats facing each other in that Mahindra, and I almost suffocated myself to death… thanks to two people who stopped the car to puke, I was able to stand outside for a couple of minutes each !!! We finally managed Piparia and rushed to the bus stand only to realize that the last bus to Bhopal leaves at 1730 hrs, and it was already 1800 hrs…the alternative was to take a bus to Hoshangabad and then to Bhopal from there… I was not feeling too well because of the taxi ride back from Pachmadi, and Aro was kind enough to get me some limca while I got the bags loaded and found a decent seat for us !!!

    One of temples somewhere on our way to Hoshangabad…

    About 2.5 hours and loads of amazing small conversations later we were in Hoshangabad… Could have taken a bus to Bhopal right away, but decided to take a break, eat something and then go from there… There were regular buses to Bhopal till midnight anyway !!!

    So we walked out of the bus stand, roamed around a bit and saw one of the most interesting boards in a long long time !!! Ghamandi Lassi !!! this was interesting and called for a drink or two !!! So we were there after a quick steps and feasted on the lovely Lassi!!! nothing special about the brand name here, except that this was a name that was given to the Lassi some 30 odd years ago to attract customers…

    Ghamandi Lassi…

    Times had changed, and the brothers who set up the juice and lassi shop had split, but the name Ghamandi Lassi remained… The highlight of this pit stop was the Badam Milk though, something that was to be eaten and not fit for drinking… never had badam milk so full of Badam in my life !!! Calls for a celebration, and we did celebrate with 2 glasses each of the Lassi and Badam Milk each !!!!

    Don’t treat your visitors with this, else they might just stay back…

    This is where we met a few locals who suggested that we could stay back in Hoshangabad itself instead of going to Bhopal… visit a local temple there in the morning and then move to Bhopal… get down at Bhojpur to see the Shivling and then proceed to Bhopal… They even recommended a nice hotel nearby called the Vatika to eat and stay… this looked like a decent plan, and we decided to stay back !!!

    Walked to the hotel to realize that it was full ( yes… surprising) and because we were in no mood to look for hotels there, we came back to our original plan of going to Bhopal !!! Took a bus from the bus stand, and we were in Bhopal around 2330 hrs…. checked into a hotel near the railway station… moved out to have some food… Ate, came back and crash landed on the bed…

    No plans next nothing !!! knew a few places that we wanted to go to !!! but still no plans…

    Lets see what happens next morning !!! Looks like its more fun this way 🙂

    __________
    Some Information now..

    Taxi Fare : 40 bucks per person if you are ok with a total of 15 people in the taxi… if you want more space, be ready to shell out some extra money… We paid 200 bucks on our way to Pachmadi for the two of us as we practically took 4 seats ( Fat guys we are) and 40 bucks were the “you are new to this place” charge… The taxi has to earn Rs. 600 per trip, and that gets divided…

    Hotel Tariff in Piparia in Alka Lodge : Rs. 400 for an AC room… no electricity backup though…

    Hotel Tariff in Pachmadi : Anything between Rs. 350 to Rs. 2000. Try and not roam around with Taxi walas to save 50-200 bucks on your tariff… The high end hotels are outside the town, further uphill…

    Roaming around in Pachmadi : The only option is Taxis, which can be hired exclusively for about 1000 bucks a day or shared with someone… There are tickets to enter the common interest points as well, and be prepared to see a lot of honeymooners around the area…

    Piparia to Hoshangabad bus fare : Rs. 50 per head; Travel time around 2 hours…

    Hoshangabad to Bhopal bus fare : Rs. 40 per head; Travel time around 2 hours…

  • The Jungle Kilometres and back to Jabalpur….

    Me and Aro talk a li’il too much when there is no walking around to do… and that means that we sleep late… and we did… Even after more than 24 hours of non stop journey, we still had some time and energy left to argue, get into some last minute fights, plan for the next trip, the next day, and then slept away to glory around midnight….

    We had filled in the forms the previous night to enter the park so did not have much to do in the morning except wake up on time, have a quick cup of tea, and rush to the gypsy which was ready to rock and roll… Manoj was our driver, and he looked like a pretty quiet fella, and he turned out to be one lost character too… too bad, but never mind…

    Good Morning Kanha 🙂

    So we were at the Kisli Gate around 0600 hrs, the main gate had already opened, and we were let in quickly… 3 kms later was the main gate of the park, which is where a route and an essential guide is assigned to the gypsy…. Our park guide for the day was Dinesh Kumar Soni… a young but enthusiastic fella… was ok with admitting that he was in the second layer of the guides, but this enthu and nature made up more than enough for some lack of knowledge… not that we were taking notes anyway…

    The road leading inside the Kanha National Park through the Kisli Gate…

    Kanha is full of Saal Trees… and here is a small point of view about Saal..

    Sau Saal Khada
    Sau Saal Pada
    Sau Saal Sada

    Saal Tree

    Stands for 100 yrs, lies does for another 100 and takes 100 more to decay…

    This is the same tree, wood from which was used to make a base for the railway lines sometime back, which is now replaced by concrete and iron…

    Dinesh Kumar Soni, our guide on day 1

    Manoj Kumar, our Driver…


    So we moved around the park on the route number 10 looking at animals, trees, dust, listening to many birds stopping and moving and stopping and moving…

    Barahsingha and the Spotted Deer…

    Sambhar

    A Spotted deer shooing a Peacock away… A chase of its own kind… was pretty interesting…


    The Indian Gaur (Bison)

    In the center of the park (The Kanha Side) we took a break, had breakfast and also registered for the Tiger Show… At a fee of 100 rs. per head you are taken to a spot where tiger is seen, and then you climb the elephant back and go into the bushes to have a face to face with the jungle CAT….

    Shooting with straight steady hands…

    And with Steady Legs too…


    Gypsys parked inside the Park; This is where we registered for the Tiger Show… The wait at times can be a couple of hours long…

    We did too… and when I saw the tiger, I was hoping that he does not look at me, because I could sense the attitude in his eyes and I was having mixed feelings of excitement, fear, nervousness etc etc… but it was really sad to see how the Elephants were made to chase the tiger to make sure people who have paid get to see the tiger… and this poor animal only kept running around to avoid the crowd.. but then how can we step back… we are known to bully when the other person is backing off… so all the gypsy drivers, the 4 mahauts were after this poor guys life… I only wonder what would happen if the TIGER decides to charge… on second thoughts, this tiger show is generating a lot of revenue for the park which I feel is essential, and is also helping the park give employment to loads of local people around…. I feel a balance is what needs to be made though, these wild cats needs their space and independence and should not be bothered like I saw… it hurts…

    Does this one need a caption?

    People waiting for the tiger to show up… This is near the tiger show spot…

    Our Safari finished by 1200 hrs, and we were back in the resort by 1230 hrs… all covered in dust, the first thing I noticed when I entered the resort was the swimming pool… and I knew what I was going to do next… so a rushed walk to the room, and a even more rushed walk to the pool… and 45 minutes of fun… Even managed to have the hippo who walks like an elephant to take a bath in the pool… And Aro loved it too 😀

    Much needed Sprite after the Safari…

    And Tea…

    Had some real good lunch and slept but not before we planned to get up around 1600 hrs to take a hike into the jungle to a few nearby villages… but we managed to wake up only by 1530 hrs and obviously the plans to walk around were to be canceled…

    Some wild flowers inside the Jungle

    At tea, we met Mr. Pramod Singh who manages Foreign traffic to Kanha and is a active member of loads of wildlife clubs and has been an avid trekker himself… He also suggested that he could join us for the safari next morning, which did sound like a good idea…

    We had tea and got talking to a few people around the resort, one of which was a driver called Dilip, the elder brother of Manoj… Dilip had been around for a while, and that small 30 minute conversation with him was full of many interesting stories about the tigers and other wild cats making rounds of places… it was a very very interesting half hour of the trip… and then he suddenly decided to give us a night safari, and we left the resort around 1900 hrs… and kept driving around till 2130 hrs in the dark… did not see many animals but the sky was obviously wonderful, and the dark interesting…

    Were finally back and decided to eat quickly and call it a day, to wake up early and be the first in the queue. Told Mr. Singh that we would be ready by 0515 hrs…

    So next morning we indeed were ready by 0515 hrs, and left only to realized that we were a li’il too early for the gates to open… We still were the 3rd gypsy in the queue, filled the forms and managed to reach the main Kisli gate around 0545 hrs… I think the route number today was 14… Manoj was at his lost best, and the guide even though knew a lot, was put off by a few remarks made by Mr. Pramod when we started the safari…

    Mr. Pramod Singh… a very knowledgeable man and a avid trekker…

    Highlights of the day were Bisons, some spotted deer, the barking deer, and some foreigners with loads of 1Ds and L Series lenses… I think that group of 4 had 2 EOS 1D each loaded with L series lenses of different focal lengths… phew !!!

    Tall Saal Trees around the jungle…

    Barking Dear oops… Deer 😛

    Langoors eating Soil… Don’t ask me why… I did, and I was told they like it… Yes, it was Soil and not insects in it…

    The second day, Aro and me agreed was more or less of a waste in the jungle… and I guess to compensate we ate like wild animals at lunch… whoever said that eat light when you are traveling may please go to HELL 😀

    The Mahauts in the Jungle… you can see a bag with a Walky Talky used to communicate the location of the Tiger for the Tiger Show

    so a stomach full as full is, and a body not ready to move, we checked out of the Mogli Resorts and rushed to catch the 1330 hrs bus, but only to realize that it had already left… and the next bus was about an hour later…

    This bus ride was also very interesting as expected…

    A Baby Parrot called Mitthu by everyone who saw him in the bus…

    Mitthu eating some Chana out of the hands of his caretaker in the bus… he would happily sleep when the bus was moving, and make loads of noise when it stopped… Cute Kiddie he was…

    We changed the bus at Mandla again, which reach Jabalpur around 2000 hrs with one pitstop at Narainkunj…

    A quick pitstop before Mandla… interesting air blown Angithi at a Tea Shop there…

    Mandla : Local Cinema Poster Man…

    Pitstop @ Narainkunj (About 40 kms from Mandla)

    So here we were in Jabalpur, with an open plan… we could stay back in Jabalpur and go to Duandhar the next morning and then move to Piparia and to Pachmadi (where we planned to stay for the next two days) or we could go to Piparia straightaway and go to Pachmadi the next morning… we knew that Piparia was about 4 hours away by train and decided to take the Overnight express (Jabalpur to Bhopal; leaves Jabalpur @ 2300 hrs and reaches Bhopal at 0615 hrs)…

    We check the availability and then moved to the booking clerk (with the train number this time) who suggested that we could take the ticket from the counter at the station itself in about an hours time… This is when Aro realized that he had dropped his mobile and we rushed to the bus stand only to search the bus without any success… not too good an incident, but we could not really do much about it… so we let it be…

    Came back to the station, took the tickets for the overnight, and then asked one of the guys at the counter about a decent place to have dinner and he was kind enough to walk us to the restaurant… We had our food without much talking as we were pretty tired and were only waiting for the clock to strike 11…

    We finally boarded the train, and found out that the train leaves Piparia at 0230 hrs which was definitely not a convenient time to reach any new station… but the thought of doing something of that sort was exciting enough for us to change our minds anyway… and so we slept… only to be woken up by the kind hearted TC at 0130 hrs ( so about an hour and half of sleep) because the train had already reached Piparia…

    We quickly walked out of the coach thinking that the stoppage was quick there, but looks like the train reached there well before time and was only waiting to leave at its scheduled time… so we sat on the platform bench, thinking if we should sleep on the platform itself ( which honestly did NOT seem to be a bad idea) or walk around and find a hotel… after a lousy cup of tea, some odomos rubbing on the arms to avoid the killer mosquitoes, and some serious thinking later we decided to walk around the town to find a hotel for ourselves 🙂

    Chai Ki Dukaan @ Piparia Station

    It did turn out to be a very good idea because it did not take us much hardships to find a decent, rather more than decent Alka Hotel with an AC room for 400 bucks a night… its a different story that i twisted my ankle bad enough to almost scream in pain in the middle of a desert lane in a town which was sleeping silently at that hour 🙂

    Piparia Station from the Overbridge; You can also see the Overnight Express in the left

    So here we were… Piparia, Hotel Alka, Room number 203, AC on.. and a TV and we talking again.. God when would these conversations finish… I don’t know when I slept and when Aro did, or who slept first… all I remember is waking up the next morning, all fresh and happy happy…

    ……………………………………………………

    Now some travel information

    Safari Costs:
    900 per gypsy (Morning Safari; 0600 hrs to 1200 hrs)
    700 per gypsy( Evening Safari; 1600 hrs to Sunset about 2 hours usually)
    Entry per gypsy : Rs. 650 (500 entry charges + 150 guide fees)
    Gates open 0600 hrs in the morning
    Approximate per night expenditure in Kanha : Rs. 1200 per head to 1800 per head depending on the place you are staying in…
    Kanha to Mandla : Rs. 36
    Mandle to Jabalpur : Rs. 50
    Jabalpur to Piparia ( 3rd AC ) : Rs. 300 something…

    To Do:
    Carry water
    Carry Dust Brush
    Cover Your Camera to save it from the dust when you are not using it
    Enjoy the jungle and the sounds ( They are more then enough to make you fall in love with the place)
    Ask questions (thats what the guide is there for)

    Do Nots
    Avoid Changing lenses ( Carry two cameras instead)
    Avoid throwing stuff on the road or walking on the road except the designated areas
    And blah and blah and blah…

    ……………………………………………..

    What happens the day we wake up in Piparia is pretty interesting… and I am happy it happened the way it happened… so watch this page for more…

    Till then… ROAR !!!!

  • And I did this and I did that…

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    The Heart of India, originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ “FoTo-SoFiCaL” Bhardwaj.

    I traveled in trains, AC and General compartments…
    I traveled in Buses
    I was in a rickshaw, I was in a Jeep, I was in a gypsy, and I walked….


    And for people who don’t know, the above vehicle is referred to as Ganeshji because of its hood looking like the trunk which resembles Ganesha…

    And I saw the world’s highest Shivling, and the world’s third largest Mosque… and rock paintings made about 12000 years ago…

    And I went into a jungle and I saw animals… many 🙂

    And I saw a gully cricket match 🙂 …

    And last but not the least… I loved my trip !!!

    And I think I did not mention this.. the coins in the first picture are arranged on the towns I have visited 🙂 the one on the top (Gwalior) being just a reference point for where I entered the state from…

  • small words big message

    Mom sent me this poem today in email… 🙂

    एक चिडिया के बच्चे चार ,
    घर से निकले पंख पसार ,
    पूरब से पश्चिम हो आये ,
    उत्तर से दक्षिण हो आये ,
    बोले देख लिया हमने जग सारा ,
    अपना घर है सबसे प्यारा

    🙂 🙂 :))

  • Happiness Re-Visited…

    This is what I am missing…


    loads of laughter…
    hills…
    India…

    Thanks Subhadip for clicking a picture I would treasure till my last moments….

    Bro, could you send me the large size of this one.. i stole this one from your blog !!!

    And for the records, this is when we stopped for a break at Rohtang on our way to Leh…

    The video that we made on this trip is one of the best things I have ever seen or heard… thank you Deepak, Subhadip, Ankur, and Anubhav for that rocking trip…

    here are a few more pictures from the trip…









  • You pay more… I pay less…

    Imagine this…

    You go to a monument somewhere in India and go to the ticket counter…

    There are two windows there… which read

    Indians : Rs. 20
    Foreigners : Rs 250

    I would not be very happy to read this… not that i don’t want India to earn more money… not that I did not feel awkward when the foreigner had to pay in $s, but right now its going to be a oranges to oranges differences in the ticket prices… it feels a li’il more embarrasing somehow…

    When I was showing a german friend around Delhi a few years back… it was kind hard answering the questions that she asked about why foreigners have to shell out more money than Indians at so many places? do you have an answer to that, something that I can give to people who ask me about travelling to India and visiting all the grand monuments that we have.

    Also thing like these, also, in a way encourage the street shop owners to charge the tourists more that the actual price of the stuff they are selling? Something that most of the tourists label as cheating?

    Indian authorities have now decided that tourists should now pay in INR instead of $s because the value of rupee is increasing against the $…

    Read more about it here.

    I wonder how it would be when I have to pay £20 for entry to a museum when someone in the UK pays £2… i guess I would never be able to visit anything…

  • WheRe ‘R’ tHe VeGGiES?

    Delhi – a World Class city… and one of the initiatives taken to take the city towards that mark is making a Global Village on the land around the DND ( Delhi NOIDA Delhi Road)…

    How is that happening? here is the process…

    This land was being used for Farming, basically an agricultural land…

    The question here is that who took over the land? Was it acquired by the Govt. or bought directly 1 to 1 from the people…. As per the Land Acquisition Act in our country, the govt. can acquire any land and/or asset for national purpose or development… One of such projects is the development of SEZs where the Govt. Acquires land and then hands them over to the corporates developing the project…

    During one of such acquisitions, the people get compensaton for the land plus the structures if any on the land and the crop… They also get the compensation for an year of income… Also the training for an alternate livelyhood is the responsibility of the Project Sponser…

    Now comes the question that I am struggling with…

    How does the government compensate for the loss of Land? Where do we get alternative land from?

    There is only an “X” amount of agricultural land in India… and everytime one of these projects comes up, some amount reduces from this “X” amount.. hence reducing the amount of land that we have for the farmers…

    Alternative means of income and livelyhood might ensure that the people getting effected continue to live properly… but do we have any alternatives for the soil?
    do we have any alternatives for the vegetables that were once grown on that land?
    do we have any alternatives for the load on nature?

    I guess no… and I am not how many of the people who read this agree to me… but I am not really keen on a situation when we start eating capsules instead of vegetables to match the required nutrition chart, when we start importing food grain instead of having our own…

    All this in the name of infrastructural development and economic growth…

    Is the tradeoff too irrelevent? or are we only looking short term?

    P.s. This post is not about just one piece of land near the DND… this is about all the agricultural land which are loosing out on, slowly but surely…

    Thanks a ton Bindiya for the time spent in talking to me about this and giving me more information…