Delhi Darshan - Pictorial prose 3

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Qutub Minar - Click here to know more

Red Fort - Click here to know more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delhi Darshan - Pictorial prose 2

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Lotus Temple - Click to know more

 

Jama Masjid - Click to know more

 

Dilli Haat - Click to know more

 

 

Iskcon Temple Delhi - Click to know more

 

Delhi Darshan - Pictorial prose 1

Birla Temple - click to know more

Ugarsen ki Baoli-click to know more

Jantar Mantar-click to know more

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Trip to remember: Karva Chauth Special

Finally today our hectic journey of 5 days came to an end today and it seems like 1 week.

We (Me and CA) planned to visit our hometown to celebrate 1 day festival of Karva Chauth in which married women fast (do not eat/drink anything) for the entire day for the longevity of their husbands. Since it was our first Karva chauth after marriage, we decided to celebrate it at our hometown as there are large no. of rituals and ceremonies on this day unknown to my wife.

Ours was a very busy schedule. We started our journey on Saturday, 19^th Oct. Below is my itinerary:

Date	Source	Destination
19-Oct-13	Hyderabad	Delhi
20-Oct-13	Delhi	Moradabad
21-Oct-13	Moradabad	Saharanpur (hometown)
22-Oct-13	Saharanpur	Delhi
23-Oct-13	Delhi	Hyderabad

The best part was that we have met all our relatives and also attended the marriage of one of my close friend. 

On 22^nd, day of Karvaahuth, my wife dressed like a bride like she did during our marriage, put her favourite Lahenga,and then went to beautician. She applied heena on her hands and legs and other cosmetics and also a lot of jewelly. She was looking very beautiful exactly like she did in our Marriage.

 Although, Gents have little role in this festival, they only helps their wives in breaking the fast at moonrise by feeding her yet I also dressed traditionally wearing Dhoti and Shirt. Karva chauth is always a symbol of love and romance. 

We all were waiting for moon to rise from 7:45 pm and finally, it was visible at 8:15. We all went to terrace. My wife performed some pooja for 5 minutes, I took some pictures and then finally, I feed her with sweet puri and open her fast. 

 

L to R. My wife and Chachi doing Pooja

On this day, women consume the very first thing from their husband’s hand to open their fast. I don’t know how this festival I celebrated at places where due to cloudy weather, moon is not visible. May be these days, technology is advanced so much that people asked their relatives/friends to send the pictures of Moon and that is how the women open their fast in these places. 

After the main ceremony, we took a heavy dinner comprising of large no. of dishes. Then we went to studio to get ourselves clicked as we rarely dressed like this but due to bug queue in every studio, we returned empty handed as we have a train to catch. So, we clicked the pic ourselves.

Finally, this beatuful day ended and we start looking forward to it next year. We promised to each other that we will dress in the same manned next time also and get ourselves clicked by some professional.

Trip to Mallikarjun in Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh - Part 1

This post is about our recent trip to Mallikarjun which is one of the twelve Jyothirlingas of Lord Shiva situated at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh state.

Let me also list down all the 2 jyothirlingas to avoid the confusion between various other Shiva temples and to assist you if you already started recalling them on your fingers.

S. No	List of 12 Jyotirlingas	Status if visited (Yes)
1	Rameshwar Jyotirlinga	Yes
2	Mallikarjun in Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh	Yes
3	Bhimashankar, Near Pune in Maharashtra
4	Trimbakeshwar in Nasik, Maharashtra	Yes
5	Grishneshwar, Near Aurangabad in Maharashtra	Yes
6	Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
7	Omakareshwar in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh
8	Nageshwar in Dwarka, Gujarat
9	Somanath in Gujarat
10	Vishweshwar Jyotirlinga, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh	Yes
11	Baidyanth in Jharkhand
12	Kedarnath in Uttaranchal

By the grace of god, I was lucky enough to visit the 5 jyotirlinga, however, only 3 are covered as travelogue in this blog. 

8^th August 2013

Our journey was started at 6:30 am in Toyota Innova from our flat near Kondapur, Hyderabad. We were 5 members, me, my wife and parents in law and brother in law. The weather was cloudy and perfect for the road trip. Our driver was kind of maniac and drove very fast. After driving at average speed of 120km/hr at 40 km long toll, he gave a glimpse of what is in store for us in the remaining part of journey. This speed was calculated by toll plaza only and was mentioned in the toll bill. 

Our first stoppage was at check post when we were about to enter the forest. We have already covered the 150 km and reached at the slopes of Nallamala hills. The next 70 km drive through the forest was very interesting, full of excitement of spotting the animals but apart from numerous monkeys on the road and Boards enlightening the visitor about the importance of flora and fauna, we didn’t find anything. It was, however, expected. The greenery, road, weather was perfect. It was one of the beautiful tracks that I have covered in my life. The complete track was covered with trees on both the sides and forming a sort of canopy providing us a shade. There was endless picturesque and a very good place to spend some time in lap of nature.  I want to cover this track slowly but the driver was driving at 100 km/hr beside the Policeman warning that killing any monkey will attract a fine of 5000 and any other species/animals will be dealt on case to case basis. There were some truly amazing views of the distant roads hidden amidst the mountains while ascending the valley. Road safari packages were also available which will take you inside the core of the forest, however, we were not here for any adventurous trip, and rather it was a spiritual trip.

 Click here to read part 2