While on Travel....

November 2004... We landed in Baroda at 3.00 am....thanks to my cousin who took the pain to pick us and get us home to his place. Baroda has changed.........looks more like a metropolis (not as bad as Mumbai tho') Our bus ride from Baroda to Ahmedabad was quick.....three cheers to Vajpayeeji!!!...the express way couldn't have been better. Ahmedabad dint meet our expectations.........highly polluted and sickening...our eyes were watering. We spent the evening at Mc Donalds (the most familiar and comfortable place we could find). Were we relieved to get out of Ahmedabad?! The journey from Ahmedabad to Jodhpur was comfortable(except that I got tossed around easily like a lone noodle in a pan). Began at 9.45 pm on 9th Nov and we reached Jodhpur at 5.00 am. Toured around the place Jodhpur - the blue city. All houses here are painted blue. The story goes that the paint containing a pesticide was used in the good old days to ward off insects, and this was

"Known as the Tahiti of Konkan" We took this trip in 2004. It was a weekend trip in the month of January. Taarkarli is a virgin beach on the Konkan coast, a few hundred kilometers befo re one hits Goa. It takes ~8 hrs by road to get there. We however opted for a ~6 hr train journey to Kudal and an hour and a half drive down to Taarkarli. The road journey is through the villages and offers a flavour of the native culture, homes, people whilst getting there. We stayed at the MTDC " Konkan huts", as the cot tages are fondly referre d to. The cottages are ~60 in no. , each complete with a hammock and a palm tree by its' side. We landed there at around 10.00 am, refreshed ours elves, got into swimwea r and walked right to the ocean, which is only a few steps from the cottages. After a refreshing bath, we lay in our hammocks with a book and the quiet sea breeze and graceful waves making it to the shores; for company. The food, is made to order. It is best therefore

" A dream becomes reality" With few words to express the ephemeral, unreal, celestial experience, I choose to resort to my normal style of writing, which is "dramatic". However no words could do justice to what we experienced........you gotto be there to believe it! In the month of August 2005, after having always had to sadly let go the idea at the last minute, on account of several reasons, we managed to embark on our journey to the beautiful land. We were in all 29 ppl (yes that includes us).We had for company, a small group of photographers, doctors, architects and.....corporate zombies like ourselves. The last few weeks had aroused many anxieties, owing to the relentless rainfall paralysing the city and it's rail services, and also owing to the past experiences of having to cancel the trip at the last minute.....we were to say the least 'simply hopeful' The rain Gods blessed us......the waters had subsided allowing us to carry on with our "miss

"The hilly lake town" Away from the humdrum of city life, lies the town of Nainital amongst the hills in Uttaranchal. Nainital , they say, was home to Jim Corbett. As always, in India, for every monument/ landmark that exists, there is a legend, mythology or history to support its existence :) "Naini" tal gets its name from the "eye of Sati". As the tale goes, Sati, the first wife of Lord Shiva burnt herself in a pyre to avenge the insult that her father inflicted on her beloved, Lord Shiva. While she burnt herself, Lord Shiva tried to rescue her, and helplessly carried her burning body through Bharat ( India ). Her eye (hindi : nain), they say, fell where the Naini lake stands today. Nainital is situated at ~6270 ft above sea level. The day we arrived, we were in for a surprise. We experienced a downpour, like in Mumbai. However, we were here to holiday and not to sit indoors wondering about clogged drains and rivers running over danger marks (li