Diwali: Festival of sweets..err..lights

Hope you had a fun-filled Diwali! I sure did, and tomorrow (or maybe day-after-tomorrow) I can go back to a normal diet after three days of hogging everything that came my way!

Delhi celebrates Diwali with a fervour that few other cities can match. Colourful lights (all made in China, of course) light up homes everywhere, and the Government is kind enough to spare the routine power cuts!

One important tip for shooting from terrace during Diwali – be very careful of “rockets”! I had a couple of them burst quite close by, and I decided to take only a handful of shots and go back.

Well I don’t burst crackers myself, being a member of the “Crackers=Noise+Pollution” school of thought. However, one can’t avoid admiring fireworks that spread out and light up the sky in glorious colours before blowing out.

Well these photographs don’t do justice to the spectacular display I witnessed from the terrace last night, but then I’m happy I made the attempt! Next time, with some more planning, perhaps I’ll shoot better photos. Once again, happy Diwali!

Pachmarhi – The good, the bad and the ugly

After my Khujaraho trip failed to materialize, thanks to Nikhil and his friends we managed to pull off Pachmarhi (M.P.) in a long weekend.

Pachmarhi (or Panchmarhi) gets its name from the Pandava caves, where it is believed that the Pandavas spent some part of their 13 year old exile. Later, in 1858 it was discovered by the British who made it the regional summer retreat for their army, and now the Indian army inhabits most of Pachmarhi.

The result of the army presence is that the place is wonderfully maintained, complete with a nice golf course and forest rest houses. Parasailing was literally the “high” point of the trip! On the downside, because of the peak season the place was very touristy (and expensive).

The last photograph above was actually shot when the train from Bhopal passes Narmada river en-route to Pipariya. The train ride is beautiful, much like the train rides in the Western Ghats post monsoons.

Final verdict: Pachmarhi is quite a regular hill station, which is not really something bad, but for someone who travels a lot there are probably other places to be seen before. However, for a long weekend with a good gang, it was an awesome trip!

Please post your comments about the photographs (I know they’re not up to the mark this time, but comments are still welcome).

My travel map

I came back from a weekend trip to Pachmarhi (photos in the next post), and I was thinking about the next trip already!

I haven't seen a lot of Central and Western India, so I decided to put every city I've visited on a Google Map, to get a big picture. However the exercise is quite time consuming, so right now the map is incomplete. Even then, it is interesting to watch lots of clustered pins and wide, unseen areas.


View Adi's travel map in a larger map

Goes to show how much there is to see within India! Looking at the map, I realize there's a whole lot of trips waiting to happen in Western and Central India, Karnataka, Kashmir and Ladakh and many unseen places in the East (including Kolkata).

Plan of action? Get the venture to generate enough cash to fund these travel dreams!