Blogs from India, Asia - page 7

Rameshwaram-Madurai-Kodaikanal: November-2022 Out of five major temples in the Southern India, we had visited two: Tirupati-Balaji and Kanniyakumari. We missed Padmanabhaswami temple in Thiruvanathapuram due to planning error. We have been to Ooty, Munnar and Thekkady hill stations of South India. Ooty with Bengaluru-Mysuru and Munnar – Thekkady as a part of Kerala tour. In this short tour of five days, we went to Rameshwaram (a Jyotirlinga and one of the Char Dhams of India), the famous Minaxi temple of Madurai and Kodaikanal hill station. Rameshwaram can be approached from Chennai or Madurai – almost the same distance. Kodaikanal can be approached from Madurai or Bengaluru. Clubbing Rameshwaram, Madurai and Kodaikanal thus make sense. Setting up itinerary for this trip was a bit tricky. Rameshwaram and Minaxi temple are very busy temples and the rush... read more

Kumbhalgadh – Ranakpur-Mt Abu Being nearest places from where we live (Gandhinagar), Mt Abu, Udaipur, Kumbhalgadh and Ranakpur are frequently visited places for Gujarat. This was our second visit to Kumbhalgadh and Ranakpur and n-th visit to Mt Abu. Preferred route to Kumbhalgadh is from Udaipur. Ranakpur is near to Kumbhalgadh and hence both places are covered on the same day. Ranakpur can also be approached from Abu Road via Falna. Detailed descriptions about Kumbhalgadh and Ranakpur are available on internet and hence I do not intend to repeat all that. In this blog, I will highlight the mistakes we made. Day-1: Gandhinagar to Ambaji We started from Gandhinagar in the afternoon and reached Ambaji (162 km / 3-15 hrs via Vijapur-Himmatnagar-Khedbrahma). Alternate routes include: Gandhinagar-Himmatnagar national highway, Gandhinagar-Mehsana-Palanpur-Ambaji or Gandh... read more

Day-3: Abu Road-Mt Abu Although, rather dangerous from driving point of view, the most enjoyable part of the day’s journey was the last 45 min before reaching Abu Road, when it started pouring cats and dogs. Visibility was just 10-15 feet! Made it to Abu Road safely to stay for the night – where I wanted to be – at the junction from where road to Mt Abu starts. Visited Brahmakumari’s center at Abu Road in the morning. They provide a personal guide even for a small group of two people (like us)! On to Mt Abu. Mt Abu during raining season is real fun. We have visited the place during monsoon several times. A positive change we noted this time was the road around Nakki Lake (open only for pedestrians) which has been developed with ... read more

Empty phenomenon rolling on. Anagarika Munindra Zen teaches vigilant carelessness and detached involvement. In a more high-sounding phrase, it teaches transcendental ordinariness. In a simpler, more sympathetic phrase, it teaches nothing but ordinariness. Yoel Hoffman Awakening is ordinariness awakening to ordinariness Ama Samy The Self is here and now Ramana Maharshi Be the Buddha now Adyashanti You are perfect as you are and there is always room for improvement Shunryu Suzuki Today a friend of 40 years died here in Pushkar, Rajasthan. Naryan was a simple man who, as far as I know, may never have ventured far from this place in all his 73 years. His life's work was a pakora wallah... a man who made fried vegetable snacks and so... read more

“You can fall in love for a place, and when you do, you have to come again and again to that place” I keep travelling whenever I get some time out for my inner self. I believe, Life has made me an explorer by heart and this belief is getting stronger with my age. Out of countless cities, villages, mountain trails, hamlets, sea beaches, National parks & forests, deserts that I have travelled so far, few are the journeys that reflects Life. Sikkim is a small picturesque North-eastern state in India, which is one of those places, that I think I fell in love with, for its beautiful mountain peaks and trails, beautiful view of majestic Khangchendzonga, the third highest peak in the world, small mountain villages and its people, rivers, countless waterfalls, the zig-zag old ... read more