Studio Apartment, Infocity, Gandhinagar..

The problem with me these days is that I can't seem to stop sleeping in the weekends. I waste the two days doing just that. Had that not been the case, I would be writing atleast once a week. It makes me wonder how much I actually love to write/blog...Had I really loved it, wouldn't I have managed to find time to do so, no matter what, like Stephen King writes in his book, "On Writing", and not given stupid excuses like I just did? Who knows?
I will write about my pathetic life now some other time but this blog is dedicated to the blissful 3 months I had in Gandhinagar....It seems like a distant dream now.. While in my blog post titled, ILP Gandhinagar : Tower 3, TCS ILP Centre, I had concentrated on my official experience in the ILP Centre, in this one I will write about the AMAZING time I had outside it.
Before I left for Gandhinagar, I had limited expectations (compared to what I usually expect from everyone/everything else)-1)Have a really awesome roommate who ends up becoming a friend for a lifetime. 2)Make many new friends who I have lots of fun with. 3)Get awesome Tech and Biz Leads who I learn a lot from.4)Have a wonderful and memorable time overall.
God made an exception this time by fulfilling all those expectations and even going beyond them in certain ways.
When I reached Infocity, I fell in love with the place right away. The first thing I noticed were the shops-oh, the variety!!...Starting from grocery stores, restaurants, beauty and icecream parlours, even tattoo and piercing parlours, everything (except a Movie Theatre..:P) that one needs for "survival" exists within walking distance from the Studio Apartments...Whenever I go back in time in my mind, I always see myself walking with my friends (in pajamas!! :D) around Infocity, checking out the shops and scanning good looking guys. ("Anima! Dekh!! Chheleta ki bhalo dekhtee"..God, I miss our scanning sooo much, Anima!!).
Next, I saw the Security and Greenery of the place...The awesome roads...The special Gujarati-style swing..How could I not love it?!
Then, I got my room. 304. Block 3. I went up the elevator, feeling uncertain and apprehensive. When I entered my room, I met Madhuri. She was talking with someone over the phone, recounting the story of her HORRIBLE (comic, actually) train journey to Gandhinagar in detail. I liked her at once! I don't know if first impressions are ever correct..I usually always get them wrong (despite my pride in easily figuring out people) but this time, I was bang-on. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met! True to her sunsign (Gemini), she has a dual nature-a fun-loving, C-R-A-Z-Y side and a serious side indulging in serious thoughts and movies. Her sense of humor is rare. Before I met her, I believed that I was quite crazy...My craziness pales in comparison to hers (and her friends'). Don't believe me? Okay, here are some examples. They crashed a wedding (I didn't have the guts to go, despite their insistence. My ma said-after hearing the story-that we Bengali girls are such cowards. Ouch), fired a firecracker rocket from our room's window to the guys' Block opposite to ours (it was Madhuri's idea...and thankfully it didn't enter any room and no-one was hurt...though some of the guys did get a scare!) during Diwali. I had to humbly step down from The Most Crazy Girl pedestal. Other than the fun-factor, what you require from a roommate is consideration and mental compatibility. She was both of those things. The realisation came, gradually, from the little things that she did..the kind of things that most people miss to observe but which provide real clues about people. How nice she is can be reinforced by the fact that we didn't have one single argument in the 3 months..and that's a wonderful realisation-that I can actually live with a person without losing temper at her even once!
Through Madhuri, I met Ankita (Sharma), equally crazy, fun-loving and wonderful. She was a half-roommate, really, because she spent most of the time in our room and her presence was always a welcomed delight..It's interesting to note that I got to know them well through our shared dislike towards a person. :D.
Udita was one of the first people I befriended and we seemed to be a lot alike. Through her, I came to know Kanika and Anima and I spent most of my time in those three months with these three treasured friends of mine. They are so special to me and that's the reason I miss them so much now (Thankfully, I don't have to miss Udita all that much anymore)...The best part was how comfortable I felt when I was with them...They felt...how can I say it?..familiar and intimate (best word to describe it would be "nijer" in Bangla). Being with them felt like being with my own kind..in a way, being "home". Anima was in my Dot Net class and I spent most of my time there with her. She is a crazy comedian and I still recall the times she made us laugh to tears (clutching our stomachs, saying.."Please, no more!")..She somehow always reminded me of my mother(maybe because she is also a Virgo). She was as blunt and frank as I am and unsurprisingly we both got into frequent fights...but just because she felt "nijer", like a friend-cum-sister, those fights were always forgiven and forgotten..and infact, they even began because of the "nijer" reason..You don't usually fight with acquaintances over trivial issues, right? They are always fought with people you love and trust.
Anyway, now getting back to the Studio Apartments, the room was awesome. The facilities provided almost made life a luxury. There's 24-hrs security, gymnasium, indoors table-tennis room, open T.V lounges, canteen facility, T.Vs installed in all the rooms, Geysers, laundry service.Add to that maids who clean the rooms and bathrooms daily (and change the bed-sheets and pillow-covers weekly) and you have yourself a divinely comfortable life. The open-space outside our Block, where we would all sit and chat in the evenings and after dinner hold a special place in my heart.
Whenever I close my eyes and think of these things, my heart always skips a beat. And I know then that I will never ever forget my 3-months in Gandhinagar. The only other place which holds such a special place in my heart, which I often dream (literally) of too, is Navrachna Higher Secondary School in Vadodara. Coincidentally  both of these places are in Gujarat. No wonder I love Gujarat so much!

P.S-Here's a list of the places that one must check out in Infocity.
1)Sam's Pizza-Imagine this. Unlimited DELICIOUS (veg)pizzas of different flavours and delicious salads. All for Rs. 150. Dream? No. It's a reality.
2) Shambhu's coffee-As a school friend/senior told me, they make the best cold coffees. Even if you don't find it to be the best, you will love it..and it won't hurt your wallet either.
3)Silver Spoon-I know how difficult it is to be a Non-Vegetarian in a Vegetarian place like Gandhinagar. This place was tailor-made for guys like us! Chicken broast is a must try!
4)Srinivas-Limited, good-quality thalis for lunch/dinner. It was most of our favourite place to have meals. Some preferred Matarani over it.
5)Dangeedums-Amazing pastries. And chocolates. I had planned to buy the latter before leaving Gandhinagar but it never happened.
6)Sardar-Another must-visit place for all the Non-Vegetarians.
7)Yash food Joint-And I am mentioning this keeping Anima in my mind. :P. Here, one can get dosas, chole-puris, lassis, milk-shakes (try the chocolate milk shake!), etc.

Udaipur + Chittorgarh.

This blog has remained dormant for so long! Not only do I not travel enough but I can't make myself write about the few places I do visit. Call it procrastination or laziness. There's one very significant travelogue blog that's pending; the one on my ILP experience but that has to wait until it's(the ILP training) over (I am superstitious and I feel I might jinx the things I am happy about).
This is my second visit to Udaipur and Chittorgarh. I don't remember much about my previous visit since I was quite young then but the few details that I can recall involve Chittorgarh (why is that so? Read on.).

We (28 of us) left for Udaipur fron Gandhinagar at 1 a.m on  9th November, 2012 on a bus. Most of the super-energetic people wanted to play games like Antakshari or Dumb-charade on the bus but I was tired , so I slept it off. We reached there at around 7a.m and checked in at an average Hotel called Saheli Palace. To our annoyance, we were given a time-limit of only 1 hour to freshen up (by the self-assigned "higher authorities"-some guys in the group..naturally), after which we would leave for sightseeing. 

Our first stop was Fatehsagar Lake..to be precise, the Rana Pratap Singh's statue near Fatehsagar Lake. We had booked one useless tourist guide who rushed through the History of the Rana (and his horse Chetak) and grew super-impatient by our photo-shooting sessions (quite understandably..:P). Then we went to the ruins of a fort-again a good place to take pics (:P), followed by a museum-all within a radius of 2k.m. My opinion is that you can afford to see this place without a guide but you absolutely need one to see the famous City Palace (we didn't get a guide there and had to learn from our mistake). Another advice is, City Palace is so beautiful that you NEED a camera; they will charge extra for it but if you decide to leave it behind or try to outsmart the Security Guards(by taking it with you but not pay for it), you'll regret it. 

So, after lunch we went to the City Palace...beautiful place, like I mentioned before. It's the major tourist attraction and once you go there, you'll know why. Countless number of interesting shops (selling bags, ornaments, shoes, etc.) line both the sides of the street that leads to the palace and I got to practice and improve my poor bargaining skills there. 

We girls spent so much time shopping (I had to buy something for my family-first_salary_rule- and I learnt how difficult it was to shop for someone else, even when I knew them inside out).
By the time we left City Palace, it was already dark. Our next stop was Saheliyon-ki-bari. We reached there at 8p.m, bought the tickets, went in...........and came out in 5 minutes. It's supposed to be a beautiful place, according to Wikipedia, but we learnt (again from our mistakes) that it's supposed to be visited only during daylight hours. 
When we returned back to the hotel, we were so tired! We could hardly walk and it felt like our legs were filled with lead...we were reluctant to go anyplace far for dinner...the idea of ordering in (via the room service) seemed appealing...SUDDENLY, a plan started making waves...One of us non-vegetarians (which f.y.i is a rarity here) proposed the idea of going to a K.F.C(Kentucky Fried Chicken) located a few k.ms away.We should have refused; we weren't in a condition to go anywhere but all of us (five in total)  are K.K(Krazy-4-KFC)....so we went, limping and all. It made the whole KFC outing memorable.

Come Day 2 and we were off to Chittorgarh. The reason why I had remembered my first visit there is because of how amazing the place is and how incredible its history is. You can Google up the history part but you have to visit the place to experience its breathtaking beauty. My second visit to Chittorgarh was as memorable as the first one...and I don't mind visiting it (or any part of Rajasthan for that matter)again. 
I missed camel-riding during this trip-something that I had done during my last visit to Udaipur(which I had remembered. Obviously). We also missed the famous boating. In the afternoon, it's too hot to go for it and itcloses after dark, so the best time to go for it is in the early evening hours...at around 5p.m. It's a bit expensive (100/person) but I have heard from my friends (who went for boating) that it's totally worth it.

P.S-I completely forgot to mention about the famous Lake Palace...that's probably because we caught only a glimpse of it from the City Palace. The boat-ride takes tourists near the Palace for sightseeing and super-rich people can stay there, since it has been converted to a luxury hotel now (You can "Google and YouTube" further details. It's considered to be the most romantic hotel in India-what is it about "floating hotels" that people find so romantic, I'll never know-and many of the Hollywood and Bollywood movies were shot there).

Kashmir-Pahalgam

On Day 3, we went to Pahalgam. We stayed at Baisaran. It is not impressive looking but the friendliness of the staff and the quality of food more than make up for that. I enjoyed my stay there.

By now, I had figured out the third point that distinguishes Kashmir from other places-most people are extremely humble, friendly and extrovert. Ofcourse, they can’t afford to not be so since their earning mostly comes from the tourism industry, still it was such a refreshing feeling to feel welcomed everywhere we went! That’s one thing that you won’t find in Kolkata-everyone here thinks he/she owns the world….rude^infinity!

Once again, we had to go sightseeing on ponies. This time, my ma smartly backed out. I think the pony-helper took us through a shortcut, since the road was so dangerous! Going uphill was relatively simpler but there came a time, when the pony was going downhill, that I had to close my eyes-Just imagine my condition and try to visualize it-I am at the top of the hill, I can clearly see the bottom, the slope is extremely steep, so my pony is practically travelling vertically downwards…one wrong step and the pony will stumble and if it stumbles, I’ll tumble down...so, my life is totally dependent on a pony whose intelligence is undoubtedly lesser than mine. :D. In moments like these, you forget that you ever hated your life.

The ponies took us to the Baisaran Park and the Valley of Kashmir-both are breathtaking. They made our difficult pony-journey absolutely worthwhile. In Kashmir Valley, we had coffee at one small shop. That particular moment has become my most surreal experience of the whole journey-I really don’t know why..it was just very special.

The pony-guy told us how poorly they are paid , even though their job is so difficult. We felt so bad for both him and the underfed ponies...so, father over-tipped him!This incident made me see how important education is and how lucky we all are.

We missed out many tourist places since we just had one day. Like Gulmarg, you need a lot more time than that to see the entire place..and Pahalgam is worth all the time that you spend seeing it!

Kashmir-Gulmarg

On Day 2, we were taken to Gulmarg-Path of Roses (though we didn’t see that many flowers). We booked a guide, though I felt later on that there wasn’t any need for one. We went to the ropeway-location via ponies. I don’t know if it is true or a story made-up by the guide but he said that vehicles from outside Gulmarg aren’t allowed to enter it...So, if you want to avoid the pony-riding, make sure you stay at Gulmarg. :P.

Ma’s pony-riding was pathetic and it gave my father and me (and the guide, the helpers…and the onlookers) some memorable, hilarious moments to cherish a lifetime. :D. The ropeway took us first to Phase 1 and then to Phase 2-very costly journey..I think, the total expenditure crossed Rs. 2000. Is it worth it? Well, if you go in summer and want to see the snow, then yes, it is. Phase 2 is called Afarvat-you’ll have difficulty in breathing since it is in high altitude (forgot how high, sorry)..my ma was feeling dizzy and nauseatic..so, you must go there, only if you are physically fit. The distance from Phase 2 till the snow was not that great but my ma and baba(father) both backed away from going up. I decided I would go anyway, just because the rope-way journey had been so costly and I didn’t want all of the money to go to waste! So, I went along with the guide (okay, I think you need someone’s help to go upto the snow-covered area…That was one time the guide came in handy). Seeing his precious, vulnerable, “most beautiful” daughter go away alone with the guide (there were tourists ALL around), invoked the over-protective sense in my father and he followed us (yes, you got it right. Living with him IS difficult!).

The snow was the most memorable experience in Gulmarg. It was so slippery! Adventure seekers had the option of skiing…and if you could manage to walk in the snow for a while, you could even see Ladakh (I didn’t do either of those)!
Later on, the ponies took us to some other locations in and around Gulmarg, none of which were that good (though I thoroughly enjoyed the ride). The guide confided to us that one needed a lot more time to see the whole of Gulmarg.

This kind-of summarizes my Gulmarg experience. If you go there in winter, you’ll have a completely different experience…The ropeways aren’t functional then and the winter sports are what attract the tourists (mostly foreigners) then.

Kashmir-Srinagar

We went to Kashmir with SOTC.
On Day 1, we saw a bit of Srinagar and the remaining bit was seen on day 4 and 5. I'll compile them in one post. First, we were taken from the airport to Meena Groups of Housboats.

The first thing that you'll notice when you go to Kashmir is just how good looking the men are. I don't know much about the girls-most of their faces were covered in a burka(the black veiled attire that Muslim females are supposed to wear) and the ones whose faces weren't covered, didn't look that striking to me(maybe guys will have a different view). But the guys-I was practically gaping...atleast 95% of men are goodlooking there...it's almost as if all the handsome men from all over India, decided they wanted to stay in Kashmir. The second thing that you'll become aware of is the security-there are armed soldiers all around-it's kind-of chilling.

Once we reached the Dal Lake, we were transported via a shikara(boat) to our houseboat. I knew it then and there that I was going to enjoy this holiday. Then, when I saw the room in the houseboat, my conviction (of how good the trip was going to be) strengthened. It was soooo beautiful! Add to that the amazing hospitality of the caretaker...If anyone wants to enjoy their stay at Srinagar, they absolutely must stay at the Meena Groups of Houseboats(there are zillions of houseboats but these are the best). The caretaker brought us the unique Kashmiri tea. After resting for a while, we went for a shikara ride.

I think the shikara ride was one of my best experiences in Kashmir.
As our shikara went along, other shikaras came to us to sell a variety of products-Kesar, jewellery, fruits, cold-drinks, Kashmir-style photographs (wherein, they would dress you up in Kashmiri style-without taking off your clothes-and take your pics.) and all sorts of other items. Shopping on water anyone? :D. It was so much fun! Who wants Venice when there is the shikara ride in Dal Lake?!

On Day 4, we went to the Jamal Resorts. My advice-don't stay there. The hotel is of average quality and the food offered by the restaurant is downright below average, yet the cost is appalling (E.g-One naan costs more than 100Rs!).

On Day 5, we were taken to the Shankaracharya Temple and three BEAUTIFUL gardens-Mughal, Shalimar and Chasma-Shahi.

Though Shalimar is like any other beautiful garden, Mughal Garden and Chasma-Shahi shouldn't be missed-they are special. The Chasma-Shahi visit was made memorable by a group of school-kids playing in the water.

P.S- If My photos look haphazardly placed, I can't help it..This is the best I could manage. Plus, just a while ago, there was a mild Earthquake! So, I have to go offline now (incase, I have to run out again...I want to be dressed-up decently the next time. :P).

INTRO-VINTRO

Ever since I started writing blogs and notes seriously, I’ve observed a wacko change in me. Have you seen that movie “Stranger than Fiction”? The male protagonist constantly hears the voice of someone narrating his story. The same thing happens to me now….the only difference is that the narrator’s voice belongs to me. Not kidding. This, in turn, has kind-of made me more aware of my surroundings.
When I went to Kashmir, there were so many things I wanted to write about. I realized two things-1) if I write my travelling experiences in my other blog, then it would seem like “just another blog entry”, even though the content would be very different from what I usually write about, 2) I have in front of me, a lifetime of travelling experiences to write about(assuming I don’t die young. I know, a risky assumption).So, I decided to create a new blog, wherein I’ll write about all of my travelling experiences.
It doesn’t matter if the place I write about is 5kms or 1000 miles away, as long as it makes an impact on me. I’ll explain about all those places (in detail) that, according to me, are a must-visit…..and about those that you can afford to miss. Shops, restaurants, hotels…anything and everything will be written about, as long as it is good or bad enough.
Bon Voyage! :D