Walking through the confined alleyway which seems to taper on to its end, the faceless old ruined buildings railing along the paths will lead you to Dargah, a shrine of Sufi Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty – tall and huge Dome which stands at the T – point of those narrow streets. The Dargah seems unchanged, since the burial of Sufi Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty in 1256 A.D.

Urs is a six day affair, make your way through narrowed jam packed streets during these days is a challenge.
The sixth day remains the most important because this was the day when the saint left his body to meet the Almighty. The Pir Zadas, Sufi hermits, saints, scholars and white crochet capped priests, all gather here rubbing shoulders with one another.

‘Shijra’ is read by a Khadim – a devotee who dedicated his life to serve the Saint. Six day long Sufis sing their deviational songs, sitting cross leg they clap, twist their fingers and all together generate wonderful music. Their awesome singing easily evoke spiritual trance, inspiring devotees to dance, spin and move with its rhythm. These prays which are straight from the heart twill never go unheard.
On the sixth day, before the concluding ritual ceremony – Qu’l ki Rasam, the devotees gathered at the main gateway of the Shrine and under loud thunder clapping sing praises to Allah. People of different faith are united in celebration of Urs – a celebration which rises our spirits, fosters tolerance and acceptance.

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These elephants are all caparisoned with the golden headgears, ridden by Brahmin Priests who are all charged up and carry whisks made of yak hair, peacock feather fans, radiant and colourful parasols making up the mood of all present there, and this is one of the occasion that makes up the largest gathering of people and the elephants.
And then with these elephants are standing there attendants in the center of both the rows, seriously holding the deity of each temple, just like you hold the banner of your school when going for a match. And the band of hundreds of drummers, and the cymbal crashers who beat the drums and crash the cymbals with such great velocity and electrifying speed, and the trumpet (Khuzal) all team up to create a music which may seems chaotic and blaring but eventually sets in an organized symphony but still deafening.
But this does not end here as the music waves to distinct tempo and the fastest rhythm prompt the elephants to standup and brandish there feather fans and hair whisks in coordinated manner and with this the music blasts, becoming loudest and dissonant. This is the peak for uninitiated visitors like us who feel that this high fever bash can’t go up any further, just at this point firework boom and the local crowd cheer loudly all of them in high spirit, snapping punches in the air, and while others advance forward with the procession following the drum beats. With fastest drum beats, the procession moves forwards before stopping to start with the whole new cycle again.

The 200 years old history goes like this- Sakthan Thampuran (1798) ruler of Cochin made a venue for the temples of his ruling area to celebrate their festival. Prior to this festival, another largest temple festival was held during summer in Thrissur, which was a day festival. Temples in and around Thrissur were regular participants, until they were denied access by the chief of one of the village there. This caused the main priest of Vadakkunnathan temple, started this festival in Thrissur.
Later Sakthan Thampuran the king unified 10 temples, and ordained them in two groups the eastern and western groups forming the Tiruvambadi and Paramekkavu groups and this not so old festival is one of the tumultuous festivals in India I have ever witnessed.
But this sure is one of the festivals of India, which may look awkward and unusual, still underlines the deep rooted sentiment for religion and their own gods, which now seems to be missing in our so-called modern world and that’s called the true spirit of India.

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From Gobindghat a trek of 14 km brings us to Ghangaria a tiny settlement located about 3km from valley. For those who trek occasionally taking a mule or a pony is the best idea as the path is narrow and steep and filled with the mule dung, which fills in the air and hit your nostrils real bad. It seemed as the journey will never end, but for the first timers remember patience is virtue. The valley starts near a gorge over the Pushpawati River and is spread over an area of 87.5 Sq. Km and is 3,250 meters above the sea level, with no human settlement in or around the area and prohibited for animal grazing too, its fragile beauty compliments the Nanda Devi National park which is all rugged with the mountain wilderness. An accidental discovery by Frank S. Smythe an English mountaineer, who was lost while his way back from an expedition to Mt. Kamet, was declared a National Park in 1982 and now is a World Heritage Site.

This place gives you all the reason to become an escapist from the daily challenges of the busy city life. If you are ardent nature’s lover, you can find solace here, the chromatic florid picturesque and the mild fragrance of the abundant flowers mixed with the air can soothe you to the core. The pleasant coolness in the weather makes the whole experience exquisite in itself. Gazing the burst of bright colors and hues, while taking a quiet stroll, enjoying the quietness around and taking in the purest form of oxygen in, feeling the squeaky and clean air patting your cheeks, the crystal clear water, tastes like mineral water so clean that we were not reluctant to fill our bottles for our way back.
The hard experience of the journey that seemed eternal and taxing was all ignored once you reach here; all you have with you is the rejuvenated you, amidst the flowers and the meadows and all this beauty can be captured digitally and cherished forever.

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This day, when Lord Ganesha was sculpted out from the sandalwood dough, is celebrated as Ganesha Chaturthi and is his birthday. The mood of this festival is bold and over enthusiastic as compared to the other rituals and festivities celebrated here in India. One thing that caught my attention was the days dedicated to this festival, i.e. the celebration continues for five, seven, or ten days, some even stretching it to twenty one days, but now this long celebration is slowly becoming compact, courtesy the fast pace lifestyle, but then the ten day celebration is decent enough and the most popular. According to the Hindu calendar this festival commences in the month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the fourth day of the waxing moon period. The date usually falls between 20 August and 15 September.
The entire ten day affair is carnival, a fun and frolic event for the people. The first day goes all busy with the installation of the Ganesha’s effigy in the homes. And these homes are all decked and brightened up and ooze out all the traditional grace possible, making the entire site look all jovial and jubilant, and with the new age people here who finely blend the traditions and modernity give a twist to such events by theme based decoration or focusing on some current affair. This is something so cool.
And then where there are space constraints like those living in compact flats in buildings – all come together creating a pandal (also can be called as a lavish ceremonial gate or a place) which solves the purpose and a big idol of the God is placed in here. The priest chants the mantras which symbolically put life into the idol calling this ritual as ‘Pran Prathistha’ and it is believed that these 10 days Lord Ganesha live with them, and so again symbolically Ganesha is offered red flowers, grass blades and to eat Coconut, Jaggery, 21 Modaks (A modak is a dumpling made from rice flour/wheat flour with a stuffing of fresh or dry-grated coconut, jaggery, dry fruits and some other condiments. It is either steam-cooked or fried). The statue is anointed with red unguent, typically made of Kumkum & Sandalwood paste. Vedic hymns from the Hindu scriptures are chanted throughout the ceremony giving the feel of purity and placidity. Rest days in between are carried on with the usual days affair but to worship Ganesha cannot be missed at all.

The 11th day is the final day of this gala event and with all the singing, dancing and fanfare the statue in all its glory is carried through the jam packed streets in a procession to be immersed in a river or the sea epitomizing a custom to see-off of the Lord on his voyage towards his abode in Kailash (Himalaya) and along with him he happily takes away the bad luck of his devotees, and all this portrayal is known as ‘Ganesh Visarjan’.

Singing aloud “Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukar ya” (O father Ganesha, come again speedily next year) can also force you to start taping your feet. And eventually, with the final offering of the flowers and coconut, with the entire dance and singing the high spirited crowds the big or small idols are immersed in the water, putting an end to ten day stretch of feasting and gatherings.
In Mumbai previously called as Bombay such public gatherings are a rage. To see the final procession of the immersion of the idol in the large sea, thousands and thousands of people gather and it’s a big challenge for the administration to let this event go smooth. And to make merry and enjoy the fest also becomes a reason to organize the cultural do’s like songs, dramas and orchestra and also some community activities like free medical checkup, blood donation camps, charity for the poor, etc. which is again make this festival to stand out from the other festivals in India.
Today, the Ganesh Festival is not only a popular festival; it has become a very critical and important economic activity for Maharashtra. Many artists, industries, and businesses survive on this super mega-event. But then there is a flip side to it too. The most devastating impact of this festival is to the environment and that is because of the drowning of the idol which is prepared by Plaster of Paris (PoP). The traditional ways were all environment friendly and the significance of the festival was also to preserve the mother Earth – the Ganesh icon was sculpted out of earth or mud taken from nearby one’s home. After worshipping the divinity in this earth icon, it was returned back to the Earth by immersing it in a nearby water body. This cycle represented the cycle of creation and dissolution in Nature. But today this festival has emerged as big commercial event and PoP replaced the natural clay or mud, making the idol easy to mould and lighter in weight and less costing, but in this process it had drastically impacted the nature and the environment in the worst possible ways. Thousands of idols are immersed in the water on this day, which has increased the level of acidity in the water and the content of heavy metals. The day after the immersion, shoals of dead fish can be seen floating on the surface of the water body as a result of this sudden increase.
Festivals are no doubt an escape from the regular humdrum of the lives but may such events and festivals can pronounce the old traditional ways and their significance which always has respected the ecosystem, and may continue to do so.

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The depiction this oldie love saga is not an easy task. The performers are bound to rise up to such a level so as to maintain the grace and Èlan of the story as well as to sink to the roots of culture of those days. The colorful attire worn by the dancers, the cultural music and the stories, the main hero Lord Krishna and the heroin Lady Radha, accompanied by the gang of girls and boys; together they recite the phad (a painted ballad), make the whole scene like we as viewers are living those days ourselves. People in olden days never had the recent technologies to be occupied with, so these dances and singing and teasing was the part of their life. And such festivals make us live these days momentarily.  The festivities are usually tagged with other folk dances and the spectators young and old, rich and poor are all soothed in swayed in the festival spirit. This festival witnesses the popularized Folk opera by the professionals and the amateurs as well. The beauty of the festival can only be seen and felt. To tune ourselves to the history and detangle ourselves from the present can be a unique experience. Throughout Bharatpur, the sound of folk songs fills the air and mesmerizes people. Whole of the place is painted in bright colors and no one is spared from being splashed with colors.
As visitors we have so much to take back with us from this land, but it’s the true devotion to the Gods and to hold dear to the history, that has put an impression that is for keeps and not to fade away from the memory lane.

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The genesis of this garden was around 1957 by Mr. Nek Chand who came from Pakistan during the partition. Here in India he worked as a road inspector for the Public Works Department (PWD) in Chandigarh. That time Chandigarh was an aspiring project to be, massive work of development was going on to recreate this city  into a well planned and developed city just as the cities of the west, and this work was done by the French/Swiss architect Le Corbusier. This big project was executed and implemented by the PWD of Chandigarh. And Nek Chand being one of the employees here was in charge of junk store of this very department.
It was around this time that he actively starts working on a piece of land beside the PWD stores he was in charge of. The land was near the High Court building in Sector -1. The stores provided Nek Chand with loads of material, space and labour, which he utilized to develop this small patch of land. He collected rocks, gathering from the Shivalik hills, the seasonal Sukhna lake, Patiala Rao and Ghaggar rivers. The largest river Nek Chand quarried was the Ghaggar, located approximately eight miles from Chandigarh and all this collection of rocks and stones was done on his bicycle.

With the rocks, other waste materials were collected that came from those villages that were demolished to make space for the new city of Chandigarh. These fragments were the remains of the villages, and consisted largely of everyday mundane possessions such as broken pots and bottles. While you take a walk in this garden you can very well relate to it.
At some stage in 1965 a more conscious effort was made to transform and spruce up the found fragments and rocks into a pro forma display. This site being in a dense forest area was also needed to be cleared and concrete and mud flooring was prepared and initial structures made up of oil drums and iron shuttering, The PWD stores provided Nek Chand with an abundant and free supply of cement, bitumen, steel reinforcement bars and oil drums, free labour all of which he required to develop the site. The massive construction site that was Chandigarh provided a suitable decoy for Nek Chandís covert hobby. Provided everyone was ëworkingí or ëlooking busyí it seems that very few questions were asked.
His commitment to his work was so strong that he continued on his camouflaged project working evenings and carried it till four year, though being nervous that if discovered will lead to the termination of his employment. But still this worldly enlightenment did not put a pause in his cryptic work.

At this point sometime in 1969 Nek Chand decided to visit the cityís chief architect, M.N. Sharma, a disciple of Le Corbusier, to unravel his work. On seeing the magnificent, super innovative, and ultra dazzling and splendid work, he faced a dilemma sort, a conflict between his own duties (as the work was illegal) and the creative potential of Nek Chand. So M.N Sharma promised him all the support to get recognition for his work and later his work got all the applause and appreciation and the authorities took over, and the garden was inaugurated as a public space in 1976, presently taken care by the Rock Garden Society. But in 1990 it has face a threat from the administration as they sorted out the permission to demolish this artifact to make a bypass to connect a village. The machineries reached the site to demolish it but they were resisted by a mega human shield, enveloping the site. Later the government intervened and and an alternate way was made.

I am finding hard to portray this garden in words. Its too humongous sized, the walking around can be taxing but still it creates in you a unique excitement to move around further. The mega water fall is really breath taking, only by imagining the massive ordeal carried out to create it. You will find the broken earthen pots stacked, the olden days plug sockets engraved in the wall, broken bangles creating skirts of the ladies images there, iron rods make barriers, broken ceramic tiles arranges in a mosaic pattern beautifully glisten when the sunrays fall onto them, the beautiful work of art, the imagination knows no limitation and that can be gorgeously witnessed in here.

Top of it Chandigarh is the best planned city in India and visiting Sukhna Lake here which is another man made piece makes whole experience complete. Rock Garden is still under construction and is been now completed in phase. A theater is also being constructed to allow the cultural programs to be held here. Itís an exotic place and you can devote a complete day for this visit.

There is a huge parity when compared with rest of India. Should I say that it may be a culture that can not be identified with. The Indian ways of living, the festivals and food may have gained all the popularity and adulation in the West but this part of India is still to find its niche and recognition. Even people like us who are staying here in India are not able to gel easily with the people hailing from this part of the land. Even when talking about the festivals each tribe enjoy their own sets of festivals and mostly they celebrate the harvest and cultivation with different dance forms but there is also some religious emotions woven in the secular form of festivities.

These seven states were basically different tribes which came into origin when India had its freedom from the British; otherwise most of the tribes were independent before that.
Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram form the family of the Seven Sisters but still are so peculiar in their own. As my traveling continued my fondness to this place kept on growing. The civilization has its own way of living and most of the countryside is untouched is devoid of the concrete jungle like scene.

Meghalaya one of the states – means land of clouds. ‘Megha’ in hindi means clouds and ‘alaya’ means place to dwell, and the place is the same as the name suggested. Meghalaya hold such a romantic beauty that it’s really not easy to erase it off from your cerebral cage. Somehow the senses and the spirit seems to be bound to this place as if there is some kind of spell done on you, but then its all worth to be in the pristine beauty. The state of Meghalaya is believed to be the home of dances and music, each tribe eulogize and celebrate their own set of festivals where they actively partake to enhance the festive spirit. Mostly the festivals of Meghalaya spin around agriculture, which being the prime occupation of the state people. The major themes of the festivals are to offer prayers to the Supreme Being who is known by different names in different dialects.

Behdienkhlam – the festival name sounded like some alien name to me initially and still it seems tongue twister to me. But this is one of the most sought after festival here in Meghalaya and the celebration commence during the month of July which is also a monsoon season here in India.

There are hills named as Jowai and Tuber of Jaintia. The people staying here have this festival where the religious ceremony basically worshipping the elements of nature as Gods and Goddesses and to constrain and impede the evil forces, which are the demons that attack the local people with deadly disease, called Plague. Now the truth is that because of the humidity and moisture in the air these kinds of diseases infested them and were dreaded by the local. Till date this diseases is considered as the craftsmanship of demon and they are believed to be driven off by beating and thrashing the rooftops of the households with the bamboo poles. Phew!! This seemed to be quiet a bit of a workout.

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” This is one of the philosophies of the resident of Meghalaya.
The typical tribal dancing can be enjoyed at a pool called `eit nar`. At the end of this grand celebration a fight takes place for a large stripped beam by two groups of men. They bunch up in a place known as Aitnar and sing and dance simultaneously to the tune of pipes revealing tremendous emotions when the Rots and wooden posts are brought in the pool. They are lucky if it rains, because then the day is regarded as extremely auspicious.

After this the people unite to a place also known as Mynthong in their best attires to witness a ceremony synonymous to Football. This game is also known as the Dad-Lawakor. The contest is generally held between the Northern and the Southern Groups of people and it is believed that the group that wins would get a Bumper Harvest on the following Year.

This colorful festival of Meghalaya is in fact a thanksgiving festival celebrated during the season of spring all over Khasi hills. The beautiful maidens adorn themselves in traditional finery and men-folk in vibrant colored costumes participate with much enthusiasm in the traditional dance to the accompaniment of drum beats and other musical instruments. The diversity has many faces and this festival is one of its kind. Proud to feel and witness this side of India.

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Labour Forces are the main driving source of economy, therefore maintenance of social guaranties is vital for secure economic stability and growth. Nowadays as people are more politically aware and socially active, the Labour Day is taking on new meanings. Meetings and demonstrations, presentations and public speeches are held on May Day around the world. Demonstrations is a powerful way to express criticism or support for the  government policy in the sphere of labour relations.  Participants using this chance to signify their demands and stretching their message so that it would reach the government. To celebrate the Labour Day is to celebrate historical achievements of labour movement which we enjoy today – eight  hour working day,  decent pay and safe working conditions.

The Orthodox Christian Easter is called Pascha. In Eastern Orthodox church Easter service starts in late Saturday evening with procession, which symbolizes “a search for the body of Christ”. At the final stage of this procession there is a cry, “Christ is risen!”. The priests display the Easter Eucharist. Procession is lightened with candles and lamps. This light symbolizes Christ as the light of the world. Before Easter there is a forty days fasting – the Great Lent. Holly week is the last week of the Lent. Holly week reflects on the last week of Jesus’ life, each day of this week has a sacred meaning and emphasizes the significance of Easter Sunday itself. The fasting is particularly strict during Holly Week, in this way Christians commemorate the suffering of Jesus Christ. Holly week provides a faith journey for people, reveals the meaning of Easter celebration – a celebration of Christ light and promise of salvation. This is the time of special services, processions and religious traditions.

Holly Week begins with Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. On this day Jesus entered Jerusalem and was welcomed by the crowds who were waving branches of palm tree.  During  church services on this day the emphasis is placed on approaching suffering and death of Jesus.
On Holly Thursday, or Maundy Thursday the Jesus had the Last Supper with his Apostles  and later that day he was betrayed by Judas. The focus of the liturgies is on communion and remembrance.
Good Friday marks Jesus arrest, trial, crucification and death. This day is a culmination of grief, a horror of sin and darkness of the betrayal.  Worshippers are morning for the Christ death and for the sins of human kind.
The Great, or Holy Saturday is the day when Jesus rested in the Tomb. This day symbolizes the life in darkness  apart from God.  This is a time to remember family and  those who have died, the time of  awaiting resurrection, forgiveness and salvation.
Easter Sunday is a day of joy and celebration of the great news that Christ has risen from the dead.  Easter signifies redemption and forgiveness of sins. It symbolizes that people died to their sins and were resurrected with Jesus Christ.