Dehradun, the valley situated between two of India's historical rivers .

Dehradun Getaway!

The Beauty, as it’s said lies here,

In the arms of the beloved,

Come and see my earth,

For it wakes up in a valley,

Pampers on the foothill, and rests among us.

Dehradun, the valley situated between two of India's historical rivers — the Ganges on the east and the Yamuna on the west and on the foothills of Himalayas. Dehra meaning “Home” and doon ,”the valley” that lies between the Himalayas and the "Shivaliks".

It is surrounded by many mythological places like Haridwar and Rishikesh, along with the Himalayan pilgrimage circuit of Char Dham.Hence, Dehradun carries our ancient past.

Talking from past to future, Dehradun is well recognized as a tourist attraction. As made to help people know about my Home Town,”The Dehradun”,here is my travelogue. Hope it will help you some or the other time. I am glad to re-live my own city, my own Dehra.

Let’s start about all you want to know about Dehra,with my favorite:

• Shopping Spree:

The best shopping areas are Paltan Bazzar, Rajpur Road, Indira Market and Tibetan Market.

-Paltan Bazaar :-

Dehradun is famous for one of its cereals, Basmati Rice. In Paltan Bazar, you will get bags full of pure Basmati Rice. Paltan Bazar is the local and famous market of Dehradun. You will get everything from clothes to pickles .You will love their brightly coloured, hand made woollen items too.

Best shops to visit there : Satyam (For Apparel)

Bombay Dying(Cut Pieces)

Mahawar(a good choice for women wears)

Amar Sons(clothes)

Rama Market(every minuscule item on your purchase list is available here)

Standard Bakery(yummy! Bakery. Don’t miss the hot yummy patties).

-Rajpur Road:-

The most popular posh area of Dehradun.Branding is the key element there.Rajpur road is not just famous for its shopping,but for many food chains too.

From United Colors of Benetton , Tommy Hilfiger, Puma,Madame every brand is at your site.

A must visit to Ladies out here :Las Vegas(Tremendous collection).

-Visit Ashley Hall for books ,gadgets and hardware.

-Indira Market:-

Close to clock tower,you will get all the latest fashion apparels for guys and girls at a cheaper rate. It is not a huge market,but tons of small shops compiled together to compose a market.

Best shops to visit there :Las Vegas(Different from Rajpur road one,but do visit).For rest, Shops doesn’t have a particular identity, so have a look out here too.

If you travelling to Dehradun in Winters ,don’t miss Tibetian Market. They have the best collection for winter wears and cheap too.

P.S. Do bargain. You can save a lot of money there.

• Eatery:

For a guaranteed, Finger licking time at Rajpur Road please visit these:

Orchard: known for its placid ambience and scrumptious Thai and Chinese delicacies.

Prez: known for its best continental cuisines.(Highly recommended)

Salt and Cravings:Well known for their delicious Pastas.

Ellora’s Melting Moments: Shop is full of Homemade chocolates and rusks.

Kumars:Do visit for their mouth watering sweets. Jalebis are yummy here 

Opal Bar and Lounge: Great for their non vegetarian food and ambience.They have a bar too.Come to chill out here.

Black Pepper: Awesome place to chill out with amazing Indian food served.

My Wife's Place: a variety of kebabs and Muglia dishes at your service.

Nirula's: Have a bite of their sandwiches and you are guaranteed a re-visit.

China King: arguably the best Chinese restaurant in town(Formerly called “YO! CHINA”)

If you are a momo freak, 

K.C.Momos or Tibetian Market is must.

Other food chains like KFC,McDonalds,Café Coffee Day,Pizza Hut,Barista are all located at Rajpur road.

• Places to see around in Dehradun:

Forest Research Institute: It is a prestigious research institute renowned for its forest museum, souvenir shop and is a work of exquisite and pristine architecture.

Movie shot: Student of the year 2012

Indian Military Academy:  officer training Academy of the Indian Army is our IMA,Dehradun.

Movie shot:Lakshya

Tibetan Buddhist Temple- This temple has a mammoth statue of The Buddha

and has small restaurants within ,famous for their Tibetan delicacies. Do visit to rejoice a peaceful time.

Robbers Cave: Natively called ‘Guccipani’, water trickles between huge mountains eventually opening to a cascading waterfall hence being a ”cave”. On display, is one of nature's strange phenomena; a stream of water goes underground here and reappears a few metres away.

Ghantaghar (Clock Tower):

This is one of the most famous landmarks of the town and is famous for being the largest non-chiming six faced clocks in Asia.

Sahastradhara:It is a very famous picnic spot. It is said that the water here cures any skin aliments.

Malsi Deer Park- Secluded from the urban buzz, Malsi Deer Park is located on the Musoorie road. It is a famous site for picnics or a leisurely day out.

Tapkeshwar Temple: An ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva

Santala Devi Temple: As per the popular legend, Santala Devi and her brothers, on realizing that they cannot withstand the might of their enemies threw their weapons and prayed to god. Their prayers were answered and they were transformed to stone images. Saturdays are marked as the day when the goddess and her brother were transformed into stone.

Dakpathar:It is an amazing picnic spot. One of the major attractions of the place is hydel power station which is located on the downstream of the dakpathar barrage.

Manak Siddh Temple (near Shimla Bypass Road).It has a very huge religious belief where prayers are meant to be true.

• Amushment Parks :

Welcome to the world of Water rides,fun, dance,chill and various attractions.

-Lachiwala:It is a famous picnic spot located 3 km from Doiwala.At arrival, you will find the man made water pools where you can have the enjoyable bath, a good number of nature lovers, trekkers and bird watchers busy with their activities. Apart from being nature-rich,the forests of Lachhiwala also shelter a variety of colorful bird species. So, bird watchers can have a lot of fun. You can further enhance the experience of your bird watching tour, if you hire a guide. The birding guide will inform you of the exact place to watch specific bird species.Do visit to have a fun time.

-Fun valley:It is not just an amusement park,it is an integrated leisure combining amusement park, water park club and an overnight stay resort with beautiful cottages, and highway motel-cum-rest stop incorporating multi-cuisine food court and shopping arcade.

-Crystal World:It is one of the other amusement park.It was known as the best ICE park back that days.

-Fun and food: Do visit for all the fun water rides and deliciously good food.

• Stay:

For getting the best hotels/motels for your convenient prices. Check out these sites:

http://www.euttaranchal.com/hotels/hotels-in-dehradun.php

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g297687-Dehradun_Uttarakhand-Hotels.html

Glimpse of my Life at Dehradun.

The Asian School

I did my schooling from 5^th standard till 10^th here.

Among piles of my collection, here are some 

My Mom and my Bro at Lachiwala,back then 

At Lachiwala, few years away from our crying ages 

Dehradun is full of water sides.My Himalaya Partner(my masi) and my baadi masi 

Temples  . Family 

Fun at Fun Valley 

From the bottom of my heart, I would suggest add Dehradun to your Travel-to do list.

Have an amazing travelling year ahead 

BY

Keertika Dhingra

A Life Learner.

Dream to go far beyond into my world of imagination. For what I dream,I shall receive. Amen! 

The Charismatic Kutch(Must take tour to Ran of Kutch)

The Charismatic Kutch

Kutch (renamed to Kachchh to preserve the old cultural name over that used by the British, just like Bangluru over Banglore) is a northern district of Gujarat, which people saw with dismay for years because of its dry land and weather adversities, only until Rannotsav, a desert festival organised by Tourism Department of Gujarat highlighted its beautiful aspects. The motive of Gujarat Government behind organising these festivities every year must have been to invite NRIs and other rich people, to come and spend their big money in Gujarat, but eventually, this initiative has bagged Kutch a recognition on India's tourism map and people are discovering the hidden beauty of this so far neglected and isolated part.

There are numerous pleasant sites in Kutch. The tents provided by tourism department in the tent city of the desert are a bit costly, around 8-10k per day and the private tents cost around 3-6k. People like me would rather choose to stay in some cheaper hotel or even dharamshala in Bhuj, since their main purpose is only to have a night stay. 

Bhuj itself has got some wonderful palaces like Prag Mahal and Aaina Mahal. With the magnificent use of mirrors on the walls and ceiling, well preserved beautiful royal show pieces & excellent design of the music room surrounded by small fountains, mirrored walls and colorful lights, the Aaina Mahal was not only a visual delight, but also an architectural magnum opus


. Apart from these places, there is near by village called Bhujodi, which one should definitely visit if one has a liking for exquisite handicraft. The people in this village weave those artworks themselves and these are then sold across the Gujarat.

Around 80km north from Bhuj is Kalo Dungar (Black Hill), which has a beautiful little temple of Dattatreya with various exclusive view points of the far away creek waters and surrounding hilly area. With the windy, foggy weather and a little trek to various view points, the site was really fun. Not so far from there, right beside the tent city is the white desert that many of you might have seen Mr. Bachchan advertising about. I would say the white desert that the Tourism Department so boasts about is the case of people setting high expectations and ending up with disappointment. Sure it is a different kind of desert, with its upper layer not of sand, but of the salt left after the salty water from the Arabian Sea evaporates. But nothing so interesting other than that. Also because the adventure area with mini rock climbing & bungee jumping kind of activities as well as the cultural program were reserved for those few staying in the tent city and apart from that there was just a small shopping and food stall area.

                                                                     Kalo Dungar:

Around 150 km West from Bhuj was Narayan Sarovar, a huge lake with not a single drop of water last december but the near by Koteshwar temple at the edge of the sea was a really awesome place. The Temple is situated along side the curved beach, from where you can have a vast sea view and fabulous pics. The huge Mahadev temple in the middle of speedily blowing wind and the melodious sound of waves was a real pleasure.

                                                      Koteshwar Temple:

To the south from Bhuj, around 60 km is Mandvi, where the Vijay Vilas palace and beach are the main attractions. The palace, which also has been used to shoot a bollywood movie, is really well maintained and from its terrace one can have the heavenly view of sea, foliage and a bunch of windmills. The beach is a really good place to hang out for fun with camal safari, horse riding, electric boat riding and chopati. The only setback was the water being diry and muddy. While the govt is trying hard to endorse these scenic places, I must say that enough care to preserve the sanctity of nature there is not taken at all. Even if the govt authorities cannot get the beaches cleaned everyday, I guess they should just start providing trash bins at such places and start penalizing those throwing the garbage away.

                   Vijay Vilas Palace:

                                                            Mandvi Beach:

Overall, it was a nice journey to Kutch but one cannot compare it to the royal palaces or sand dunes of Rajasthan. Well, every place has its own thing! Anyway I'll just conclude with a few tips for those who are planning to visit there:

The desert festival is on only for two months a year, near December & January.

The preferable time to visit Kalo Dungar is before noon or in the evening.

The palaces in Bhuj city are closed on Sundays and about every palace is closed before 6 P.M.

Many other religious places like Mata No Madh, Bhadreshwar, Haji Peer Ki Dargaah are on the way to the above mentioned places. 

If you just watch out while you are travelling, you can frequently spot animals like foxes and beautiful birds on your way.

About Author
Disha Shah
Working as System Engineer  
Tata Consultancy Services

My visit to Rupal gandhinagr gujrat on Ashtmi

Small description 

Navratri is a famous festival of India and also celebrated in other parts of the world among Hindus. Navratri  means 9 nights dedicated for 9 divine forms of Maa, Adishakti Maa Durga. And the Second last day is know as Ashtmi. On this day all the devotees on maa durga worships the goddess and adores him with different types. And from those  one I am going to explain in my blog .And the whole blog is just description of the below video.

Visit to Vardiani Maa Temple

The Story begins with a invitation from my friend's uncle to visit his village on Ashtmi. And he promised to show something really shocking . So we were eagerly waiting for Ashtmi. On Asthmi he called us in his village which is 10 Km from our TCS Office so we managed in my friend's car.And reached rupal at 09:00 PM. After Taking 30 Mins of rest I saw a crowd . And curiously asked uncle where they are going then he told us they we have to join them , they are moving to temple. And if we delay any more we cant enter to the temple due to this crowd then we moved with them . And the views i have seen are below

 These are the pics of before palli

(will tell you later what is this)

Starts

While moving back to home i seen some people making some thing from wood and i asked uncle what is it. The name of the thing was Palli . It is made up of wood not any wood  on the same day some villagers goes in jungle to bring the wood from a holy tree. and on the same day they starts making it and has to complete before midnight.

Villagers preparing Palli

And also seen that at ever end street there are huge container or Ghee(Butter). and all people are adding ghee in that . Many are purchasing kgs of ghee to fill the container. At this point i know that the Palli was a kind of huge lamp of ghee but Iam not getting what they will do with all this Ghee(Butter). Its in 1000 Kgs .

Villagers collecting ghee

Ghee collected for palli 

Ghee on other parts of the village

Also i have senn that for some guys these drums are too small so they started collecting in tanks of tractors. It was like see of Ghee ,one can smell this ghee from kilometers away from the village. I have seen people using spoon for ghee but here one can find buckets are used in pouring ghee from one container to other.

And there are many small vendors selling ghee. you can find them at any place in village any they are also sponsored confused . They are sponsored to sell in less price and the cost of ghee was 150 Rs per Kg . And many big merchents are purchasing ghee at high rate and selling at low rate through these vendors.

Boy selling ghee 

venders selling ghee

Now uncle told us that Palli will come to our society after passing from some other societies in village now we just have to wait. We waited whole night at 6 Am we seen palling coming . Uncle told us that it will stop only for 5 mins and we have to pour all the ghee from palli i told this is not possible because its a huge quantity . So he told no problem we will try and if some what is left we will pour down the palli .And started pouring ghee from buckets.

Now after all this was the condition of road you can find in upcoming pics . uncle told us that the people those who belongs from the lower cast has right to collect the ghee from street and they can use for there personal use. but what i can find was a long buddy road . But the single diff is of ghee instead of water.

Workers collecting ghee from road

Workers filling the drums again with the ghee from the street

My Personal View

To get more about this custom I discussed with many other elders in village and found that this was started with a wish and on completion of wish one has to offer a cup of ghee to goddess durga for the joyti i.e lamp. But as time changed people thought that more ghee means more blessing. and slowly slowly custom changes from a cup of ghee to tanks. Believes are very important as one can gain much positive energy from all  these kind of divine traditions . 

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