Southward – [AP] – III

Hyderabad was the last destination of our tour itineraries. After two days at Vizag and a day in Araku Valley we took Godavari Express from Visakhapatnam. As Visakhapatnam is very close to the Orrisa and Chatrisghar border, Hyderabad is share the border with Maharashtra and Karnataka. Distance between Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam is about 620 Kilometer and by train it is almost ten hours journey. We reached Hyderabad in the morning and lodged in a hotel very near to the station. The day was given for resting but we passed the day for little shopping. Next day, we left for some local sight seeing like Golkonda  Fort and Birla Temple in the morning and in the evening we were at NTR Garden and Lumbini Park. Adjacent Hussein Sagar Lake was very disappointing one as it was very dirty and not at all well maintained but Light and Sound Show, a Laser Show at LUMBINI PARK was OK. After two days third day we supposed board the train at evening from Seccunderbad  station. In the morning we were at Salar Jung Museum and to Charminar and sorry to say the place was very dirty and not at all projected as a tourist attraction. I don’t know how such place represents the face of the city. When we talk about other cites like India Gate in Delhi or Gate of India in Mumbai or Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, all are tourists delight. During our tour ten days tours, the tour operator provided us a luxury bus for the local sight seeing, therefore there were not much hassle-bustle for us. It was an average tour but as everything was taken care by the tour operator so it was quite relaxing. Hyderabad Hyderabad was established in 1591 CE as Bhaganagar by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. The city remained the princely state's capital from 1769 to 1948, when the Nizam signed an Instrument of Accession with the Indian Union at the conclusion of Operation Polo. The 1956 States Reorganisation Act established the modern state of Andhra Pradesh, with Hyderabad as its capital. Hyderabad means "Hyder's abode" or "lion city". One popular theory suggests that Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of the city, named it "Bhagnagar" after Bhagmathi, a local nautch girl with whom he had fallen in love. She converted to Islam and adopted the title Hyder Mahal. The city was renamed Hyderabad in her honour Golkonda  Fort The most important builder of Golkonda was Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah Wali, the fourth Qutub king of the Qutub Shahi Dynasty. Ibrahim was following in the spirit of his ancestors, the Qutub Shahi kings, a great family of builders who had ruled the kingdom of Golkonda from 1512. Their first capital, the fortress citadel of Golkonda, was rebuilt for defense from invading Mughals from the north.
Golkonda  Fort
Birla Mandir The temple is built on a 280 feet high hillock called the Naubath Pahad on a 13 acres plot. Though the chief deity is Lord Venkateshwara, the temple has pan-Hindu character with deities of Shiva, Shakti, Ganesh, Hanuman, Brahma, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Saibaba. The selected teachings of holy men and Gurbani are engraved on temple walls.
NTR Garden NTR Gardens is a small, but popular, public, urban park of 55 acres adjacent to Hussain Sagar lake.
Lumbini Park Lumbini Park is a small public, urban park of 7.5 acres adjacent to Hussain Sagar.
Light & Sound Laser Show A state-of-the-art facility built with German help, the Laser show is well worth but can be better.  Along with the laser animation, you also can see the fountains dancing to the music. It also shows the city's history over 400 odd years.
Hussain Sagar Lake Hussain Sagar Lake,  built by Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali in 1562, during the rule of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah. It was 5.7 square kilometres built on a tributary of the River Musi to meet the water and irrigation needs of the city. There is a large monolithic statue of the Gautam Buddha in the middle of the lake which was erected in 1992.	Salar Jung  Museum This museum houses one of the biggest one-man collections of antiques and artifacts in the world by Mir Yousuf Ali Khan Salar Jung III
Charminar The Charminar, built in 1591 CE, is a monument. The landmark has become a global icon of Hyderabad, listed among the most recognized structures of India. The Charminar is on the east bank of Musi river To the northeast lies the Laad Bazaar and in the west end lies the granite-made richly ornamented Makkah Masjid.
!!!The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust!!!

Southward – [AP] – II

I always prefer a hill, a mountain or a forest to the sea front for my travel destination. Araku Valley nothing sort of the valleys that presence in the Himalayas yet it was a different travelling experience. We were there for few hours and if I visit Vizag again I certainly love to stay at Araku for couple of days. Andhra Pradesh Government having resorts over there, which is very good, apart from it there are a few other resorts that also offer good hospitality.

Araku Valley

The Place

Araku is one of the most important tourist destinations in Andhra Pradesh. A pleasant hill station famous for its scenic gardens with lush green nature, valleys, waterfalls and streams. It is located 114 km from Vishakhapatnam, close to the Orissa state border. The Anantagiri and Sunkarimetta Reserved Forest which are part of Araku Valley, are rich in biodiversity. The journey to Araku valley on the Eastern Ghats with thick forest on either sides is itself highly interesting and pleasant. The place is over 3200ft. high with a bracing climate. The Botanical Garden at Padmapuram, Government Silk Farm with Mulberry gardens are the live examples to know the socio-economic conditions of the area. Tribal Museum is a big attraction of the Araku. Chaaparai, a picturesque place about 15 km from Araku is another picnic spot in this region. One must experience the climatic conditions and the natural beauty of this Valley. The natural beauty of this valley comes alive with the aboriginal tribes who dwell here and who have to this day kept their tradition and culture alive. About 19 tribes inhabit this area. The Dhimsa dance, an age-old folk dance normally performed during 'Itikala Pongal' is now offered in tourist's packages everyday.
Bora Cave In 1807, William King George of the Geological Survey of India discovered the caves. The Borra caves are stated to be one of the largest caves in the Indian subcontinent. The caves are located in the Araku Valley of the Ananthagiri hill range and is drained by the Gosthani River. At the entry, the cave measures up to 100 m (328.1 ft) horizontally and 75 m (246.1 ft) vertically.  The average annual temperature of Araku hills, where the caves are situated, is about 25 °C (77.0 °F). The Gosthani river provides water supply to the Visakhapatnam city. The caves are well connected by road, rail and air services. Vishkapatnam, the nearest airport. By road, which is mostly a hill road and the journey takes about 3 hours. Train services operate on the Kothavalasa-Kirandul railway line in East Coast Railway, Indian Railways. The train journey over a distance of 100 km from the Vishkapatanam Rly station passes through Eastern Ghats section, which has 30 tunnels en-route. The journey by train takes about 5 hours to the Railway Station near the caves called the ‘Borra Guhalu Railway station’

!!!A wise traveler never despises his own country. – Carlo Goldoni!!!

Southward – [AP] – I

Travelling is one thing for which I can set aside all other entertainment from my menu. For me this is the best way to cool down and kicked the distressing worries. I make a point to travel at least once in a year. Not my all destinations are satisfactory like my memorable tour to valley of flower but every destination gave me a unique experience. Last Durga Puja vacation I wanted to visit Andaman but plan failed at the last moment. I was thinking that I have to spent the break sitting at home because it was impossible to get all the necessary booking but then I booked a package tour with a small time tour operator for seven days for Andhra. Before this one whenever we traveled we depended on our own scheduled, so that was the first which I have to depend upon the plan of the operator going to provide. Our destination was – Visakhapatnam, Araku Valley and then to Hyderabad. Not a great destination for the people like me but only thing that I was never been to these places.

We stayed three days in Visakhapatnam out of one we spent at Araku Valley.

Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam also known as Vizag, is a port city on the southeast coast of India. It is  the second-largest city in the state of Andhra Pradesh after Hyderabad and the third-largest city on the east coast after Chennai and Kolkata. Visakhapatnam is one of India's largest seaports and has the country's oldest shipyard.

The city was named after Visakha, the Hindu god of valor. It is nestled among the hills of the Eastern Ghats and faces the Bay of Bengal on the east. Visakhapatnam is the administrative headquarters of Visakhapatnam district and headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy. Visakhapatnam was mentioned in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in the forests of the Eastern Ghats where the two brothers, Rama and Lakshmana, wandered in search of Sita.

Must See Places

The beaches – The city surrounded by sea and so there are quite a few beaches are there and some of the beaches provide water riding too.

 The Aquarium

 Kailasa Giri Park

Kailasa giri is located on a hilltop and is a must to visiting place for all people visiting Vishakhapatnam. It is one of the prominent hill top parks with panoramic sea view on the East Coast.

 Submarine Museum

Submarine Museum, 'Smritika' set up nearby the Vishakapatanam port, is located at the serene beach named the Rama Krishna Beach. The museum started functioning in 2001 was converted from INS Kusura, a Russian built submarine. Only one of these kinds in India and Asian continent, this Submarine Museum attracts many.

!!!The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.  - St. Augustine!!!

Disappear into the Thin Air?

Life is full of many ups and downs but undoubtedly the death is the most unkind thing. We certainly love to shun it but as life, death too is real and avoidable. We have to embrace it at certain point of life with two question (when and where). Whenever we lost a near and dear one, we considered it is the biggest tragedy of ones life. However, in our lifetime we have to experience such incident numerous time yet sometime coping with it, is not easy. Time plays biggest role in the healing process but when someone vanish in the thin air without leaving any trail it seems lifelong journey through a dark tunnel. While writing about Mayan calendar I was thinking hard that how come a whole civilization vanished at once but cannot say that without a trail. Most extinct civilization left huge footprint behind yet these missing mysteries are only left as a remainder in the history book with numerous theories. Let us peep into the history and look at the some very famous but extinct civilization. Start from the home, I mean the Indus valley civilization.

Asia

The Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization thrived from 3300 to 1300 BC, although the area was settled all the way back to 7000 BC. Despite being one of the largest ancient civilizations, not much is known about the Harappan civilization, mostly because their language has never been deciphered. It is known that they built over one hundred towns and villages including the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, each of which was built with an organized layout, and a complex plumbing system with indoor toilets. Evidence suggests that the Harappan had a unified government and that there were no social classes. There is also no evidence of military activity so it is likely that they lived in peace. They were skilled astronomers and were well versed in agriculture, growing wheat, barley, peas, melons, sesame and cotton and domesticating several animals including cattle and elephants.

By around 1700 BCE, most of the cities were abandoned. In 1953, Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the decline of the Indus Civilization was caused by the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia called the "Aryans". As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-Daro, and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts. However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler's theory. Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of the Indus Civilization was caused by drought and a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The Babylonians

Babylon was an ancient city state in ancient Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). By the fifth century BC it had grown into an empire, governing most of present day Iraq. The city was a centre of art, diplomacy, science and religion. It was briefly conquered by the Assyrian Empire but threw off its captors and re-established its empire under the great king Nebuchandnezzer. Babylon was later captured by the Persians and later the Macedonians, under Alexander the Great. Babylon once again flourished under Alexander but after his death, in 323 BC, the kingdom was divided up.

The city of Babylon subsequently fell into turmoil and obscurity and was subsequently abandoned. All that remained of Babylon in the modern era was a mount of ruins.

Europe

The Minoan

Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and came to dominate the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea.  It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century by British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to this civilization as "the first link in the European chain." Axes, of the type that has been attributed to Homo erectus in Africa and made of local quartz rather than flint, have been found at Preveli Gorge in southern Crete.  Minoan civilization is considered to have begun with the palace complexes that appeared in the Bronze Age. The relationships of the Minoans with the more ancient peoples of Crete are unknown.

Around 1450 BC, Minoan culture experienced a turning point due to a natural catastrophe, possibly an earthquake. Another eruption of the Thera volcano has been linked to this downfall, but its dating and implications remain controversial. Several important palaces in locations such as Mallia, Tylissos, Phaistos, Hagia Triade as well as the living quarters of Knossos were destroyed. The palace in Knossos seems to have remained largely intact

North America

The Mayans

The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and western El Salvador to as far away as central Mexico.  Initially established during the Pre-Classic period, according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period, and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.

The Maya centers of the southern lowlands went into decline during the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned shortly thereafter. This decline was coupled with a cessation of monumental inscriptions and large-scale architectural construction.

The Mayans are still around, a lot of them are married to people with Spanish heritage, but there are small villages of Mayan people still in Guatemala at the very least.  

Africa

The Ancient Egypt

Egypt the wonders of this ancient culture remained hidden, seemingly lost and forgotten for ever. Then, in the late eighteenth century, Napoleon's invasion of the country sparked an explosion of interest in ancient Egypt that burns as strongly today as ever. The obsession with anything and everything Egyptian has inspired many to dedicate their lives to the search for treasure in Egypt's sands.  Ancient Egypt the land of the Pharaohs. Surely the most inspiring of all the ancient and lost civilizations, as the fascination with the society, the structures and the monuments continues on to this day, thousands of years later. The ancient Egyptians were culture obsessed with death and spent their lives preparing for the cross over to the other side. Though theories abound, the exact answer to the question of how the Egyptians built the pyramids may never be found. The fact mastery of mathematics and science certainly helped, though the labour component of that equation is undecided. The Egyptians were a highly organized society. Slaves and workers were overseen by a ruling class of architects, intellectuals and scribes. The highest order were the priests and scribes (writers). All members of the society, from farmers to scribes, were seen as having equal rights.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Egyptian pagan culture was in decline after the rise of Christianity and later Islam, but interest in Egyptian antiquity continued in the writings.

The Dil Less Delhi - The Guilt & the Guts!

Enough written about it and since 16^th December until now all television channels are running fulltime on this horrific incident still I decided to write about it. This blog is sort of my personal E-diary which I am sharing with all and whatever things made me sad or disturbed or even gave me happiness I jotted it down here. Last couple of years I am doing it but never with a mindset that I am wearing now. I am angry and very sad too. It was all about the Gutsy Girl, who raped and killed by six beasts. It is happening everyday and every corner in India and also in other countries too but in India in every half-hour a woman gets raped. Sometime, the women never come forward due to social stigma but hope the Delhi incident may change the outlook. Women should understand that world with you and not with the rapist. Even rapist are thrashed by the hardcore criminal who were lodged in the jail for some other crime. A rapist should face total social boycott. To stop it we all should take a collective measure and men’s are more importantly should involved it in on their own.

The incident that shocked the nation.

On December 16, a Sunday, the victim, a 23-year-old trainee paramedic, and her friend had boarded the bus at night thinking it was a public bus. The privately owned bus, which had tinted glass panes and curtains, ferried children to and from a Delhi public school on weekdays. The officer said driver Ram Singh had told investigators about the Sunday night "fun rides". Same evening, the accused had apparently partied at Ram Singh the main accuser’s home at a south Delhi slum, cooking chicken and drinking heavily, before setting out with the bus. Ram's younger brother Mukesh was at the wheel. Ram, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, fruit seller Pawan Gupta, bus cleaner Akshay Thakur, and the sixth accused, who claims to be a minor, sat inside.

They picked up passengers and robbed one of them, Ram Adhar, of his gold chain, the officer said. Here's the subsequent sequence of events as mentioned in the FIR, which will be part of the chargesheet to be filed on January 3 in a fast-track court, seeking the death penalty for all the accused. Around 9, the accused spot the couple waiting at Munirka bus stop and ask them their destination. Told that it's Dwarka, they say the bus too is headed that way. The unsuspecting couple board it. They mistake three of the accused, sitting in passenger seats, for commuters. The cleaner shuts the door.

The accused pass lewd remarks at the victim, asking why she's alone with a man late at night. When the friend protests, he is attacked. The friend beats up two accused but the gym assistant attacks him with an iron rod. Three accused drag the woman to the back seat and rape her; the others join in later. The victim fights back and bites the hands of three accused, who get angry and brutalise her with an iron rod. According to the doctors at Safdarjung Hospital “It appears to be that a rod was inserted into her and it was pulled out with so much force that the act brought out her intestines... That is probably the only thing that explains such severe damage to her intestines.”  She failed to recover from the grievous injury and finally she died on 29^th, December 2012. Hair and blood samples of the victim have been found on Ram's nails.

After 45 minutes of brutality, the accused strip the duo and throw them out of the moving bus on a roadside after taking away their cellphones and wallets. Ram asks Mukesh to run the couple over. Ram takes the wheel from Mukesh and drops the other accused home. He cleans the bloodstains before parking the bus at its owner's place in Noida in the early hours. Two eyewitnesses have claimed to have seen Ram destroy evidence. Security cameras on the main highway NH8 allegedly furnished footage which is helping the police.

The merciless rape case has horrified a nation that has become jaded to such assaults against women. Sexual violence has long been a serious and widespread problem in India, where perpetrators of such crimes often go unpunished.

It is not the culprit but we too also guilty for her suffering, which ultimately ends with the death. We are accustomed to the too much ‘chalta hai’ attitude and never realise that something like this always happening and going to happen. We cannot rely on our government, never helped by the politicians, we cannot reach for our administration and woefully police always unavailable when needed, true like Hindi movies. The movement taken place should continue and hope something like this never happen again. However, the series of event thereafter shows that all men’s are not men but only bunch of beast. There is never ending news breaking out from every parts of the country, it indicate that we are going to die with the hope and never taste its fulfillment.

!!!Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please. - Edmund Spenser !!!