Taj Mahal, Agra: Shatabdi to Shatabdi One Day Trip

Taj Mahal! Surely my words are inadequate to describe the beauty of the monument. So, I won’t even try. I will restrict myself to the more mundane aspects of getting there on a day trip from Delhi and coming back in one single piece.

We, my two teenaged monkey nephews and I, decided to do a day trip to Agra to spend sometime at the Taj Mahal and Agra fort (Sesha, my husband, still refuses to visit any place that does not has the Himalayas in the background).

We did what is known as a ‘Shatabdi to Shatabdi’ trip. The trick is to take the morning (6.15 am) Bhopal Shatabdi Express to Agra Cant. (8.15 am ish arrival) and take the evening Bhopal Shatabdi (8.22 pm) from Agra Cant. to reach Delhi the same day at 10.30 at night. We also decided to drive to the New Delhi Railway station from Gurgaon and leave our car parked there till the night.

The train arrived right on time at Agra Cant. and deposited the three of us quite clueless on the platform. I had read at Indiamike about prepaid Taxi stand and that was our immediate destination. Our cluelessness must have been quite apparent to the taxi driver who was trying to direct us to the pre-paid booth but skepticism was written all over my face as to his directions. He pointed out the exit to us and we decide to trust him that far because the railway signboard concurred with his directions.

Once we exited, it was easy to spot the prepaid taxi booth. I stood in the line for the ticket. And while the people from other countries before me were asking for taxis to Maurya Sheraton and the like, I could read the signboard at leisure. That is where I came across the phrase ‘Shatabdi to Shatabdi’ tour first. It was packaged at Rs. 950 (taxi charges only) for a non AC vehicle and Rs. 1400 for AC vehicle. It included a trip to Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. Tempting as it sounded, I decided to stick to our original plan to hire a taxi just to the Taj Mahal. The good folks at the prepaid booth charged me Rs. 125 for the service.

The hard sell started in the taxi itself. Our driver for this trip, extended the offer to retain the taxi for the entire day at the charges of an additional Rs. 325. We told him we were not interested. He persisted saying he could take us to the market too and we politely told him we would not do any shopping. He said I will not find any taxi vacant to take us back to the station in the evening and it would not be safe for us at all to roam on our own. I told him it would be really sad if I can’t feel safe in our own country in broad daylight. After trying for 15 minutes he gave up.

By that time we were almost at the Taj Mahal car parking. Most types of motorized vehicles are not permitted beyond this point. We decided to walk the remaining one kilometer though one can take a cycle rickshaw or a horse drawn tanga to the entrance. The dual pricing policy remains in place in spite of some news that I read quite sometime back that hinted at some changes. Indian nationals pay Rs. 20 and the foreign nationals Rs. 750.

Taj Mahal had braces as repair work going on the day we visited.

But bring in a bit of tree into focus and no one would know about the repair work!

My elder nephew was visiting the monument for the first time and as soon as it came in the full view, he went silent and his jaws dropped in sheer amazement. So did ours’ even though it was not the first time for my younger nephew or me. The guide explained various things to us but something else caught my attention.

I have seen so many famous faces peering in front of it but I liked what I saw on Saturday 21, 2006. I would have liked it even more if there were no long sticks in the picture.

After the guide took us through the history of the monument, we wandered along for quite sometime on our own. It is said that the Emperor Shahjahan cut the hands of the craftsmen who completed the monument but our guide had an interesting take on it. According to him it is not true. He said the emperor made the craftsmen sign an agreement that they will not practice their craft anymore and hence the saying: it is like cutting their hands, a mere figure of speech. I wish his version is true but I guess there is no definitive answer out there?

By 12 noon my nephews stopped speaking. I knew then it was time for lunch. The Taj Restaurant (run by the Ashoka Group, government owned) is just a two to three minute walk from the main entrance towards the car park and that is where we crashed. It is moderately expensive and we had a hefty meal. Midway through our meal, I had a nagging suspicion that they may not accept a credit or a debit card. On inquiry, the waiter confirmed my fears. I had enough cash on this occasion but I told him to put a sign on the entrance that cards are not accepted or someone may just realize it too late!

Stomach full, our eyes started drooping but we walked out and took a tanga to the Agra Fort (Rs. 25) that is roughly 2 kilometers away from the Taj Mahal. Only 15 to 20 percent of the fort is accessible to public and rest is out of bounds either because of renovation work or because of the presence of the army.

A View from the Agra Fort

When our guide showed (same story here too, charge Rs. 150, even though his card said Rs 275) us Divan-e-Aam (a place where the king would meet the common people) my younger nephew remarked as I was clicking a picture, “Why can’t they include such a picture in our history text books? When I read about it in class 7^th I had no clue it would be such a place.” Good question indeed, why not?

The fort is full of history, so many great kings, battles, polts, treachery, the place has seen it all.

Diwan-e-Aam at Agra Fort

Once again we embarked on the photography session after the guide completed the tour and we sat for an hour and a half near the Hava Mahal for the simple reason that there indeed was a cool breeze blowing around it. I was reading ‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austen for a while and wondering what activities people would have been doing 300 years before at the same place. And yet some have the courage to write graffiti. Even though we saw it at the Taj itself, Agra Fort has it real bad.

Babitas of the world leave the Taj Mahal Alone!

Graffiti at the Agra Fort

View of the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

Around 4.30 in the evening we decided to take a tanga back to the Taj and spend some more time there but the huge queue deterred us. Instead we went to the restaurant of ‘The Rooftop Hotel’ (seedy and overpriced place, but from their roof you can see the Taj in all its glory) and had our tea.

We decided to head back to the railway station soon after. The search for auto was complete after a little bit of bargaining. The auto guy charged us Rs. 40 after bargaining (So much for prepaid taxi that charged us Rs. 125 for the same).

My kids once again enjoyed the train journey though we all were very tired by now. The air conditioned chair cars of Bhopal Shatabdi has decent leg space that contributed to the happiness of my nephews, as at six foot plus both will have significant difficulties if the leg room is not ample.

Once we reached Delhi at 10.30 at night it was a struggle to reach home because of some moronic ‘kanwaria’ festival going on. They organized some kind of running/walking event at night and of course they had to block traffic with their mini trucks to make way for the runners. But for this, I don’t think I would change much from our day out. On second thoughts, I would also choose a cooler month than July for our next visit. Maybe we will go again in October or November.

What is Up with Blogspot (Blogger) Sites in India?

Screen Shots (edit: Saturday 15, 2006) with Spectranet ISP (and I checked with my System Admn. he has not blocked blogspot sites, my institute is blog friendly)

And the Same Messgae for Geocities from Spectranet ISP on Monday July 17, 2006

I am regularly updating this post adding new stuff at the end. Please scroll down for updates.

I tried reading my usual quota of blogs (11.45 am, India) from the side bar and all the blogger sites are giving error. 'XXXX.blogspot.com could not be found. Please check the name and try again.' Replace the stars with any blog you know of and you might get this error message if you are in India. I thought there must be some problem with blogger. Then I searched the web. And this is the discussion I found on 'blogger-help' google group.

Gaurav wrote: > Hi,
> I am not able to see my blog: > http://home-business-secrets.blogspot.com/ and I cannot see any other > blog either. There is no notification of this from Blogger either. I am > able to log in to my account and see the dashboard and see all the > other stuff. But for some reason I am not able to view any blogs. Is > anyone else experiencing the same problem? Please let me know.
> Regards,
> Gaurav.
Gaurav, Your blog looks fine to me - both FF and IE. Where are you located? Nitecruzr, Northern California USA (I copied this information from his 'view profile' page)

I asked a few people who are from India and were available on Google chat that if they were facing the same problem? People in India that I contacted are facing it. Now I know I am speculating but it makes me very very irritated to think that our government might be playing some hanky panky with blog sites? The other possibility is that Blogger messed it up only in India? I would love it if it is the second possibility but I think there is a very slim chance of that. I can only hope that there is an innocent explanation to it.

Update 1: A friend in Noida says he can access blogspot sites (Airtel Broadband), so maybe some ISP service providers are facing a problem?

Update 2: A friend from Mumbai (Sify ISP) too can access. I can't make any sense of this one. Why me?

Update 3: More from Google groups:
Dhir:
When I type the url http://blogspot.com/ that shows this message Site BLOCKED !!!! But I can Open the http://www.blogger.com/home I Can create blog but when i click to view blog it shows 502 Bad Gateway The following error occurred: [code=DNS_HOST_NOT_FOUND] The host name was not found during the DNS lookup. Contact your system administrator if the problem is not found by retrying the URL. Could not open error file Also I can see other blog but not mine blogs....the above message appears I tried the same and I got the same message, site blocked.

Update 4: I contacted the Spectranet callcenter and this is big, they confirmed that they have blocked the site because they have a letter from Ministry of communication! I wish I had heard it worng. Call your ISP providers that are blocking it and check it out for yourself.

Update 5: I once again called Spectranet customer care. They are more guarded now. They said we will not block any site unless there is a govt directive. So next question was "So is there a govt directive?" To which the executive took me into a loop. What is my institute name etc. etc. finally saying they cannot find my institute account. I dropped the call finally saying if it is too uncomfortable for you I will drop my question. Anyone desiring to ring the call centre can do so at 011 41612277.

Update 6: The most plausible explanation doing rounds is that maybe the govt. just wanted to block a few 'blogspot' sites and in the process the entire domain got blocked! This might be true and maybe by Monday things will be back to normal.

Update 7 (edit: July16, 2006): Abi calls up the Spectranet call centre and is given the same explanation.
... I called up the Spectranet's Call Centre in Delhi, and their agent told me that the Ministry of Communications had indeed sent a letter asking them to block the blogspot.com sites. He was unaware of the reasons behind this move.

Update 8: Back to office on Monday, still unable to view *.blogspot.com and *.typepad.com at Spectranet

Update 9: Please join bloggers collective (public moderated google group) for more discussion on the same. Shivam has been calling up various people and trying to find out more. More discussion on bloggers collective. Peter has setup a Wiki that is tracing which ISPs in India are facing the problem.

Update 10 (Shameless rip from Neha 1): The following people are a good place to get started off to get through the Indian Government Maze. One person who is accountable to you is Dr. Gulshan Rai (Exec Director). His phone numbers as listed by the government website are (Office: 91 -11-24363081), (Residence: 91-11-22323085) and his email is grai@eis.ernet.in

More phone numbers for the Department of IT can be found here.

If you want to seek information under the Right to Information, Shri BB Bahl is the Public Information Officer for Department of IT. Here is a very comprehensive guide to finding out more about blogs through the Right to Information Act. It even has a draft letter that you can send off. (End of shameless rip from Neha 1)

Update 11 (edit: July 17, 2006): Shivam has been calling people left, right and centre (more power to him, and us bloggers) and has given an account of various interactions. Brings a lot more clarity to the issue.

Update 12: Amit cannot access blogspot and geocities from Airtel now. Looks like Airtel has joined in. Can more people confirm this, I will myself do so once I reach home. My home connection is Airtel. (I cannot access .blogspot domain now from my home ISP Airtel)

Update 13: OK, I called Airtel asking help once again with mumbaihelp.blogspot.com (though I have not yet reached home, still thought no harm in ltrying) and the Airtel person confirmed that they cannot open mumbaihelp.blogspot.com at their end too. They had no idea why it was happening.

Update 14: Has it spread to Sify?? A friend says she was able to open .blogspot.com domain on Sify ISP in the morning but now is getting 'time out' message. Anyone else having
problems at Sify? Time for another call centre to get busy?

Update 15: Any Other ISP having problem? Please leave a comment. Also give a call to your call centres if you are gaving a problem.

Shameless Rip from Neha again (2):
List of ISPs that are blocking Blogspot.com. Some of them are also blocking Typepad.com and Geocities.com

Spectranet, MTNL, Airtel, Sify, Reliance Powersurfer, Exatt, Swiftmail, Incable and 7 Star Cable Service (which AFIK - has been bought over by VSNL). (End of shameless rip from Neha 2)

Update 16: Shivam writes at Rediff Are the ISPs blocking the blogs.

Boing Boing Report: Indian government blocking all Blogspot blogs

Now on Digg: Indian Government Blocks Blogs

The conversation that The Great Indian Mutiny has with a call centre rep is hilarious:

There is a crack down in place. IP numbers are being physically located and identified. All should come back to normal once this operation is over. There is no ban in place. Livejournal and Wordpress have been spared. No reason given.

Now I know you are not going to believe this, so I’m going to quote what she said, “This operation is limited to certain parts of India. Bloggers in Andaman, Nicobar and Lakhsadeep islands are not affected.” I thought she was joking but I didn’t hear the reciprocal laughter from the other end of the phone line.

Update 17: Two wikis are tracking the issue. List of ISPs that seem to have blocked blogger, if your ISP is not there add to the list.

Register your protest at Protest by Bloggers Wiki.

Wiki has moved.

You can track the Press Coverage of the Issue here

Update 18: (July 19, 2006) Nandan files an RTI (Right to Information) application and shares his experience:

I filed my application at the Azad Nagar Post Office in Andheri (W). The only difficulty I had was explaining to the people behind the counter what RTI was. You see, certain Post Offices are designated as APIO (Assistant Public Information Officers), and the Superintendent in each of these offices is well aware of this. However, the common staff may not be.

So if you're going to one of these designated post offices, and the staff is more puzzled than a Polar Bear during Holi, ask to speak to someone in the Superintendent's office.

Once I went to that office, it was a breeze. They're super helpful the moment you mention RTI.

Another RTI application filed by Abby.

Dina also fills in an RTI.

Update 19 (July 19, 2006): Rediff article says ban will be lifted in 48 hours (the article also has the list of sites that GOI actually wanted to ban). If it happens I would a very happy person.

You can see a scanned version of the list here and the letterhead does spells Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. After all, the Spectranet call centre kid was right!

Update 20 (July 19, 2006): Now that it is well known that Indian government did want to ban particular sites I would like to say a big thank you to Abi for calling up Spectranet ISP call centre and confirming what people thought I had assumed. In the beginning, mine was such a lonely voice, even though I knew very well that in spite of not being tech-savy, I can hear alright and that I heard it right the very first time when the Spectranet ISP call centre guy told me they were blocking http://blogspot.com because of 'a letter from ministry of communication' on Saturday 15, 2006. But then, it was such a bizare statement in a country like ours that I can understand the disbelief.

Update 21: (July 20, 2006) Messages are trickling in that people can access blogspot domain on certain ISPs but others say they cannot. I for sure at 12.30 noon, cannot access .blogspot domain from Spectranet.

My take on the entire issue? Well Shivam said it much better than I can ever say it.

How many sites did the govt want blocked?
18. (17 it seems, parenthesis mine)

Was the govt right in this request?
N.O.

How many sites did ISPs block?
Hundreds of thousands.

Who’s to blame for our inconvenience?
ISPs.

Who’s to blame for censorship?
DoT, CERT-IN, the IT Act - the powers that be.

Update 21: Press Information Bureau Release: DOT Orders Internet Service Providers to Block Only the Specified Webpages/Websites

Update 22: Games call centres play

Ravi writes at Bloggers Collective (the link in this update will take you there):

"Airtel (Bangalore).
No change in the blockage.

Airtel (Bangalore - though i believe all airtel customer calls are
attended in NOIDA ) has been giving me the run around from today
morning.
They seem to be unaware (or pretend to be unaware) that DOT has issued
an order asking them to unblock blogspot. Every time I tell them that
DOT has asked them to unblock the sites they say something like "Our
team leader has gone out. He will call you back when he gets back" etc.

If any of you are in bangalore, do call up/ mail airtel (and try to get
a "confirmation number" so you don't have to repeat yourself everyt
time you call). Do let them know that people using SIFY (for e.g.) can
access the sites right now. That puts a stop to the "The government
ordered a block last week" explanation.

Reading out http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=18954 to them
helps too.

Regds,
ravi"

I can understand his frustration. So it seems that the ban is lifting in pockets. But the larger issue remains: why try to censor the internet? In a way I am thankful to the bumbling ISPs who blocked the entire domains rather than particular sites, so that we all became aware of the issue.

Update 23: Blogspot domain on my ISP Spectranet is back. I discovered this around 5.00 pm on July 21, 2006. And I guess it is a matter of time before the other two domain get back too. Smaller issue resolved. Larger issue remains. Why block sites when those blocks can be easily foiled by alomst anyone, even the non-tech savy me!

I will be travelling over the weekend (remember this is a travel blog, primarily, though the few readers I have often question me why I call this blog Travel Tales from India) and will be able to update stuff only on Monday. Though I think there may not be much to update now in the short run.

Moving On: View from the Base of Kuari Pass, Uttranchal Himalayas

Some images of the mountain flowers at my photoblog.

Mumbali Blasts: Gorey Images on Indian TV

The title of this post should read: 'Mumbai Blasts: Gory Images on Indian TV.' When I typed it I was quite incensed and made those mistakes. If I edit it now, too many links will stop working.

(First seen at Desipundit, originally from Welcome to Your Senses)

I feel so small writing this on my blog. Will it really make any difference? I sincerely doubt. Yesterday night I tried to call a few folks in Mumbai because someone wanted to get in touch with them through Mumbai Help Blog. It was incredibly difficult to get through the numbers. I can only imagine the plight of people who must be trying from all parts of globe to reach someone, only to find the numbers not reachable.

If you turn on the TV it is all over the place. No, I do not mean the news. I mean showing the dead bodies of the blast victims with scant regard for human dignity. I think here is one small issue where we, the people who blog can make a small difference.

I have an appeal for you. If you blog and if you feel strongly about the way Indian news channels (almost all) are beaming the images of the dead, blog about it. If enough number of people do it, someone somewhere has to take notice. We have done it before and if we care about it we can do it again. I am willing to aggregate as many links as possible on this issue along with this post.

Already Mumbai Help has talked about it.

The TV channels are falling over each other trying to show as much gore as possible. Not only does it scare and disgust the viewers, it also robs the dead of the dignity they deserve

News describes the gore.

The CNN-IBN screen was full of blood during the Mumbai blast coverage. Rajdeep was anchoring from one of the bombed first class coaches. He kept on pointing at and showing blood splashed window glasses of the train for a good 10 minutes. As if this was not enough, what followed were blood smeared bodies of injured people. Then there were limbs and other body parts of the dead on the platforms and rail tracks. Blood blood and more blood.

Dhoomketu at 22Floor mentions the TV coverage along with other things.

Thus, it's time to rant about TV. Close ups of the dead bodies, which should be captured and pasted all over Rajdeep Sardesai's house were not the only distasteful sight on TV. Advertisements for houses (Flats at Bhiwadi, Lucknow etc. from Mtech developers, thank you, ...

Sujatha at Blogpourri talks about the smug attitude of CNNIBN.

CNN/IBN cannot get over itself. In the middle of the coverage of the Mumbai blasts, Rajdeep Sardesai could not prevent himself from repeatedly reminding his viewers (and at one point, his reporter as well) that the images were being carried live on CNN world wide. ... Who cares if CNN/IBN's images are being shown all over the world? Oooh, wait a minute. Perhaps he was addressing his advertisers and not the worried viewers who had tuned in to get some useful information.

Prashanth writes.

But, what I don't understand is why on earth these media have to show all those bloodstained photos and videos. Just for the heck of publicity. Just to make a name in the media world.

One appeal in media -- Spread the news, but not through those horror videoclips/photos.

Vethakumar is not happy with Sun TV coverage.

At 10.30pm Singapore time, my daughter switched the channel to Sun TV for the 30-minute news bulletin, hoping to get an even clearer, live and a more involved picture of the blasts. But two minutes were all that the Sun TV news clip devoted to the Mumbai development. Isn't this simply atrocious? To say the least...! So, it was a quick return to BBC for me.

I was back at Sun at 11pm, hoping that they would do away with the usual Sun Music crap to offer live coverage of the breaking news. But instead we had the irritating Singapore import Anandakannan and Sandhya come on air to annoy us with their usual trashy stuff.

Kishore questions the media coverage.

Just imagine being struck with a great tragedy and 10 video cameras standing around you and sending live pictures of your suffering to the world!

Media is in the business of generating revenues. It’s the bottom line which matters. And anything that creates a sensation, sells. Anything that demonstrates a conflict, sells. Anything that gets glorified, sells. Anything that instills a fear, sells. Conflict sells. Peace is boring.

Surya Sharma compares the coverage with 7/7 London blasts.

I also want to highlight the role of media in all this and to be true..it was insane. Can any body tell me what is the logic of showing disintegrated bodies on national channels?

Plz for god sake take some idea from London Blast Tv Coverage. They showed policemen trying to bring life to narmalicy not showing body parts lying around.

Amrit says a leading journalist later apologised

They are tripping over each other trying to show images and small video clips sent to them by what they call the “citizen journalists” and they are in such a hurry to show the pictures that even as known a journalist as Barkha Datt on NDTV “apologized” that they didn’t have enough time to edit the shocking pictures and video clips.

Pooja watches ZEE News in the US and reacts.

I was stunned. They were actually showing dead bodies lying on the track and injured people being dragged to rescue. Even sitting this far from my country, I could not help but feel for everyone back home who were probably seeing these images continuously and how disturbing they must be for everyone.

Emma writes a very balanced post.

However, I also have a grouse against the channels - I feel it is okay to vie with one another for news itself, but the gory pictures shown on television? Is that really required? I can still hear Rajdeep Sardesai screaming out from the TV set in a screeching voice on Tuesday - "These are live images being brought to you exclusively by CNN-IBN, which was the first channel to break the news of the blasts". And the camera would zoom in to show wreckage of the trains involved in the blast, blood splattered on windows and mangled bodies. Yes, it is important to know what happened, it is important to realize that the tragedy was enormous and a lot of people were affected by it; but I also believe it is important that the dead and injured are respected. And showing mutilated bodies especially in close-up shots is not necessarily a way of respecting the dead.

>|' ; '|< writes

They are simply cashing in on the tragedy. They have scant respect for the victims, the dead, and the bereaved. I concede that they seem to be doing a fine job in airing messages for locating missing persons. Other than that, the media seems to have lost insight, and sensitivity. I strongly feel that they should have covered the incident differently.

War for News has the following to say:

Vulture culture, use it or you lose it
Vulture culture, choose it or refuse it...
It's a vulture culture, never lend a loser a hand
It's a vulture culture, living off the fat of the land
...
in the midst of it all, right there at the train wrecks and hospitals, watching our dear television crews jostling for the best shots of corpses, elbowing nurses and overtime staff out of the way so they could get bytes from beings in their last throes. The soft-focus smugness of a cushioned studio tells nothing -- knows nothing -- of the horrors that journalists out there were indulging in.

Musings of a Layman writes though not about the gore but the inane questions asked among other things:

The best question in connection to the bomb blast goes to the drama queen but naturally . She asked the reporter in Khar," How is the mood among the people there" . What kind of question is this? Is this woman on drugs or has she lost her mental balance? . Another gem was when one dumb reporter called Geetanjali was reporting and Barkha said to her," Why don't you get some views from the people standing behind , I see a old man there" Then immediately this Geetanjali babe got hold of this old guy who was loitering around and asked him some really inane questions and when it was revealed that this old guy was passing time roaming around she started fumbling ...

Priya M discusses the pros and cons and mentions the gore.

But on the flip side the reality shown is far more frightening for some than the reality they experience, though it is also far more thrilling for some others. A footage of the blasted station showed gruesome pics of the dead being moved to the moratoriums.

NITK mentions the carnage in the passing.

I remember the news coverage of the 7/7 attacks. There wasn’t footage of gruesome, mutilated bodies like on CNN-IBN yesterday. They allowed their dead some dignity.
A Discussion on India Mike too is happening.

Sujatha has another roundup of blogposts on the same topic.

But when does this coverage cross the line? When does it all become too much? What are the situations in which media channels should exercise restraint and say, "This much and no more?"

Going by the voices in the Indian blogosphere that have made themselves heard over the past three days on this issue, it appears that the Indian television channels did cross the line in their coverage of the Mumbai blasts.

Buchu (link found through Sujatha's blog) says this and then moves on to other things:

ajdeep Sardesai has been shrill and shrieking away, banging on about how CNN-IBN has these exclusive photos or whatever, his voice getting louder, like a child opening new presents as the death toll rises. I know I'm dramatising and the Indian media has improved by leaps and bounds, but I was really quite shocked by how sensationalist the media were being. They were randomly repeating gossip, showing fairly voyeuristic pictures and asking top officials really inane questions. Maybe it's because I'm quite used to the staple staidness of the BBC, but something about the general air of excitement in the media really got my goat today.

Discussion on Indiamike

Images from the BBC: They convey the horror without become macabre.

Silence

That is all I am capable of after the Mumbai local train blasts.

More Pictures from the Kuari Pass Trek, Uttranchal Himalayas

"I say, if you want to find out where the road goes, get in the fast lane and hit the gas." Calvin and Hobbes

I wish I could do it like Calvin at least some of the time but we end up walking on all of our holidays, no matter what. And at least for this trip to Kuari Pass I would have it no other way.

Tripmela: Another Website for Travel Deals

I got an email from Jared Blank about his website Tripmela.com. Maybe some of you will find it helpful.

Glimpses from Kuari Pass Trek, Uttranchal Himalayas

"Here's harmony!" said she; "here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe! Here's what may tranqillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night (scene)* as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene."

From Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, p:105

* Parenthesis mine.

Cell Phone Services in Leh

Can one use cell phone in Leh? This is a question that often pops up on various India travel forums. Jammu and Kashmir (Leh is a part of J&K) went mobile with BSNL in the year 2003 with quite unintended benefits for beggers!

Jammu, Aug. 20 (2003): Beggars have benefited the most from the cellular phone service launch in Jammu and Kashmir. There were many beggars queuing up for Cell One application forms being distributed at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited counters here. They had been roped in as proxies by shopkeepers and those who could not bear to queue up for hours to obtain forms. The beggars received Rs 10 and Rs 15 for every form they obtained. The forms are free. “The last two days were good. I hope it will be the same tomorrow,” Shashi Kumar, one of the beggars who stood proxy for others, said. He regretted that it was a holiday today.

Initially BSNL launched post paid services only. I tried hard to find out if BSNL has extended prepaid or roaming facility to the region but could not find any definite information.

Then I could find news itmes that talk about Airtel entering Jammu and Kashmir and Leh.

NEW DELHI (Feb 09, 2006): Mobile phone service provider Airtel has erected the highest GSM tower in Leh region in Jammu and Kashmir. Standing at a height of 11,645 feet, the tower is located at the historic Qutak Gompa. With this, Airtel also becomes the only private mobile operator to launch services in the high altitude region of Leh in the state. This site connects Leh with Airtel's four cell sites at Chuglamsar, Stok, Skerzling, and Qutak Gompa.

But I am yet not sure that an Airtel cellphone with a say Delhi number would work in Leh or not. My guess is that roaming is still not available in J&K and Leh. So we do meet monks with a cell phone in Leh (2005) but our cell phones are most likely to go silent there even now.

But there are some for whom having a connectivity in Leh was not a problem even in 2004. Farhan Akhtar (Director of movie Lakshya) has following to say in a rediff article.

How did it feel being away from your cell phone?

Cell phones don't work in Ladakh. The only person who had a phone was Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan who I think carried a satellite phone. On one level, not having cell phones helped the whole unit come together, because you only had each other for company. So people would spend more time with each other than sitting in their rooms telling people how much they love them and miss them!

Cell phones have definitely reached Leh but it is not certain that an ordinary prepaid connection from BSNL or Airtel will go on roaming in the region.

PS. I have used the picture of the monks before on my blog.

There is Something About Trains

This one is from the BBC website. In Combodia you can find Bamboo Trains.

Travellers in Cambodia have to deal with one of the world's worst train networks.

There is only one passenger service a week, and it often travels at not much more than walking pace.

So people in the north west of the country, near Cambodia's second city of Battambang, have taken matters into their own hands.

They have created their own rail service using little more than pieces of bamboo. The locals call the vehicles "noris", or "lorries", but overseas visitors know them as "bamboo trains".

A tiny electric generator engine provides the power, and the passenger accommodation is a bamboo platform that rests on top of two sets of wheels. A dried-grass mat to sit on counts as a luxury.

Now that sounds really interesting.

If I could find God ...

anywhere is this world or another I would have fired him/her for negligence of duty ...

Another BBC Mention

Remember this picture?

Now go to this BBC link and pay special attention to picture number 3. After trying and trying this is my first picture featured at BBC.

Why I sent this one? Because when I first put it on my blog a lot of you appreciated it and Maverick even wanted to steal it!