This is one of the really meaningful email forwards I have received in years …. And I don’t remember when did I last cry ….

“How long will you be with that newspaper? Will you come here right away and make your darling daughter eat her food?” My wife screamed. I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter Sindu looked frightened. Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with curd Rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age. She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. My mother and my wife are orthodox, and believe firmly in the ‘cooling effects’ of Curd Rice.

I cleared my throat, picked up the bowl and said, “Sindu, darling, why don’t you take a few mouthfuls of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad’s sake, dear. And, if you don’t, your Mom will shout at me”. I could sense my wife’s scowl behind my back. Sindu softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. “Ok, Dad. I will eat – not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should…” Sindu hesitated, “Dad, if I eat this entire Curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?” “Oh Sure, darling,” I promised.

Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity. I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child to eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her. “Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!” was her demand.

“Atrocious!” shouted my wife “A girl child getting her head shaved off? Impossible! “Never in our family!” my mother rasped, “She has been watching too much of TV. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!”

It was time for me to call the shots. “Our promise must be kept. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honour her own. Sindu , your wish will be fulfilled”.

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful. On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved hack with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, “Sinduja, please wait for me!” What struck me was the hairless head of that boy. “May be, that is the in-stuff,” I thought.

“Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!” Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car and continued, “That boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish. He is suffering from Leukamia. Harish lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He has been suffering the unintentional, but cruel teasing of the schoolmates. Sinduja promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue. But I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son!”

I stood transfixed. And then, I wept. “My little Angel, will you grant me a boon? Should there be another birth for me, will you be my mother, and teach me what love is.

It is not what we feel within but it is the expression of this feeling that makes a difference in relationships

This is an inspiring story of the efforts of some people which has made life of two villages in Uttar Pradesh State of India little easy. Though a very simple concept, through Question Box, the villagers get answers to a variety of questions including the prices of commodities in different places, the general knowledge questions and even maths !!

The full story appears Here

Found this very inspiring article on the experience with the initiatives of late Dr. Kalbag Here

There is a doorstep service for the book lovers. Currently active only in Mumbai and Bangalore cities of India, Librarywala provides this service for the people who love books but do not have time to go to libraries or purchase the expensive books at the bookstores. At a very reasonable cost of Rs. 139 for 3 books in a month, deal is a steal. They have a good collection of over 8000 books.

When are you coming to Pune , librarywalaJi.

Diwali is an Indian festival, it is festival of lights. It is equivalent of Christmas, people wait for it and celebrate with great enthusiasm. New clothes, jewelry, and what not. Exchange of gifts , sweets and it is really lot of fun with crackers too. As children, we used to really enjoy Diwali, and would eagerly wait for it but over the years, this enthusiasm has come down. You get holidays during Diwali and I do not remember being at home for Diwali for past many years. It is normally some other place, in a hotel room where you can enjoy part of the celebration but not the whole package that you get at home, especially lighting the earthen diya’ and putting all around the house. The houses all lightened up with diya’ will give the most splendorous look to home which none of the modern light arrangements can match. Most simplistic and beautiful at the same time.

Jaipur is a city in the state of Rajasthan in India, it is also called the pink city. All the buildings in city are painted pink, it is not the sweet pink that most girls prefer as their dress colour but more towards brown. All the markets have the shops in this same colour paint. We happened to be in Jaipur on the second day of the Diwali. Diwali is a five day festival. On the second day, people purchase jewelry or some metal things for their homes. To our surprise, as we were approaching Jaipur city, we found the whole city was lighted up. The gates of the city which are huge, all the shops, every single place was decorated. And no simple decoration, they had used the most beautiful lights and flowers to decorate their shops. It was the most splendid decoration that I have come across. I guess the business community in Jaipur is really wealthy and they spend too. It was such a pleasant surprise. We checked into the hotel and wanted to come out fast so that we could spend more time on the streets of Jaipur and observe the festivities. Though it was past 10 in the night, there was major crowd on the streets. The jewelry shops were very crowded and they were the most well decorated one’ as well. We got good Punjabi food in a dhaba kind of place in the middle of the market place. And also got to taste faluda icecream after a loong time. It was well past midnight and shopkeepers were starting to close the shops. Inspite of all the decorations, the streets were not clean. One could find the litter all over the place on the streets spoiling the overall pleasantness of the festivities that was prevalent otherwise. Jaipur being a major tourist destination, such things can put off the visitors.

We had a very interesting experience at the Rajasthani Emporiums. These are the places, where all the products of the different small scale industries of the state are sold. It includes marble wares, clothes, quilts, leather ware etc. There are many such shops and all the places of tourist attraction like the palaces also have them in their premises. Amber palace, which is on the outskirts of Jaipur city also has one of them. To visit the palace, you need a guide. The guide himself came and told us that he will charge a very nominal amount. We were very happy to know that his fees is so less. He was good also, had sufficient knowledge about the place. After showing around the palace, and also a temple which was in the temple premises, he brought us to this emporium telling there is a demonstration of how they use the blocks and the vegetable dyes to print on the clothes. We were quite impressed. Then they took us inside and there was lot of ethnic stuff that we were tempted to purchase lot of stuff. When we came out, our guide was still waiting. I was wondering, he could have taken his fees and left earlier only. Then it dawned on us that his actual income is the commission he get from these shops because he is the one who gets customers to the shops. Very good business model indeed. Next day we did not get fooled. This time also, a guide told he will guide us in the city palace etc but since the palace is yet to open, we could shop in this emporium. But he realised that we are not going to purchase anything there, and soon left without even informing us. His day would have got wasted otherwise.

City palace is beautiful inside. There is a museum where the different aspects of the life of the rulers’ are preserved. It includes the paintings made by the King himself, the different carpets of those times, the photographs taken by the King, and lot of such stuff. The hall has very beautiful motifs painted on the walls. They have a golden hue in them giving the hall a royal look. There are other halls depicting the weaponry used at that time. Then there is some demonstration of the folk singing and puppet dance for the tourists. The whole place was very lively with lot of curious tourists enjoying the whole experience. Outside the premises, there are many small shops selling local wares.

Another interesting place is the Jantar Mantar which is located adjacent to the city palace. It is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments. This was constructed by King Jai Singh II of Jaipur in the period between 1727 and 1733. It is one of the five such laboratories he constructed. One of them is at Delhi. The one at Jaipur is the largest one. It has fourteen geometric structures for different purposes. For measuring the time of the day, predicting eclipses, for tracking stars in the their orbits and similar stuff. The sundial, which is a huge structure is known to tell the time of the day with an accuracy of 2 seconds for the city of Jaipur.

Another place we saw was the Jal Mahal. It is a palace in the middle of the lake. One cannot go near that, one can only observe it from a distance. Nothing much to write about it though, it is not maintained and even the lake is not very clean. The whole place can be made a major attraction point with boating facility etc introduced. It is on delhi-jaipur highway at the entrance of the city.

Jaipur has lot to explore. One needs to go with more time on hand. Then there are other places around like Udaipur, Jaisalmer which have lot of history and culture in them to explore.

Lonar, a taluka place in the Buldana district of the Maharashtra state of India, has a very rare natural structure. There is a huge crater which is the only high velocity meteor crater present in the world. It’s life is some 52000 years old. This is created in the basalt rocks of the deccan region and has salty water.

Till you reach the place, you cannot make out you are there. It is very deep and the slopes of the cliff is very less. The diameter of the lake is around 1.8 kms and the depth of the lake is around 1.5 kms. This place is around 100 kms from Aurangabad. The roads are good. There is a resort run my the maharashtra government bang opposite the lake. From the canteen of the resort, one gets a very good view of the lake.

This lake has a very great geological significance. We were expecting that there will be some sort of information desk which will help tourists know more about the place. There was absolutely nothing of this sort. Not many people know about it, there were no other tourists on the day we were there. There were some local boys who say they are guides. They clearly did not have the complete information. They were more aware of the temples and related things which are around the lake and in the village.

To reach the lake, one has to climb down. There are steps which are not in good shape now. The slope is not too much, but still it is better if one is wearing shoes. The lake is very alkaline, and smell is little nauseous once you reach it. We collected some water in the bottle to check its pH level. There are some temples surrounding the lake. Some of the them are very famous with the local people and every year, there is some festival during which lot of people come to this temple. Others are in dilapidated condition. The tree cover is thick around the lake, and we could hear the peacocks and some other birds. There is also some wild life found in the forests here. One can go around the periphery of the lake but it takes time and one should go in the morning for that. We were there for short time so came back after touching the lake.

The studies are being carried out on the different aspects of the crater lake, the different types of life it supports, the types of rocks etc. Inspite of its importance, it is not that well known as it deserves to be.

Ajanta caves are one of the masterpieces created by the Buddhists in the 5th century. Here, the caves are painted in rich hues and colours. After they were created, they were abandoned as there was decline of Buddhism and discovered accidentally in 1819 after almost 1000 years. What can happen in 1000 years is anyone’ guess. Whatever is remaining is sufficient to give an idea of the richness of expressions and culture and prosperity at that time.

There have been two sects in Buddhism, Heenyana and Mahayana. In the times of Heenyana, the Stupas were worshiped. In the time of Mahayana, Buddha’ image has been worshiped. In Ajanta caves, one can find both. In some of the caves, there are sculptures of Buddha in the teaching pose and paintings all around, on the walls and on the ceilings. The paintings depict the stories covering the life of Buddha, the Jataka tales which tell the stories of the previous lives of Buddha. Because of the time involved and the fact that they were discovered after 1000 years, there are very few paintings which can be comprehended completely, and they are magical! The expressions of Bodhisattva’s, the queen , the Buddha , all seem so real. One feels one is reading a book of the stories of Buddha. The sad part is there is not sufficient light in the caves to really be able to see them. One needs a guide, they know in detail, and they carry a battery which helps to really see the details. Hiring a guide really helps, but if you don’t intend to, do take a battery with you to be able to make the most of it.

The Ajanta caves are a world heritage site. So, the treatment is really good. The place is very well maintained, proper pathways are there, it is clean, the guides are available at standard rates etc. There is a restaurant run by the tourism department of Maharashtra state. The caves are very much inside from the parking place, there are buses; AC as well as non AC bringing the tourists at the entrance and taking back to the parking lot. Buses are frequent. Everything is properly planned. So much so that even if you go on a holiday when the caves are closed, the buses will take you inside. You can move around, there is a beautiful waterfall, plenty of trees and variety of birds except that the restaurant is also closed. So if you happen to go there on a Monday, which is a official holiday, do pack your food as there are very few restaurants close to the place.

And one can do shopping for some exquisite stones here. There are plenty of shops near the parking area selling wares made in stone and stones obtained from nearby mining places. Everyone seems to be an expert in that. And their formula for attracting customers is very interesting. When you come first time unaware of what is there, they will give you a small stone with shining crystals inside. You are quite happy to see that and return with thanks, they will say keep it mam, its a present but do come to my shop when you come back and in their shop there are plenty of these in many more colours and sizes and if you love this stuff, you will end up spending money and time here. They will tell astronomically high price and you have to shamelessly tell them the real price by removing many zeroes from the figure they quote .

Unknowingly, we landed there on a Monday, a holiday. The place was deserted but buses were running, so we spent some time seeing other things. There are two routes one can take to reach the caves. The road is same, but some 8-10 km before reaching what they call the T Junction, there is a road on your left going to View Point. One gets a very good view of the whole area where the caves are. There are steps to climb down and reach the caves from this point. If one is on private vehicle with a driver, they can send the driver to come to the parking lot near the T-Junction. The steps down are all surrounded by greenery so it is a good adventurous route by itself. We came to know of this option only later.

By afternoon we came back and found to our surprise that the resort run by Tourism department near the parking lot does not have a restaurant and one has to go make some other arrangements. But surprisingly, there was another resort of the government just half a kilometer away, where one could get meals. The rooms were much cheaper there. On enquiring, we found there is yet another one again at a distance of half a km from this one. So, there are three resorts in the distance of one and a half kilometer only run by the government. I could not get the logic right. Ajanta caves are around 110 kms from Aurangabad city. Going back and coming next day was one option but we chose to stay back to save time. Choosing from one of three resorts was easy as only one of them had the TV facility with the cable connection showing India Pakistan final match of the T20 world cup. This resort is the one nearest to the caves. We packed the food stuff for the night and landed in the otherwise deserted resort, only one more room was occupied and people living there did not choose this resort for the match.

Next day, the caves were waiting to be explored. I am glad we took a guide. Some of the caves are really big ones, 50ft deep and 10ft high. No doubt, it took so many years to construct these. Unbelievably beautiful paintings adorn the walls and ceilings of these caves. Whatever paintings are remaining (most of them have simply disappeared), they are very rich story tellers. Of-course, the guide knew the story and had the battery to focus on the different aspects like the expressions, the jewelry, the kind of clothes people wore at that time, how the palaces were constructed, the two storey complexes in the palaces etc. The finest example is one of the paintings of the Bodhisattva. It is so vivid in expression and perfection, that is difficult to imagine it was done so early in time with no great tools.

Some of the caves are in the form of Viharas where there is a huge area in the centre, there is a sculpture of Buddha in teaching posture at the centre end of the cave. All around on the walls and the ceilings, there are beautiful paintings. There are small rooms lining the left and right walls of the caves. They have stone beds. These were for the monks to meditate.( I was reminded of the Vipasana center in Igatpuri where in the dormitory meant for the meditators, they have similar setup, but in the open and not closed small rooms and with a comfortable bedding over it.) The paintings on the ceiling were mainly in small regular square shapes depicting floral patterns, fruits and some geometric patterns. The pillars of the Viharas were also very beautifully done. They had very proper geometric pattern, eight faces at the lowest, then 32 faces and then more at the top. And on the top of the pillars were carvings of human figures or animal figures.

Other caves are in the form of Stupas, where there is a pillar in the center and the walls around are again done in rich paintings. These caves are normally smaller compared to the Viharas.

The tourism department has come up with a plan to make the replica of these paintings and display them at an alternate site which is getting developed very close to where Ajanta caves are. The project has just started and hopefully this will attract many more tourists to this place. When there are many tourists, the caves are really not comfortable as it becomes very claustophobic and one can not even breathe easily. So they leave people in batches. But with alternate site, this problem will be taken care of.

Near Aurangabad, there are also Ellora caves which we could not explore as we could not plan properly. So next time we should do Ellora along with some other places in the city like Bibi Ka Makbara, a Taj Mahal lookalike, Pavanchakki and few more.

Some pictures of this trip are Here

The most beautiful birds that I have come across are the Flamingos. Their graceful flight makes one wonder in awe. That one moment of a day made my day recently when we spotted them in Sewree in Bombay. This is a belated post, it was in the month of June that we got to visit them.

Flamingos come to Sewree in Bombay every year during the winters and stay till April end. This year, they arrived late and were still there till second week of June when we visited them. I am sure they would have left by now, because we got to see very few this time. Two years back, they were huge in numbers.

Watching Flamingos in the Natural Geographic Channel, in the most pristine settings; I had never imagined that in the crowded city of Mumbai, we will get to see these most beautiful birds. That too, in a place where nothing else is worth a visit. Sewree in on harbour line of the Mumbai.

We planned to be there few hours after the high tide. This is the the time one can spot the birds hunting for the food in the shallow waters. One can get to know the tide timings at this page.

Finding this place is not easy, that is the reason many people are not aware of this I guess. Many people from Mumbai I asked were really surprised to find that indeed flamingos are spending few months in their city. And you will find them in the most unimaginable place where one would otherwise not imagine any reason to go.

Net came to our rescue and someone has put up a nice page on the directions to Jetty where one can easily spot flamingos. It is here.

We spotted few flamingos around a factory on the way to jetty. So we got down there and to our surprise, they were very close. They were lesser flamingos. There are lot of petroleum based industries in this area and so the water was not that clean and surprisingly, usually beautiful looking flamingos were not looking that beautiful this time. But they were in a big group and we spotted them so easily and by chance was itself a big luck. As we were wondering where are the beautiful ones gone, we saw a small flock of pink flamingos taking the flight. And those few seconds made our day !! They were much farther away.

We went to the jetty but there were no flamingos there. I know we were late. By this time of the year, many of them have already migrated. Only few were remaining so naturally we could not get to see them in huge flocks.

Coincidentally, someone has made a very interesting documentary on the Flamingos that come to this place and we happened to see it some few weeks back only. Ashima Narain from Mumbai has done this excellent work and she and her sister took some six months to make this. They have covered the different phases of their stay here, their famous dance, the breeding season and other different aspects of these migrating birds. It is a very well made documentary.

Though we did not get to see flamingos this time, I remember coming here 2 years back and at that time they were there in thousands. I still cannot forget that scene when suddenly out of nowhere, as the tide was lowering, they appeared at a distance and the whole area was full of them. At that time, we did not have good binoculars and also a good optical zoom camera to capture them. But they are definitely captured forever in the memory.

So, next time we need to make sure to be there in time.

“Garh” means fort. Maharashtra has many forts. Most of the forts in Maharashtra, whether up in the hills or near the seas are associated with Shivaji. –the great Maratha warrior. He constructed quite a few forts and conquered many which were built by the earlier rulers. These forts are good for trekking, and with monsoons around, they are the favoured destination of the young crowd of Pune and Mumbai and all the places in between ….

Trekking is always fun with a bigger group. This time, we went to Lohgarh. On the central railway line, one can get down on the Malavali railway station which is one station before Lonawala if you are going from Pune. Coming out of the station, there is a bridge over the expressway. Around one km later, one will find the parking lot for the vehicles and small shacks for tea and snacks. There are few houses, and they also provide rooms for changing clothes which is really required in the monsoons.

If you are coming from Pune in your own vehicle, come on the old Pune-Mumbai highway and take a left turn there for Malavali village. That road will come towards Malavali station. You will find Vedanta Academy on your left side on this road. It is around 6-7 kms inside.

We started from home around 7.30 in the morning and started the trek at 10.30 am. It did’t take that long to reach the place itself, we stopped for breakfast at a dhaba. We were the first customers and a big group, so the breakfast took its own sweet time. We also had home made sandwiches prepared by Chaya’ mother. They were simply delicious. She was very considerate to have got for all of us with a bottle of ketchup along !! Really sweet.

The trek is quite simple. From the base of the trek, left road goes to the Bhaje caves, another popular tourist destination. The road on the right goes to the base of the fort. The path is a pebbled road, sufficiently wide. There is a beautiful waterfall just at the base of the trek. It has all the elements that bathing in the waterfall can provide, a forceful waterfall, a firm place to stand under the water and at a lower level, the pool of water where the less daring can spend some time and then go up. Good for the families too, where all of then can go without much fear. And take some memorable snaps. We decided to spend time here on way back.

It was raining all along. Sometimes drizzling but also heavy rain as we climbed up. The scenery was changing, the land looked like pockets of water and greenery. Some birds were singing very beautifully, could spot only few doves here and there. There were some tea shacks on the way, where we had chai with bhajia. The trek was steep only at some places, so we went at a good speed. At the base of the fort, there are again some hotels, better equipped ones. They would provide proper meals. And snacks and tea etc. The people were from the village living there and providing these services to the tourists.

The steps to the fort are like they should be , big steps. But again, not too steep. There was a big school group visiting the fort that day. A bunch of excited school kids, their energy levels were supremely higher of-course. We reached the top in no time. The view from the top was enchanting. The fort is not in a very good state. It needs to be preserved.

On the top, the rain drenched us completely, the wind was treacherous, and I felt I should have got some extra clothing. And there was no shelter. We were in the open. Could not see much ahead as it was all fog. We walked for some distance and found a dargah. We stood on the side of a wall of this dargah and thought of helping ourselves with the food that we had packed with us. This wall of dargah protected us from wind to some extent and we could stand firmly. Out came everything, and we were done in less than 20 minutes, a standing lunch.

There was a long way one could walk and have good views provided the weather was good. But it was so full of fog that we decided not to go forward and started walking back.

Climbing down is what tells how tired you are. I was completely drenched and hunger pangs gone, it was perfect time for a nap but there was no way in the rains. And when we started to climb down, the legs were showing their presence. Few of us started singing songs, Vinod was busy taking photographs. After a while, it was pouring and it was very blissful. For quite a distance, I was walking alone, and it was so wonderful to be in the midst of beauty of nature, at a moment it felt I was encompassing everything ….

We came down to the waterfall, and I was so fully drenched and so full of the experience already, that I didn’t want to go and play in the waterfall. Almost everyone from the group was already there. They were really having a good time out there.

Finally, the trip came to end at 6 in the evening. We changed into dried clothes and hurried towards Pune. We all were really hungry as we did not have a proper lunch. We stopped for a hearty meal as part of the Vinod’ birthday treat at Sadanand Resorts and it was a day really well spent.

Would love to go again there, this time to explore Bhaje caves.

More pictures of this trek are here

Yesterday, Pune was lucky to have Ustaad Ghulam Ali Khan. He came here straight from Dubai after inaugurating a hindi FM radio station there. And the venue was abuzz with people. All the seats were sold out. It is such a rare event for ghazal lovers to have one of the best voices singing for them.

Ghulam Ali Khan saheb is from Pakistan, and though he does come to India often, he was performing in Pune after a gap of 15 years. Few years back, he was not allowed to perform by some groups on the grounds that he is from Pakistan. Similar things have happened to Indian artists going to Pakistan, but hopefully things are in better state now.

He has been singing for last 50 years, and there was no change… His voice was as sweet as when I heard him for the first time. His very famous ghazal, “Chupke Chupke Raat Din Aansu Bahana Yaad Hai” became song of every household in India after it was taken in BR Chopra’ classic movie “Nikaah”. Another of his very famous ghazal is “Hungama hai kun barpa, thodi si jo pi li hai; daaka to nahin dalaa, chori to nahin ki hai”. And then “Dil me ek lehar si uthi hai abhi; koi taaza havaa chali hai abhi….. “. He sang all these famous ghazals, and many more, making some improvisations. There is one ghazal he has sung in three languages, Persian, Urdi and Poorvi. He sang it in a beautiful style, mixing both persian and Urdu. He sang many more, it was a treat to the ears.

We didn’t realize how two hours passed. And Ghulam Ali Khan saheb was humble personified. Such a popular figure and there is no sign of it. He connected very well with the audience. Telling the meaning of some of the difficult urdu words. He took the request for ghazals from people and sung all of them in the second half. And Pune being known for its hindustani classical music lovers, he presented two Thumris of his guru Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saheb. His team of Violinist, Sarod Player and of-course Tabla was perfect. The Violin is most important instrument I think in Ghazal singing. It gives the perfect effect. And Ghulam Ali Khan himself was playing the harmonium.

We could not manage to get the tickets in time. When we went on Friday, we were told you try your luck at the venue. I didn’t know what is in store for us; we went an hour early and the person selling the ticket had just 3 tickets remaining; and that made our day. I didn’t know I am this lucky .

He presented a view “shers” in between his singing ghzals. I remember two of them which I really liked ,

Lagta hai kai raaton se jaaga tha mussavir
tasveer ki aankhon se thakan jhaank rahi hai

Mussavir means painter and tasveer means painting.

and this one …

Roj kehta hun bhool jaoon use, roj ye baat bhool jaata hun