Prasad Np

Running the Rat race, scheming to swim with the sharks. Wondering what is left in rat race after conquering the corner office. Writes India Travel Blog desi Traveler, with stories and pictures from India.

Family Fun in Coracle or Round Boats of Nagarjuna Sagar

Feb 252013
 
Family Fun in Coracle or Round Boats of Nagarjuna Sagar

A Joy Ride in a Coracle  in Nagarjuna Sagar Coracles ( singular- Coracle) or the round boats have been around for millenniums, Julius Caesar found the English using them during his invasion.  And while the indigenous shipbuilding industry in India was slowly decimated by the British, ( probably as an act of revenge to supply ships to American Navy for the British American war in 1812.  A little-known fact: American national anthem was written on a ship made by the Wadia Family of India) still the art of making Coracles survived. Although one wonders what happened to shipbuilding in India when just [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Trekking and Exploring Tagged with: , , , , ,  8 Responses »

Pictures of Kumbh Mela Allahabad by Vijay Jata

Feb 232013
 
Pictures of Kumbh Mela Allahabad by Vijay Jata

Naga Sadhus & other pictures of Kumbh Mela Allahabad  There are a lot of things that happen only in India and it is just not possible to find a parallel of them anywhere in world. Kumbh Mela is one such relegious event. I sorely missed going to the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad due to various reasons.  I badly wanted to go, when our photography group HWS or Hyderabad Weekend Shoot were planning to go there. But as they say in India you do not go to a holy place, the holy place calls you. So when the photography group returned [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Holy Towns and Temples, Incredible India, Photography Tagged with: , , , , , ,  4 Responses »

Buddhist Museum On Nagarjunakonda Island

Feb 202013
 
Buddhist Museum On Nagarjunakonda Island

A visit to Buddhist Museum On Nagarjunakonda Island in Nagarjuna Sagar As written in an earlier post we took the boat to Nagarjunakonda island to visit the Buddhist museum on Nagarjunakonda island. We arrived suitably shaken and stirred on the island and were a witness to the great Indian rush to get out of the boat once again. Immediately after the boat docking platform there is a steep ascent to rise to the hill, remember Konda means hill in Telugu and Nagarjunakonda means the hill of Sage Nagarjuna, which is also the name of Telugu superstar Nagarjuna who seems to be getting younger with every [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Holy Towns and Temples Tagged with: , , ,  12 Responses »

Boat to Nagarjunakonda Island Museum in Nagarjuna Sagar

Feb 162013
 
Boat to Nagarjunakonda Island Museum in Nagarjuna Sagar

 Taking A Boat  to Nagarjunakonda Island Museum in Nagarjuna Sagar   Boats have a special significance in Indian mythology, my earliest memory of a boat is watching Ramleela (Ramayana played as a stage play,  with a boatman taking Lord Ram across the river. For some reason, boats were not available to launch an attack on Lanka, so the Vanar Sena ( army of apes)  had to build a bridge over the sea. Or may be just may be Lord Ram did not want to take chances with all those Vanars on the boat. Please read my account of taking [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Incredible India, Travel TIPS Tagged with: , , ,  10 Responses »

7 Steps to Quickly Book Tatkal Railway Ticket Online on IRCTC website Fast

Feb 142013
 
7 Steps to Quickly Book Tatkal Railway Ticket Online on IRCTC website Fast

 Tips To Quickly Book IRCTC Tatkal Railway Tickets Online  on IRCTC site in first 15 minutes   If you want to know how to book IRCTC Tatkal tickets online fast, then you have come to the right place. But first a little background about this post. We enjoy traveling by trains, but sometimes are unable to plan, so one needs to book tickets in Tatkal on IRCTC website.Tatkal means quick, but booking Tatkal ticket online on IRCTC website is anything but Tatkal(quick). Recently I was very frustrated trying to book IRCTC Tatkal railway ticket online on IRCTC website. The site was slow, unresponsive [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Incredible India, Travel TIPS Tagged with: , , , , ,  71 Responses »

A Road Trip from Hyderabad to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

Feb 122013
 
A Road Trip from Hyderabad to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

    A Road Trip to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam from Hyderabad There are many nice trips from Hyderabad that you can take, we visited Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and stayed in Haritha Vijay Vihar hotel situated right on the bank of Nagarjuna Sagar Dam reservoir. Nagarjuna Sagar is one of the largest masonry dams in the world and supplies water and electricity to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.  Our visit happened around Christmas when we were looking for some family time together.  It is very easy to book rooms in all APTDC properties using their website and you can pay online and [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Resorts & Hotels Review, Travel TIPS Tagged with: , , , , , ,  28 Responses »

A Review of Driving Tata Vista D90

Feb 062013
 
A Review of Driving Tata Vista D90

In ancient times a man and his steed were inseparable; today the role of steed has been taken over by cars and bikes.  No wonder a car can evoke emotions that have very few parallels. Indeed for the upward mobile Indians today cars is as much a necessity as a home, and in a lot of cases people buy a car before buying a home. I have been driving for a long time now and have been fortunate to rent and drive some very good cars on my trips to US. But car driving in India is totally different [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Cars, Bikes & Automobiles, Reviews Tagged with: , , , ,  18 Responses »

Visa God of Chilkur Balaji Temple Hyderabad

Feb 042013
 
Visa God of Chilkur Balaji Temple Hyderabad

Praying to the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji Temple Hyderabad Quick question: God made man or Man made God?  Well if you do not know the answer you need to visit the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji Temple in Chilkur Village on the outskirts of Hyderabad. You see the ancient gods in all the hunter-gatherer, and later agrarian societies were responsible for some act of nature, like in India we have Indra for rains, Agni for fire, similarly, in the pre-Christian mythology of Europe you have Bubona for cattle, Nympha for watering the crops etc. Or the gods and [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Holy Towns and Temples Tagged with: , , , , ,  22 Responses »

The Old Baobab Tree of Nanakramguda Hyderabad-II

Feb 042013
 
The Old Baobab Tree of Nanakramguda Hyderabad-II

Hugging The Old Baobab Tree Of Nanankramga I wrote about the Old Baobab tree of Nanakramguda village in Financial District of Hyderabad. Since I was exploring the area I clubbed the  post with the 400-year-old Ranganath temple of Nanakramguda village. I think I should have kept the two separate as somewhere the message got diluted. So here is an update on the visit to the Old Baobab Tree of Nanakramguda Village in  Hyderabad. I was also not very happy with the pictures that I took of the tree, the pictures were unable to give a complete perspective of  the [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Wildlife and Nature Tagged with: , , , ,  16 Responses »

Rural Tourism Complex Bhoodan Pochampally Village

Feb 012013
 
Rural Tourism Complex Bhoodan Pochampally Village

 Visit to Bhoodan Pochampally Village- Part II In my last post on Pochampally village, the home of world-famous Pochampally Sarees and other dress material,  I focused on the beautiful rangolis that people have made outside their homes and shops for celebrating Sankranthi. In this post, we will visit the Rural Tourism Complex, of Bhoodan Pochampally Village, Nalgonda District, in Telangana. It is about 60 KM from Hitech city in Hyderabad and if you start early you can reach Bhoodan Pochampally in about 1.5 hours.  As Pochampally was the first village where a rich landlord donated his surplus land to [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

 Posted by  Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Holy Towns and Temples, Incredible India Tagged with: , , , , ,  17 Responses »
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