Visit to Bio-diversity park in Gurgaon

The millennium city, Gurgaon is mushrooming with concrete buildings. They are spreading at a fast pace depleting the green areas of the region. Coming from Vasant Kunj, a DDA colony we miss their small parks spread in every block. From my 7th floor apartment I can only see just one park (the jogging track inside is just 0.25km – imagine the size of the park).

Thanks to the Haryana Government and the stress on eco-centric environment birth of a bio-diversity park has happened. Felt so very happy to hear about this and added to the delight is that it is situated so close to my house.

You might not have noticed it as it is not easily seen from the MG Road though it lies right on it. It lies on the left side of MG Road just before the Delhi Border. One can get a better view from the metro.

On 11th Dec 2010, I made a visit to this place along with my friend and his son. It is just under 3 kms from Bristol hotel. There is a lot of work being carried out, a very good sign. We can clearly see a boundary wall and partly laid out cycle track and some mud foot path. At a distance we can see two mandirs and initially planned to go there. Later we decided just to walk on the ridge to enjoy the rocky hilly area.

On the way we saw a number of trees planted by Gurgaon residents on 5th June. They are growing but seem to be slowly progressing. We also encountered a few people watering the grass and the plants, again a welcome sign. Gives a feeling of being cared (the park). We did find some barbed wire fencing. The area is so huge that we can not see the end of the park even from an elevated ground. We saw a huge basin flanked by rocks on one side, imagined a amphitheatre but later was told by the architects (whom we happened to cross) that it will be a water body. They are planning several water bodies in the park.

Suddenly we came across a small shed displaying STD/ISD on the outside!! So advanced? Communication facilities even before the park is developed!. The journey was good and at one place we saw elephant grass growing wildly and beautiful. We were told that they have plans to remove non-aravali species of plants and plant species which are from these parts.

I am very excited and waiting for it to be developed. It will definitely give us a feeling of an eco-sensitive Gurgaon.


Best of luck to the government authorities and hope we can see its completion soon.

The nearest metro station is Guru Dronacharya. Walk towards the Delhi border on MG road for less than a kilometer.

Visit to Hauz Khas

Being a hard core trekker, my feet were itching for some good exercise after the trek to Har Ki Dun in May 2010. Was browsing through the net and found an organization called Delhi Heritage Walks dealing with such walks in Delhi. Though I am not particularly very keen on monuments but did well in my History at School, could remember the various rulers, dates, etc. Thought this will be a good idea to give my feet some exercise at the same time will help brush up my long forgotten History of old Indian dynasties, rulers and architecture.

I booked myself on a walk through the Hauz Khas village, literally translated into an “important water Tank”. It was a Saturday and didn’t want to take my car out so took the Metro to Green Park. This is the closest metro station to visit Hauz Khas. It was getting late for the rendezvous at the deer park gate so hurriedly took an auto and paid Rs25/-. Reached the gate at about 3:25pm and found a very young crowd, all participants in the walk. There were some journalists, architects, photographers, tourists.

We waited for two more of the participants and started the walk at about 3:35pm. The entry is not from the deer park gate but further down the road. Very inconspicuous gate, would have missed the entry but for the guide.

Hauz Khas was initially built as a water reservoir by Allauddin Khilji in the 13th century. The water from this reservoir was used to supply water to the inhabitants of the village. Later the king Ferozeshah Tughlak renovated it, built the madrasa and a beautiful garden. He also built his tomb which has a unique enclosure bounded by stone structures adjoining the tomb. I was surprised at the massive size of the water tank filled with water. We could see some birds near the lake and a fountain in the middle.

There were mosques in the premises. There we could see some very small rooms with a small ventilators, couldn’t figure out what it was. Looks more like meditation sites.

After visiting the garden, the ‘class rooms’ of the madrasa we entered the deer park and visited more of the historical ruins. There were structures called “Kali ghumbaz”, “Tohfa Ghumbaz” and many more. The park was without the deer (I understand they were kept in enclosures) but heavily wooded. It was beautiful to walk through the park. Never knew such a thing existed right in the middle of the city.

After a 1.5 hrs walk a bit tired but felt good and took an e-rick to the metro. Costed me Rs15/-

We were allowed to take pictures and you can see (above) some of them.

Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary

The time is around the middle of November, 2010. Delhi is just getting cooler with morning being a bit cold for shorts and a T-Shirt. I usually take a walk in shorts during summers and pre-winters.

We were on our way to the Airport in the wee hours (5a.m) with a bit of nip in the air, making us feel that winters have actually arrived in the capital. Our Indigo airlines (my favourite among the low cost airlines for their servcie as well as on time record) took off as per the schedule (revised). After an hour and half the captain announced that on the left we can see the might Himalayas and of course the towering peak of Everest. My ignorance of the fact we can actually pre-book our preferential seat online put me on the right side of the plane making it difficult to view the mountains. the passenger next to me obliged me (I was sitting in the middle seat on the right of the aisle) by sitting back allowing me to get a better view of the snow capped mountains. It was wonderful. A thought came to me, why cant they have a viewing gallery in the planes for such a flight with full glass structures, like the glass bottomed boats used to see the colorful coral reefs near Maldives and other coasts.

What about the Wildlife sanctuary? We have not reached Guwahati so hang on for a little while.

The flight landed at the International airport of Guwahati on time and we proceeded to our hotel, The Vishwaratna hotel in central Guwahati.

After a day of rest and local sightseeing, shopping etc we proceeded by Toyota Innova to the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary. It is about 60kms from the city. Choose a saturday for the other days it may take a long time to get out of the city which is very crowded with narrow roads (afterall I am comparing with Delhi - unfairly).

There is a small restaurant within the sanctuary catering with simple food. After a quick and simple lunch we travelled on a mud road with its own pot holes, ups and downs. AT one point we had to get down so that the van cross a bad patch. Finally we arrived at the Elephant boarding point. It was good we chose elephants instead of the jeeps as jeeps can only traverse the properly laid out mud paths with in the sanctuary where as the elephants can go whee they want to or where the mahout wants to.

At the entrance we had to buy the entry fee, the elephant rides and also pay Rs500 for the Video camera and Rs50 for the still camera. Was it worth it will tell you later. We booked for the 3pm trip and when we rached the boarding point well in time, some high profile Forest folks hijacked our elephants leaving us fuming and complaining to no avail. We had to sit it out for an hour and take the hurried 4pm trip. The sun sets at about 430 to 445pm in these eastern parts of India. This made our trip shorter and not good for my amateurish photography.

The good part was we are on elephants and could go very near to the many rhinoceros roaming the wild flat lands punctuated with some marshy places. SOme of them looked menacingly at us almost posing as if to attack us (actually the elephants as we are miniscule in front of these two mammoth animals)

The mahout was not trained to take care of the tourists and to stop the elephant for us to get a better view, so had to manage by craning my neck and got some good enough shots. We were sitting on elehants with two seaters which made us sit one behind the others instead of a four setaers who coould sit sideways. The forest department should do something to enhance these facilities and train the mahouts.

We saw some wild boars, buffaloes along with some straying cows..

Pabitora has been made a national wildlife sanctuary in 1971 to protect the one-horn rhinoceros. This place is very small with about 86 rhinoceros making it high density makes it easier one to spot this big animal. You will be guaranteed to see one and more in your trip.

If you went to Guwahati and dont have enough time to go to Khaziranga, you should plan a visit to Pabitora. You wont be disappointed.

Till next time ciao!

A Trip to Jakholi

A trip to Jakholi

I live in Gurgaon, part of NCR (National Capital Region). It is middle of scorching summer with temperatures hovering around 44 deg celcius. There was no respite in the last two weeks and the weather man predicted no changes for the next two to three weeks. Me and my wife wanted to get away from this place. I searched through my mind for any new places to visit in the hills of Uttarakhand and came up with the place called Jakholi.

No one seems to have heard about it, Jakholi. Any unknown place fascinates me. I love challenges so Jakholi sounded great to us. My wife trusts me so much that the name of the place really does not matter, she is accompanying me and that’s what matters. I could not get any help from any one including the Tourism department about its altitude. I didn’t want to land up in a place which is hot too!!. Definitely did not want to be like ‘from a frying pan into the fire’.

It is not that no one knows about it, we know it is a small village block near Rudraprayag. I called up the Tourist guest house at Jakholi and the caretaker told me the altitude is about 6200ft. That sounded ‘cool’. So we booked our accommodation through the internet for about 10 days. Though this place is relatively unknown, the accommodation was not available on one of the days. The caretaker advised me to approach the forest department who has great guest house at Chirbatia and a staff guest house at Jakholi. I called the DFO of Rudraprayag who was very helpful and gave me permission to stay for one night.

So accommodation being taken care of, we eagerly waited for the departure date and on 8th June 2010 we started off in our faithful Honda Civic. The journey was smooth on NH58. There was some construction work happening enroute but did not affect us much.
The plan was to break journey at Deoprayag, the route being Gurgaon, Delhi, Roorkee, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kaudiyala and then Deoprayag. There were two traffic jams and got delayed. We had lunch at Kaudiyala and proceeded to Deoprayag which we reached about 4pm. A bit tired, not due to the long journey (330kms) but due to the waiting at traffic jams. Checked into GMVN TRH(Tourist Rest House). Very old construction and has basic amenities. It is already much cooler than Gurgaon so enjoyed the evening in the lawns over a cup of tea. The view from this place is good, surrounded by hills. Deoprayag is the place where we have the confluence of the two great rivers, the Bhagirathi from Gangotri and Alakananda from Badrinath. The holy name of Ganges is given to the river flowing from Deoprayag after the confluence. There is a bridge across the Ganges which takes you to Pauri. The bridge is a recent addition (in the last ten years) before which we used route via Srinagar to reach Pauri.

After a restful night at Deoprayag, we started off on our journey to Jakholi. When we reached Rudraprayag, the confluence of rivers Alakananda and Mandakini we took a detour from the highway to the DFO office to confirm our stay at their guesthouse. The road from Rudraprayag to Tilwara, 9kms was fairly good but later it became very bad. I had to crawl in 1st and 2nd gears on this bad road up to Mayali, 19kms. At Mayali we take a right turn towards Jakholi, 8kms. A better road compared to the road to Mayali. The road goes amidst thick forests of Pine trees.

Reached Jakholi by lunch time. The village is split over two areas, one with all the Block offices, banks, Post office etc and the other the actual Village with their dwellings. There are about a dozen shops The GMVN TRH is quite different from the rest with the building in a better shape than most. It had a very nice terrace at 1st floor and the whole roof top is open to the sky. This TRH is perched atop a hillock surrounded by Himalayan range of hills. The temperature is pleasant and cool. It drizzled a bit and nights got colder.


In the morning we could see quite a few of the snow clad Himalayan peaks like Gangotri, Yamunotri, Shivling, Chaukhamba and Nanda Devi. All these from the same spot on the terrace. How lucky and happy to have come to this place.


This is the first time (in our trips), we have decided to stay at one place. I was told that the road to Chirbatia is as as bad as the one from Tilwara to Mayali so didn’t venture to go there on 12th June. Instead we opted to stay at the forest guest house at Liza depot gues house. There was absolutely nothing available at the place but located in the forest. We visited their nursery of Pine, Deodar, Banj Mor Pankha etc . They extract a liquid from the bark of Pine trees by cutting ‘V’ shaped cuts in the bark. This is collected in big Tins and auctioned off for various uses.

I understand that there is a small lake called Badani lake about 25kms from Jakholi. The route takes you through a village called Ranadhar. I didn’t venture again due to very bad road condition. Only a Jeep can go there as it is very bad at certain locations.

There is a small park maintained by the Forest department and about half a kilometer from the TRH which we used to frequent. Our daily routine is to visit the park, visit the shops, buy some things, look at mountains, read books, eat and sleep. It was really wonderful. My wife had the perfect surroundings to do her meditation, prayers and read her ‘God Speaks’ book with full concentration. Absolutely nothing to worry. Life can be really quiet. The Sunrise and the sunset scenes are spectacular from this place.

During our stay we met a few of the travelers who strayed to this place by chance or by recommendation from other GMVN personnel and not by choice. There was a group of eight from West Bengal, returning after a trek to Roop Kund and a few of them went to Ronti Saddle. They seemed to have a lot of energy even after their arduous trek that they went for an evening walk!.

We thoroughly enjoed the place and checked out on 18th and proceeded to another less known places called Hariyali Devi. The route takes us back to Rudraprayag, Nagrasu at which point we take a right turn. The road from Nagrasu to Hariyali devi is narrow and no traffic, looked desolate and scary. It is about 22kms. The road is being repaired though it is already fairly good (I may be comparing after the Tilwara-Mayali ride). The GMVN guest house is hiding on a road to the right and a gravel road with stones. The TRH looked even more scary than the ride to this place. Absolute silence and no one to be seen. The doors were ajar and pushed them and went in, my wife was sitting in the car with doors locked. I shouted ‘any one home?’ but no answer. There was a room with its door ajar and went in to find a man sleeping like a log (supposed care taker). He was the only inhabitant. The time was 230pm. Fetched my wife to see the place, one look and she decided we have to leave at once. The care taker said he will make up the room. It seems there is no electricity and no canteen which means no tea or food and we have to walk to the village every time. Quickly decided to leave the place, the time slowly crept towards 3pm, I am getting worried as we have to reach another TRH before night falls. In these Hills the roads will be blocked for night traffic and one is advised to reach the destination well before dark. We thought about many places like Gauchar, Gwaldham, Rudraprayag, Syalsaur (all which we had visited earlier). Finally after deliberating we decided on reaching Deoprayag (to get as close to Delhi but still be cool). We stopped over at Srinagar GMVN and had Tea. We could not contact Deoprayag TRH but took a chance as it is not on Internet booking site. The road to Srinagar from Rudraprayag is one way for a short distance and we had to take a very bad steep road. Later it joined the NH58 and we had a safe trip to Deoprayag. We were lucky we found accommodation.

The trip from Deoprayag to Delhi was interrupted several times due to the shopping of mangoes on the way. They were so tempting I couldn’t resist from buying, ended up buying about 12kgs.

Reached Delhi by 4pm on 19th June only to find we really fell into the ‘fire’ from a ‘cold frying pan’. This is definitely worse than from falling into fire from a hot frying pan. The moral of the story is don’t come back from such a nice place.

Hr Ki Dun Trek and Back May 2010

Trek to Har Ki Dun and Back

It is a very long story. It is long because from the time the trek has been planned to actual trekking took us one and half years. The plan was to go in May 2009 and ended up doing it in May 2010. It could not be done last year as I was busy with some urgent office work and my team decided that they will not proceed without me (I am honored). No regrets, the place Har Ki Dun is fantastic and wonderful. If there were to be some regret it could be that we would have been one year younger and made the trek a bit easier.

The itinerary is as described below

Day 0: 7th May 2010
My two friends from Gurgaon came in a taxi at 1015pm to pick me up. On the way I had to drop off some Amex cheques as I will be away for 10 days. My friend was looking for a CitiBank drop box and couldn’t find one on our way (at least not close enough to our route). We reached Nizamuddin Station at about 1120pm and two other friends from Faridabad were already there and settled down in their seats. We did settle down pretty fast, spread our bedsheets and blankets (yes it was an a/c three tier). It was 1155pm and the train started rolling on its way to Dehradun. Who says Indian Railways are not punctual.

Day 1: 8th May 2010
The train reached Dehradun at 5:10 am, earlier than scheduled time of 5:40am. Better start changing your mind about Indian Railways. It was a very smooth ride for us. I had a good sleep. We quickly went to the so called waiting room and found it crowded. Did wash up, brushed our teeth and found to our pleasant surprise that the Qualis Van is already waiting outside. This is from Drona Travels. We started off at 630am after loading all our luggage (partly on the roof and a little at the back). I was carrying the smallest of the bags, and my friends carried big (even suitcases). They must have been carrying their entire wardrobe and makeup kits!!.

The driver, Mr Deepak Rana was very good. He drove nice and steady. I felt safe sitting at the back. He must be really good if any one had to pass my scrutiny and evaluation. I myself am a very disciplined driver and likes similar profiles. Deepak was one of them. One of the team members categorically stated that he will be seated in the front through out the journey, though he is senior most but not too old compared to me. But I obliged.

On the way to Taluka we veered off a little from the route to visit Lakhmandal. There were some caves but nothing to do with that dug by the Pandavas to escape from the burning Lakhmandal. This was done much later. We visited a nice temple which housed 42 deities inside one room temple. On the way we had our lunch at some Dabha.

We went via Mussoorie, Kempty falls, Yamuna Bridge, Nainbagh, Bernigad (Lakhmandal), Navgaon, Purola, Mori, Netwar, Sankri, Taluka.

At Netwar Forest Checkpost, we paid the entry fee for 5 days. The charges are Rs150/- for the first three days and then Rs50/- per day there after (amounts to the same as Rs50/- per day). The charges are per person. We procedded to Sankri.
At Sankri (some maps show this point as Saur – another closeby village to Sankri)
we met Chandan Rana and fixed up a Pony and a porter from Taluka to Taluka for 6 days.

The road from Sankri to Taluka is BAD, good that I didn’t take my car. It would have been battered. Though I had mild spondylytis, I was prepared to sit at the back just because another younger chap said he is road sick and can not sit at the back. I had to literally hold on to my head giving support to my neck to save from the jolts we got on this stretch. The Qualis under the expert driving skills of Deepak we reached Taluka safely in the evening. It has been a 12 hour journey from Dehradun with stops for food and Lakhmandal (1.5hrs).

The GMVN at Taluka was badly maintained. From now on there is no electricity. We went to a hotel called Thakur hotel (one of the two available in the Village). As some one mentioned in the forum, it is infested with flies. Millions of them. It is revolting to have food at this place. But we don’t have a choice. We are ahead of our schedule as we made time by traveling by train. Somehow managed to get accommodation and this gave us an extra day at Har Ki Dun (HKD). As per the maps the altitude of Taluka is 1900mtrs but the board in Forest Rest house says it is 2410mtrs.

Day 2: 9th May 2010 (Taluka to Osla)
We planned to leave for Osla by 730am but ended up leaving at 755am. The Pony carrying our luggage didn’t start for some strange reasons and so we started off. The guy with the Pony was Raj Mohan and the porter/guide was Bhajan Singh. Initially I had some problem walking but as we got used to the trek it was better. The path had ups and downs and sometimes very rugged surface with uneven rocks. The steady climb was tiring. There was a tea stall at a village called Gangar, where we had some of the paranthas packed from Thakur hotel and had some tea and Maggie noodles. There is one more tea stall a few metres from this one at which point we get to cross a bridge. This village point is about 9kms from Taluka. The terrain became harsher and my right knee started giving problems. Towards the end of the next 4kms I had to drag myself and walked almost on my left leg. Reached Osla/Seema GMVN at about 4pm (8hrs) and collapsed into an inviting chair by the fireside. We had some tea and some people had rice/Dal. It was too late for lunch for me. Went to our dormitory and applied Tiger Balm to relieve the pain my right knee. There was an English couple who had been touring India for last 6 months and had chosen HKD as one place to visit.

We retired at about 10pm after gazing at the multitude of stars, which we don’t get to see in Delhi.

Day 3: 10th May 2010 (Osla to HKD)
Had some paranthas for breakfast and started off to HKD, excited about reaching the beautiful place. I used a crepe bandage to wrap up my right knee. Like every other day we started off at about 8am. There is a bridge we need to cross as we leave the GMVN and after crossing, the path is very, very steep and rocky. It takes your breath away (not by the scenery but the terrain). There is a road to the left going to the OSLA village which has a STD booth. So two of my friends went that way to call up our families to let them know our location/health etc. The slow walkers like me and another 50 year old turned right to go to HKD knowing very well that the other two will catch up. This is a steep climb most of the time. At one place we had to cross a patch of snow (very slippery). Reached HKD at about 4pm. The bandage did help me but not fully, so struggled a lot in reaching HKD. Now the breath is taken away again with the beauty of the place. Surrounded by snow clad mountains. It did snow on the way and after reaching HKD.

There was a lot of greenery and tall trees (looked like Pine). Enroute to HKD from Osla there are some beautiful mountain views and at one place you can see a waterfall. Some of the mountains we can see are Kala Nag, Bunderpoonch, Yamunotri, etc.

We were tired reaching HKD especially the last portion looks like a steep climb to get to the GMVN TRH. It is a simple building, with one dormitory of nine beds, two double rooms. The entry to dorm and one room is through the kitchen. We settled down in the dorm except for one senior person who always insisted on a separate room to himself.

It started snowing a bit and we enjoyed despite the tiredness in our legs, we moved around to get better views of the peaks around us.

Day 4: 11th May 2010 (at HKD)
It was about 540am and some one was trying to wake us up as the view of the mountains is fantastic at this hour. The sun has already risen and the view was spectacular.

We were standing at the base of HKD peak and could see on left the Atta Peak, in front to the right we could see Swargarohini Peaks I and II and others whose names are not known to any at HKD. I wish the staff at GMVN are better educated on these matters.

It was very very cold outside, must be about 2 or 3 degrees. We had our breakfast and I didn’t want to venture on any trek today, I have to look after my legs as I have to get back home too. So me and a friend stayed back enjoying the views, walked a little around the area. The other three friends went to see Jaundhar glaciers, they started about 8am and returned by about 2pm in time for our lunch. We had some Maggie and tea at about 11am, The staple food here is Potatoes, dal chawal.

Day 5: 12th May 2010 (at HKD)
I could recover from the tiredness in my legs. Four of the friends took off to see a lake, talk about teamwork. Left me to be alone for the second day and not insisted on my coming with them. It is true I was slowing them but it would have been nicer to be in a group. So as a lone ranger does his trails, I walked up the mountains towards the Atta Peak. It is a steep climb but managed well with my crepe bandage treatment to the right knee. Luckily Raj Mohan joined me after a while to guide me to this wonderful valley, a big meadow surrounded by towering mountains. On one side we had the HKD. I was actually standing at the foot of this great mountain. A great feeling. On another side we had a clear view of the Atta Peak, standing right in front of me. Added to all this awesome place was the meandering Supin river flowing next to me. Crystal clear, flowing over small rocks, making the sweetest sounds as it rolls on. There is otherwise absolute silence as we two are the only beings there.
I sat on a rock next to the river, hearing the sounds, enjoying the views of the surrounding. One can keep gazing at these mountains for ever without getting bored. I wanted the time to stop so that I can enjoy it for ever. I don’t know how many times I stood in the middle of the bugyal and looked around and felt like dancing. It is about 1230pm and dark clouds started to appear here and there. They seem to be jealous of me enjoying the scenery all by myself and wanted to disrupt me from there. Reluctantly I started to pack up to leave this heaven like place, not out of my will to leave but that of the Gods. I reached the GMVN TRH safely, just as the other team also reached it. It seems they had wonderful time (That’s what they said, looking at the photos later didn’t seem so). Had the staple food of Kichdi and relaxed for a while. Some of the group played cricket with the local guys. The cricket ball is made of socks and rags tightly wound and held together. Very creative.

The best part of eating was having dinner next to the fireplace (where Janak cooks the food). As there is little place around it the best place is on a first come first served basis and after it is musical chairs. Some times we sat on the ground or on a small stool.

Day 6: 13th May 2010 (HKD to Osla)
Got up early at about 0515am hoping to see the rising sun rays on the Swargarohini mountains, the sun didn’t come out till about 0525am when we could see the shining edges of the mountain and again we took a few shots with our cameras. Planned to leave early to trek down to OSLA but finally left at about 8am after eating breakfast. I wanted to eat light (a mistake) and ate just one parantha. Later during the trek I was so hungry that I could have eaten a horse at that time.

The terrain was ups and downs, at one place I suddenly spotted a 2 feet snake, had bands on it but moving very slowly, I called out to my friends to come cautiously. I told my friend to take some photos which he did. The other friend said he saw a green snake which slithered away into some hole quickly.

When we came to the place where we had to cross a patch of sold snow we found that in the middle of the path (which we came by) had two gaping holes so treaded carefully around these holes and reached the other side without any untoward incidents. On closer look the snow at these holes looked thin about an inch thickness.

On return journey we took time off to enjoy the scenery much more as we had successfully completed our mission to HKD. There was a waterfall coming from a very high point, it was a nice view. As we reached OSLA(at about 2pm) instead of going down the steep rocky steps down to the Seema GMVN we went straight towards the OSLA village. The structures are mostly of wood and looked beautiful. We walked to the end of the village to make calls home to update our families. I wish the STD booth is closer on this side so that we don’t have to walk this additional distance. We took a few pictures

We were invited for tea at the Ex-Pradhan’s house. One person came to ask us for a medicine for a headache and when we gave him some medicine we found to our surprise a big queue of people with their ailments and we had to become quacks for a while. We were very careful in giving out medicines as we were worried about any after effects etc. The medical support seems non existent here so we were in a way to help some needy people. Most of them seem to be suffering from Stomach ailments could be due to bad hygiene. We were planning to do some social work with our extra hours on our hand so this came as a welcome work. We wanted to visit the school to see if we can help, but school was closed. We understand that about 4 schools in the neighboring villages are also closed.

After about an hour and a half we took a short cut down to Seema GMVN and reached about 4pm. We all had Maggie noodles.

Same ritual as usual, have tea in the evening and dinner (same roti/chawal/dal and subji) at about 830pm.

Day 7: 14th May 2010 (Osla to Taluka)
Started off at 8am, seems to be getting into perfecting the start time. The journey to Gangar was bad with rocky path, in fact the whole path to Taluka was very rocky. Knees get affected while coming down a slope, luckily my crepe bandage helped me a lot. On the way we had crossed some small rivulates and found a very interesting 'Chakki' (wheat grinding machine) totally run by the flowing water. The grinding stones were moving very fast. Who needs electricity. Reusable water resource at its best. The journey was uneventful and reached Taluka at about 3pm, had Maggie lunch. The flies never seem to leave Taluka. This is one place where we can get ‘Makki’ ka roti any time of the year (pun intended). Some of my friends joined a local gang to play cricket.

Visited the local Govt Ayurvedic Dispensary, discussed with the Doctor Naresh about the medical facilities etc. This is opposite to the GMVN TRH. It seems he charges Rs2/- from each patient when he gives medicines and some don’t even pay it seems.

Day 8: 15th May 2010 (Taluka to Dehradun)
The Qualis van came on time and we started off at about 8am. The road was bad between Taluka and Sankri, it seems the van had a punctured tyre while reaching Taluka and the nearest place it can get repaired is Mori. We somehow reached Mori to find out that he can not repair the tyre, so proceeded to Purola. Unfortunately another tyre got punctured and now we are without a spare. After a while we saw another Qualis and requested him to loan a spare tyre. He was like God sent and he obliged as he was also going to Purola.

At Netwar forest barricade we paid an additional amount for two days as we initially paid only for 5 days.

At Purola we got both tyres repaired and proceeded to Dakpathar. We encountered two landslides (both man made – in the process of widening the roads) as the Chardham Yatra was getting opened from 16th May there was too much traffic coming up (100 cars up three or four going down). We grabbed something to eat at a restaurant near Purola and Tea with Fane at a place called Jeddo.

The Barrage near Dakpathar was having a fair amount of water, we got down to take a few pictures and then took the road via Herbertpur to Dehradun.

We went to Hotel Drona (Of GMVN) at Dehradun to have dinner and then proceeded to the Railway station. Reached about 11pm just in time to settle down in the already waiting A/C express to Nizamuddin.

Day 9: 16th May 2010
At last the A/C express rolled into Nizamuddin station at about 515am and ordered a Meru Taxi. Came in at about 30 minutes. Reached home at about 640am. A total of 8 days and 8 hours from start to Finish.

Crazy you might think but went to Gym in the evening. How is Gym difficult after completing a Trek to Har ki Dun

It was a very memorable trip. Never seen Mountains that close.

Happy to be there and back. Absolutely no casualities, not even a headache. What else you can ask God for.

I know t is a very long report, it was worth writing to benefit others.

Route followed:

Train from Delhi to Dehradun
Qualis from Dehradun station to Taluka via Mussoorie, Kempty falls, Yamuna Bridge, Nainbagh, Bernigad, Nowgaon, Purola, Mori, Netwar, Sankri and then Taluka.

General Costs: in INR

Taxi from Home to Station (for 3 people) 650
Train ticket to Dehradun (Approx) pp 550
Qualis (5 seater) One way 5500
Govind Pashu National Park entry per person per day 50 (min 3 days)
Stay in Dorms average per day 190
Breakfast per parantha 25
Tea 12
Maggie noodles 35 (best meal)
Lunch/Dinner fixed meal per plate 70
Pony + one porter for 6 days 4200
Porter: Charges see above)
Bhajan Singh Guide cum porter
Raj Mohan – Charge of Pony

Visit to Dilli Hat and Redfort

It was the 30th of Dec 2009, almost the end of the calendar year. It was quite cold in Delhi and the suburbs like Gurgaon. I had some visitors from the US, who checked into a hotel in Gurgaon. Both of them medical professionals, work in Kaiser Permanente in California. One of them was visiting India for the first time (for that matter first time to travel outside of US). Imagine me taking them to the old part of Delhi with their congested roads, traffic jams, crowded areas with people pushing and shoving others. But it had to be done, so dont whine too much.

We hired a car, as I never venture into these areas in my own car. That was the reason I never visited Redfort though I lived in Delhi for the passt 23 years. The Taxi we got was a Maruti Esteem, too small for 4 people. We had to pack the visitors and my wife in the back seat. Our first stop was at Dilli Hat, my wife's favourite shopping ground with all those nice colorful handicrafts, shawls and cloth for suits. Our journey from Gurgaon to Dilli Hat had the visitors gripping to their seats which they dont even do it in roller coaster rides!!. It scared them to death. They were only relieved on reaching Dilli Hat. As we entered the area they got carried away by the prices and the beautiful handicrafts and started buying. For them the prices are always after dividing by 50 so obviously sounds very low priced.

They were fascinated by everything at Dilli Hat so spent considerable amount of time. They even bought colorful Bangles. We were initally planning to grab something to eat before visiting Redfort but due to this shopping event we had to directly go to Redfort. The driver did not know the route well and had to direct him several times. We had to get off very far from the fort as cars are not allowed inside. We walked a little on the dirty roads. The entry fee was Rs60/- per head. The whole area was dark and really frightening. We had tough time finding the ticket counters in the dark. The show starts at 730pm for English and at 6pm for Hindi. The time was almost 730pm and had to hurry down into the fort, very interesting path.

Sound and light show at Redfort was always in my list of places/events to see and so was very excited to be actually going there. We need to sit on benches in the open air with a cloth overhang. It was very cold and I didnt go well prepared. Not many came to see so had the whole bench(es) to ourselves. the show began at exactly 730pm (first time seeing punctuality to my liking). The narration was good and clear and crisp voice, so started liking it when the lights came on in different color and sound effects of water flowing from the Yamuna River, the sound of the galloping horses of the army. But later the excitement stopped as the story progressed with bad quality sound effects, lighting. Within the first halfhour got bored so asked my visitors if they wanted to sit for some more time. They were enjoying as they were getting a lot of historical facts 9some of which even I didnt know). I managed to sit through for another 20 minutes and prepapred to leave. The visitors came along (may be got bored too).

It was most disappointing show for me, may be because I had great expectations and was comparing with the show at Golconda fort near Hyderabad and our personal show which we did way back in 1961. My brother was the narrator and we (four siblings) helped with the sound effects. It was far superior considering the fact it was done almost 50 years back with little or no gadgets. The show we had was on "Tour of United States in the eyes of a visiting Doctor - my father". We had an open air sitting (like the one at Redfort), a real big screen. During the interval we had offered delicious snacks (prepared by mom) to our invitees. The entry was only by invitation. they all loved the show what with the sound effects and music from Mozart and Tschakovski. It was scintillating.

We quickly got out before the crowd 9whatever little it was) started to leave. We made it to the main road and called the driver to come and pick us up. It was late and we had to prepare for early morning trip to Agra so hurried back. luckily the traffic was negligible after reaching Tilak bridge.