India

You can find more of me at http://www.ghumakkar.com

We wanted to go somewhere. Preeti, the doc wife of Dee (Deepender) didn’t want to go to hills again, we were at Mussorrie on 26 Jan same year. Incidentally me and Smita had no great idea on where to go but we wanted to go. After all it was feb and a time when one must get out and visit places. So courtsey an old friend, we booked ourselves a part of Piramal Haveli which is a Neemrana property.

We were going to Shekhawati which is a region in Rajasthan best known for wall murals and old havelis. It lies between Jhunjhunu - Bikaner - Seekar triangle with Mandawa as central town and Fatehpur, Dundlod, and other small places around. We were in two cars (Mahindra Scorpio and Toyota Corolla), a total of 8 adults and 3 kids (Harshal, Tanya and Pihu)

Day 1 - Feb 16

We started early in the morning from Delhi. Hopped on to NH8. Took an exit towards Rewari. Then Mahendargarh, had breakfast on car bonnet and after a while we were at Bagad by 1100 hrs. Its about 200 Km away from Delhi and it will take you 5 hours. Good roads. Infact whole of Rajashtan has good reads, esp compared to MP, UP, Bihar. Post Rewari, there is not much traffic, infact very minimal traffic and which is good. And there happens the damp-squib.
Piramal Haveli is owned by Piramals (Nicholas Piramal fame) and Neemrana folks have taken this on lease and they provide the hospitality services. Just like any other Neemrana hotel, this haveli is expensive. Essentially its a big rectangular building/haveli with a 1000 odd sq yard garden in fornt it which is flanked by a pathway with two exits. There is a portico and there are rooms on all three sides. There is a inner courtyard which also doubles up as dining area. Rooms are spacious but not modernly equipped (no tea maker for e.g.), good hospitality serivice and thats all about it. Outside this haveli lies the Bagad town. Bagad is not a great town to write home about so there is not much you can do then to take a good sun bath on the terrace or enjoy daal-baati.
After a quick discussion, we decided to have a quick tea and move quickly to the centre of Shekhawati viz. Mandawa. Courtsey fantastic roads, we were in Mandawa in another couple of hours and we headed to ‘Castle Mandawa’ - the place to stay. The route from Bagad goes like Bagad-Loharu-Chirawa-Mandawa. The last leg is amazing to beleive. Its like a small thin black tar which is somehow managing to keep his character amid vast terrain of yellow-saffron-soilish colored land. The best part of these roads are there at any point of time you dont see more then 2 vehicles so you are almost alone. The experience is pretty filmy (aka un-beleivable) and one must take a eye-full of it.
Castle is a great prperty to be. Its a private property and owner

Read the rest of this story at my personal blog at

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2007/03/13/shekhawati-feb-2007/

You can find more of me at http://www.ghumakkar.com

Pondicherry : Feb 24 - Feb 27 2007The lure of an inexpensive air ticket has its own vicitims. It all started from an advt. which claimed Rs 6 (thats about a 7th of a US Dollar) tickets to x destinations. So we logged in to www.airdeccan.net and after a while we had committed spending about 20 K for return ticket of myself, Smita (my wife), Pihu (my 2 year old daughter) and my bro and sis-in-laws, Aditya and Shaguna. The advt has worked for the airlines.

This was all done way back in October 2006 and the golden dates were Feb 24 - Feb 27 2007. As expected, Feb did come on time and after packing our bags and a little change in itinerary, courtsey cancellation of return flight, we were all set to go.

Day 1 - Feb 24 2007
Pondicherry is about 160 KM south of Chennai which is very well connected via air/rail/road and water. We started from Delhi at 1000 hrs and were in Chennai at about 1240 hrs. The best way to reach Pondy is to drive from Chennai. Infact that also happens to be the only way, no pun intended. An old friend (I mean he is still young at the time of writing this but we know each other for quite some time), Karthik Rangamani , has arranged for a cab. The plan was to take his dad’s Fiat Palio and drive on the now famous ECR (Eastern Coast Road) to Pondy. We had a good south Indian cofee and we started towards Pondy armed with a miniscule knowledge of tamil (native language of that region) and a detailed hand drawn map of “How to get out of Chennai and hit ECR”.

Mammallapuram or Mahabalipuram is about 45 Km away from Chennai and falls on the way to Pondy. Its a good idea to make a small stopover at Mammallapuram for this is place which taught stone sculptoring to India (or may be world). It was getting very hot since it was already 1600 hrs so we stopped for a while and moved on.

More info on Mammallapuram

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/Culture/Archit/Mahaba.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram

• * You might be stopped by some gentleman ,usually well built and with lots of conviction, for some money in the garb of a pesudo-tax/toll-collector. Roll-up your windows and drive calmly. Look at them and tell them that you dont need it. Dont get afraid if you have to stop but dont take up a fight. If you get really stuck, then journeytor’s advice would be to pay 10/20 bucks and move ahead.

ECR is one road which is really hard to believe. It actually goes along the coast for most of its length. Imaging driving on a black tar which is accompanied by Bay-of-Bengal as the side lane. Sometimes the bay will take a detour and you would see a small fisherman hutment, some of them selling coconut water, and the bay will again appear like a great serpent. The road is very well laid and is

Read the rest of this story at my other personal blog

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2007/03/10/pondicherry-in-feb-2007/