Kolkata - Cultural capital of India

Visiting Kolkata during Durga puja is a bliss, as the city blooms into colors to show off its beauty. Our two week trip treasured so many memories of the city ...from fast metros to hand pulled rikshaws, energetic days to tiresome nights, quiet moments to awful sounds, serene surroundings to polluted playgrounds and whatnot...

Hats off to the city for preserving its tradition and culture. We had the honor of riding traditional tanga (horse cart) on the busy roads near Victoria memorial. The royal feeling of riding on high-seated tanga by sitting next to tangawallah, listening to the rhythm of stomping horses and enjoying the fresh breeze dashing into sweated face is priceless :-). And kids had fun riding, touching and feeding horses up close.

For the first time in my life, I saw hand pulled rikshaws. Wondered how the poor hand-pulled rikshaw men can compete with fast-moving metros, auto rikshaws and cycle rikshaws....but seems they have their own territory...absolutely no auto-rikshaws and cycle-rikshaws surrounding them. I must say, the city has its own flavor of keeping old traditions even in this fast age.

Wanted to feel Maa Ganga close to our hearts, so boarded cruise on Ganges river in Babughat.

Live orchestra, with old melodies soothing the mind, and new item songs rocking the bodies was awesome. 

Had perfect evening enjoying the cooling effect of mother's lap with pictures taken from day light to night light capturing the "City of Bridges". Well, could capture only two bridges - Howrah bridge and Vidyasagar setu aka Second Hooghly bridge. 

And the following pictures remind me of songs written on the beautiful relationship between naav and nadiya... and there are some panchis in the first picture to beautify the song further :-)

That's the only evening we had a relaxing time in the city. Rest of the nights were tiresome with great enthu to visit as many pandals as we can to take a glimpse of Durga Maa in different avatars, amazing art work and beautifully decorated pandals. And now, 5 days of hard work compressed into 12 minutes of video clip :-).

This post will be incomplete without mention of my favorite Bengali sweet Rasagulla. It's my favorite, not because it's filled with sweetness, but coz of its kindness to let others squeeze out the extra sweetness as per their taste buds. I would say customized sweet dish for the complicated tongue. Here are some pics of the shop that satisfied our jihva.

More later....

Hope you all had a Great Dasara this year!! 

Driving in India

With overprotective father at home, I never had a chance to face Indian roads before marriage. Either catch a bus or catch my brother to move myself outside the territory. Life changed after marriage...and moving to US left me with no choice, but learn driving. The feeling of freedom that I'm not dependant on someone <to move myself> is dangerously addictive. The statement "No car...no life" seems so true. With everyone following traffic rules and lanes, driving becomes a piece of cake.

Now we are back to India, to give kids the best of both worlds. We thought of buying an Automatic car, but settled with manual car to save some bucks. Even though we know driving, didn't want to take any chance on Indian roads..especially with manual car. There comes the dependency factor...hire a driver...safe and hassle free. Well, with petrol prices skyrocketing, driver costs are skyrocketing too. After two years, started questioning ourselves...why should we depend on a driver when we have driving experience for so many years? So took a chance and started driving...

Moment of truth....can I drive a manual car? Moving from auto to stick-shift is indeed a big challenge. Anyways..went with the attitude "let's give it a try"...first gear......drrrrrr....stops...again drrrrrrrrr...stops.....had the feeling if I ever get the car going. Now feels funny when I think of those days. Anyways practice makes a man<even a woman> perfect.

What next? Yes....driving the car on busy Indian roads. Felt like I was playing a video game with joystick in my hand. God, why don't I have a microphone to announce my car is coming, please give a way. Well....that sounds odd, so had to settle down with the honk. Wait....how many times do I need to honk? In my dozen years of driving in US, hardly used the honk....but now, my hand can't stop honking on the roads....gosh...noise pollution...but can't help it. It's sad to see that Indian roads officially the most dangerous in the world.

On no divider roads, what to say of vehicles racing towards me. Sometimes makes me feel like "Am I in a battlefield to face the opponents? Why are they rushing towards me? Am I the one going in wrong direction?". And in the night, it's no less than a laser show to the eyes. 

Also started driving with my husband sitting next to me...not to help with driving, but to add extra eyes to the upcoming surprises on the road. Feels scary when I see four wheelers kissing the two wheelers. Sometimes people don't even follow the traffic signals, but they sincerely follow the crowd. And the most scariest part is my bodyguard sitting next to me...telling me to go fast. For me... SAFETY FIRST SPEED NEXT :-).

But is that going to work on India roads? Not always...if you don't move yourself, you are stuck on roads for a long time. Now I learned the art of keep moving - others wait if I move, they'll move if I wait....haha...mystery solved.

Neverthless to say, it feels proud to drive on Indian roads. And the feeling that I'm driving like the people in the video leaves me with this great feeling... if you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere in the world.

Driving in India is not just driving, but a great exercise for the eyes, mind, hands and legs. For the computer geek with no eye exercise at home, go drive on busy Indian roads...you can't go wrong in moving your eyes 360 degrees ;-). Anyways, Happy and safe driving Punya!!

Butterfly Park

When we reached end of Bhanneghatta Safari, we were greeted by Butterfly park. I was bit tired to take snaps, but Harshita was very energetic in flying behind butterflies and gave me some time to relax. At last, we got it on YouTube today. And that completes our Escape into Nature. Enjoy...

And here are some facts...

The Butterfly Park is spread across 7.5 acres of land. It comprises a butterfly conservatory, museum and an audio-visual room. The butterfly conservatory has a polycarbonate roof and is a 10,000 sq ft. circular enclosure, inside which the living environment has been carefully designed to support over 20 species of butterflies. The environment has a tropical setting — complete with the humid climate, an artificial waterfall and host plants and shrubs that attract butterflies.

Bhannerghatta National park

On January 9th, we visited Bhannerghatta National park and it's worth watching. The experience of watching Lions and Tigers so close is a bliss. Watch the picture video....

Bandhipur and Mudumalai National parks

After Pycara Lake, we reached our camp at around 7pm, had Chai and then started our journey to  Bandhipur National Park. We were very excited to go on night Safari, but we couldn't spot any wildlife even after one hour of staring into thick forest. Thought of making a U-turn, but our guide was very eager to show us at least one animal. After driving for another half an hour, our guide could spot some elephants with their dashing eyes in the dark. We really got scared when a mother elephant was heading towards us in anger, thank God.. our driver was quick to pull over.
Here are some facts about Bandhipur National Park...

Bandipur National Park: Bandipur, established in 1931, is a wonderful wildlife centre. Tourists visit this place to admire the breathtaking beauty of nature and also to enjoy a quiet vacation far from the hustle and bustle of the city. This is located in the district of Chamarajanagar. 

Bandipur was built by the Maharajas of Mysore and is situated in the Nilgiris. The Kabini, Moyar and Nugu Rivers drain the area. Besides the rivers, there are many seasonal streams flowing through the region. This place is under Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and is also the first Biosphere Reserve of the country. 

Bandipur was the chosen site for Project Tiger. This is an initiative taken by the Government of India to protect the endangered species. The number of tigers has increased ever since. The place is also home to a large number of animals like Elephants, Hornbill, Sambar, Wild Dog, Giant Squirrel, Deer, and Partridges. There are also a few endangered species including Four Horned Antelope, Panther, Sloth Bear, Python, Mouse Deer, Pea Fowl and many more.  

Next day, after Gopalaswamy temple, we visited Mudumalai National Park. We were blessed with most of the wildlife show except Tigers and Leopards. Also had a chance to see the tamed elephants and had fun watching caretakers feeding them. OK...time for you to play the moments captured...

Gopalaswamy temple

On January 7th morning, we had nice breakfast (pongal, chutney, idli, sambar and grape juice), took some pictures of the camp and then headed towards Gopalaswamy temple at around 11am.

On the way, we were lucky to spot an elephant near the river.

If you can't locate the elephant in the above picture, don't stress your eyes. Here is the zoom-in view:

And then deers grazing with no fear....

This Langoor seems to be too worried about the bottle next to it... of course, it is a plastic-free zone :-)

Village view from camera....

While we were busy taking snaps of nature, we were reminded that we were actually heading towards the temple...

At last, view of Gopalaswamy hill from far.....

Wikipedia can tell  facts of the hill better than me....."Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta, is a hill (betta in Kannada) located in the Chamarajanagar district of the state of Karnataka, at a height of 1450m India and is extensively wooded. It is also the highest peak in the Bandipur National Park. It lies in the core area of the Bandipur National Park and is frequented by wild life including elephants.."

  Felt happy to see the fields of beans which make our evening snack most of the time...

More pictures of the hill and its surroundings.... 

Before climbing the hill via road, we had to pay entry fee. The drive up the hill for the next 7 km is an adventure as the roads are steep and narrow and not maintained well. Our driver had to ride the vehicle like a bullock cart. Anyways we were happy listening to stories of elephant herds, elephants sliding down the hill out of fear and heavy weight :-). 

OK you can see the temple peaking out of lush green forest....we are almost there...

After reaching the hill top, we parked the vehicle in front of the temple, washed our feet and then climbed the stairs for Gopalaswamy Darshan.

 

The temple atmosphere was filled with Sabarimalai Ayyappa swamy songs...

 

 

Inside Garbha gudi, Krishna idol is beautiful with Krishna in dark complexion, with flute in his hands, glowing eyes (actually diamonds) and surrounded by Gopis. While we were praying God, Pujari sprinkled water droplets on us ..very nice experience.

Pujari told that there are no crows on the hill and water forms on the top of garbha gudi entrance. To know more facts about the temple, read for yourself... http://www.mysorepraje.com/mysore-excursion/himavad-gopalaswamy-betta-gopala-swamy-temple-mysore

"...Throughout the year, dew formation can be seen on top of the entrance of garbha gudi and on the left shoulders of Gopalaswamy – hence the name ‘Himavad’. The temperature inside the temple is also relatively cool.....

According to chief priest Lakshmipathi Bhat, there are 77 theerthas or springs along the slopes of the hills within 25 km radius of the temple. The saying is that the crows, which took bath in these springs, turned into swans and hence there are no crows in Bandipur..."

And some pictures taken behind the temple....

That's Joseph posing for the camera...

After Darshan, we headed back to board Bandipur Safari van and spotted this Amla tree and some ponds built by Maharaja around the hill.

At around 2.30pm we sat under a big Banyan tree to have our lunch (rice, sambhar, rasam, sweet, papad, roti and mutter curry). After that we had some fun time with Banyan tree roots....