Mid morning stroll

NH 75 passes right through Panna, providing lots of opportunities 
to its residents go about their daily life in full public view

Place: PANNA

Elephants taking a mid morning stroll at the Panna National Park.

This pic was taken when returning from an assignment in Madhya Pradesh. NH 75 passes right through the national park, and it was a really rewarding stretch of an otherwise tedious journey. Once a tiger reserve, by 2007, authorities had seen to it that none survived. Today, some have been brought from other parks in an effort to recreate it as a tiger reserve.

However it is otherwise a rather pretty forest - teak and evergreens dominate, and the Ken flows through the park, making it a meeting point for lots of fauna, which includes hundreds of bird species.

Navarino dreams

By the beach of our hotel

Place: MESSINIA

As I write this, the peak tourist season is just beginning in Greece. A country riddled with economic crisis, Greece nevertheless is the amongst the top choices to visit for many around the world. Tourism contributes about 15% of its GDP. Yet when I went last October, every person we spoke to was a little down, unsure of how they would sustain themselves. The intervening winter has only helped in minute doses. Somehow, I found Greece itself will have to shake things up a little. Wherever we did go, in Athens, or beyond, people are clearly worried – at the Plaka bars, in souvenir stores, by the Acropolis, cabbies in their taksis, in hotels – and it was a bit of a dampener.

Part of the common area between the hotels.
On the left is a restaurant

It is such a beautiful country, and I was fortunate to experience the countryside as well due a longish drive, and every nook and cranny seemed alive to possibilities of people wanting to come and spend time to relax. With its sumptuous offering of world shaping history, ancient cities, exotic architecture, pristine beaches, magical islands, Med cuisine - the landscape is just what the traveler wants. It would be shame if it fell into disarray due to economic hardships.

Here are a few pics of a brief but extremely enjoyable stay at Costa Navarino, the new luxury resort that has been highly recommended by travel experts and might just be able to energize tourism into Europe again. Unfortunately I lost my camera midway, so no pics of Athens, but of course I am really glad to have seen it. Hope many more see it this season, contributing in their own way to reviving the economy, and bringing some smiles back.

Devi family

Durga in the middle with here children, from left to right - Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kartik. Works of art, today there are a many competitions to see who can make the best idols. And competition is fierce! 

Place: DELHI

It's that time of the year again - chuti from office, lots of food, pandel hopping, all kinds of finery, mughlai porota, parar baccha der natak, prosad bitoron, raate cinema dekha, shokaler anjoli and, I almost forgot, the customary nod to Durga and her progeny.

Durga Pujo is the most anticipated time of the year for Bengalis, wherever they are. It is held usually in October, and exact, as every date in the Hindu calendar, differs from year to year. 

This is a glimpse of the devi in a pandel in Delhi's Dwarka Sector 4. Such temporary idols of the the goddess spring up four days right across the city - there are thousands now, and all over the world where there are Bengalis, or Bongs. 

For those who enjoy it, these are four days of bonding as few other communities experience it. They look forward to it the entire year, and in less materially prosperous times, it was the time of the year when new clothes were bought and worn, new activities undertaken as it was an auspicious hour. And for some, it was also the time to go on vacations as a month long holiday in Bengal meant freedom to travel! 

Kolkata of course is where the biggest celebrations are, and the city grinds to a halt during those four days. There are thousands of pandels, and people constantly travel to see idols in different pandels, visit relatives and friends, renew bonds and come together to celebrate the goddess and each other. 

Forced break

Pedestrians and bikers take shelter under a
foot overbridge in south Delhi as a sudden
monsoon downpour overtakes them

Place: DELHI

Indian monsoon is sharp, and for many parts of India, last just over a month. Indians have an ambivalent attitude towards it. For most of India, it brings an end to the searing heat of the summer, and has been celebrated in song and prose since recorded history began.

But it does impact the brings with it humidity, disease, and disruptions. It interrupts life quite considerably in that brief period. 

Unholy mess

Place: GARHMUKTESHWAR

Boatmen have meagre business during most of the year except for a few holy days on the Hindu calendar

As almost any Indian will know, if not admit, in India, religious and dirt are synonymous in the country. Whether it is that the major religious texts of the country do not stress on this aspect, or it is simply the people who do not want care, there is hardly any public place in India associated primarily with religion which is not simultaneously a garbage dump accompanied by a melee of poor.

Garhmukteshwar is no exception. The closest point on the Ganga to Delhi, where those following rituals go to fulfil those obligations, it has all the failings of a religious site in India. The ghats are a short distance away from the city centre. Now there is a huge bridge that goes very near the ghats and offers great views of the ghats.

Right from the time you approach ghats, and you will have either ways taken the NH 24 to reach here, the general look of apathy and decay start.

The way to the ghats is not paved, and you often have to wade through slush mixed with cow urine, manure, sometimes human excreta, decaying fruit and vegetable droppings, little tea shops with their garbage piled right next door, so that you can check whether they have by chance used anything that might benefit your health. Never an easy experience unless you are a rural child of unruly disposition.

Then there are the shops. You have navigate through a short walkway that goes past small shacks selling a mix of religious needs - brass utensils, prayer beads, flowers, incense sticks, plastic and glass bangles, plastic toys, cups etc and plastic toy shops that cater still to the rural hinterlands. You would have to strive hard to find anything that costs Rs 100 or more. And this is pushing sale, so you may touched and told, begged, cajoled, berated into buying stuff that you would not want to be seen dead with.

The ghats here have been concretised a few years ago, and theoretically are decent. But the The river here is broad and muddy. It has already lost most of its speed after reaching the plains, though here is it generally fairly fast, and quite in torrent during the monsoons.

Garhmukteshwar is also famous for its Ganga Fair, held in October - on the day of full moon in kartik, when it is estimated that about eight to ten lakh people take a dip in the river. This is regarded as auspicious, though exactly what good things have happened to people who have taken the dip in still unclear to me.

There is a fair amount of aquatic life, including the famous, and famously shy, river dolphins. You have to sit still in a boat in the middle of the river to catch a site of these beautiful creatures. There are a number of birds as well. The other bank of the river is largely fields, and in season ie late winter and autumn, they are lovely.

Just before the ghats are another unique offering, cane furniture. This is basic, and at prices that are a fraction of branded offerings, though more than in other unbranded places. Increasingly there are innovations happening, and this time I saw a shelf that was positively enticing. We did end up buying a few modas though for my cousins!

For me, what was most rewarding was the drive up to the place, through lush green fields and ripening crops.