Curious Tourist

Of Rafts and holy waters... The Ganges is the holiest of all the rivers in India. It is said to be so pure and blessed that even Gods can’t resist the temptation of having a dip in its waters. God’s grace and benedictions make the waters ever more pious and sacred. People from all over the world come to the river for ablution of their souls and to sanctify their lives. The holy water is said to possess a surreal and magical healing quality that can wash away all sins committed in the past. This drives the pilgrims and hordes of other travelers to the highly revered lands of Haridwar and Rishikesh. The Ganges here is flanked by numerous temples and Ghats on both sides.   Tourism is thriving not just as a result of pilgrimage per se, river side camping on river beaches and white water rafting also play a hefty role in the flourishing tourism industry. Not to forget, it is the humility of the great river-which provokes the travelers to step out of their sedentary and prosaic

                                       No more music in the pond Once upon a time around a pristine pond, surrounded a band of frogs in a friendly bond. They embellished the pond like colourful rubies on a royal throne, as they melodiously sang in a pleasantly rich baritone. As if jealous of their joy and success, men defiled their habitat indifferently. Life at the pond was no longer peaceful and easy and happy. Frogs, fish and others began to feel very sick and queasy. Hopeless, hapless and homeless, life had changed drastically. Musical concerts were no longer heard, colourful rubies were nowhere to be seen. Prosaic sounds from sporadic chirping of a bird were the only ones to break the prolonged silence. Mercenary men had polluted the land and the water, to murder as many terrestrial and aquatic lives as they could but could not poison the air to a level, that could harm the innocent flier. The bird finally flew to a place much saf

Rain rain come again, for rice, and wheat, and sugarcane. It’s your home, so don’t be too late, else many of your friends will perish if it’s too long a wait. Our land is parched, forlorn and dry. Tillers and peasants can’t do much, no matter how hard they try! Hence come back soon and in plenty, to save us from the fireball’s unrelenting fury You are the Messiah, you are the savior; You are the most indispensable life giver- -sprouting new seeds and rejuvenating dormant life, -enlivening and cheering every object of life Your arrival itself marks the celebration of the new festival  A festival in which all are happy and gay with greener pastures, vivacious trees and a more beautiful bay. A festival in which everyone feels blessed and richer with positively pleasant thoughts that are bright and bigger.  A festival in which nature itself is embellished with benediction

Time stops at Kasauli There are so many hill stations to contemplate upon that one is spoilt for choice while deciding to visit one of them- more so when one is in the beautiful city of Chandigarh from where the hilly places are not too far away. This time we decided to explore the sweet little town of Kasauli which is inconspicuously situated in the pristine and green Shivaliks. It is a quaint and placid destination which is still as obscure as any remote and dusty village in UP, notwithstanding the 150 years since its discovery by our colonizers. Being a cantonment settlement of the Indian army, Kasauli is undoubtedly one of the cleanest hill stations in the country. With littering attracting a penalty of Rs 1500 and ban on plastic bags being religiously implemented in the entire city, it is definitely a paradise for nature aficionados. Kasauli offers an old worldly charm- inviting those seeking solace and peace. Scores of photographers, poets and writers flock to the

One big and happy family...  – are we? There is no big a hypocrite than a human being who feigns every action with impeccable skill and tries to win hearts through his slyly contrived emotions. He nevertheless calls himself a human, notwithstanding his baleful and fiendish motives aimed at making this world bereft of all hope and light. A jungle with hundreds of different species living in harmony seems to be more peaceful and united than a colony of human beings. Differences arose since the time humans evolved and came into existence which was aeons ago; not much has changed since. In fact, as humans have grown and proliferated, their thinking has narrowed and their horizons have shrunk to a  minuscule . In the earliest of civilizations, everyone was a shareholder and society was egalitarian. As people evolved corporeally and developed spiritually, thoughts and beliefs emerged which gave vent to philosophy and to a concept which has since been the biggest bone of cont

Time to learn something from the animals! How callous and heartless can a society be? A helpless man cries for help with his wife and a baby lying unconscious in a pool of blood, with all his moans and wails falling on deaf ears as the passersby move on apathetically; this heart wrenching scene is from a Jaipur highway underscoring a  lack of compassion, concern and empathy in humans for members of their own species. Humans are superior species as they cogitate, build, innovate and thereby rule this world with pomp. But if humans continue to besmirch their image by displaying such heinous and deplorable acts of gross apathy, then it would be prudent to place the animals higher up on the ladder of “moral progress”. We can thereby safely state that animals are not only anthropomorphic but even better than most humans in terms of mutual understanding, relationships and virtues like compassion, kindness and sympathy. A recent survey undertook by several wildlife experts has vind

Living in the illusory world “There are no accidents”. Everything happens for a reason which is vindicated some time later during the course of this long mystical journey called life. Sometimes it may take multiple lifetimes for things to start making sense, to fall back into place and to hold substantial meaning in them. Most of the times, it becomes rather difficult to understand the meaning of life in its entirety as the hoe-poll-oi continue to live in dark chambers of ignorance deriving illusory pleasures from petty materialistic gains. A sudden awakening or realization, either fortuitously (because of some good deeds committed in past life) or as a result of deep penance (in this life), dawns upon only a few inhabiting this illusory world. These are ordinary people but it is due to their knowledge of the ultimate truth that they acquire enlightened minds and unblemished souls, thereby exuding greatness and an unparalleled wisdom. Immense greatness does not come wi