Flowers have been part of humankind’s existence; I am sure, since time immemorial. In fact the myriad colors lift ones mood from morose to joyous in a moment. So much so that now-a-days there is a new branch of alternate medicine based just on that, called Flower Therapy.

A few months back after starting out for the famous Valley of flowers, I was destined to quit the trip midway and come back empty handed. I really needed a balm to calm my hurt soul.

If by any chance this happens with you as well, then here is a remedy. My type of flower therapy.
Take a tour of Kaas, plateau of flowers in Satara district of Maharashtra, instead! The distant cousin of valley of flowers.

A carpet of flowers.

Of course, you need to be a little (more…)

Picture of the moment: Night at Deira, Dubai
Picture of the moment is a weekly series exhibiting pictures, through which I show you a bit of the world.

A dhow in Deira Creek, Dubai.

I had walked through a tunnel to reach this beautiful place. What makes the sight even nicer is the reflection of these dhows on the water of Dubai creek. The place has surrounding massive glass commercial and residential buildings as well.
You can see more “Pictures of the moment” here.

If you like this site, please follow to connect with me through Facebook fan page and Twitter.
P.S.-This article belongs to Le Monde-A Poetic Travail. If you are viewing this on a website instead of your RSS feed reader, then that website is guilty of stealing my content. Kindly do me a favour. Please visit my site and help me taking action by letting me know against this theft. Thank you.

I had read somewhere about a place which has more than 2,000 peacocks in the entire vicinity. So, one fine morning this monsoon we found ourselves driving down to a small village called Morachi Chincholi in Maharashtra.

Throughout the journey I was visualizing myself surrounded by & dancing with those beautiful birds. The child in me wanted to do some more mischief, just like I used to, when I was actually a child.

Dancing in full glory.

‘Morachi Chincholi‘, means ‘village of dancing peacocks’, and true to its name, it indeed has abundant of them! On reaching we were told that the best time to spot the peacocks in full grandeur is in the morning between 6 and 8 am and in the evening between 5 and 7 pm.

In this village only option (more…)

Picture of the moment: Indian Soldiers at Wagah border
Picture of the moment is a weekly series exhibiting pictures, through which I show you a bit of this world.
The international border between India and Pakistan is called Wagah border. Hundreds of people from both sides come here to watch the beating retreat ceremony everyday.
This shot was captured during one of these sessions.

Soldiers at Wagah border

(more…)

Homestays in India
There’s a saying in India, “Atithi Devo Bhava“, which means “the guest is God”. Indians consider it a great honor to have guests in their home and go out of their way to pamper and please them. Sadly, most travelers coming to India stay in hotels and never get to experience the true homely ambience of Indian hospitality. But all this is changing now, thanks to growing popularity of homestays in India.

A homestay is similar in concept to that of a bed and breakfast in a family home, staying with a family or in separate quarters nearby. One gets a first hand experience of the place, local culture, traditions, the ethnic cuisine and people besides getting to interact with the host family. It is considered a home away from home. It is far more economical and in my view, more exciting than staying in hotels.
A visit to India as a destination would remain incomplete without experiencing the warmth of a family in a typical home. There are so many options for staying with Indian families, and eating their home cooked food, all over the country.

Photo courtesy: Myriad Getaways.

My most recent experience of a homestay (more…)

Picture of the moment: Mosquito coils or Incense sticks
Picture of the moment is a weekly series exhibiting pictures, through which I show you a bit of the world.

While visiting a Chinese temple in Malaysia I saw these hanging spirals. They looked like temple bells. But they were glowing and emanating strong fragrance.
Me being myself; my first reaction was “oh, so many mosquito coils! “.

But they were something else.

Incense spirals (more…)

Time has come now for me to talk about our Ski Holiday!

Remember I had once written about Mont Blanc and I had promised that I would one day write about our own little ski experience? R, who’d been in Bern longer, suggested why not go to Switzerland’s own ski resorts and suggested we go to Zermatt.

Zermatt boasts of being one of the nearest towns to Matterhorn, the highest mountain peak in Switzerland (one side of the ridge is Italy). It is a small town where you can access it by train but are fined if you use your own vehicles. It is one of the few mountain towns which has banned petrol/diesel vehicles and only battery operated vehicles are allowed in addition to horse carts. It reminded me of our own Matheran where vehicles are not allowed. There of course, the similarity ends

The question was did we have enough days to take this ski holiday in Switzerland? The answer was, we will do it on our own. We decided against the use of travel agents, even though R suggested one.

White expanse of Alps.

We arrived there duly on the appointed day and got off our train expectantly. We wanted to hit the slopes straight away. When we got on to the streets, there (more…)