With cool showers, monsoon brings cheering happiness. But sometimes it brings a fear and quietness.

This was shot in such an evening at Dhanu beach, a two hours drive from Mumbai.

In India if you do not have time to enter a temple for a one-o-one chat with the God, then you can very well request His assistant or attendant by whispering your messages in his ears. You are rest assured, your messages will be conveyed to the God.
Yes, when there is a long queue to meet God and you are short on time, you can bribe His assistant !

If you find the waiting queue very discouraging….

Another year. Another set of to-dos. And a time to take stock… Don’t frown for this late post, we are still in January month.
Year 2008 was a good year in terms of travel for me. I managed to balance between my work related and personal travels. All the trips were short since now I don’t go on long term trips.
In the year 2008 I have been to a few places abroad (USA & Europe) and in India. I am yet to write about my foreign trips mostly because …

Scorching sun, soiled shoes, tired swollen feet…. refusing to move further and.. ..

when cool sea water fondly caresses them with gentle kisses, they refuse to move… .. yet again.
That’s Ganapatipule !!

What is your idea of a short weekend getaway ? Rainy season and any place looks good, right ? All you need is the right route and right company and a bit of masti (fun). Shhhh.. we broke some rules as well.
Last Saturday morning we suddenly decided to go to Lonavala before the Goddess rain decides to bid goodbye for another year.
It is a popular weekend destination from Mumbai and Pune. Our first visit, didn’t really know of places in Lonavala except for Bushi & Valvan dams. Nevertheless, …

This is typical rural Maharashtra of our India. We had gone for a trekking trip near Igatpuri and on our way up had to cross this small village named ‘Baaichi-wadi’ meaning ‘Woman’s house’.

The mud houses were vibrantly coloured and beautifully decorated. The walls, the border on the door frame and the doors… everything was beautifully hand painted. Mostly they use vegetable colours but these days since they are easily available, normal wall paints are used.
I immediately clicked some shots. Seeing me clicking them, everybody felt extremely shy.. ..  the house …

It was last weekend of July, rainy season in Maharashtra and we, a group of 11 people (extended family) went to three days trip to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani. You can read in details about that visit here, here and here. It was my second visit to these small hill stations amidst the heights of the Sahyadris mountains.
Only eighteen kms from Mahabaleshwar, the hill station of Panchgani is no lesser known to tourists. It is a frequented hill resort and is an ideal base for some good trekking, hiking, biking and …