! - !

Feels like no other option left......

Phool - I

Since long I have been thinking of having a morning stroll in my society compound , clicking and appreciating the beautiful flowers that are grown in my society garden. But due to office on weekdays and laziness on weekends I never get the time to get up early morning and go down.

So last Saturday since I slept early on Friday night, I got awake around 7 and seeing the pleasant weather outside I decided that today is the day. Although as Winters are approaching, most of the trees have started shedding their leaves and flowers but still some of them were laden with some beautiful flowers.

I wanted to write about them last saturday only but wanted to first know the name of all the flowers that I have clicked so that its more easy for people to remember. But alas its very difficult to search names when you only have their photos and I guess that is something that Facebook, Google etc software giants should really come up with next.

Nevertheless sharing the pictures ,some with names and some with their search still on for identification.

Hope you all will like them.

First up the FireCracker Flower or Crossandra infundibuliformis. If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it you will see that the flower has a yellow color at center and red petals which gives an impression of burning cracker with red  flames coming out of it. 



Next up is one of the most common flower that we see in India, Bougainvillea.

Bougainvillea is a vine tree bearing bunches of pink flowers.



Next is another common flower whose name I could not found :(

MahaStri once told me its name but I don't remember. You can find this flower in every nook and corner of India, in most of the parks and lawns.

Next, Violet Wild Petunia.... Nice violety flower.

Another one which although small but had a very uncharacteristic petal shape. One prolong search it seems its another variety of Crown of the Thorns (Botanical name Euphorbia milii)

And ofcourse how can you not have Roses....

There were many more flowers that I clicked whose name I could not yet find out, so just sharing some of them

This was an interesting flower with needle like petals. Now I know they are Red Powder Puff flower or Calliandra haematocephala.

I could not click the below Amaltas flower well as it was on roadside outside our society and the flowers too were at quite an height.

This one is called Jatropha Integerrima or Spicy Jatropha.

There were few more but their photos din't come well.

I am hoping to soon update the post with the names of the flower that I have not mentioned yet.

Vertical Limit...

Just while surfing through the videos on the National Geographic site , I came across a movie which was created by the National Geography, titled "The Wildest Dream - Conquest of Everest".

Everest , the highest peak in the world, in itself is a fascinating subject but when the same subject is narrated with a life revolving story then it makes viewing more scintillating.

The Wildest Dream depicts the story of George Mallory, the world famous British mountaineer, who was one of the first person to make a conquest of  Mt. Everest and on his third attempt to scale the mountain died there itself. Now some people believe that he was successfully in reaching the summit and died while descending thus crediting him to be the first person to have reached Mt. Everest somewhat 30 years before it was officially registered to have been scaled. But there is no definite proof of his achievement as the last time they were seen was when they were just few hundred meters away from the tip. His dead body too was found just 12 years back in 1999, 75 years after they died, when an exploration team "Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition', especially sent to search for their remains tumbled on George Mallory's body. His climbing partner, Andrew Sandy Irvine, who was quite young and was an expert with oxygen cylinders, is yet to be found.

The person who found his body , Conrad Anker, who himself is a famous mountaineer, then decided to retrace the last steps of Mallory and Irvine in exactly the same gear and techniques as being sported by Mallory and Irvine and thus was produced the movie the Wildest Dream. Conrad got himself made the same set of clothes and shoes as he found on Mallory's body and started to trek using the same route along with his climbing partner Leo Houlding. The most interesting of the trek was climbing the "Second Step" cliff which is toughest part in the ascent of Mount Everest. In 1960's the Chinese got a metal ladder erected there for the ease of ascent but when Mallory and Irvine have climbed the same in 1924 (this part is disputed that they were successful in climbing it and thus have reached the summit) there was no ladder , so Anker and Leo too first removed the ladder and then climbed the same naturally.

Mallory on being asked once in New York that "Why Mount Everest ?", famously replied "Because its there." In the same way when Leo was doubting that " Why I am risking my whole life to climb Mount Everest? Will I get a pot of gold at the top?", Anker commented that its for the glory, for the thrill , for the passion, for the madness. These statements made me realized that yes the foremost thing about adventure sports is the thrill and the passion. The passion of doing something remarkable.  Just after watching this movie I got so excited that I started watching "Vertical Limit" another fascinating adventure movie about conquest of K2.

I have never been attracted by Mountains, I mean yes the photographer in me will love to click them but was never attracted towards trekking them. And believe me climbing a snow covered peak? which in view itself looks physically so challenging? ..Definitely not my cup of Tea :)

Seeing all these movies attracted me towards these picturesque locations and if not to trek but at least to capture these places on camera, I am really excited to at least visit them once.

These movie also motivated me to write about my only grilling trek so far , that I took in August this year, on my vacation to Malaysia and Bali with my friends. And about which I was planning to write since so long :(.

I thought instead of writing about the whole trip, I will rather write one by one on the places that I visited on this trip but as you know somehow at times I just din't feel like making that effort :(.

Anyways better late than never. :) So one thing that was on our list of places to visit in Bali was the volcanic mountain of Batur in Kintamani. Although we thought of it as an active Volcano (its indeed an active Volcano which last erupted in 2000) but we were hoping more for lava spitting , boiling kind but what we found was ash smoking, steam bath environment.

Mt. Batur as seen from the Lake.

Mt Batur is 1717m (5633 ft) high mountain, having a giant crater at the center and a beautiful Batur lake at its foot. The trek is close to 2 mile and honestly can be considered as one of the moderate climb and definitely a strenuous one which will require a level of physical fitness.

As we had explored a lot on net and trip advisor about the time it will take, the difficulty level etc , so we decided that we will start around 3-4 AM from our hotel in Nusa Dua and since it is around 85 Kms from Nusa Dua, we should be there by 5:30-6 AM and then we will reach the top by 7AM. The main attraction of Mt. Batur apart from the volcano is the sun rise. So being at the eastern side of earth and expecting to see Sun rise at 7 ?? We were gravely wrong.

So that night after reaching hotel we started exploring for how to get guide (you are not allowed to climb it without a Guide even if you have been to Mt. Everest) and getting directions for the same. So there we came to know that for a successful trip we will have to start around 2 from here , start trekking around 4 am and then only we will reach the top around 6 to catch the sun rise. Since it was already 12:30-1 , we decided that there is no point in sleeping. Luckily we also got a driver as earlier it was my friend who was driving the rented car, so all of us decided that we will sleep while we are travelling. Having done something similar (less sleep) on my last trek to Vaishno Devi, I knew it is going to be tough.

We were 6 people, 2 couples and me and my another male friend who was un married. We reached the foot (read base camp :)) around 4- 4:15 and the moment we stepped out from the car, it was freezing cold and no body (bad trip advisor) mentioned that. And since we were in beach city, most of us were wearing shorts :D. Luckily some of us had extra shirts to change latter and we quickly pulled them too on the tee we were already wearing. Thus we started on our trek.



The first clear glimpse from Batur, we are more than half way.



It was pitch dark and we only had our torch and guide to guide us and apart from that we had no idea where we were walking. And while coming down later when the sun was out we only found how treacherous it was.

Unfortunately one of our female mate got sick due to the exhaustion and she and her husband and the other couple has to stop at the middle (from where they could still see the sun rise). And me and my other single friend and the Guide continued.

Mt Abang as seen from Mt Batur. Just on its back is Mt Agung the highest peak of Bali.(actually the top almost merge in this photo.)

As it was pitch dark ,we could only get the glimpse of the top and the torches of the parties ahead us were twinkling ahead thus telling us how much more trek is left. Honestly it was tough climb but not tiring . The difficult part was the path on which we were climbing which was quite steep and full of loose rocks and it was difficult to get your footing right. So after around 2 hours we reached the place where the crater was , somewhat below the tip of the mountain and the moment he said we have reached , I felt like shouting out loud that we did it and we congratulated each other.

I forgot the name of the mountain that you can see in this photo. Its too an active Volcano.

Then we sat down to relax. The view was simply beautiful. We could see the clouds parked on the south, yes parked, actually it seemed that clouds has stopped themselves there itself as if waiting for the sun to rise and letting us having an unblocked view of the same. 

Sun rise from Batur

Soon everybody started shouting that the sun is rising and we all turned towards it and wow it was beautiful and damn the photographer in me, I somehow feel I missed watching it with my naked eye as they were glued to the view finder of my camera :(.

One thing you learn from such occasions is that either you should have a remote controlled camera which you can just trigger and let it click on its own while you enjoy the serene beauty or you go to the same place twice , once with the camera and second without :)

Loved the sun rays on the mountain...

Nevertheless , once the sun was fully risen ,it started to become hot. After sitting there for  a while , we proceed to see the crater. Honestly having hoped for burning lava, I was utterly disappointed . The crater was indeed a huge one with a long history of eruptions. We could see smoke coming out from its walls and at one place hot steam was coming and when we went there our whole face started sweating, that somewhat reduced the disappointment.



You can see the smoke coming out.



Huge Crater 



On the southern side of mountain we could see large lava rock belts and although we were hoping to get down from there but our guide took us via the same route which we used for ascent.

Lava Rocks... You can also see the parked clouds

Thats what we climbed on :)

The trek down was somewhat easy as now there was enough light and we could see our steps but on seeing the terrain that we took, we really felt that man thank god we were made to climb in pitch dark because if we had seen what were climbing on then it would have been difficult to motivate us to continue.

Half of the climb was actually covered with Eucalyptus trees and the sun rays coming through them was really looking beautiful.

Looking back at what we conquered :)

All in all I was happy  (and now I can somewhat relate to the thrill people feel on climbing something).

Durga Puja 2011

Its that time of the year which every Bengali eagerly look forward to.....

Durga Puja is the festival which coincides with Navratra and according to Hindu Mythology is slated as the time when Maa Durga visits her maternal home with her friends Devi Saraswati and Devi Lakshmi and her two sons God Karthikey and God Ganesha.

So on this occasion , numerous pandals are created at various places mainly temples depicting the idols of the five God and Goddesses. And over the period of 4 days i.e. from 6th day of Navratra to Dusherra these pandals are eptimome of various spiritual, cultural and culinary activities.

So over the week I will try to share some typical moments that we experience during this festival.

Although the festival officially starts from today but this year me and my folks started visiting the pandals a day prior as on the fifth day itself the idols are placed at the pandals but the Pujas etc are started from 6th evening onwards.

So just sharing some pictures that I clicked yesterday..

C R Park  Mela Ground



C R Park - Shiv Mandir



C R Park k-Block

C R Park Durga Puja Samity

These idols are not decorated or started to worshipped thats why you don't see any flowers etc .

So will post those too when I visit these places again ..till then Happy Durga Puja and Happy Navratra :)

Am I insane ???

Taken by My Film SLR


 

Its been a long time since I had a Wow moment in my life and I perhaps feel that I do need something in my life which will make me feel how beautiful this life is :)

And the closest thing that I can think of at this moment which can take me to the level of ecstasy is Photography.

I simply love that at this moment and although I already have two cameras, one point and shoot and one Film SLR but in order to pursue my interest further I need to buy a Digital SLR. And the DSLR on which I have set me eyes is Canon EOS 60D. Although I have been planning to buy a DSLR since long but ever since my Didibhai moved to South Korea for her Post Doc, I kind of have a little more financial freedom :)

So the camera alongwith two lenses , one 18-55mm and another 55-250mm will cost me little around ....sigh..... 60K (US and Japan price , where it suppose to be cheapest) :D

And the first person with whom I shared this and who I thought will be the only person to appreciate it, had this to say when I asked him ,"am I stupid to spend 60K on a camera?", "Dude , stupid will be too small a word to describe it." At that very moment , it stuck me," Oh God, is it insane ?".

But since I am not going to buy it right now and still have time till December (price will be less around christmas :)) and also hopefully Rupee will get strong by then, so I have somehow convinced myself to go ahead with it. ( I am also evaluating just to buy the camera body and not the lenses which will cost 15-20 K less and use the Film SLR lens I have for the time being).

Ok I know people say that its not the equipment but the person handling the equipment who captures great picture but I am defintely not a believer of that statement, as right now I know I am only bounded with the hardware.

But the major problem still lies in convincing my folks to let me make this and probably my first and last extravagant purchase.

I still remember when I went to buy my first camera and set my sight on a low end DSLR costing 20K, they very easily discarded that and I had to settle for basic point and shoot.

Don't get me wrong I am not comparing quality with price but lets accept it , more you shell out better machine you get. And for sure you cannot do all stuffs like night photography, potrait, sports and for sure wildlife  photography with a point and shoot. Yes its no doubt good for basic family photograph or travel photograph but to capture the real essence of the scene you need better control which you can only get from a SLR. And most people say that why straight away go for a 40K machine for start, you can first try out with 25-30K one and then upgrade (something I remember my Dad said when I was buying the P&S, "The model changes every month"). Yes I totally agree, but I don't want to shell out 25-30K on something and then after 1 year so feel "Oh I cannot do everything with this " and start looking for another one. No I atleast want to make 2-3 years investment. Also the thing with DSLR is that hardware doesn't change with over the years and you have to make investments on lenses, which anyway I will have to do irrespective of the body I buy.

Taken by my P&S

Convincing my parents will be a big task. Although I have asked Didibhai to get me one from Japan as one of her Korean labmates frequently goes there and in that case it will be little easy for me to first purchase and then completely share with my parents but still I want to first  create the ambience where they already have an idea that I am going to make an expensive purchase rather than getting the shock later. Thats why I have also asked Didibhai that whenever they discuss anything regarding me just turn it towards he wants to purchase a camera :D

The thought of talking to them about it is just like telling them that I have fallen in love with a girl and I want to marry her . And somehow that topic seems to be much simpler and easy to talk than camera :)

Well at present I can just pray for Rupee to get stronger by December and my parents letting me buy it .

May be I will also have to think making money from it , probably as suggested by my Friend , do photo shoots at wedding (anyway I did that at my two friends wedding this year). Photo shoots at Indian wedding sounds quite initimdating :)

:-( :-| :-)

Its stupidly strange that I still identify someone even from the sound of their sneeze :-(

Even after experiencing so many yekkkk moment after watching it, I still make myself watch Dil Chahta hai. And now I will have to bear the consequences :-|

BTW I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Story of guy who time travels. So far so good :)

I too deserve to live life I wish...

I am scared, quite scared because I too have an elder sister and maybe I will have a wife someday. I am scared because of people’s ideologue.

If I talk of a girl being asked to do things as per her in-laws wish which no matter how illogical they are, I hear people say “She is a girl, she will have to bend.” “She is the one who has to adjust.”

And I am not scared because these lines are uttered by some male chauvinist guy but rather conveyed by someone from her own gender.

I always found that more than authoritarian male it’s the female head of the family who is more hell bent on making life hell for her daughter in law. And I simply can’t understand that how at that time she forgets that when she was at her place these were the same things that she didn’t like but rather than making sure that the same is not repeated when she has the power she is more or less determined to make sure that the girl goes through the same discomfort as she went through. The customs, traditions and so called culture of which she is now the enforcer are something she herself whole heartedly didn’t like when she was first asked to follow.

I feel disgusted when people say that a girl has to be kept within limits at her in-laws place then only she will accept or respect us, our tradition. It’s just like saying that when an animal baby is born its tied with a rope to a post and it tries to get free in the beginning but slowly slowly it gets used to its limitation and thus when later you remove the rope, it never goes beyond that because in its mind it still believes that its beyond its limits.

If I talk in general then we all know customs, traditions etc are something that were created for our own comfort but now we have just become slave of them and no matter how educated we become we are still naïve enough to blindly follow them no matter how much discomfort they cause.

I am sorry but I am really really disappointed with our education system, with our culture, with our traditions. No matter how literate we become we still don’t develop the logical ideologue required to purify the society. And even if we do, we cannot muster the courage and strength to stand for them.

And when people who are brought up in a well to do family , who are sufficiently educated, have to go through all this then we cannot even imagine what illiterate and lower class female folks have to go through.

No I can’t let this happen to me or my sister or to my female friends. They are not brought up to live their life as per others wish. They are not educated to live against their wish. Yes family is very much important and a daughter-in-law deserves to live with her in laws but in a cordial and happy environment, not in one where her every wish and want is squashed, where she is asked to bend or compromise at everything. A female as human doesn’t deserve this.

And more than anyone else a woman needs a woman to support her.

Have a little Faith....

God is one..

I had a doctor once who was an atheist. This doctor like to jab me and my beliefs. He used to schedule my appointments deliberately on Saturdays, so I would have to call the receptionist and explain why, because of my religion that wouldn't work. Anyhow, one day, I read in the paper that his brother had died. So I make a condolence call.

After the way he treated you?. "In this job," the Reb said,"you don't retaliate."

So I go to his house, and he sees me. I can tell he is upset. I tell him I am sorry for his loss. And he says, with an angry face, "I envy you."

Why do you envy me ?

"Because when you lose someone you love, you can curse God. You can tell. You can blame him. You can demand to know why. But I don't believe in God. I'm a doctor. And I couldn't help my brother."

He was near tears. "Who do I blame?" he kept asking me. " There is no God. I can only blame myself."

That , he said , softly,is a terrible self-indictment."

Worse than an unanswered prayer?

"Oh yes. It is far more comforting to think God listens and said no, than to think that nobody's out there."

 

Forgive me for writing about "Have a little Faith " by Mitch Albom before talking about "City of Djinns" by William Darymple, which I read first. Its just that I am little lazy and writing about City of Djinns would take more effort :)

 

Mitch Albom, another of my favorite writer whose novels I simply adore, has come up with yet another thought provoking, soul stirring non fiction book which helps you rekindle your belief, hope that something supreme is there who is guiding you forever.

 

Ok not being spiritual :) I will just touch the main points that he highlighted which makes it another of his must read books.

 

Mitch, like in Tuesdays with Morrie, is asked by his ailing 82-year old hometown Rabbi(Jew priest) to deliver his eulogy. Eulogy is the speech that you give at ones funeral , talking about his good character, achievements and how he will be missed.

 

Mitch is stunned when the person whom he describes as the Man next to God, from whom he used to run away at every instance possible. asks him to do his eulogy. Thus starts a series of close meeting , interviews where they discuss about various aspects of lives.

 

Parallely he threads the story of his current town's Christian pastor , Henry,who had a dark past. The man was a criminal ,drug peddler and had served jail term for man - slaughter which he incidentally din't do. He narrates how Henry was given numerous chances to be a good person and everytime he faltered until the day came when he was about to be killed and he beg God to save and in return offered his life in his service. Thus on being saved , he devoted rest of his life in service of fellow human beings. He helped the homeless stay in a broken church where he preached them, served what little food he could manage, provide them what meagre facilities he could afford to fight the terrible cold of America. But despite all this he never lost hope and always motivated and helped others irrespective of their caste, creed or background.

 

When people including Mitch had apprehensions about him because of his terrible past , he said these lines which were so beautiful "You knew me , you knew that person I was but you don't know the person I want to become.", which tells us that sometimes we judge people because of their past when we just need to respect them for their present.

 

With due respect to Christianity and Judaism, I always had an impression that Christianity and Judaism is all about making communities i.e. belonging to a particular church or temple, following customs of a particular group and thats why I am always apprehensive of visiting a church as once a Pastor on seeing me there starting preaching me and dragging me to join their church. So I always thought with this tendency they can be no good. But in this book the Rabbi mentions certain instances when because if these closely knit communities people are provided the much needed financial and more so over moral support when they needed it the most. They were more of an extended family.

 

They talk about many topics like rituals. Rabbi says that rituals followed from generation to generation is what keeps one connected. Gives one the feeling of belonging to some thing.

 

He mentions that being happy is all about being contented and the you die a second death when you are forgotten thats why we all want to do something in our life so that people remember us , years after we have died.

 

When being asked about why marriage or in other words commitment is necessary, he tells that without being on the other side you cannot experience the beautiful things the other side has to offer.

 

The best part about the Reb (Mitch's name to the Rabbi) was that he din't try to give false logic or unconvincing motivation. When being asked why bad things happen to good people , without trying to unduly convince the other person ,he simply says he doesn't know.

When his daughter died at the age of 4, he like a normal person cursed God and got angry with him.

 

He talks about how necessary it is to say the things while you have time even if it is saying sorry to someone.

 

A man buried his wife, he was standing at her gravesite with the Reb. "I loved her", he whispered. "I mean I really loved her". The man broke down. "And I almost told her that once". Nothing haunts like the things we always don't say.

 

The best part was when he talks about various faiths and how a faith that teaches that its the only faith thats true is the most wrong faith in the whole world.

The following story , I don't remember if it was from this same book or I read somewhere else at the same time while I was reading this book, but this is one story that truly describes how all faith are true and they are complementary to each other.

 

Once in a city inhabited by all blind people, a news spread that an elephant is going to pass nearby the city the next day. So the people selected three people to go and find out how does he look like. So next day three blind people reached the spot and soon the elephant arrived . The first one touched his ear and found it to be like a big fan, always swinging, the second one touched his leg and found it like pillar , strong and cylindrical. and the last one touched his trunk and found it like a huge pipe. So each of them went back and reported their version of elephant. Each din't believe others version and were quite adamant that the description they gave was the correct one. Thats true of each religion. Each one of them are true in what they say but neither expect that what they have seen is just a part of it nor they are open to accept what the other person is saying.

 

Although this book talks of faith and Judaism and Christianity in particular but in no way it is making a statement rather like Mitch's previous work this one too makes you think , makes you question the things happening in your life and help you find answer to those.

Haridwar....

This last weekend we did something we never did before (Also continuing with my trysts with the photgraphy weekends ). Me and my parents went to Meerut on a day trip for some personal work and on finding Haridwar only 135 Km far from there, we decided to go there for weekend. And apart from our car, wallets and my beloved camera, we din't have anything else with us.  But still we went there and decided we will buy everything including toothbrush over there.

Luckily I carried my camera with me , although I din't carry the charger so I had to use it judiciously, but still it was quite a memorable trip.

Nevertheless...Before proceeding to share the pictures and some stories let me first share the significance of Haridwar.

River Ganga at Haridwar

Haridwar or Hardwar is city in Uttarakhand state of India. Its one of the most religious place in India and is the first city in plains where river Ganga or Ganges touches on its descent from its birth place of Gangotri, till it travels the breadth of India and enters the Bay of Bengal.
It is around 205 Kms from New Delhi and there are numerous trains that connect it with the Capital of India. Apart from that there are many bus services that ply too but honestly the roads are quite narrow for the last 80 odd Kms.

Haridwar and Hardwar, both name has different significance. Hari means Vishnu and Dwar means gate, so Haridwar stands for Gateway to Lord Vishnu and thus also considered to be the point from where one starts the ascent to Badrinath, one of the Char Dhams,which has a temple of Lord Vishnu. Similarly Har means Shiva, so Hardwar stands for the Gateway of Lord Shiva, as similar to Badrinath, the ascent to Kedarnath, one of the Chota Char Dhams which contains a temple of Lord Shiva ,also starts from this place.

River Ganga

Haridwar is one of the four places in India where according to Hindu Mythology , the drops of Amrit or Immortal Nectar were dropped while being transferred by celestial bird Garuda , who is also the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. The other three places are Allahabad, Nasik and Ujjain.

Bathing Ghat on the bank of River Ganga @ Haridwar

So at one of these four places Khumb Mela is celebrated after every three years thus after every 12 years at Haridwar. According to Hindu beliefs, taking a bath in river Ganges , relieves you of all the sins that you have done. Thus almost every day you can find people visiting here to take bath in the holy Ganges. At the time of Khumb , millions of people come to Haridwar to have a bath in Ganges and that spectacle is one of the biggest cultural festival celebrated anywhere in this world.

We reached Haridwar by evening and most of the evening was spent sitting at river bank followed by shopping for one day's stay.

Next day when we got up it was raining, so we had to wait for a while in the hotel room and then we proceeded to one of the Bathing ghats near the hotel. After bath ,we had breakfast at one of the Bengali restaurant. Apart from the holiness , another thing that attracts my parents to this place is the herd of Bengali restaurants which serve authetic Bengali cuisine at quite a nominal price.

After breakfast, since it had stopped raining, the weather was remarkably pleasant. So we three started walking on the river bank and it provided me with ample opportunities to click.

Kids asking to be clicked

While my folks found a tea shop on the bank and sat there , I started exploring the area , all the time clicking. So while I was busy clicking around, two beggar kids , most probably brother and sister approached me. Initially I thought they were just like numerous other beggars, who were pestering me for alms, but they just asked me to take one pic, to which I very happily obliged.

Mansa Devi at the hill top.

Apart from holy river Ganges, Haridwar also has two temples situated on the surrounding hilltops, one on the west side named Mansa Devi and other on the east side named Chandi Devi. Both are accessed through ropeways and apart from the holy temples they provide a bird's eye view of Haridwar city and river Ganga. Since I have been there many times we decided to give it a skip.

Wandering Sadhu

The place where the Amrit drops fell is called Har ki Pauri and every evening a wonderful Aarti is conducted on bank of river. More than thousands reach that place in the evening so we had to start quite early so that we can get good place to sit and watch the Aarti. Since the aarti was on the top of my list of moments to click, I was saving my camera battery for the same throughout the day.

Har Ki Pauri

At Har Ki Pauri apart from many other temples , of course there is the temple of Goddess Ganga.

Silver Palki of Goddess Ganga

The above silver palki was gifted by a businessman from Mumbai who was childless for years and soon after praying at Haridwar he was blessed by child.

One of the best things is the numerous Diya surrounded by flowers , which are floated by various devotees as an offering to Goddess Ganga.

Har Ki Pauri

While we were waiting for 2 hours for Aarti to start, it started raining and since we din't have any arrangements to counter the rain , we had enjoy getting drenched :). The rain pouring on the ghat provided a beautiful picture. I clicked some rainbows to but they are not worth sharing :(.

On the right side of the temple there was a crowd of people who were taking bath and the way they were enjoying, it looked more like Goa than a Holy place of worship .

Then came the moment which I wanted to click i.e. the Aarti but may be because of my camera's focal capability I couldn't get a better close up of the Aartis. But I liked what I clicked.

After having bath on Sunday Morning, we started on the trip back to our home.

The return trip was quite frustrating as first the car broke down and we had to wait 4 hours for it to be repaired , then a truck backed into our car with us almost getting hurt badly but luckily nothing happened and then we had a tyre puncture.

Despite of everything the trip was one of the best I ever had and more so because of the numerous photos that I could click. Although most of them were OK but still I enjoyed clicking them and hope some day when I will be better photographer I will revisit Hardwar and click some good pictures :)