Oct 142015
 
Trekking to Maheshwari Kund Munsyari Kumaon

 An Easy trek in Kumaon to Maheshwari Kund Munsyari I no longer am much of a long distance hiker anymore, but I also try not to miss short hikes like I did in Spiti to Dhankar Lake.  While Uttarakhand has many famed treks for you to go for like Valley of Flowers, Roopkund, Pindari Glacier etc., what I did was a simple climb to a sacred lake called Maheshwari Kund or Meesar Kund in the local dialect. The important thing to note here is that our ancestors knew the importance of water bodies like lakes and rivers hence they [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Jul 312015
 
August 2015 Calendar - Download Desktop Wallpaper

August 2015 calendar desktop wallpaper: Kathakali Dancers from God’s Own Country   So August is here and so is our August 2015 Calendar desktop wallpaper for download,  from your friendly neighborhood desi Traveler.  This picture was clicked in the birth place of Kathakali, or God’s Own Country Kerala during a performance I witnessed at Vivanta by Taj Kovalam in Trivandaraum or Thiruvananthapuram ( and you wonder how come desi Kids win all spelling Bee competitions in US ). I had seen Kathakali earlier but it was my first live performance of Kathakali in the birthplace of Kathakali. Needless to [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Feb 162015
 
85 Feet Tall Shiva Idol in Bijapur Karnataka

Second Largest Shiva Idol is 85 feet tall and in Bijapur Karnataka Small town India never fails to amaze me. While the big cities are busy building theme parks, malls and multiplexes the mofussil India has its own way to keep the locals busy. Now Bijapur in Karnataka even with all its historical treasures from the erstwhile Adil Shahi Sultanate is not your typical touristy town. Once we were done with the mandatory ruins and tombs like Ibrahim Rauza and Gol Gumbaz etc. we asked our driver if there is anything else to visit, so he said there is [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Feb 092015
 
Ramayana The Game of Life Shattered Dreams : Book Review

Book Review: Ramayana – The Game of Life Shattered Dreams The epics are called epics because they are epic in every sense. I don’t make any sense?  Right? Well what to do, I started this post to write a review of Ramayana- The Game of Life , Shattered Dreams book 2 by Shubha Vilas. But how do you review an epic you were raised  on, as lullabies by your doting granny? When you heard story of Rama as a toddler, read about him in Amar Chitra Katha, saw him in Ramleela in the neighborhood and later on TV.  So Ramayana [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Jan 192015
 
Golconda Fort and The Legend of Bhakta Ramadas

Golconda Fort & the Story of  Bhakta Ramadas &Tana Shah Every time I climb the stairs of the Golconda fort I discover something new or spend the time to understand and photograph something in more detail. I hope you have read my post about Kali Temple in Golconda Fort,  right next to the Royal Palace, if not please do read before moving further. So this last trip we spent some time in the prison room of Bhakta Ramdas, his name means a devotee of Lord Rama though his original name was Gopanna. The story of the prison is a combination [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Jan 062015
 
Delhi Street Art Near Agrasen Ki Baoli

Delhi Street Art: Agrasen Ki Baoli While we were walking towards the Agrasen Ki Baoli just before the entrance to the famed step well of Delhi we found some excellent Street Art on the wall opposite to the Baoli or Step Well. I am not sure who the artists/s are but with this blog post let me salute the street artists of Delhi who are doing their bit to revive the city center in Connaught Place. At this stage it will be good if you check my earlier post about Delhi Street  Art in Shankar Market, Connaught Place before going [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Dec 162014
 
Book Review: Warrior by Olivier Lafont

Mythological Thriller and a Sci Fi Journey: Warrior by Olivier Lafont Mythology is a very tricky subject that can ignite passions like nothing else especially in a country like India. Warrior the first novel by Olivier Lafont takes the mythological novel to the next level and keeps you in a world that makes you travel not just around India but to many dimensions that most of us never even have thought about. All this while the author handles the subject with clinical precision and poetic passion without falling in the grand canyon that divides faith and science and comes up with [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

May 202014
 
Evening Ganga Aarti at Varanasi Dashashwamedh Ghat

 Ganga Aarti at Varanasi: In praise of the River Goddess In Travel Tuesday post today we will talk about Ganga Aarti at Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India. Banaras as the city is known locally is now in limelight because of political reasons due to a very well publicized electoral battle between Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Of course, now this is old news and Mr. Narendra Modi emerged victorious in what turned out to be a no contest. But desi Traveler is not a political blog, so we will restrict our discussion to our topic of the post the evening Aarti on Dashashwamedh [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Oct 142013
 
Ravana on The Roads

  Making and Burning of Ravana Dussehra is one festival that has so many symbols attached with it. The winning of good over evil, Ram over Ravana, destroying of demons by women power  in form of Bijoy Dashmi  during Durga Puja. I was talking to my niece and nephew about the same, just when they were going out to watch the burning of Ravana and they sent me some pictures on knowing that I am missing them and burning of Ravan in Delhi. So here they are all clicked by cell phone by my budding photographer niece and nephew [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Apr 172013
 
Book Review of Business Sutra By Devdutt Pattanaik

A Book Review of  Business Sutra-Devdutt Pattanaik Now you may wonder why I am doing a book review of Business Sutra by Devdutt  Pattanaik  in desi Traveler, a travel blog.  Now since desi Traveler loves all things desi  and as I have spent my share of life energy chasing Luxmi  while being a corner room critter for US companies I thought I would be able to do some justice to this wonderful book. In Business Sutra Devdutt Pattanaik takes you on a mythological journey using symbols, stories and rituals to relate to how we look at doing business and [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]