Places to Visit in Kumbhalgarh

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Rajasthan, Travelogues

Places to Visit in Kumbhalgarh

It was Republic Day weekend thus tourists had thronged to the tourist town of Udaipur. We were confident in finding a car that will take us to Kumbhalgarh next morning so did not bother to book the car in advance. We had reached Udaipur at around 11 at night and Udaipur was freezing at around 5 degree Celsius thus we dared not to venture out at night. Even though we got up early in the morning a quick stroll around the town revealed that all cars were booked and no travel agent could get us a car for a day trip to Kumbhalgarh Fort. Due to the distance auto would not dare to travel.

Our next best option was to hire a two-wheeler and since I have done regular long drives on my Royal Enfield Thunderbird, thus riding constantly for long hours would not be a problem for me. In Udaipur, you can get two types of bikes on rent one would be the Royal Enfield, which would be around Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1400, and Scooty, which you can get around Rs. 400 to Rs. 500 depending on the season.

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Places To Visit In Chittorgarh

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Rajasthan, Travelogues

By the time, we reached Chittorgarh station from Jaipur it was around 11 PM and outside the station was almost deserted. Only a handful of auto’s and some street vendors shutting shop. We were hungry and we had to also reach our hotel, which we had booked online. I first called up the hotel and was informed that they were waiting for us to arrive, we were also informed that there were no restaurants or food joints open at that time of the day near the hotel so we better have our dinner and then arrive at the hotel.

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Armistice Centenary Commemoration in Kolkata

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Heritage, Kolkata

Armistice Centenary Commemoration (53)

I have blogged extensively about Christian Cemeteries in Kolkata as well as covered a lot of topic on First World War and Second World War so it is not uncommon for me to receive emails from the families of WWI and WWII veterans thanking me for my effort. Usually, as a courtesy, I send them a thank you email and sometimes send them a message over Facebook. One such incident was something, which made me look at the whole concept of war from a different point of view.

Someone emailed me after reading my blog where he might have found his grandfather’s memorial headstone at Bhowanipore Cemetery. He was killed during WWII and had died young. Even his son did not remember his face thus; it was his grandson who managed to trace him through my blog. All this happened last year and I had almost forgotten about it.

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Hagia Sophia Museum Istanbul

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Europe, Turkey

Hagia Sophia Museum Istanbul (32)

It was 1st of April what we have popularly known as April Fool’s Day but this day was not just any ordinary April fool’s day for me. This is the very day I got to see Hagia Sophia ticking it off from my bucket list. If I ever wanted to visit Turkey then it was for two reasons once would be to witness Friday prayers at the Blue Mosque and second would be to visit Hagia Sophia.

The moment the door of the airplane flung open, I felt the Istanbul air. It was windy and the cool breeze was hitting my face like a thousand needles. Honestly, I never expected Istanbul to be so cold in April. It was brief stopover thus I had to make most of it; I hurriedly rushed to clear immigration counter and looked out for the board with my name on it. I had booked my airport transfer shuttle to not lose even a minute trying to figure out my transport options.

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Daytrip to Chilka Lake from Puri

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Odisha, Travelogues

Daytrip Chilka Lake Puri (33)

For quite some time during my childhood, we used to live in Bangalore (Bengaluru) and that means regular train travel since air travel was simply out of the question. One of the highlights of the train travel was when the train traveled right next to Chilka Lake. We as a family did quite a few trips to Puri but somehow always skipped a trip to Chilka. Forever I wanted to see the Dolphins and of course the charm of a long boat ride.

Every time the train would pass Chilka Lake I would peep outside the window trying to get a good look at it. Since only a small portion of the lake can be visible from the moving train thus the beautiful scenery would just zoom past. I would wish that someday I would get the opportunity to see the lake for real.

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Daytrip to Raghurajpur Village

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Odisha, Travelogues

Daytrip to Raghurajpur Village (36)

The first vacation that a Bengali family usually takes would be either a trip to Puri or to Darjeeling. For my family, it started with a planned trip to Darjeeling in the mid-1980’s. All the bags were packed and I was super excited especially to see Tiger Hills which I thought was a hill full of tigers back then at an age eight nothing could be more exciting. We reach the station to board our train only to find out that all trains to the hills were canceled due to recent agitation by some political parties.

Not to disappoint us my father made an impromptu trip Puri as an alternative. I still have some faintest memories like the beach, the railway station where a couple was fighting (the wife not happy with the choice of train seat) and the sweet meat selling vendors. Not to forget the sumptuous lunch cooked by my mom which included chicken, mutton and of course tons of fish. Yes, back then most families cooked their own food while staying at one of the several holiday homes. This was also a trip where my grandmother was also with us which I believe was the only time she had accompanied us during a vacation.

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