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Ladakh - Planning The Trip

Over 2000 Km by road, in around 10 days. Stunning landscapes, wonderful people. That sums up our Ladakh trip. But how did it actually work? How did we make it happen? Read on to find out!  Leh, the capital of Ladakh , is accessible by air and road. Flying into Leh is the easiest, and time-saving option, while the road is the time consuming one, but with the added advantage of driving past some of the most beautiful landscapes in our country. Each option has much to recommend it, and we chose the road for just one reason – altitude sickness. Altitude sickness was one of my biggest concerns, since I suffer from motion-sickness. Yes, I do travel a lot, but that is despite my condition, and, over the years, have learnt how to handle it. I struggled with it when we visited Nathu-La in Sikkim, and wondered if I would be able to manage a week at the even higher altitudes that we would encounter in Ladakh. This was the reason we stuck to a basic plan, of only 9 days in Ladakh, thoug...

Book Review: Beyond Pipes and Dreams, The life of Vitthal Balkrishna Gandhi, by Leena Gandhi Tewari

Beyond pipes and dreams is the story of Vitthal Balkrishna Gandhi, authored by his granddaughter, Leena Gandhi Tewari. Image courtesy: Flipkart.com

Water Birds at Gokarna

Driving through Gokarna i n the monsoon, the last thing we expected to see were birds. Therefore, when, in the middle of nowhere, when Samhith excitedly shouted,  "Amma!! Flamingo!!" I didnt really believe him. I didn't believe my eyes either, when, a little way off, there was indeed a bird, which, from a distance, did look like a flamingo. We requested our auto driver to take us closer, without disturbing the birds, which, to our relief. he did, with a smile, here is what we saw....

Om Beach, Gokarna - A Photoblog and some thoughts

I sit by the shore, enjoying the solitude it offers me, only the mountains, the rocks and the water, for company....

Faces in the Crowd - Some unusual sellers of wares for Diwali

Happy Diwali everyone!!!! The roads are filled with people selling earthen lamps, kandeels, and firecrackers. But here are some traders selling some unusual wares for Diwali.... Brooms are considered to be a part of Lakshmi, since she only enters clean homes. There are some who pray to brooms at this time of the year, a sort of prelude to cleaning their homes! Gives a different thought to the festival, doesnt it?

Happy Deepavali! Remembering the celebration at Shegaon

As I sit at home , typing this, the night resounds with the bursting of firecrackers. All around me are brightly lit windows, gaily decorated with string lights. In the midst of this Diwali Celebration, my thoughts go back to last year, when, on this very festival, I was surrounded not by bright lights and sound, but by the soft glow of oil lamps galore....

A Weekend with Lego

Imagine … huge boxes of Lego bricks, all separated by colour, ready for building, to be scooped to the floor, to build what you have in mind. Wouldn’t you call that a Lego enthusiast’s idea of heaven? For us, this vision of heaven becomes a reality, every time a Lego event arrives at a Mall near us! Our first experience was two years ago, when we attended the Lego Fire Truck building event, and we had another fantastic time last week at the Lego Train building event, both at HighStreet Phoenix Mall at Parel, Mumbai , held in association with Hamleys and Funskool . The  small scale model of the train

Book Review: Rough Passage to the Bodhi Tree, by Shiv K. Kumar

The story of the Buddha normally begins with the story of his birth… sometimes even before, with the omens which heralded the birth of a great soul. Shiv K. Kumar, however begins his story of the Buddha with Siddhartha choosing to participate in an open competition to win the hand of the princess Yashodhara. In doing so, he makes it quite clear that he wants us to see Siddhartha, not just as  someone destined for greatness, to forget for a moment that we already know of his journey to enlightenment, and see him as a human, confused by what he sees around him, yet not hesitating to do what he thinks is right.