Remembering Ladakh: The Glorious Sunsets

One of the most magical places I have ever visited is the Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir. Getting there is tough. But once you reach there, it is paradise. This picture was taken on our second day in Ladakh.



This is also from the same day as above, only I turned in a different direction from where I took the first picture. I was sitting at a high up place near the main monestary in the city and taking these shots. When I look at these photos, there is a strong urge to go back to Ladakh. But it won't happen this year. Maybe next year we will visit the place again.



And this one was taken on the day before our departure, quite late in the evening. Near the bus stand there us a sports field and next to it is this temple.

I am so sitten by Ladakh that I recommend it to everyone, it is a must see destination in India. And the raods generally open in June. So what are you waiting for?

My First Post at Global Voices Online

I first heard about Global Voices Online during the IIPM discussions. When I tried to find out what it is this section was helpful..

Q: What is Global Voices?

Global Voices Online serves as the hub for an international community of bloggers who want to communicate with the broader world. Its main components are a blog, wiki, and aggregator of international blogs.

For more detailed information see our about page.

Q: Who runs Global Voices?

Global Voices Online lives on a server run by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, which is a research think-tank focusing on the future of the internet and its impact on all aspects of human society. We’re based at Harvard University’s Law School.

It was started by two of the Berkman Center’s research fellows, technologist and Africa expert Ethan Zuckerman and former CNN journalist and Asia expert, Rebecca MacKinnon. Increasingly, Global Voices is driven by bloggers around the world. For a list of our editorial team of global bloggers, please see our About Page. Our full list of contributors can be found in the right hand column of our front page.

Here is my first post at the site and what else it could have been but travel.

Check this out!

25peeps.com

World Cup Widows?

Switzerland Tourist has an interesting idea. They want to woo the bored women while their partenrs/husbands are glued to the television sets. I saw the story at BBC website:

The Swiss Tourist Board hopes scenes of bare-chested hunks tossing hay in mountain valleys will entice women dreading a summer of World Cup boredom.

While husbands are glued to television sets, Switzerland has a whole lot more to offer, suggests the TV advert.

A swarthy mountaineer gives a steamy look, while Mr Switzerland 2005 gently milks a cow's udders and a voice asks:

"Ladies, why don't you spend this summer in Switzerland, where men focus less on football and more on you?"

You can see the ad from the tourism board site!

Connaught Place II

This is the second part of my photos from Connaught Place (or what is officially called as Rajeev Chowk now) area in New Delhi.


I remember, a few years back, H and I were roaming in the CP area and we went into this restaurant, Gaylord, thinking it would be the usual Delhi fare. Inside, almost everyone was a foreigner and after looking at the prices, we just walked out! I thought I would click a picture at least, this time.

Being a Sunday, ost of the shops were closed but the sidewalks were busy as ever. One could take the weight at this man's machine (the small red object on the ground) for rupee one! Don't ask what my weight is!

You have choice! 50 paise for a glass of water (though watch out for the medical bill after the glass of water) or 15 rupees for a cup of coffee!

H asked me to take the picture of this music shop, as it is a rarity in Delhi. It was a pity it was closed.

Anything for a living. Most of the people go quite far to try and make an honest living.

Such a long journey home!

Connaught Place or Rajeev Chowk: What is there in a Name?

I hate going out on a Sunday particularly when I had a working Saturday. But this time our dear friends were in Delhi just for a day and we decided to meet them in CP. H always manages not to drive, so I did all the driving too.

While we were waiting for them near Regal, I as usual started clicking pictures. After a heavy dose of malls, it feels nice to stand out in the open. I parked my car quite near the Madras Coffee house.

This lady was spreading here stuff quite next to the Regal Cinema and clicked her picture from quite some distance.

This was some cheesy movie, running four shows in Regal. People gave me quite some glances while I was clicking this snap.

Road site stalls selling ties and cell phone covers, compete with swank shops.

The landmark LIC building in the Connaught Place.

When in India, you will find some sings promising a spiritual journey, frankly I am quite skeptical.

We finally had lunch in Quality and the pigeon you can see at the top is real.

I will be doing a part II soon, I have many more snaps from the area.

Comesum Cafe: Indian Railways sees Light at Nizamuddin Railway Station

For quite some time, if you were catching a train from the Old Delhi Railway Station or Nizamuddin Railway Station, it was impossible to find a decent eating joint. I remember on many trips we either packed something from home (both of us are bad cooks) or ate in dhabas (I like eating in dhabas) but they were at least a kilometer away from the station, or so it seemed on an empty stomach and pollution filled eyes.

Then suddenly on one trip (I have forgotten which one, Oh! it was to Bangalore, now I remember after writing a few more lines) I saw a proper eating joint that you can see in the picture. Now this is a great idea. The place is always full whenever I went there and the food is quite decent and prices reasonable. On my trip to Bharatpur, I had a coffee and a rawa masala dosa. There are so many people traveling by trains that it makes great sense to have places like this. I wonder what took the Indian Railways to come up with one?

More on the cafe from Rediff.

Question and Answers

Questions and the freedom to answer them.

My next post is definitely going to be about travel.

Everything Else!

I finally decided to start a separate blog for everything else that I want to write about an let my travel blog remain a travel blog. But travel tales is my most read blog so you will have to suffer these occassional links to my other posts here.

Traffic Jam: On the Way to Office

I started fresh in the morning for work. As I put the songs of Arth (an old Hindi movie's songs) in the music system, Jagjit Singh crooned ‘tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, kya gam kai jisko chupa rahe ho’ (very difficult to translate this one in English, so I let it go). I hummed along (and I am very bad at it, totally off key) thinking within no time I will reach my workplace. How mistaken I was! For 28 out of 30 days of a month, I usually get a smooth ride (by Indian conditions) to work but for the two other days, it can be hell. Today was one of those days and I am glad I had my camera with me.

What happens is this, that at a place we people have to take a turn right and the traffic from the right try to go the other way. There are huge call centre and software office’s contract buses trying to go and come out and at times they stand in front of each-other. Then people start trying to go from the wrong side and within no time it is a gridlock.

The two cars here are trying to take a right and the Temo guy has entered from the wrong side, and no one can go anywhere! I am sitting behind the white car, clicking my camera and trying to pass time.

Dam le le ghari bhar musafir Jaayega Kahan?

The bus and the motorcycle guy both are on the wrong side. The guy in grey Santo (on the right) finally started getting angry and twisted his wheels to block the motorcycle guy. I try to stay cool by switching on the AC for a short while, but then switch it off, after all how much petrol can I burn, sitting in this gridlock? By now I am getting late for the office but no one really bothers you here, and I anyway rarely get late, so no major hassels for me.

The cap that we all are waiting for is finally visible. Fron nowhere this guy in uniform materializes and it raises our hope that finally things will start moving.

The guy in the bule shirt pleaded with the traffic police to get him out of the jam first, but the cop said he had to wait just for a while, there was a big bus obstructing his side and it will take some time to sort it out. The guy immdeiately started explaining furiously something in his cell phone. But after a short while, with the help of this angel cop, I could finally take the turn and reach my office within five minutes.

Uncle-Nephew Duo Doing Some Excellent Posts!

I enjoyed Dilip's blog article more than his DNA article.

Then he had this excellent observation about ahem IIPM.

Then Anirudh has this wonderful post on importance of asking questions (I stand corrected Anirudh). Read it here.

But I should probably be giving you a link to Carol Gracias. After all, it has the highest number of votes at IndianPad.

Primary School Kids in a Bus: How Safe it is?

One of these days, I was driving on NH 8 in the afternoon. In front of me, there was a school bus full of primary school children. They look really small and cute. The kids standing at the back kept waving at me and I too smiled and waved back. Though I never used to go to school by bus, it still brought back fond memories.

Now imagine someone, a conductor, a cleaner among them who is capable of physically abusing the kids! Dimag ki dahi jam jati hai soch kar bhi. No, this did not occur to me on my own. But if I imagine that bus full of small kids and if I am given this scenario, it leaves me cold and numb. Yet given the world we live in, it seems entirely possible.

In fact, it is happening to one of the kids in Delhi. She is primary school student and she travels by bus. One fine day she comes back and tells her guardian that she does not want to go school anymore. She studies in one Bal Bharati school in Delhi, don’t ask me which one, cause I don’t know. When the guardian probes she is aghast to find that the kid is being ill treated. She confronts the conductor as a first step and he turns belligerent after a while.

I do not know as of now what came out of the talks with the headmistress/headmaster of the school. But I really really wonder how do schools let a bus full of kids unsupervised? Even with supervision I may not feel confident to let my ward travel in a school bus for small kids but without supervision, I would see murder.

* I would keep updating this post, as I get more information.

Rajdhani Hotel, Bharmour, Himanchal Pradesh, India

It has been such a long time since I traveled anywhere. My last trip was to Bharatpur this January and before that to Bharmour in December 2005. Nothing seems possible before June now. Before I travel next, what I want to tell is the tale of a hotel from Bharmour.

When we arrived in Bharmour one cold December afternoon, we had no idea where to stay. We were depending on the friendly tout (who turn out to not so friendly at occasions) to direct us to a hotel. When we stepped down the bus, we were the only tourist around (the joys of traveling in the off-season to otherwise crowded places in India) and nobody could have cared less. There were just two roads leading into the sleepy town and we randomly selected one. It took us to this beautiful Chaurasi Temple complex.

The Chaurasi Temple Complex

A group of men were having tea near the entrance and H asked them to suggest a hotel room. They pointed out to a building across the road and sent someone in search of the owner. After 15 minutes a young lad came with the keys and my husband went to have a look. We do not look for luxury when it comes to hotel rooms in 'off the beaten track' places but H knows what bare minimum I expect (and that is just one thing, the room should not stink) and this one did not pass the test.

We were told that the Rajdhani Hotel is the best in town and with one person guiding us through shortcuts we headed towards it. However, when we reached the place it was locked and there was not a soul around. After waiting for quite sometime we became impatient and decided to try another place. Our guide took us to a tea house (Dhaba) that rented out a few rooms too. I was not too happy with it (for one, it has no attached baths) but for the time being we decided to dump our luggage there and stuff a few parathas at a dhaba across the road. The owner of that place started chatting with us and we were lamenting the lack of a proper room when suddenly another member having tea there identified himself as the owner of the Rajdhani Hotel! We told him we wanted a room at his place. He was reluctant; he didn’t want to be seen as stealing business from his fellow folks. We assured him we would pay the lady one days rent (it was a pittance by city standards) and then move.

The Rajdhani Hotel

We later moved to the Rajdhani Hotel and we were the only guests. The place had hot water and a basic clean room. But it also gave us something free. We did not feel its presence the first day. Then we left for Hadsar. When we came back to Rajdhani hotel again, H got up that night and put our bag inside the cupboard, telling me there was something in the room. I was too sleepy to pay him much attention. When I woke up in the morning, I asked him where our bag has vanished. He reminded me to look in the cupboard and as soon as I opened it, a mouse leaped out of it. H had packed the bag along with the mouse inside the cupboard. I am scared stiff of anything that moves on four or more legs (or without legs, sometimes even of what moves on two legs or a few wheels too) and it jolted me wide awake. The idea that the creature had a free time inside our clothes and stuff did not leave me amused but there was not much I could do. Given the penchant for the kind of the places we visit, I think I will meet one of its folks somewhere again.