Dalhousie Mcleodganj Dharamshala Tour

We had been planning for the Dharamshala trip for a long time. Finally after a long wait, this great trip came true. We started our journey with 8.

Day 1 :
We reached from Anand Vihar station to Chakki Bank station in morning. We hired a 8 seater tavera from there in 9000 rupees to have tour of Mcleodganj , Dharamshala and Dalhousie. We went to Meclodganj first from Chakkibank. It was afternoon when we reached Bhagsu. After looking few hotels we finally got a hotel of all choice. In the evening we went to Bhagsu waterfall.After having about 2 KM of walking up the to the hill,waterfall was enormous and awesome.
                                              Bhagsu Waterfall

Though the water was very cold, most of the tourists were enjoying the fall like water park. One of us was very keen to attend the night party full of girls, liquor and smoking. But he failed as party was already over in last night. So he and some other friends went to disc. In morning we were ahead to Naddi.

Day 2:
In Naddi it was nice view of mountains and hills. Our group had a great photo-shoot.
                                            Naddi's panoramic veiw  

 A panoramic view was there. We enjoyed breakfast of parathas there. A range of mountains were beautiful. After Naddi we moved to Dharmshala. There was good population out there. We had a tour of Monastery, fortunately Lama was there at that day. We lighted the 'Diyas' (10 Rs per Diya :P). It was a nice experience. After there we were ahead to Dalhousie. As soon as we were heading to Dalhousie it was higher than the previous. Most of the road part was inside the cant area. We booked a suit for night. From the hotel the night view was really good in moon light. We enjoyed the market rush there. We took our dinner at a Nepali restaurant.

Day 3:
In morning we went to Dainkund. It was near to Army base.
                                                     Dainkund

 

It had the highest altitude we ever had in our trip, about 3000m. We had great time there. A lot of people were there, from colleges, families everywhere.
                                                       Khajjiar

 After we spent our rest of the day in Khajjiar so called Switzerland of India. It was nice but not that much attractive like we found Dainkund.Though we had plan for zoo, but failed because of some misunderstandings.
Finally we were on way back to Delhi from Chakkibank.

Really a nice trip we had. In the December - January month Dharamshala is jeweled with silver colored snow.

Jodhpur - Mount Abu - Udaipur

This time we planned for Rajasthan again,but not for a day.This trip was of three days. We decided to travel Jodhpur,Mount Abu and Udaipur there sequence. We five left Delhi on Saturday[18/02/2012] for Rajasthan by Mandore Express.I am narrating the three day tour of  Rajasthan.

Day-1 ,Sunday[19/02/2012]:- Train was approximately 2 hours late. So we reached Jodhpur around 9 A.M. We went to hotel SandDunes nearby the station. 

                                            Ummed Bhavan Palace - I

                                             Ummed Bhavan Palace - II

Firstly we went Ummed Bhavan Palace having good interiors and museum .

                                    Aerial View of Jodhpur the Blue City

                                               Mehran Garh Fort

After that Mehran Garh, from where the glimpse of Blue City was watchable. 

                                                  Jaswant Theda

Then Jaswant Theda the so called Taj Mahal of West was also attractive.

                                                   Mandore Fort

Mandore Fort was waste of time as most of the part was dirty and rest of the part was under construction.

                                                   Massuria Hill

                               Aerial view of Jodhpur from Massuria Hill

 

In the last Massuria Hill. From Massuria Hills the city's aerial view in the evening was soothing.Overall it was a great day of our trip.

Day-2 ,Monday[20/02/2012]:-From our hotel we left at 4:30 A.M. for Mount Abu. Here we covered following points:-

                                                    Nakki Lake - I

                                                      Nakki Lake - II

                                                      Nakki Lake - III

Nakki Lake where boating could be done but was relatively costlier.There was nice surrounding of hills.Apart from the boating there was horse riding and shops having traditional outfits. 

                                                Dilwara Jain Temple

 

We went to Dilwara Jain Temple which was maintained well and had great architect.

After that we went to a Jain Temple of Bhagwan dattatreya. 

                                               Devi's Temple on Hill

 

It was on a great height.Above that there was another temple of a Goddess. Cool breeze was on its height.

                                              Observatory on Hill

There was an observatory on the next hill and was not open for public.Brahma Kumari Peace park good and had a small workshop  too. 

                                                    Sunset Point

 

Sunset Point was not the spot we had heard of. Since it was completely ignored by the tourism officials. It was full of scarps and dirt. We waited for the sunset from about 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. It was caped with tourists at the time of sunset.
After we were done with Mount Abu we left for Udaipur in evening. We reached Udaipur around 10:30 P.M. and booked two rooms in a economy luxury hotel :) . We then slept after dinner as we had plans for morning.

Day-3 ,Tuesday[21/02/2012]:- Thank to alarms in our mobile phones who made us wake up.It was Mahashivaratri and we went the Shiva Temple near to our hotel.

                                                   Rope-way

There was rope-way but not much fascinating like we enjoyed in Rishikesh.

                                                      Udaipur Palace

So from there we moved ahead to Udaipur Palace or City Palace.This was very nice palace after the Sumedh Palace.

                                                  Near Udaipur Palace

The Palace was giant and beautiful as well.After the palace we went Fateh Sagar Lake .There we also enjoyed camel ride. 

                                                     Saheliyo ki Baadi

There was a way to the Saheliyo ki Baadi by boat which was basically a park surrounded by water.  

                                                   Sajjan Garh Fort

Finally we went Sajjan Garh.From there the aerial view of the whole Udaipur city was great.We reached Udaipur railway station at 4:30 P.M.  Train timing was 5:20 P.M.
So guys that was the end of the remarkable Rajasthan trip.

Trip to Amritsar

Planning :-
After a long time I planned for a trip. Me and my friends planned for Amritsar, one of the a spiritual and cultural center of country. We werethree and trip duration was a day. We targeted three major checkpoints
of our trip.Golden temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Indo-Pak border known as Bagha Border.

Saturday night:- We traveled by train.It was Tata Jammu Tavi Exp.Its scheduled time was 10:00 PM.Thanks to our Indian railways, train was 2 hours late. We got a lot of time to walk around Delhi railway station. We went to hair saloon. Then enjoyed McDonalds burger ,french fries and cold drink.

Sunday Morning  (The judgement day :P) :- We reached Amritsar railway station at 9:00 AM. We hired an auto for Rs. 500. Auto driver told us that there were also some temples around to see. 

We went Vaishno Devi Temple where there was artificial cave and all god and goddess of four major dhams. 

 We also went to Durga Mandir. It was built in vast area.

Then we reached to Golden Temple.It was Sunday so there were a lot of people there.

Golden temple has great grace and glory as i had heard earlier. The management of temple was terrific. We had a good lunch there in Langar. It was well managed process. 

Then we went to Jallianwala Bagh, it was not far from the Golden Temple.There were signs of the bullet, well,monument and Amar Jyoti (powered by Indian Oil :P).
We finished things on 2:00 PM for Bagha Border  function. Around 2:30 PM we left for Bagha Border. It was near 30 Kms from the city.This took 1 hours , I guess. 

Bagha border was a nice experience. There was a border having a gate and the two sides had two naghbour contries. There were people from Pakistan opposite to us. There were songs for the country. Loud voices of "Hindustan Zindabad" ,"Vande Matram"from our side and "Jhule Jhule Pakistan" and some Urdu slogans from Pakistan side. There were school girls having Tiranga in their hands running towards the gate. Group dance was also there from our side on famous patriotic songs.I couldn't see that kind of enthusiasm from Pakistan.Then there was combined march of the two countries in center and bringing the national flags down after sunset simultaneously.

Sunday Night:- We got ample time since we were done on 7:00 PM and the return train was after two and half hours.We walked in market front of the Railway station. Then we had our dinner in "Pahalwan di Dhaba". After having dinner to our heart content we were in our train "Golden Temple Exp." which was right on the time.

Monday Morning:- Though train started right in night but reached "Hazrat Nijamuddin Station" 2 hours
late.Bingo again 2 hours. A great one day trip was over and we were back to the daily action.

University Of Allahabad : Students and Officials

Friends, we are having some drizzling news by electronic media and print media about mishap between students and officials in Allahabad University. News which are late as well as masqueraded . Masqueraded in the sense that the route of the problem is a thing which is never disclosed.The conflict has taken place in Allahabad University had just one issue of evacuating all the university hostels immediately after the exams for the ongoing academic session get over.

Against the decision students were on a peaceful strike.On 26th April 2012 there was dead face of democracy since tear gas, bombs,batons and air firing were used by police on the students to suppress their voice.University officials are saying that eviction of hostelers is mandatory to get rid of illegal students in Allahabad University.

Here are some of mine views on this issue:-

• It is responsibility of the officials to keep a record of Students whether they have paid the hostel fee properly that is to identify the illegal students. Now officials are blindly evacuating all the hostels irrespective of the records.
• Allahabad University is a central university and has students from remote and distant areas of the country. So in this short period of notice how can they search new rooms, P.G. or private hostel .In that case just imagine the security issues of the girls.
• Upcoming months are packed with the competitive exams for most of the students.In such situations those students can pay summer fee since there is proper provision of that in the university. In spite of that if such bureaucracy will be shown by the officials then there would be worst effects on student's preparation. 
• Officials are talking about filing FIR and taking strict administrative steps against students. Had they ever thought to visit the students who were beaten abruptly till unconsciousness. Not just boys but girls were also beaten and treated roughly.What a brave persons were there in police/force who fought the unarmed country's future.Bravo !
•  This misery is about two weeks old but during high level involvement ,media didn't raise their voice and now news are having statements of the officials blaming students only. There are photographs of a burning bus but not a single photograph of police taking charge on helpless students or students admitted to the hospitals. Some of them are seriously injured.
• Student union was already dissolved by the officials. Though the student union has always been a moot point, but in such cases there is no any strong representative of the students voice.

The Social Network

Today there are very few jems who are not familiar with the social networking like facebook,orkut and twitter. Social networking sites are like raising fever among youth. Not only youth but people from all age group are active on social networking sites.These sites helped alot in many ways like you can share your views, remain in contact with your friends who are far from you worldwide.It also helped to create groups and corporate links.We can't forget the success of "India Against Corruption" movement in India and other such campaigns via social sites.People raise their voice against unacceptable governmental decisions and statements through messages, cartoons and various means.Meanwhile Indian government asked social sites to stop such activities. This shows the power and the reach-ability of these sites. For such interests these social sites are the web market giants, now leaving search engines and popular sites behind.
Now lets have some other aspects of the social networking sites.

In early days friends used to meet before the invention of the phone. Then meetings got shortened in the shadow of the text messaging and phone calls.We don't try to meet our friends as its easier to poke or post something at his wall.

Now the situation is that social networking on web created a virtual world which contain some known buddies while a most of them strangers. One does not know the other but they used to talk for whole day and night. A person can be quite different in reality from  itself when he is logged in and chatting. 

More than half of the accounts are fake on the social sites which create a mess.

Now days teenagers are well known of the social sites and the internet.They are adicted to social sites and they are lacking their interest in study and other activities.

Lets hope for the best outcomes from this culture.

Thank you for smoking ...

It was a chill Sunday of January month in Allahabad. Alfred Park, which is well known as Company Garden in Allahabad, had visitors. Most of them were frequent and regular. Visitors were from different age groups, status and communities. They all come to have some physical exercises which include walking, running, jumping, jogging etc. A good percent of them were facing disease like diabetes, high/low blood pressure and excess of weight. Among all the mentioned diseases, the interesting one is the excess of weight. The person had worked hard to gain the excess of weight unknowingly. He had attended too many parties of marriage, birthdays and other occasions in past days. Now he is paying interest for the hard work. There were children enjoying the baby rides and green rush lawn.

            There was a track somehow like a gallery having bushes on both sides. That particular part of the park had not that much people. A person of about 35 years old was busy in walking on the running track. He was smoking cigarette and also enjoying some rock music on his smart phone. A boy of around 10 years old was also walking on the track behind the person. The boy was on few meters distance. When the smoke came to the boy, he tried to stop the person from there by a shout. Since the person was lost in the loud music, the shout resulted nothing.The boy was not feeling comfortable. He started to run to his power. Very soon he had overtaken the person. After he reached to a reasonable distance from the person, he stopped. The Person had finished his cigarette, and sat on a bench .He also stopped the music. Then a conversation started between the Boy and the Person.

The boy: “Thank you Sir!” .The Person was confused and thought for a second. The person: “Why are you thanking me?” .The boy: “Sir you inspired me to become a great runner of the future.” The person: “How did I inspire you to be a runner?”  .The Boy: “Before today I was just a slow walker. But after having smell of your power smoke, I have to be fast like a runner to overtake the cigarette smoke!” The Boy added: “May be In future I shall win a Gold medal for my Country if I follow you for next few years. It’s all because of your smoking. I don’t know what benefit and in what way you are getting by smoking but a warm thanks from me to you”. The Boy smiled, shook the hand and went from there. The person was like statue. He was feeling all the heat, tobacco and smoke he had gained through out his life by smoking. He also realized the person who suffered less or more by his smoking. He had injured his health as well as his friends and other known ones.

India against India

I read about the campaign “India against corruption”. I think it’s more like “India against India”. The one fed up with corruption from root to top in country and the one enjoying the power in hands and black money in pockets. Corruption in India involves mammoth money and accused persons are on high responsible posts. It is interesting to see this debacle. 

A country is not just a country it is a well defined system. We all are part of this system. A citizen is the unit of the country. A person sitting on a responsible post is elected by us and is one of us. If he is corrupt then the respective system is corrupt. If you are eligible and haven’t voted then you have no right to blame the person. Today if you are giving bribe to some officer to process your application faster; tomorrow when you will be there, most probably you will do the same. If Anna Hazare’s effort brings Jan Lokpal Bill in India, then the persons in the Jan Lokpal will also be one of us. Are you sure that they will not be corrupted? So just making bills and laws is not the complete solution. To make them running effectively is in hand of respective responsible person, which is one us. So this time demands to check ourselves. A Country develops as its countrymen want to develop it. Participate honestly to build the nation.

Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra Trip

Here is another trip, again targeted for a day. This time we planned to have a trip in Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra. Planning & Planning :- We booked a cab from Delhi to pick up at Sultanpur Metro station on Sunday.It was innova (6+1) seats. Its cost was around 5600 Rs.Five of us were sure to go but
the sixth slot was ambiguous.In late night we were 7 persons ready to go.Further i am describing interesting summary of the whole trip:-
3:00 AM to 8:00 AM :- We woke up in morning at 3 o'clock.Three persons from Sultanpur got ready till 4:30.We had to pick up the seventh man from Gurgaon.He reached there by bike in early morning.We firstly went to pick two guys from IFFCO colony.But we were shocked when we saw three person coming out of the flat.Hence we had 8 persons then.We thought about the comfort and the management of cab then we simply asked the new one to go back to the flat.We Picked the friend on bike.Then the driver told
that he might be fined for boarding seven persons in a 6+1 seated cab.
I made my mind to sacrifice the trip.I gave the excuse of sleeping and washing my clothes.Another friend was also tried the same.With full of turn and twists third friend from Sultanpur sacrified the trip.Finally we six left Delhi at 5:00 AM.We reached the Vrindavan at 8:00 AM. We stopped at a tea shop and enjoyed the tea.It was very killer kind of cold there.

8:00 AM to 3:00 PM :-Then we went to "iskcon temple". It was early morning and the floor of marbles were like ice slabs.One of our friend met his college friend there coincidentally. After that we went to Banke-Bihari temple where the prayer was on the way. After that we reached to Krishna-Janm-Bhumi.

We also tried to visit to Dwarikadhish Temple but its door were closed as we were late.We were tired and hungry too.

3:00PM to 6:00 PM :-It was about 3'oclock and we were hungry then we took lunch in a luxury hotel (:P) .
After having lunch in Agra we were in line to the gate of great Taj Mahal.

It took about 2 or more hours in Taj as there were a lot tourists there on Sunday.  After having fun and most importantly pics we bought "Agra ka Petha" while returning.

It was a great trip to remember.

The Air Hostess

In today’s world a person has to be compromising. Sometimes things are to be dealt in a manner which you are not comfortable with. I remember a small incident and from where I get this thought.

There was a private airways training center in my office's building. Most of the time air hostesses were there around the building. One day I was coming to the office in the morning. I was in hurry since there could be late. While moving forward to the building’s stairs, I saw an air hostess along with me. She was in more hurry than me. She crossed me and after 3 or 4 meters distances she stopped near a slab where the people used to sit in spare time. She took out a plastic- bag from her purse. Then she took off here comfortable sandals and put on the high heeled, very acrobatic and probably uncomfortable sandals form plastic – bag. She put her old sandals in the bag and then ran towards the lift. Though this incident seems sort of stupid to write it in a post but I found it significant. 

I thought that though she doesn’t feel comfortable in those high heel fashioned sandals, but she had to compromise since its the part of her job. Most of the time you have to be as situation demands. That’s the life my friends.

Student’s suicide in colleges

We frequently hear the news of suicide cases of student. It’s very sad and socking as well. The recent incident of first year student of IIT K has raised a bulk of questions. First think about the major causes behind suicide of students. In most of the cases, causes are like academic performance, love affairs and some times homesickness. These are too vast issues to be covered; but I will try.

Academic performance includes bad academic results. If we talk about institutes like IIT, NIT; when a student joins the institute and in academics he does average performance or below average, it may hurt him deeply as he used to be a bright and high lighted scholar in his school time. Then he takes pressure and underestimates himself which may lead to suicide. This time student must understand the situation, life does not end once you fall, and you will do better in next exam for sure if you give yourself a chance. Heavy academic load may also be there. Our education system fails to teach how to face real life situations while it compels the student to die.  

Love affairs are also one of the reasons. Students take it very seriously and decide to terminate themselves. Student just thinks of the lover and does not think much about his parents and family who also love him. What will happen to them and what they will feel? His mother who used to cry even he was in fever. His father who used to worried when he was late from coaching. Just one person’s love lead him to forget the love he got form his parents for all his life. What a respect he pays to his parents.  

Homesickness may also cause a suicide of student though it is less frequent. Student feels very lonely and depressed when he comes far from his home and parents. Some times this depression takes student toward suicide. Here the parents should be in touch of the student if he is missing them. If possible parents should teach their children to be independent also. Student should also feel free to his friends at least few friends to whom he can share his talks. This will work fine.

There may be also other reasons which I haven't covered. But in nut shell I say “Life is precious, there may be sorrow one day but will be happiness other day”. If you end your life you will have nothing except an end.

A True Story

It was Friday evening at Chandani Chowk. Every body was in hurry. Market was busy like hell.Three friends were there just for outing.One of them was watching a girl to the next shop. She was with her friends.She was very pretty.

Girls had sixth sense. She knew that the boy was at looking her. She told her friends. But they told her to ignore him. Store had good collection of garments, she tried to ignore and kept on bargaining and selecting items. The boy's friends told him to meet them somewhere outside the market and left him. Boy was pretending that he was not staring the girl. After 30 min the girl left the shop and came out of the market area. Boy was still following her, making a proper distance. The girl got irritated and asked her friends to move fast. It started cat and dog just at that moment. They went to metro station, at there boy missed the girl in  stampede like situation. 

The boy was searching the girl on metro station after some five to seven minutes he saw her friends there. Finally he saw the girl. She was sitting alone. He went near the girl. As soon as the girl saw him. She scolded on him abruptly. Mean while the boy didn't get the chance to say anything. When girl stopped. Boy gave her credit card. He told that she had dropped it from her purse, in market.

She was in dilemma, what to say now. She was angry as the boy was following her and he was also following her to helped her. After few moments she said sorry to him. The boy welcomed her and went back to his friends.

Haridwar - Rishikesh Trip

It was the 9^th day of April, when we were going for Haridwar-Rishikesh trip. We  started travelling by train in late evening and reached Haridwar on 10th April at morning.The morning was quite cold as we were not ready for such a chill weather, we just wraped ourselves with clothes.

We searched for a “dhramshala” for 1-2 hrs. Here we came to know that why tourists in India  are forced to accept “thagi”. Everyone there has his own business, they have no need to search job outside, because for them money flow is coming automatically, only they have to set up the business and grab the money. So that is good for living purpose, as people are close to their family so they have forced to have some morality aspect with them.
                                                  Neer Water Fall

                                                       

So As we had already opted for travel package, we went to our contractor and after that we moved with guide for trekking, we went to see waterfall, it was nice .

                                                        Camping

 

After that we went for rappelling and at the end of first day the camping. So it was nice to spend time near to bank of Ganga. It was really a very awesome scene with awesome feelings. In evening and late evening we enjoyed there, there was bonfire which we enjoyed. One of our friend choose a girl named Nitika, he tried to flirt with her, but didn’t get enough time with her. Although we enjoyed that all. After that we had lanterns in front of our camps. Camps were nice and as we  had chat till late night and as we felt  cold we slept.
                                                       Rock Climbing

Next day on 11th April we have to go for rafting the river rafting. We had thought that it was just an event which we had to do, not too much excited. We were lucky that day that we got good company of a Denmark Girl, one sailor from Laddakh, and one local sailor cum guide. All persons were humorous and they made river rafting the best event of trip. There was very good scenes around us, we were enjoying body surfing in Ganga and there were some good rapids having interesting names like "Black Money", "Double Trouble" ,"Roller Coaster","Hilton & Terminator" which made us feel the power of water. We enjoyed that too much. Besides that exciting event of cliff jumping was awesome. Everything was awesome.
                                                    Tapovan Resort

After completing we went a high class Resort, where we took a long rest. We checked out the resort  in mid of the day on 12th April.We came to Haridwar and rested in a cheap but  a good hotel.Although we were missing our one friend and thinking if he would have been there then we have no time to rest. But as he was not there with us, we had taken rest. The rest was too long we rested till next afternoon.
                                                     Hari Ki Paudi

                                                      Mansa Devi Temple

After noon we moved to “Har ki paidi” and “rope way to Mansa Devi mandir”. Both were good, noting special which I have to describe.

After that we moved to the Haridwar railway station, where we techies were not able to search our platform, that really made us laugh on system and on ourselves. After that we slept for few hours and reached in night back at home.In the morning all of us were tired .

But at the end it was a nice trip indeed.