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Blarney Stone

What is Blarney? Dictionary defines it as “a talk which aims to charm, flatter, or persuade (often considered typical of Irish people)”. For example“it took all my Irish blarney to keep us out of court“. Blarney is a village in Cork Ireland. There is a castle by the same name Blarney Castle. In this castle, on one battlement is a stone made of limestone. The stone is said to have magical powers and anyone kissing it is supposed to get powers of eloquence. Every year thousands of people visit the place from all over the world to kiss the stone… Read More »Blarney Stone

Travel travails in North East India in 1988-Return Journey

So we reached Nazira after harrowing experience. It was very cold there. In the winter, the sun goes down at about half past four in the evening. Those were the days when an extremist outfit called ULFA was very active. There were kidnappings and murders. So people ventured outside mostly in the daytime or under the protection of security forces. We left in the early mornings and came back early. We went to see the Sivasagar town which was the capital once upon a time of Assam under the rule of Ahom kings. Ahoms came from South-East Asia and settled… Read More »Travel travails in North East India in 1988-Return Journey

It looks out of this world

Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun is about one and half kilometer from the place I live. I regularly go up to the gate of the institute during my morning walk. Many a times, I extend my walk to the inside the Institute. It was established in the year 1906. Nowadays it conducts trainings for the candidates selected for Indian Forest Service, for the forest rangers, M.Sc courses. The institute itself is situated in a very big campus which have trees of every kind found in India. Institute is situated in the middle and building is majestic. Despite being so… Read More »It looks out of this world

Manimajra:Bursting at Seams

Walking in the streets of Manimajra a town situated in the union territory of Chandigarh has become a dangerous task. You have to be extra vigilant while passing through the streets. One after the other, incessantly, the motorbikes, rickshaws, bicycles, autos and cars comes chasing you. The vehicles are parked on the paths and streets which can hardly accommodate one vehicle breadth. It is to the credit of the vehicle drivers who can still maneuver their vehicles through invisible empty space. The reason for this chaos seems to me is the inordinate increase in the population of migrant tenants. This… Read More »Manimajra:Bursting at Seams

Mumbai Local

This is the picture of a local train at Victoria Terminus of Mumbai. These trains are the lifeline of the city bringing to and fro thousands of employees to the offices from suburbs homes. It is impossible to imagine life without these trains in this Mega city. The scene around this train is a rarity. Actually i took this picture on 26 January which is a national holiday in India and there was very less traffic on this day. These are electric trains and each train has about 700 to 900 seats. But at the peak hours there must be… Read More »Mumbai Local

Le Corbusier Museum Chandigarh

We belong to a village which is a part of the union territory of Chandigarh. The city called the “City beautiful” is unique in the sense it serves as the capital of two states namely Punjab and Haryana and in itself is an independent union territory. I studied in the Chandigarh from government college and Panjab University. We cycled almost 12 kilometers daily from our home to the university. Our route was Madhya Marg which means the Middle road. On the both sides sectors run. As soon as you encounter a roundabout, it is the beginning of consecutive sectors into… Read More »Le Corbusier Museum Chandigarh

Those Days Shall Never Return

I happened to listen a Marathi song sung by Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, the genius brother of Mangeshkar sisters. Its opening stanza is “Gele te Din Gele” which means “those days are gone now forever”. The song is written by Bhavanishankar Pandit and music composed by the great Marathi music director Shrinivas Khale. It is so soulful song that it hooked me to it and I have listened it a number of times. The quality of the poetry and music shows how rich the Marathi music has been. The song combines two phenomenon in the world of humans: transience of the… Read More »Those Days Shall Never Return

Rock Garden in Chandigarh

World famous Rock Garden is located in Chandigarh. Chandigarh is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. As such the Chandigarh is called City Beautiful because it is a planned city based on modular units called sectors. Every sector is a complete city in itself with a market, milk supply centers, dispensaries and schools. Then there are some sectors which are commercial sectors having big stores, cinemas and offices. On one end of the city in a row are Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden, Legislative Assembly and Secretariat which incidentally is biggest building in the city and houses the offices of… Read More »Rock Garden in Chandigarh

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