Randomness- Hampi: Backpacker's Paradise!!

Hampi to me is one of the most under-rated backpacking destination, located in southern part of India. Major attraction of the place lies in the ruins of the Vijayanagar empire, but its also a place which has more than its fair share of natural beauty. Hampi as a place would work for everyone, right from people interested in history, religion, mythology, etc to people who are interested in nature-gazing, hiking, chilling-out, etc. The town can be divided into two parts the area of ruins & temple is for the first category & the area post crossing the river would be perfect fit for the second category. Needless to say we spent majority of time in the area which starts post crossing the river :) 

Me & jojo, crossing the river!!

• Life in the middle of rice fields- We decided to stay at a modest but beautiful place called "Goan Corner", on the other side of the river. It was surrounded on all sides by rice fields & small hills. Setting was so awesome that we could have spent 3-4 days in the near vicinity without feeling bored. Early morning walks comprised of us climbing one hill after another, breakfast was basic but it was good. This part of Hampi was beautiful & devoid of much development & was ideal for people who want a break from their mundane life or who wants to stay close to nature.The place didn't have a television, electricity wasn't there throughout the day, food was limited in terms of options, they were also short on man-power, but still I would go back when I will visit Hampi again. Simple things like hammock in front of every room, trees of seasonal fruits, helpful staff (they went out of their way to accommodate all of our requests), beautiful pets, etc did the trick for me :)

• Best places to relax, while eating & drinking-There is a reason as to why Hampi is considered backpacker's paradise in India. Once you cross the river & come to the area preferred by the backpackers, there are plenty of options to choose from in both hotels & restaurants. We had a few meals to experiment with & we did just that. Our best dining experience would have to be Nargila, its a nice place with awesome ambiance, filled with people drinking & smoking. The smell of grass was there in the air & the music was amazing, while the sit down approach enhances the entire effect. We settled down in no time & started with a beer drinking competition. I could not resist after a while & went to check the playlist, much to my surprise there wasn't a single known name both in terms of artist & song while we were hooked on throughout. We spent 3-4 hours there itself, exploration plans were cancelled without verbalizing the same. We thought we would have all the meals there, but given the choice that we had we could not come back again. Atmosphere wise it was the best place & should not be missed by anyone. Food was also pretty good, though it wasn't the best food that we had during the trip. Next we tried Laughing Buddha, same day for dinner & food wise we were in for a disappointment. Even the basic stuff that we ordered tasted weird.What saved the day was the friendliness of the staff & the availability of a television (significance would be explained later). Food wise our best experience was to happen on the last day, when we had a late lunch @ Mango Tree. We were impressed with the décor of the place, though it would not come close to Nargila, but what blew us away was the quality of the food served. First thing which came to our table, was the simple combination of Dal & Rice which would be amongst the best that I have ever had. We had all ordered separate combos, another good part of the place is the plethora of combo's that they have, and everything was damn tasty.
  

• Its a tiger, its a lion, ohh damn its just a frog!!- The most funny incident on the trip took place while we were ordering dinner at Laughing Buddha. While everyone were engrossed in the menu card, after a long day of travelling, soumya starting running & shouting as if she has seen the face of devil himself. Rest of us were really worried, but at the same time we also were scared for our lives as it seemed like a real threat. After running for some 20 minutes she stopped while still jumping & screaming, giving us a possible window to ask questions & understand the issue. Multiple questions were framed & asked & the answer to all of them was a small frog which by mistake stepped on her feet post which they had a jumping competition in which soumya defeated the other participant hands down, a few bumps to her head notwithstanding. Even the bad food could not spoil our moods post this, as we had a nice ending to an eventful day :)

After one of our boulder expedition :)

• Nature at its best- I had no inclination of visiting the ruins & understand the rich history of the place, as compared to admire the natural beauty surrounding it. But I realized later that even in midst of the ruins there were spots which were unexplored & uninhabited, but extremely beautiful. You just need to decide to move in a particular direction & keep on going till there is a place like that in front of you. While randomly walking across we also discovered such places & one of them was extremely scenic. It was a small artificial pond which had a resting place in the centre, surrounded by open space & boulders from all side. It was one of those places where you can sit for hours, contemplate about life, look in one direction without getting bored with the sight, where you would want to see the sunset/sunrise, etc. And because we didn't have high expectations from the place, hence our ROE was extremely high.
  

• Coracle- We were travelling to Anjaneya temple, where on the way there was a Dam. And people were taking coracle rides there. Now I saw the thing for the first time in my life & it looked like a small raft kind of thing semicircular in shape & it was shaking vigorously while the 'captain' paddles to take it in a certain direction. A few things were pretty interesting, firstly the number of people it could accommodate in its deceptively small structure & secondly, the spinning trick which the 'captain' was making everyone experience in the middle of the huge water reservoir. He would keep the coracle spinning using the paddle till the occupants asks for mercy, it looked like a fun thing to experience & the coracle-man "Buddappa" was also looking like a fun man. He took 7 of us together on his small coracle, most were worried about it sinking due to the combined weight but not Buddappa. He wanted us to be taken to the other extreme end, while giving us two spinning experience in the middle. After the first round of spinning most of the people just wanted to have a sound journey back to the ground, but Buddappa had other plans. He decided, all by himself, that one round of spin wasn't quite enough for us & hence we were given a second round of spin.

  

  
  

• Novak Djokovic Vs Stanislas Wawrinka- US open semi-final, a match where me & jojo were backing different players. I was sure that it would be a straight sets victory for Djoker, he was looking in prime touch throughout the tournament & he is my favourite, after Fedex. Jojo, on the other hand, was sure that Wawrinka was onto something, he was sure of a 5 setter match without being too committal on the end result. We thought that the match would start at 8 pm, so we figured out a restaurant with Television, i.e. Laughing Buddha & decided to spend some time there & take it as it comes. But little did we know that the match was to start only post 10 pm. Now the part of the town we were staying in had no electricity during evening, our resort was still couple of KMs from the restaurant, roads were pretty thin, it was raining, rice paddy both sides with standing water, were a few things we thought might affect our travel-back-to-resort plans. But they just vanished into the thin air as soon as the match started, as Wawrinka was in the zone. Jojo had said that Wawrinka was onto something, but I was getting certain that he was on something. He was aggressive, not holding back, played some of the most exquisite SHB (single handed backhand) stroke and above all made Djoker shift his game from aggressive to defensive. Wawrinka won the first set quiet easily & Jojo was all smiles, even I was happy with the show of tennis excellence but seriously wanted Djoker to improve his game. Before we knew it was past 1 am, Djoker managing to capture the second set after stretching a lot. That's when we realized that it was just the two of us at the restaurant, everyone else was either dead or asleep, only one guy was there waiting for us to leave. Mind you we had paid our bill hours ago, but still the guy who we had conveniently kept awake wasn't complaining. He wasn't even watching the match. After this realization we decided to leave the place & give this guy a well deserved break. As soon as we got out, we thought there is no way we could walk to our resort in the pitch dark thin streets & we should borrow a torch from the guy. Before we could turn around the guy was walking in our direction with a torch in his hand. Even when we said we will get him the torch back in the morning, all he said was "its ok".

long jump competition :)

Buddappa, Coracle & Us!!

• Ticket troubles- Brao was responsible for booking bus tickets for our journey from & back to Hyderabad, where there is Brao there is trouble. For some reason he decided to book tickets for onwards journey to Hampi for 8th September & post this he booked the return journey for 5th September. When I got to know about this I was extremely happy at the thought of someone finally inventing time-travel. But my happiness was short-lived, as I saw him writing mails to cancel his tickets booked for 6th September to be cancelled on 9th September. I was waiting for the reply thinking can these guys travel back in time & cancel the tickets, but I was to be disappointed again. Jokes aside, the incident did give us the start that we needed & the story that is to be shared by many in the times to come :)

Movies seen last week...

This is one of those post which I dedicate to the last few good movies I saw. Nothing much to differentiate these movies, at best it would be some extra-ordinary movies with a sprinkle of some good movies. And I do not start writing these posts until I come across a movie or a couple of movies, which compels me to sit & write. The movies behind this post happens to be "Stuart: A life backwards" & "The way way back"

"Stuart: A life backwards"- It is not one of those formula driven movies, but it is one of those rare stuff which makes you sit back & review the story in your head once the movie is over. I was reading an article on Season 3 of BBC series "Sherlock", from there I went to IMDB page of Benedict Cumberbatch, eventually landing at the IMDB page of this movie. It had 7.7 rating but given my recent distrust for IMDB rating, I decided to do further research. Saw the cast & spotted Tom Hardy in the list as well. Now both these actors posses great head for movie selection, Benedict Cumberbatch has impressed me 100% so far & Tom Hardy's other Indie movie "Bronson" was as impressive as it gets. Coming back to the movie itself, its a British TV movie based on a book written by Alexander Masters dedicated to his friend Stuart Shorter. Despite being a homeless guy, who has had a history of violence & crime, Stuart impressed Alexander during their first meeting. They develop a bond, leading to Stuart work with Alexander on activities handled by Outreach & in return Alexander treat him as a friend & an equal. When the writer request Stuart to let him write a Biography on his life, Stuart requests back by asking him to write his story backwards. Viewers are also shown the movie backwards, where one keeps uncovering one layer at a time to eventually explains what made Stuart the way he was in the end. Story is gut-wrenching, but the movie had plenty of moments where Alexander & Stuart are working together, enjoying together, traveling together, etc. Benedict Cumberbatch gives such a restraint performance which great actors twice his age would/should be proud of. In a role where he is suppose to be a guide to another character, which is the lead character, Benedict Cumberbatch still manages to impress one & all. This role also happens to be damn different from whatever else he has done so far in his career. But Tom Hardy is the best thing about the movie. Playing a character which has had a painful life since childhood can't be easy, but Hardy still justifies his selection. The mannerism which Hardy introduces into the character, the way he walks, talks, recount events in his life, talks about his son, etc just make his character that bit more believable. Having seen him perform phenomenally in "Bronson", I was still surprised by his portrayal of Stuart Shorter. Despite the sad & depressing storyline, viewers still connects with the characters to the credit of writers & the actors. And if for nothing else, movie deserves to be seen for performance of both the lead actors.

Prince Avalanche- It happens to be one of the under-rated movies of the recent times, IMDB rating of 6.5 does not do justice to the movie. I have always liked Paul Rudd movies, for the simple reason that they are not just funny but at the same time they would also have a bit of realism in them & often have emotional undertones & humane themes. But off late he is also taking slightly mature projects which would have elements of comedy but borderline on drama. 'Prince avalanche' is such movie where Paul Rudd plays a roadways worker who has to stay away from home & his girlfriend. He still is happy to stay close to nature & making money which would be used to improve life of the people back home. Also to support him, there is Emile Hirsch plays the character of his co-worker who also happens to be brother of Paul Rudd's girlfriend. The best part of the movie is not the chemistry that exist between the two lead actors, or the dialogue which are funny in a subtle manner, or the insecurity of both the characters portrayed brilliantly by both Paul Rudd & Emile Hirsch, it is the silence that exist in the movie where nature is shown in its prime along with the combination of good background score & actors giving awesome expressions without uttering a single line that for me is the best thing about the movie. The performance from both the actors is sublime, which is not surprising at all given the amount of talent they both have.

The words- There are not many good movie about writers, definitely not many which have a mystery or a thriller feel to it. 'The words' has all of the aforementioned things, along with an interesting star cast comprising of Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde, etc. The plot is about an author who after struggling for a long time comes up with a piece of literary brilliance, the only issue being he is not the original author of the story. The movie works as all the contributors perform their role with seriousness & honesty, as a viewer one realizes that & appreciate the movie even more. For the person who falsely claim the work of other the worst bit is not the guilt of falsely claiming someone's hard work, but its the realization that he is not capable of producing a work like that. Living with with that kind of inferiority complex can be difficult & Bradley Cooper portrayed that bit beautifully.

Arthur Newman- Another one of extremely under-rated movies with an IMDB rating of 5.4, the reason behind such a bad rating is beyond me. Its not the best movie of all times, but it definitely deserves better than 5.4 on IMDB. Colin Firth & Emily Blunt plays two central characters who are trying to run away from their respective lives by adopting false identity. Emily blunt takes up the name of her sister who is in a mental institution, whereas Colin Firth buys a new identity of a man named Arthur Newman, something similar to the naming logic of the 'man' in "The man from earth". Both of them are trying to run away from their realities & past & while on run they are also trying to have fun through the new life that they have undertaken. Both the actors more than justify the strong characters given to them by the makers of the movie, by bringing nuances to their performances which keeps the viewers glued to the screen.

Wag the Dog- I am a fan of both Robert Deniro & Dustin Hoffman, well who isn't. A satire is not something which is easy to pull-off, more so when it is a political satire, but Barry Levinson pulls it off gracefully. Having directed movies like 'Rain-man', 'Sleepers', 'Good morning, Vietnam', director has proven ability of handling big stars & sensitive subjects. Plots revolves around a President who just before election gets involved with a Sex scandal. Robert Deniro's character, who is a political fixer, is called to fix the situation. He comes up with a solution of manufacturing a war with Albania, the entire MO of creating the war is so satirical that it leaves viewers with a stomachache. But the real show stealer of the movie is Dustin Hoffman, playing a role of egoistic Hollywood producer. When things become too hot to handle for the fixer, the Hollywood producer is called upon to give legitimacy to the entire war episode. The story becomes even more interesting when the opposition leader tries to outwit the team of fixer & producer. But the team is more than up to the task & manages the show in the end. Dustin Hoffman brings just the right amount of eccentricity to portray the character, he is just perfect when he is trying to record a situational song for one of the fake war situation created by him, or when he is discussing with his team of professionals from hollywood about the entire sequence which is to be created & shown as a fact for the public, or his reaction in the climax where on not being given the credit for his work he is even ready to blow the entire thing by exposing the plan to public. Deniro gives a performance that is expected off him & one that is befitting of his stature.

The way way back- Off late I have realized that the amount of happiness that I get from a good coming-of-age movie is incomparable to any other genre. Movies like "The way way back" justifies my bias for the genre. Again the story is pretty simple, a divorced mother with her son decides to go on a trip with her boyfriend, who is also a divorcee & has a daughter, who accompanies them on the trip. The equation between the boy & his mother's boy-friend is not good. Role of the boy-friend is played by Steve Carell, who shows that his prowess is not just limited to funny, sensible & emotional characters but he can play the role of an asshole also with equal panache. The equation between the boy & his potential step-father keeps on degrading as Steve carell's character keeps on undermining the boy's spirit. Boy also realizes, as does everyone else, that his potential step-father is cheating on his mother. The boy is not accepted into the community & feels lonely, thats where the Sam Rockwell steps in playing the role of a guy working in a theme-park. He understands the issues the boy is facing & tries to help the boy in gaining confidence. He ends up doing that & more. Sam rockwell giving an assuring performance in an author backed role. Best part of the movie for me was the various characters who adds so much to the overall experience. And the cast comprises of some really talented & known faces, Tony Collette, Alison Janney, Amanda Peet, Maya Rudolph, etc & Liam James does not dissappoint playing the role of the boy who eventually comes of age.

Shahid- I generally would avoid movies that I watch in theater & hence no mention of Lootera, Lunchbox, Rush, Gravity, Prisoners, etc but there are a few movies which really impresses you & breaks the streotype or the genre code, one such movie is 'Shahid'. There are quite a few movies which has been made on a muslim character who is victimized because of his caste & background, but only a few of them have this uplifting feel throughout the movie. One such movie was "Aamir", which I loved for almost everything. Even in the worst of situation the movie does not let you sit down & feel bad for the lead character or the other victims, but through the resillience of the characters & the background score (awesome it is) the movie avoids falling into that trap. Exactly same thing happens in case of Shahid, where circumstances makes the central character join a terrorist camp & then run away from their after he sees through the mirage & accepts the reality. After coming back he is taken in custody under state terrorism act, a brief hint of police brutality & their usual tactics of manipulation of victims, the protagonist struggles to come out of jail for a crime he never commited. In the prison he is getting misguided by a polished extremist, but there are other good people who guide him towards education. He decides to study more & after coming out of prison with a help from the character who guided him in the first place inside the prison, post this he decides to become a lawyer. And from their the real story of Shahid starts, his intention of helping people who are unable to help themselves, takes him to places where no ordinary man can go. A beautifully crafted story, which lifts you up whenever you need one, goaded by top notch direction, hansal mehta is back in form here, but what takes the cake is the performance of Raj Kumar Yadav. He breathes life into this movie by portraying the character as best as humanly possible. The manner in which he goes about playing this character would make some very serious & accomplished actors proud. Kay Kay Menon & Tigmanshu Dhulia reminds the viewers of their acting abilities, especially Kay Kay Menon who has been visible only in forgettable movies off late. All the support cast does immensely well, making the entire movie watching experience a delight.

Keeping the hunger alive!!

At any point of time, when I am not traveling, I have this need of at least planning a trip/trek. I will keep bugging a few close friends till the next trip is confirmed, time-gap between two trips notwithstanding. Once I have booked the tickets for the next travel there is this happiness which gets over me & I start with the research that would go on to make my trip memorable. Also I like to visit places which are not so commercial as a tourist destination, so that the opportunity to interact with locals & seeing the things as they are exist for me. Also another advantage of the strategy is to avoid sharing the place with loads of other travelers, like a Goa trip in Monsoon or a Ladakh trip in winter. And more often than not, they happen to be great on VFM  :)

I am not much into shopping & hence more often than not, I come back empty handed. But what I have carried back from trek/trip are loads of memories which revolves mostly around people or beauty of the place or, on a few occasion, food. At times one does get to experience negative incidents also, I have had a fair share of these. But the impact of positive experiences outweighs that of negative experiences. This post is dedicated to all those positive/funny/quirky incidents which revolve around people & for me these are the real reason behind getting desperate to pick up my backpack & get on the road.

• Srinagar fruit-seller- When we were in Srinagar about 4 years back, on our way to Ladakh via road, it was a bad time for the city. For all those 3-4 days there was full day curfew & our strategy was to start early reach the designated place before the curfew is enforced & stay the day at the place till late evening. On one day we got to know that the market is open & we can go there to buy stuff. Since I wasn't keen on taking anything back I decided to randomly go & chat with some locals while my friends shop to their hearts content. One of the guys who I started interacting with was an elderly local fruit seller, he asked me where I was from & what I did for living. I asked him about his life in Srinagar & the answer wasn't very good to hear. Being in the business of selling perishable goods that too in a place where curfews are part of your regular life doesn't bode well for anyone. Education of the grand-children was an issue amongst other things. I decided to pick some stuff for the road journey which was to start next morning to Kargil. So as soon as I asked him to weigh some quantity of all variants of fruit he had he asked me to go to a close-by shop. I was completely confused & asked him whether its his relative's shop to which he said that the fruits are fresher there though he had nothing to do with the owner of that shop. When I asked him why isn't he keen on selling his stuff & make some money given his condition & given the situation of the city. To this he replied that the biggest thing hurting the city is state of tourism & he wants to ensure that people like me who comes to the city has good experience here so that they can go back & talk about their experiences leading to more tourists coming there. To say that I was amazed by the interaction would be an understatement & it happened to be something by which I remember the city.

• Lukla Lodge lady- About 5 years back on my first ever trek in Nepal, on the way back I got really sick to the extent that people decided to get me carried down while covering the distance worth two days in a single night. There were 6 friends who were part of the troop which went through the ordeal of traveling through the night with the help of torches in not so friendly terrains. After walking throughout the night we reached Lukla early morning at crazy hour (I do not remember what time it was for obvious reason, but I do remember it was still dark). We didn't have any booking or hadn't informed any lodge owner in advance, and after knocking on doors of many lodges for what seemed like an eternity, one lady lodge-owner woke up & opened the doors of her lodge for us. Since many rooms were not empty she advised us to take the common hall so that people can sleep for a bit there & we can have breakfast before catching a flight to Kathmandu. All this while I was crying in pain, as my situation wasn't improving, so at that crazy hour she decided to burn some fire for me plus she also made a potion using local herbs so that I could feel better. When that also didn't help she decided to sit beside me & talk, while pressing my head gently throughout. Others had to get some rest as some of them had been walking for 16 hours without break & some the whole night sharing my weight on their shoulder. That day till 11 am, due to weather the first flight out of Lukla was delayed by quite a bit, the elderly lady did nothing else but sat beside me & tried her best to get me to drink something which I was vomiting out the very next moment. I could not thank her on that trip but got an opportunity to meet her on the next trek in Nepal, we stayed at her lodge on both ways.

• Thailand speed boat with old Englishman- It is one of those incidents which has stayed with me for a long time now. I was traveling in Thailand with friends & one fine day we decided to go to some island (do not remember the name) on a speed boat. Weather wasn't particularly good that day & hence the ride which is normally difficult became even worse. So everyone sitting in the front part of the deck went inside to have a safe journey, to the extent possible. It was just me & a old British man who decided to stay put as it was too much fun, a few bumps on the head notwithstanding. We also started chatting which was difficult due to weather but not impossible. So he started telling me his story, he was an ex-army guy who was retired now. He keeps traveling with his son & they always travel to places where they have currency advantage. India was also high on his list, but he mentioned that he would rate Thailand high on the list above India. I got so offended that I stood up & gave a speech which lasted for decent time on why India is a better place from tourism point of view. Unity in diversity, so much of culture to absorb, mountain, river, ocean, valley, dessert, heritage sites, temples, mosques, shrines, in short almost everything under the sun. He agreed to everything & mentioned that he loved Rajasthan & he has been to Goa which is a great place. I followed up by asking why he didn't find India better, to which he replied in two words "Cheap girlfriends". For about 5 seconds I was watching his face, he sensed what I was thinking. He said "I am over 50, both my hands have broken bones, same with my legs, my back has been fractured more than once, I have issues with my shoulders. In fact there is just one part of my body which works properly & I feel need to keep it in working shape hence I come here often". He also mentioned economics involved & with pension money he has to come to Thailand as rest of the location would be expensive. We discussed the entire thing so openly & then talked about his experience in army & other stuff. To have a conversation like that, in a neutral place, was just the right thing to remember the trip till today.

the small one also happens to be an awesome dancer

• Family at lingshed-  A couple of us were trying to complete "Chadar trek", which is basically walking over a thin sheet of ice formed in winter over Zanskar River. Throughout the trek you keep camping at night in the open near the river, which makes it extremely cold (maximum temperature being -16 degrees, minimum recorded temperature being -38 degrees). One of the stops was Lingshed village where we had a luxury of house stay, where we had a proper heater & proper bed for a change. The family which was hosting us had two little kids with their mother & grand-mother. Men of the family were traveling outside the village for work, while women maintain things at home. We had occupied a better part of their house & they were as graceful as any host can be. They invited us to their house, offered us butter tea (Gurgur chai), apologized, for unfathomable reason, about the condition of their house. But what really took the cake was they arranged a party for us at their home where locals were singing their songs & playing drums & beating empty cans, while we were dancing with them. With some local rice liquor the entire setup was as amazing as it can be @ 4000mts plus height. They even wanted us to shift to a common hall which is used for village functions, where proper instruments were kept, with more people to join us. But we had heard the news that Chadar was deteriorating & had to start early next day morning. We called it a day, but the experience took the meaning of the word hospitality to a different level.

• Pakistani Shop owner at Barcelona- We were pretty impressed by the city of Barcelona, majorly because of the awesome work done by Gaudi. Also we loved the other places we went to in Spain, but what we wanted was a local food experience which would have completed the experience for us. We had tried all kind of road side food, pizzas and all types of comfort food that is available. Went to as many different kind of restaurant as possible, but we were yet to experience the Catalonian cuisine, which made us travel across the city on the eve of our departure. Language is a big barrier & English is not a language which many understand in Barcelona. We were still trying hard to figure out a local restaurant where we would get local flavors in a fine-dine setting.After a point we realized that asking people on street is not helping at all, so new strategy was to enter restaurants and asking them where can we get authentic local food but even this didn't work. Very few people knew English & those who did didn't have an answer for us. In one cafe the person asked us to wait & went to get somebody. We thought he was trying to call someone who knew English and the person who came out was the owner of the shop who we thought was an Indian but he was actually a Pakistani. We had a long discussion on how he landed in Barcelona & how was he finding the experience of living their. He had a few questions about India, which we answered happily. We also discussed cricket, which was the most animated part of the overall discussion. He offered us food at his cafe, which we respectfully declined with the reason. He recommended a restaurant for local cuisine & also offered us to drive there. We responded by telling him he can drop us only if he joins us for dinner. In the end we walked down to the restaurant as cafe owner had work to finish before dinner. Its a really old incident hence I cannot remember most of the conversation but what struck me at that time was that similarity that exist between Indians & Pakistanis, who I always used to think were very different from us. His helpful nature & his manner of speaking put a seed of thought in my head, i.e. visiting Pakistan someday. BTW local food was nothing great, they served us artichoke which was half-burnt. There was a decent dish which was made up of cheese and roasted potato (nothing can go wrong with that combination) which ensured that I came out of the restaurant with on a full stomach.

local food @ Barcelona

Small kid at the back is Jigme & one on right is Nuwang

• Visiting Bhutanese monk's house-The best part of my Bhutan trip was visiting monastery where Nawang, who is a practicing Monk, works & stays. Me & couple of my friend were walking up to Swiss guest house, where we were staying, from the town which was at a 30 mins walk downhill from the guesthouse. We decided to take a new trail & after a while we couldn't find the road going anywhere. Nawang came there just then & we asked him about the way to our guest house, he not only mentioned how to reach but also offered to accompany us till we reach the main path again. On the way we started talking about Bollywood and went on from there to discuss life of a monk. Seeing our interest he offered to take us to his monastery, Khurjey Monastery. After giving us a small tour of the monastery, he casually mentioned about spending some time with his roommates at his room, we jumped at this opportunity. All this while we were discussing life@monastery & life before being a monk. As soon as we reach his room he introduced us to Jigme, who was a reincarnated lama. Such people are identified early on & taken into monastery before they even turn 10 years in age. Jigme was watching a tom cruise movie when we entered their room. They both were forthcoming in answering all our questions regarding Buddhism, sacrificing normal life, aspect of future from a monks perspective, etc and after were we fully satisfied with their answers we asked Nawang to sing. Nawang was a good singer after singing a few lines from various Indian movie songs, on our request he sang a Bhutanese song & translated the same for us. Post this he even took us to the classrooms of the monastery, all the while explaining things or answering question without showing any signs of getting irritated by our badgering. My respect for Bhutan & the King's philosophy of Gross Happiness Index increased manifold after interacting with locals, especially people like Nawang & Jigme.

• Help from Tourism employee of Mizoram- We landed in Aizawl thinking we would interact with the local tourism center & then make our plans. There was no tourism kiosk at Lengpui Airport or Aizawl city & we were left on our own for figuring out our plans for next few days. Our driver was trying his best to take us to a place where we could get some help. At last we reached the administrative head office of tourism department, we asked almost everyone to help us figure things out as some routes were bad, weather was not that friendly, accessibility was another concern which we wanted to clarify before heading off in specific direction. Most of the people couldn't even understand what we were trying to figure out, as the concept of tourist was itself alien to them. After a lot of explaining from our side a bunch of ladies started paying attention to us & one of them was really impressed with what we were trying to do. She mentioned a couple of impressive places where she had been herself. Also she had a discussion with our driver Sangtea, as to how we can best utilize our time in Mizoram & how he can help us reach Reiek Tlang in a day which route to take and all. She also called up the government lodge employee in Reiek Tlang & asked him to prepare room & food for us. We were so happy to get so much of help & thanked Nonni again & again. Then she asked for our cell numbers, which we happily shared. Having received so much of help from an unknown lady was great, she would have at least spend an hour apart from making multiple calls checking routes etc. But this wasn't all she was about to do, for the entire duration of our trip she kept on calling us back asking about our experiences & checking up on us to see if we are not finding anything too difficult. On the way to Muifang from Reiek Tlang she again called & asked if we have made our bookings in Muifang, as there is only one decent resort which was owned by Government. Like this she kept on helping us throughout the trip. Such goodness in people is not visible in most of the places, but Mizoram was full of such examples of good. Our driver Sangtea helped us a lot, he even sacrificed his Sunday mass as we couldnt find a cab back to Aizawl from Hmuifang to catch our flight. Caretakers at all the lodges were more than forthcoming with any kind of support that we asked from them. But Nonni's efforts to ensure that we go back from Mizoram happy & the kind of ownership that she took to ensure that we had a good time was not just unexpected but also unbelievable.

• Interaction with the Soldier at Draupadi Kund-  This is a rather short incident pertaining to a road-trip which was from Srinagar-Kargil-Leh-Manali-Delhi. First half of the journey, i.e. till Leh, it is almost impossible not to interact with Army-men. We used this opportunity to maximum possible effect & interacted with quite a few of them. The fact that they are sacrificing so much for the call of duty to spend time in harsh conditions without complaining much is mind boggling in itself. Plus when they start sharing their anecdotes, it becomes even more overwhelming. On the way we even interacted with a senior officer who was in-charge of managing the Vijay Diwas celebrations. Post which we reached a small tourist attraction called "Draupadi Kund", where we met a Sikh soldier. We chatted for a long time & because the person was responsive we asked too many question, some of them personal. The soldier was more than happy to answer everything, but we started feeling guilty of going overboard with the questions. So I apologized to him for taking so much of time & thanked him for answers. But he told us that there was no need for an apology, given the fact he had to spend majority of his time here away from the base & his fellow army-men he is more than happy to interact with people. He also told us that the biggest issue with soldiers is the boredom due to inaction. He keeps looking for tourists, who visits Draupadi kund, for some company. This made us realize about a completely different reason for us to appreciate the efforts of soldiers, they withstand mundane job, lack of company, no bakar, etc & still continues to fulfill their roles.And they do all this without much bickering & this does stand out in sharp contrast compared to most of us.

Sacrificial goats!!

Have been thinking about starting & finishing this post, but something always stopped me from doing that. Today after having a 2 hrs long discussion with a friend I managed to convince myself on writing this piece. It took me so much of time as the subject matter is not something I want to write about, the only reason behind writing this to get it out of my head. This post revolves around an event which occured in Guwahati, where I had gone with a colleague for an official trip. This was the first visit for my colleague in any of the north-eastern state & even I hadn't explored Guwahati much, so we were both making plans for going around the town before/after work hours. The idea was to see some nice places, but barring temples no other option came from locals. We decided to start off with Kamakhya devi temple by visiting the temple early morning en route to work. Having been twice to temple I wasn't kicked about it, but my colleague had heard a lot about the temple & was excited about finally visiting the temple. It is a different thing altogether that his excitement vaporized as day progressed.

As soon as we reached the temple we were told that there is a special line where post paying 500 bucks you would get to visit the temple fast, given the excitement of my fellow visitor & the work that was pending, we decided to go for the "special darshan". Normally I am not too fond of Tirupati & Siddhi Vinayak for the very same reason of differentiating on account of offering, but here situation demanded the use of "special darshan". Anyhow, after waiting for about an hour, god knows what would have been the waiting time in normal queue, we got a chance to enter the main temple. The temple is spread over a big area & throughout the area one would get to see many goats. They would all be very docile & quiet, while standing near the wall without moving. It was little weird, but knowing that the tradition of sacrifice is still relevant for Guwahati, we could fathom the reason behind this weirdness. We were just discussing about this, when a priest came dragging a baby goat using a rope. It was a depressing scene & I started thinking what I was doing there. Within a few seconds, another goat (slightly bigger & older) came running in midst of all the crowd & commotion, put two of his/her hoof on the baby goat thereby putting its entire weight on the baby. Idea was to stop the man from dragging & taking the baby away, I have never seen anything like this in my life so far. The priest tried pushing the bigger goat, but the bigger goat keep coming back on top of the baby. Kicking was little too much for me and I started shouting on the priest, seeing this another priest joined in & took away the bigger goat nicely. Post this even the baby goat stopped fighting his fate & gave in. We were both completely shaken, different question arising in our heads which we were trying to ignore.

Then the time came for us to enter the temple, having been there in the queue for more than an hour we were slightly happy that now our time in the temple is going to be really short. The line moves really slow, but still we managed to enter the main area. Its really dark inside the main part, barring couple of electric lamps & a few oil lamps there is not much to illuminate the place. After a bit of time we also reached inside the place where both the statues are. As soon as i reached close to the statue, I got a shock of my life. There were severed heads of two young goats, on one side & another head on the other side. Somehow we managed to pay our respect to the goddess & we came out post that. Affect of the scene was strong, knowing that sacrifice as a tradition is part of the temple is something, but seeing the evidence of it is something else.

Thousands  of people visit temple on a daily basis & many, if not most, would be vegetarian. They typically bow in front of the temple, put their hands close to the statue to touch the water & the apply the same water to their forehead, eyes, etc. Not too sure whether people know that the severed heads are kept so damn close to the statue. Many meat eaters also would not take this lightly, I mean killing animals to supposedly please god is as absurd as it gets. The entire episode led me to think about two things, first 'how good/bad our religion system is' & second 'whats the legal standpoint on the entire sacrifice thing'.

Research showed that there are tonnes of temples where sacrifice are a norm. The process of sacrifice at Kamakhya devi temple is simple, a devotee brings a goat for sacrifice. Post beheading the goat, head is kept by the priest who performs the act, rest of the body is cut down to pieces & given back to the devotee who brought it in the first place. Effectively the place act as a butchering house where people can bring their own livestock & get it "Processed" for a small fee. I can understand people eating meat, not much issues there as its an individual choice. But in temples, which I believe is owned & managed by community, the act of killing animals seems wrong. Not too sure if early proponent of the religions got it right when they associated sacrifice with religion. As a country we have been allowing loads of things, many unpleasant & downright wrong, to happen & let people who did them get away with it. This is not to say that religion doesn't have a positive side to it or people do not use religion to do good. I agree those things are also there, but isn't that the first & the foremost objective of following a particular way of living & conforming to a set of beliefs.

As far as law is concerned, 'Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act' does not cover religion based sacrifice & hence is silent as far as such incidents are concerned. Tamil Nadu did pass a law in 1950 'Animal and Bird Sacrifices Prohibition Act', but this act has had many implementation related issues. Since then there are a few states which have taken this act, adapted it to their needs & implemented it, but states like Assam still continue things the way they are. Animal Sacrifice, though reduced over the years, still continue across country on an annual, monthly or even daily basis across many religious institution.

Now to summarize all that I have ranted about, personally I have an issue with people sacrificing animals & birds (people sacrifice pigeons as well in Kamakhya devi temple) in the name of Gods & Goddesses. Ultimately devotee take those meat back home to enjoy it with their near & dear ones. But using a holy place or a religion for the same should be done away with. There was a time when even human sacrifice was allowed in the name of all things holy & religious, but we managed to do away with that. Religion should be used to spread love, happiness, etc & once you see scared animals in a temple you would know that there is something fundamentally wrong with the place.

Bhutan- Randomness!!

Gun wielding mad-man- On the way to Jaigaon border I got the scare of my life, when all of a sudden a guy dressed in police uniform ran in front of the still car & next thing I knew he was taking aim of my head. Before I could have said anything driver started driving, when asked I was told that he is a mad man & keep pulling stunts like this on every possible occasion on that traffic signal. I had a chuckle when the driver told me that, but even with the plastic made fake pistol that mad-man almost made me duck in order to dodge the bullet :)

Games- During the entire road trip 6 of us kept experimenting with some game or the other. 'UNO' was the game which took majority of our time & everyone got super competitive at it. There were three occasion where all the +4 cards were used one after the other, leading to a person picking up 16 cards & on one occasion there was a rally of seven +2 cards, leading to a person picking 14 cards. Sad thing was I was involved in both these records. And as far as competitiveness is concerned we crossed all boundaries, little cheating was not looked down upon but the heights was when 6 adults ganged up on a kid to ensure that he wasn't the first person out of the game. The kid was traveling in the same train during our return journey to Calcutta & by the end of the session he was fully trained. In his last game he was fully aware of the cards held by people sitting beside him, also he almost succeeded in using a 9 as a 6.
We also played 'Buzz', which is a number based game where players keeps saying numbers in numerical order, but in case of multiple of 5 or 7 one is supposed to say buzz. It really doesn't matter that the game is suppose to be for kids for them to learn multiplications better, we had a gala time playing this game. Must try game for all ages. It is even more fun when people revise their multiplication tables & miss then get out in the first round itself :)
Dumb-charade is one game which can't be avoided & to say it turned out to be decent fun would be an understatement.
But the most interesting game turned out to be "20 questions" with personalities like Robert Vadra, Arindam Chaudhari, Himesh Reshammiya, Kamaal Rashid Khan most of the rounds turned out to be fun. And some where made interesting without intention, as OBL was turned into a man of Pakistani origin, an honest mistake which everyone enjoyed.

Discussions with strangers- Swiss guest house, where we stayed in Bumthang, gave us adequate opportunity to interact with new people. It had a bar-cum-dining area-cum-community room, where people would sit till late hours. First night there we started chatting with a local guide, who belongs to one of the family in the race for monarchy in 1907, Jigme & his Austrian contact, who also run his travel company, Peter. We had long discussions about Bhutan, comparisons with India, Nepal, Monarchy, Democracy, changes happening in Bhutan (Since Peter has been traveling to Bhutan for about 15 odd years), Austria, trekking, etc. We also constantly were looking out for expert advice on places to visit & things to do & we were not disappointed. Right from shop owners to walkers on the street, to restaurant owners to strangers who were eating there, from drivers to co-travelers, everyone was more than forthcoming with suggestions. In some cases people inquired if we are tourists & then offered to talk to driver in order to make him take us to relevant places. In short, Bhutan consists of really sweet people who are happy in life & who loves to  help others. 

Progressive Monks & Reincarnated Lamas- There were quite a few instances of myth busting, but the most interesting one has to be our tryst with "Nawang", monk at Khurjey Monastery. We were walking up to to our guest house in Bumthang from the market, when I asked Nawang for directions. After discussing some Bollywood & a bit on Bhutan Nawang invited us to the monastery & we were more than happy to join him. After reaching there, he invited us to his room & we followed him happily there also. He introduced us to his room-mates giving us an opportunity to be on a first name basis with our first ever reincarnated Lama, a cute little guy named Jigme. Interesting bit was they were watching an English movie in their room when we entered, Jigme's favorite actor happens to be Hugh Jackman (I decided to ignore his first preference which was Tom Cruise). There were pictures of Nawang on the walls where he looked like a South Korean hero, with funky hairstyle. They were so nice as hosts, that we didn't mind overstaying our welcome. Having made Nawang sing and explain the meaning of the local song & Jigme answering questions about how he was identified as a reincarnation of one of the Buddha's, we decided to leave, with Nawang giving us company till the point from where he was sure we knew the way. I shot a video where Nawang sang a local song & translated the same for us.

We also met a group of Monks from India who were carrying iPad with them & were more than comfortable using it. One of them even agreed to pose with his device so that I could click a picture of him.

The monk who bought an iPad :)

Things we say- At times people do go through phases were they over-use certain words or phrases. So apparently I was using "Good Stuff Man" as a broken record & Paw was doing the same with "Boss", but this was nothing in comparison with what Brao was doing. Like a patient of "Dissociative identity disorder", he kept on referring to himself in third person as if he was talking about someone else. It was damn funny to hear him say "Brao iss pic me Funk-da-puttar lag raha hai" or "Brao is a stud", modesty personified some would have said .

Ema datshi, with red rice, dal & butter-milk

Ema Datshi- My savior for the entire trip of Bhutan, in terms of food was Ema Datshi (literally meaning Chili & Cheese). I don't think I would have consumed so much chili in such a short duration of time before in my life, but given the amazing taste it was pretty easy to break that record. Datshi became the default order. Others also started flirting with variety of Datshi, like Mushroom Datshi & Kewa Datshi (potato cheese). As Chatak (Jacobin Cuckoo) remains committed to rain water, I remained committed to Ema datshi & consumed crazy amount of Chillies. Its a must have for anyone who is going to Bhutan & wants to try local cuisine.

Most colorful puppy ever

Dogs- Bhutan is full of cute & beautiful dogs, after a point we lost count of the number of dogs that we would have seen on our way or at the places where we stayed. Best part of so many dogs being there is that whenever you plan to go for a walk they would accompany you. At times we went for a walk & some dog started walking with us & they continued along with us till our guest house. Drukpa's love their dogs, hence the relationship between humans & dogs in general is very strong. By the end of the trip we had so many pictures of dogs that we could have dedicated one entire album to them.At one point couple of dogs joined us from the Bumthang town to Swiss Guest House & didn't leave, thankfully the owner was more than keen to add to the already existing count of dogs.

Absolution of Sin- We would have visited umpteen number of monasteries & Dzongs while in Bhutan, but one of the most interesting experience was visiting Tamshing Lhakhang, which is a cave like monastery. In that monastery there was a jacket of about 25 kgs & it is believed that if one picks up that jacket & put it on his/her back & cover three rounds of the monastery, all his/her sins would be washed away. The idea of getting a clean slate was so damn interesting, that I decided to give it a shot. After you put it on your back its not a difficult thing to do & our driver-cum-guide told us that we also need to lift the huge stone kept there. After giving it my best possible efforts I could barely move it only by a few mm's. Brao & Paw followed later, having cleared our sins we decided to celebrate by beating up Jojo for no reason. Thanks to our clean slate, we could afford that luxury :)

Phallus- For the first time in our life, we encountered pictures of phallus put up on public display, that too in decent numbers. And the display was not just restricted to paintings put up outside houses, administrative buildings, shops, etc, they were everywhere. And just when you thought you have had enough, there were models made up of wood, there were t-shirts with the phallic symbol on them (and apparently people were buying it), all the souvenir shops would have different rendition of the same. It does have religious background to it, Lama Drukpa Kinley (also known as "Divine Madman") started using this symbol which is supposed to drive away bad eye & malicious gossip. Even though the symbol is traced back to Lama Drukpa Kinley in Bhutan, it is believed by a few locals that it has been there since ages ago.

Bhutanese Kids- There is something about kids in mountainous terrains, best part being they are both shy & friendly at the same time. And the mongoloid features enhance their cuteness manifolds. So at every possible instance we kept on interacting with families, clicking pictures of their kids, treating them with chocolates & Ice creams, etc. While accepting any kind of gift, Bhutanese kids would put both their hands in front of the perspon giving the gift & then thank the person with both hands folded, all of them were extremely well-mannered, a sign of the quality parenting skill existing in Bhutan. In the end we had considerable amount of pictures where beautiful happy kids, some of which are attached here.

A local guide posing with girls

Go & Kiri- I guess not many places are there where
 men wears dress, that too of shorter length compared to what women wear. Go, the traditional robe-like dress for Bhutanese men, is only knee length, whereas Kiri or the traditional skirt used by women is full length. Bhutanese women have a really nice way of carrying themselves & they carry the Kiri along with silk shirt really gracefully. Go/Kiri is displayed across all museums & all the locals are suppose to follow traditional manner of dressing when they are visiting any monastery or any place with religious relevance.

Royal Family

 
Love for the King & Queen- Every place that we visited had at least one picture of King & the Queen, which is a symbol of the love that exists between king & his people. People talk very fondly of their King & they have only good things to talk about him. King has married just once, that too to a commoner (his father, the previous king married 4 different women, they were all from regal family, and had 10 kids), king is educated & he also supports democracy.



 

The only place where you can put up stuff related

Excitement for Democracy- With 2nd election ever to happen in Bhutan around the corner, everyone was talking about the performance given by the last National Council. Some were supportive & mentioned that they need to be given one more chance as they were new & trying to come to terms with the entire setup, whereas others were not that liberal and felt that they neglected the people who elected them & hence should be replaced. Best part of the elections in Bhutan was that campaigning was highly restricted, there were boards were candidates would put up their manifestation & other stuff which is to be shared with public.

Bhutanese Cowboy- We couldn't have completed our trip of Bhutan without getting a pictures clicked with Bhutanese Cowboy. They wear the traditional robe, i.e. Go, but apart from that they would have a cowboy hat & a very unique set of beard & moustache. The moustache would consist of a thin line protruding on both sides with a gap in middle, a set of hair above the chin & one set just below the chin. Overall they look very different & are fun bunch to interact with.

Another Bhutanese Cowboy

Bhutanese Cowboy with Us

Potential royalty- Our interaction with Jigme, a guide who has been taking Austrian groups for their annual sightseeing for past 15 years on the same route with different stops & different places to visit. Needless to say neither Jigme, nor the Austrians were bored out of this annual rendezvous. Jigme's family was one of the family in contention for monarchy in 1907, he had a palace very close to Bumthang, where his aunt was still living. He wasn't very keen on visiting his palace or discuss about his past, guess he was still thinks about what could have been in case his family was selected as the royal family. With the selection of King Ugyen Wangchuck, his family lost power & kept on losing it. He also mentioned that since then royal family hasn't been very kind with their family & have neglected their needs. Serious things aside, he was a great company post he was 2-3 drinks down. Very funny & witty, he would not only tell us about Bhutan & its heritage, but also add a few colorful facts of his own making the entire discussion very entertaining. He asked us to make a few changes in our style of exploring Bhutan & the results were pretty good as we went to remote part of the town to interact more with villagers & even without a common language we connected well with the villagers.

Etho-Metho (Means rhododendron in Dzongkha)- Throughout our road trip we keep passing millions of Etho-metho trees & they were all beautiful. But even before I knew what it actually means, the name had impressed me. It is one of those words which are fun to say, like Mawlynnong, Nungambakkam, etc. And the sheer variety & quantum that exist there makes it an integral part of Bhutan experience. I clicked so many of them, that in the end at least 20% of my pictures were of Etho-Metho.

a window

Mythology- One thing which no one can avoid in Bhutan is the mythology surrounding Buddhism. Guru Rinpoche & his 8 forms, protectors of 4 directions, Drukpa Kinley, tale of 4 friends, lake of burning fire, phallus, etc are just a small part of things which you cannot avoid if you interact with locals. They are part of Bhutanese life & people love to talk about it & really believe in it strongly. Their are so many monasteries across Bhutan & all of them are full of monks & student who gets their basic education from there. As told to us my many, locals do look up to monk's & lama's.But the fact that it has a strong influence on their houses, hotels, restaurants, official buildings drives the point home nicely. A painting of 4 wise friends here, or a mask of one of the forms of Guru Rinpoche there, a dragon based design on pillar inside the building or Buddhist flag flying on top of houses, signifies the amount of faith the locals have on Buddhism.

Forms of Guru Rinpoche, used during festive dancing

Protectors of 4 directions

National Sport & Khuru- We saw people playing a unique game of darts, with big & heavy darts to be thrown at a small target kept far away, at quite a few places in Bhutan. The game is called Khuru in local parlance. At Swiss Guest House, we even saw one of the driver with Austrian group making a decent amount of money post a game of darts in about less than an hour.
Archery is the national game of Bhutan & is played in a different manner, with longer distances & different & difficult set of rules. Luckily on our last day we managed to watch a competition live & it was fascinating to say the least. First they would all pray, chanting loudly for a bit & then they started playing. Even after concentrating for a bit, we couldn't even see the arrows for some time, as they were shooting them really far. Only after a bit we started following what was happening in a very difficult form of archery. We were all pretty amazed to see a guy actually hitting the short target from the distance of 130 mts, which is way more than the Olympic standards.

Traffic sense- One of the real point of differentiation between India & Bhutan has to be the driving sense. One one side of the border there is so much of chaos, every vehicle is in a hurry, honking is the way of life, no one wants to give an inch to another vehicle, pedestrians are not to be allowed to cross the road, whereas on the other side there is no chaos, everyone is respectful of each other, no honking what so ever, you press the horn once & the vehicle in front will move to one side to let you go ahead, pedestrians are on top of the priority list as cars slow down & stop when they see someone trying to cross the road. Things are so systematic in Bhutan & their is a constant improvement in infrastructure. At one point of time there were about 10-15 vehicle stuck in a scheduled break in middle of a highway for more than an hour, striking bit none of the local people stuck there were worried or concerned. They came out of their cars & buses and took a walk with their kids, some decided to stay inside the car & chat, some went for a tea but none of them complained. A sizable chunk of our time was spent in Bhutan on the road  with Chimmi, our cab driver who was with us for the entire duration. Given the nice people we met on the roads, scenic natural beauty that is on offer & the driving sense of drukpa's, I would say it was worth it :)

Walking through City of Joy- 4

It was to be the best day of our exploration so far, as wherever we went we got more than what we expected. It was also to be the biggest surprise in my experience so far in Calcutta as I got to know the wealth that exists here, as I went to Marble palace or as people call it, Mullick-badi.

Our plans were already set in place as we decided to start with one of the famous Churches in Calcutta, get the permissions & visit both synagogues & follow that up with a visit to Nakhuda Masjid & end with Marble palace or as locals call it, "Mullick Badi".

Christmas decor

Church- It was Christmas holiday and we reached decently post the morning mass, so the church was empty but for the local organ player. And the church had the biggest organ that I had seen so far in my life. Huge instruments, with very old ivory made keys & functionality was also very outdated, giving it that old world aura. But it produced awesome music, as demonstrated by the organ player.


Synagogue- After requesting a lot we got approval through a phone call, as again the approving authority wasn't there at the Nahoum Bakery. Our trump card being the story of Maskey shifting to US in near future & this being his last opportunity to visit both the synagogues. 10 minutes later we were traveling towards the first of the synagogue with one of the regular worker of the bakery. He gave us loads of information about the local Jewish community & the dynamics governing the responsibilities of the social owned stuff of the fraternity, which kept us engaged till we reached the first of the synagogues.

Beth el synagogue-  We knew that  it would be beautiful, having seen the exterior that bit was pretty easy to predict. But since this was the first visit to any synagogue for me, quite a few interesting things emerged out of the experience. Simple things like the skull cap which you need to wear before entering, they were extremely particular about it even though there wasn't a Jew there in sight there, staff was extremely sensitive towards the tradition & customs.

Beth-el Synagogue

It was beautiful at all level, not in your face kind of beauty but serene & calm kind of beauty which soothes your mind. Right from color combination used, white & blue, to old fashioned high ceiling with hanging fans & lights, it was all part of the look. All the windows were made up of different colored glasses, when sunlight passes the glass it takes the color of the glass itself giving it a really nice touch. Chairs & all were in really bad condition, but rest everything was well maintained.



Basic understanding of the structure was very simple, one dedicated area for "Torah Study", where the book would be kept & read, with chairs around it for listeners. 'Torah' would be kept on 'Bimah', a wooden table. Then there would be another area which would be used to keep religious pictures & symbols. This area would be beautifully decorated & full of pictures of symbols which we couldn't understand, but it was nice nonetheless.

Maghen David

Maghen David Synagogue- Though second in the series of Synagogues, it was better than the previous one in terms of beauty. Huge chandeliers hanging on top of the 'Torah study' & the reflection of the windows falling from all directions, make the thing looks fantastic. Beth-el was covered from all direction hence no reflection of colored glasses were visible in side, the same wasn't true in case of Maghen David making it more colorful.

Beautiful looking windows all around, made the place a visual treat. Then the area where the signage/symbols/pictures were kept was much better here. The place also had a different kind of lamp, with a very exotic looking ceiling. It was intriguing for us & without answers to our questions regarding the relevance of all the elements, it remained like that till we came out. The place also had some real designer type stand lamps, which added to the visual appeal. We clicked loads of pictures here, but then we decided to move as there were many more places mentioned on the agenda for the day.

Roads leading to Nakhuda Masjid

Nakhuda Masjid- Like both of the previous public religious place, this was also in middle of nowhere surrounded by shops & restaurants with sea of humanity on all sides. It had a very interesting facade, which stood tall in front of the mosque.
After a while we decided to enter but we were slightly circumspect, blame it on the image created by media or the various news channels or the incidents across the globe or the bias created by our own mind, but we realized later that it was for no reason. It was a different set up inside, the flow of activities were, you enter & proceed towards the well where you clean yourself, feet, face, hands, etc after which you proceed for offering "namaaz".

Clocks with different time

Just behind the facade there was a collection of watches which were showing different time, we guessed that they were attuned to various holy places as per Islam. Overall a very interesting setup with huge open spaces. Loads of people coming & going, at times interacting with known faces for a while. We clicked loads of pictures here also, some came out real nice.

Mullickbadi from outside the official boundary

Mullick-badi or Marble palace- Nothing could have prepared us for the brilliance which we were to encounter here, this was a place which was abode for Raja Rajendra Mullick built by him in 1835, which is still used by his descendants. The place has so many different facets about it that I don't know where to start & where to end.

Beautiful statue inside dirty pond

It is usually not open on weekends, hence visitors have to come on week days in order to enter. There are clearly demarcated public areas which you can enter which has interesting things but other parts are beyond visitors as the royal family still lives there. Daily select number of people are given free food for which there is a queue system (first come first model). And the place is full of beautiful stuff, but camera is not allowed inside. It also has a garden for the kids to play & enjoy themselves.

As soon as one enter, the first sight is the enormous building, in front of which is a beautiful fountain. Now this fountain is the only thing which can be clicked officially, but our greed forced us to take couple of other picture as well of breathtakingly beautiful sculptures. If there were two common observation which has to be mentioned for all pieces of work they would be, first everything is awesomely beautiful & second, none of it is properly maintained. Will come back to maintenance bit later, the place was also home for host of animals & birds of different variety. I don't even know their names apart from the a few like Peacock, Monkey, Orangutan, Langur, Emu, etc. But the sad bit was again they were not kept properly, as in the area was limited for some of the animals, some of them looked as if they were not well, etc. Though I am no expert on these matters, but even then it looked as if the animals were not comfortable.

Also we came across couple of awesome sculpture beautifully made, but completely abandoned. First one would be one of the most amazing piece of work that I have seen in my life & it was kept in a dirty pond which was used for the staff to wash their clothes. I was so sad by seeing this, but statue was changing color, it was dirty but still you can appreciate the effort put it by the unknown artist, at least I was full of respect for him/her.
Second statue was kept somewhere away from the eyes of the regular tourist, it was kept in a low footfall areas of the palace. Condition was not very good & I am pretty sure it was a broken piece of a larger work of art, still it looked pretty nice.

We were already so impressed (and a little sad by the state of affairs), that we could have actually moved out, but better sense prevailed and we decided to enter the main building where there is a part where Raja's collectible are displayed for art lovers to appreciate. After waiting a bit we entered & as soon as we entered we were amazed, not regular amazed but jaw dropping, mouth opening, ass-kicking kind of amazed. The display area was huge part of ground floor & first floor, and every inch of the huge area was covered with some painting made by Reuben or Ravi Verma or some other known artist or it was covered with some sculpture looking extremely expensive or there were visiting cards of great people, politician, etc or vase which looked as if you couldn't buy it with your net worth even after you keep saving for hundreds of years, since we couldn't take any picture hence I am sure I am forgetting many things. But I do remember one thing, we were seriously impressed by the amount of things on display their & the collected net worth that place would have. I mean every single article should be worth at least lacs, if not crores in INR. Their was a select display of birds here also, we were told that Raja Rajendra Mullick was a bird lover.

Palace of Raja Rajendra Mullick

All in all a must visit place for anyone coming to Calcutta for quite a few reasons, one needs to select the personal reason for him/herself.

All in all, a great day with a diverse set of places to explore. Level of satisfaction was rising after every day, we decided this has to continue for at least one more day.