Abhaneri, Rajasthan – A Sunday Drive from Jaipur…
Step wells (Baoris) are fascinating. In the days past, not only were they sources of water; they were also used as rest houses by weary travelers, as temples and as community centers. Gujarat and Rajasthan have some of the best step wells in India. We had seen some amazing ones at Adalaj, Patan and Modhera [...]
Is this most haunted place in India ? – Bhangarh, Rajasthan.
Just Google for ‘the most haunted places in India’ and Bhangarh features on almost all the pages and lists that pop-up. There are all sorts of stories on the net about ghostly encounters, visitors who disappeared and other paranormal activity at Bhangarh. Bhangarh had been on our list of places to see from quite some [...]
Incredible Rajasthan ! – A 2320 kms road trip, without reservations.
Normally most of our trips are planned in advance. We at least have info about the places to cover, a rough idea of the time required at each place, road conditions and the route to take… What made the Rajasthan road trip incredible for us is : We just had an arbitrary list of [...]
Search for the perfect sand dune – Osiyan, Khimsar and Nagaur trip.
Till we actually moved to Jaipur and explored Rajasthan, any thoughts of Rajasthan would evoke visions of Camels, Sand dunes, Forts and Palaces. While finding Camels, Forts and Palaces is quite easy, finding a Sand dune is not so easy. Especially dunes that look like the ‘perfect’ ones shown in movies… While researching on [...]
The Elephant & the Tiger – Hathi Bhata & Ranthambore trip.
It was the 19th of December 2011. We had just come back from the big trip around Rajasthan. Vani & Aish had taken the flight back to Bangalore the previous evening. Sangeetha & me still had a few more days of vacations left and we scanned through our list of ‘must see places in Rajasthan’. [...]
Chandragiri – Relics of the fallen empire.
In south India, tales of Vijayanagara – Hampi and Krishnadevaraya are part and parcel of our cultural initiation. Be it through stories narrated by our grandparents, through our history text books or through Chandamama & Amar Chitra Katha. What we normally get to hear or read about are just some glimpses from history, a high-level [...]
Hampi – The city of victory…
Over the past couple of decades, both Sangeetha & me have been to Hampi several times – as part of our school trips, during our college days, with family and friends… But given the fact that there is so much to see, you can go there on multiple occasions and each time you’ll see something [...]
The shore temples of Mahabalipuram
In early 2007, we had to go to Chennai over a weekend for a family function; this was the first time that me and Sangeetha were visiting Chennai together. After the function we had some time on hand and post lunch we headed out to Mahabalipuram, which is included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage [...]
Little Rann of Kutch Wild Ass Sanctuary & Rann Riders resort – Dasada.
IIMA had organized a Leadership Development workshop for the PGPX students over the weekend of 3rd and 4th October 2010. The venue was the Rann Riders resort in Dasada village, Gujarat. The village of Dasada is a few minutes drive from the entrance of the Little Rann of Kutch Wild Ass Sanctuary. The Rann Riders [...]
An incomplete guide to Hoysala temples ;-)
From the preface of the “Complete Guide to Hoysala temples” by Gerard Foekema: “For me, enjoying Later Calukya and Hoysala temples is one of the great pleasures of life. I love these temples because their plans are so logical and natural, because their architecture is so ingenious, and because their execution is so rich…" We [...]
