Travels, books and music

I am blogging my #ColgateMagicalstories at <a href=" http://blogadda.com "> BlogAdda </a> in association with <a href=" http://www.colgate.co. in/en/in/oc ">Colgate </a>. It was a quiet summer evening when my eight year old daughter was watching the oscar winning movie--"Martian" with me on our home theatre--eyes wide in childhood fantasy and trepidation, and she was filled with umpteen questions about space travel, and therefore it was a boon when i received the cut outs from Colgate and showed it to her as we settled down to explore space through the wonderful paper cut outs. Her first query about how to go into space as she said as the space is a very lonesome place to be, she would like to take her  friends along with her and would like to swim in the air , and wear new suits before going into that weird airplane and get into the space with her friends. She said she would carry lots of chocolates and maggi so that she do...

“I am joining the   Saffolalife   #ProtectHerHeart initiative and pledging my support to better heart health in Association with   BlogAdda . Before marriage a lady’s heart is where her parent home is,  as I saw my wife transform  herself into a new role of a wife , mother, homemaker, breadearner after marriage she became a multitasking wizard, her whole being migrated to the home hearth to maintain the family heart while missing her own heartbeats and at the cost of “me” time.                 As a result I could see irregular, unbalanced diets , lack of structured physical activity with mental  stress was taking a toll ultimately on the organ which is the fountain of life—her heart. And as we had learned that all wealth comes to a nought if your health is lost, I decided to take the matter into my hands and cajole her back to healthy life before the catastrophic chan...

Introduction As the plane comfortably skims down the clouds into Port Blair, the sight of soft fluffy cottony clouds hugging , drifting and dotting the emerald green island on a green and dazzling blue sea greets you from the plane windows and you know if there is a second heaven on earth after Kashmir it is here in Andaman and Nicobar. In Andamans there is no “G Huzoori” . There is no 2G or 3G , but a place of "G" deaddiction, a life beyond screens. The netted 3G life suddenly gives way to an idyllic sun kissed beaches, emerald green sea, green swaying coconut palms and every shades of green except that of envy. Here God wants you to come and enjoy his largesse minus the virtual world, the Power point presentation he makes with various combinations of land, sky and sea with his paint brush and infinite varied colours on his palette.  A time comes when you sit back and ruminate as to how life passed you buy while the virtual world took over the real world. The be...

If life is a present than the gift of life is wrapped in pearls of moments. The journey of life is marked and stamped by these beautiful simple savoury moments which makes the life journey a wonderful travelogue on your way to final destination. “Petrichor”—the smell of first drops of rain when it strikes the parched earth. Have you ever tried to stop and smell it ? I do not know how heaven smells but the moment is heavenly as the smell of a virgin wet earth strikes your senses. Talking of rain—that  moment when the heaven opens up and you are on your daily laps on the swimming pool, the moment is heavenly as the cold fresh rain drops strikes you and the warm pool water cuddles you from below, or the patter of raindrops on your windowsill when you are in that twilight zone of slipping into deep slumber. Precious savoury moments which makes life living for. Life is made up of these moments like multicolored chequered pieces of cloth sewn together giving it its own myriad hue...

RANTHAMBORE NATIONAL PARK-MEMORIES ETCHED IN WILDERNESS We have all grown up hearing the famous quote from William Blake “Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright/In the forests of the night/what immortal hand or eye ! could frame the fearful symmetry.” The mere thought of seeing these majestic creatures in their natural habitat instills a feeling of awe and grandeur unparalled by any other wondrous sight of nature. With these mixed feelings we decided to visit the grandiose Ranthambore National Park about 130Km from Jaipur because I believe that the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page Jaipur to Ranthambore by road( October to june) We set off by car (leave by breakfast to catch the afternoon safari) taking the more hospitable road via the MI road (the central road of Jaipur which separates the old city from the new) straight to Dausa. The road from Jaipur to Dausa is a world class sixlane highway where you can whiz past the 65 km in about an hour in a comfo...

Sundarban trip-A pleasant diversion ”We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we can seek them with our eyes open.” Picnic, excursion, trip, expedition, jaunt-whatever you name it, are pleasant diversions. They break the monotony of life and bring into one’s daily life a touch of variety, for they carry us away from our everyday mundane world of daily existence into a world that is exotic, rejuvenating and exhilarating. Such short and  sweet jaunts give a touch of prose to the boring chapters of  life as they release the springs of joy chained down by the burden of duties and responsibilities.             My trip to Sundarbans exactly gave me the same fresh lease of new exhilarating life and boundless energy as the muddy eddies of estuarine Ganges and the brilliant green of the sundari trees swept away the dreary cobwebs of city...

                                                                                 Santiniketan-Paush Mela- An ode to the Bard. -Happy the man, whose wish and care  A few paternal acres bound Content to breath his native air in his own ground.                                                                                          ...