Hampta Pass Trek

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Himachal Pradesh, Travelogues

Hampta Pass Trek (9)

It was drizzling outside and I had a hot cup of tea in my hand. To be precise it was liquor tea without sugar, something which I always prefer. I had just stepped into my friend’s house who is an avid trekker. In spite of his busy work schedule, he has somehow managed to do a couple of them in a year. On the contrary, I had never been on a full trek as such. I did just a couple of hours’ trek in Italy but nothing serious in my own country.

My friend has been poking me for a long now and he is now determined to send me to a short trek just to get the hang of it. He is sure that after my first trek I will surely be addicted as he knew my passion for travel and photography.

According to him the best way to start loving trekking would be to start with something doable something which will not be difficult for a first timer and something which would include ample scenery as well has varied terrains. He zeroed on Hampta Pass Trek.

Continue reading “Hampta Pass Trek” →

Advertisements

Road Trip to Destiny

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Tamil Nadu, Travelogues

Road Trip to Destiny

I am sure many of you who have watched the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara have had the thought of going on a long road trip once in your lifetime. Fortunately for me, I have had that experience a long time back, to be precise 15 years back (2003) much before the movie popularized the concept of a road trip. Back then this was just another long drive and it is only now that I realize that it was actually a landmark in my traveling life.

It all started right after I finished my last examination in college where I was completing my Batchelor’s degree. There was a gap between the last examination which I still remember were Economics and the result date. I still hadn’t figured out what to do after graduation thus was completely relaxed.

Continue reading “Road Trip to Destiny” →

A Garhwali Food Adventure

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Food, Travelogues, Uttarakhand

Garhwali Food Adventure (32)

How do you like this version of Christmas Cake? It was tasting somewhat similar but the only major difference was the color which instead of being a bit whitish it was much brown is color. It’s made of Ragi (Finger Millet) uttered my wife as she smiled along with all her cousins who were waiting to see my reaction. Ragi cakes are not that uncommon in the state of Jharkhand and instead of flour, it has been used for making flatbreads as well as for cakes. I had obviously tasted the flatbread version but for me, it was something of a new experience when it comes to Ragi Christmas Cakes.

Traveling around the mountains of Uttarakhand had got me another chance in experiencing Ragi. It was for the very first time that I was traveling around this state and was very excited to see new places as well as to experience the regional delicacies.

Continue reading “A Garhwali Food Adventure” →

Day Trip to Venice with Family

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Europe, Italy

Day Trip to Venice with Family

Which state in India is known as the Venice of the East? This was not a direct question to our team and I eagerly waited for the question to pass it to my team. This was during our school inter-class quiz competition which we used to have every year. During school days I was an avid quizzer thus all these answers were almost at my fingertips.

For years I have known that Kerala is often referred to as the Venice of the east especially the town Alleppey (Alappuzha) which due to its waterways is often associated with the Italian town of Venice. It was really fortunate for me to have traveled to Kerala quite a few times and the experience was just amazing.

One fine day all of a sudden an opportunity jumped into my lap, a chance to travel to Italy and I knew which place that I had to visit. Traveling to Italy and not visiting Venice would be to visit India and skip a chance to see the Taj Mahal. The planning had to be perfect since Venice is in the eastern side of Italy and within a few number of days, I had to complete my tour of the country covering what all could be covered.

Continue reading “Day Trip to Venice with Family” →

A Trip to Basilica di Santa Croce – Florence

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Europe, Italy

Basilica di Santa Croce (42)

What on earth is this I exclaimed? It’s a two-in-one you see replied my father. But this is not an ice cream to which he smiled and replied that it’s a two in one music system having both a cassette player and a radio tuner. It was the 80’s and it was the era of disco and boom box. My father had just got home a new Akai two one and I was stuck to it like a magnet. I knew what a cassette player was and even knew how a radio functioned with the SW (Short Wave) and MW (Medium Wave) buttons but this one had an FM button and that was something new to me.

At night my father extended the antenna and switched on the radio while he was locating radio stations by turning the tuner dial I asked him about FM. Frequency Modulation he replied, it’s like radio but with stereo audio but you won’t be able to hear anything now as there are no functioning FM channels in India. Maybe if you travel abroad someday you will be able to hear FM. By the way, he asked do you know who invented the radio? I did not know the answer so he replied that it was J C Bose who had first identified radio signals but it was Marconi who the world credit it to as Bose could not spread the word of his discovery to the world.

Continue reading “A Trip to Basilica di Santa Croce – Florence” →

Revisiting Italia 90 World Cup

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Random Thoughts

Revisiting Italia 90 (9)

The phone rings quite late in the night and my father picks up the call. After a brief exchange, he calls me to receive the call as it was my friend from school on the line. “Remember to bring Maradona tomorrow I have your Frank Rijkaard,” said the voice on the phone. I was overjoyed finally my set gets completed. In case you are wondering what I am talking about then it’s nothing but Football Card that we are planning to exchange over the phone.

It was the year 1990 and the FIFA World Cup was about to start in Italy and all my classmates were busy collecting football cards which one would get after buying a bubble gum which was rightly named World Cup Bubble Gum. Things became such crazy that shops started running out of World Cup Bubble Gums and the ones that still did were not getting sold as the shops did not have any new football cards with them.

Continue reading “Revisiting Italia 90 World Cup” →