My Dussera holidays- A trip to the Sikkim Himalayas

Even before the school had closed for the holidays, we were off. Landed at Kolkata, stayed with my dadis for a day, then boarded the overnight train to NJP and took a cab to take us up the hills.......AND finally we are in Yangsum Farm in Sikkim. Ma has come here on work - so she walks and talks to everyone around and writes and writes, but for me and Biga it is pure holiday and we made the most of it. Thendup uncle has a lovely house ( see below) and a lovelier dog Rocky( see above).
Yangsum Farm (Thendup uncle's house), near Rinchenpong in Sikkim.

The house is in a valley surrounded by mountains and orchards and forests. On our second day, Ma woke me early in the morning and I had my first view of the snow peaks. ( Ma says I have seen them earlier, but I don't remember). They looked so beautiful and majestic. So this is the Himalayas- where the gods live! ( each one - one peak? I asked Ma and she said "yes")


Late in the morning, we went for a trek in the jungles with Kishen as our guide. Leeches clung to my feet and sucked a lot of blood, but I still walked and walked all the way up to a ruined monastery (Resum monastery) on a mighty mountain top. The view from there was fabulous- you could see for miles around, down in the valley there was a river and it looked like a piece of thread and farther away in the north and now hidden by clouds were the snowpeaks whose darshan we were lucky to have in the morning.


12th October 2010- is a significant day for me. Today I have trekked 8 kms, up the hills, through leech infested jungles and over sharp- edged rocks. I am fast growing up.

This is the Rinchenpong monastery- newer cousin of Resum. It was brimming with monks and prayer wheels. I has great fun turning them round and round.

This is the Dhungay Homestay- House of Ganesh uncle. We were here on 13th October 2010. The house is on the top of a hill and to come here, you have to walk for about 10 minutes uphill from the main road. But once you reach the house, it is great fun.
There is Peter ( the dog- pl see below), two cows Mary and Maya, a calf eva, four goats- Tanzing, Hillary, Ram and Shyam and many hens. We had a lovely time here, roaming and romping around. I want to go there again.
This is Peter- Ganesh uncle's dog. I took him for a walk.

Now it was time to leave the mountains and go back to the plains ( Kolkata and then Hyderabad) and I was SAD.

We reached Kolkata on Ashatmi night. The next day that is on Nabami, I had great fun doing a around of the pandals with Ma, Baba, Mimmim, Guri, Soumenduda, Phulmashi, Sonamashi, Kalyanda and Mamdi. There were so many Durga Pujas in Kolkata, almost one at every corner that I was wondering- is there a ma Durga factory here?

The next day was Dashami- last day of the Puja, when Ma Durga along with her children returns to the Himalayas to Lord Shiva. Ma took me to a ghat to see the gods being sent off.
Ma told me....
The gods board the boat and in the mid-river, they plunge into the water. Under water, there is a platform with a train ( the Himalaya Express) waiting to take them to their home. After all the Ma Durgas in Kolkata board the train , it takes them to the Himalayas.

Bye Bye Ma Durga. Come again next year! Till then take care!

Photos- Pramatha Nath Saha

Visting Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar again

It was raining a lot, so after Kakai came down from Ahmedabad, Biga suggested going to Srisailam and Nagarjuna sagar as there was a possibility that the dam gates might be open (Biga said it is a terrific sight watching the water roar and rush out and it is as you can make out from our August 2001 pics at the bottom of this post) . But alas, what we had hoped for did not happen and we ( especially kakai) did not get a chance to see that awesome sight.
However, the trip itself was fun. We stayed at Srisailam at Karakali Bhavan facing the green hills. the view from our verandah was great. I also got to see a model of the Srisailam dam ( it was GREAT), ride a ropeway, enjoy a boat-ride on the river Krishna and see many other new things. We left Hyderabad on Saturday morning and returned home on Sunday night, I with high fever. On the way, Ma made me drink a spoonful of some horrible syrup (because of the fever), which I agreed to only after Kakai bought me a truck from a wayside shop.

The road to Srisailam

Karakali Bhavan, The red building- This is where we stayed at Srisailam Kakai and me at Srisailam dam

View of the Nallamalai hills ( this is where YSR died in a helicopter crash last year) from the ropeway at Srisailam

In the ropeway

Boat ride on the Krishna river at srisailam

At the Nagarjuna sagar dam.

And below are some of the photos from my last trip to these places in 2001 August- at that time I was a baby, as you can see.

At Nagarjunasagar (Up)

At Srisailam ( down)

In the ropeway (Up)
Spirited boy (Down)

Photos- Pramatha Nath Saha

A coffee scented holiday in Coorg

Just back from a wonderful vacation in the coffee estates of Coorg. We stayed in a homestay amidst a coffee plantation, where I made friends with Soujanya- the granddaughter of the owners ( Coorg grandpa and granny). I had a lovely time- taking a stroll in the misty coffee estates, running around with Soujanya and having idli with honey and ghee ( for the first time in my life). Just have a look at the pictures below and you will have an idea of the wonderful holiday that I had.



With Soujanya, her elder sister and her grandparents.

Now, after the homestay it was time for tasting life outdoors, in a camp in the midst of a coffee plantation to reach which we had to walk about 2 kms from the road head with a man carrying our luggage. The camp site was ringed by hills and trees and we stayed in tents.



Swinging in a hammock- can life be any better?

After two days of jungling, it was time again to return to the concrete jungle once again. We stayed at Mysore on the way back. The palace of the Maharaja is such a huge building- VERY VERY big and looks VERY VERY beautiful when illuminated during the night.

Papi Hills- A marvellous mobile-less holiday

Once again, I am on the Gooooooooooooooo!

We left Hyderabad for Bhadrachalam on Saturday morning. Biga had given his car for servicing the previous day and just as we were about to begin our journey (by then it was 9.30 in the morning) he noticed that the stereo player was missing. And retrieving that from the car workshop meant one more hour of city driving through rush hour traffic. By the time we were out of the city (finally) it was past 11.
We drove for about 2 hours and again had to stop, this time by a group of students who were sitting on the road and shouting “Jai Telangana!” They told us that we could go only after we too shouted the same with them. Now this was not agreeable to the cars in front of us ( seems all were hardcoe Andraites) and they had got into a verbal duel with the agitators. Realizing that things were turning troublesome, Biga called one of the agitators and told him that we had no problems conceding to his demand. He asked all of us to say “ Jai Telangana” which we chorused immediately and after that we were free to leave. After that, I kept shouting “Jai Telangana” at frequent intervals, till Biga sternly told me to stop.



We reached Bhadrachalam well after evening and checked into the previously booked AP Tourism guest house. After the Panchmarhi fiasco, Ma always makes sure to books hotels at least for the first day, so that we ( especially Biga) don’t have to spend hours going round and round hunting for a roof over our heads like we had to in Panchmarhi.
The next day we woke up early and drove to Pochavaram from where the launch would take us to Papi hills with a night stay in bamboo cottages on Kolluru island. Cruising along the clean emerald green waters of the Godavari flowing between thickly forested hills was just lovely. We had breakfast on the deck while lunch was arranged at an island. The launch dropped us around 2 pm at Kolluru telling us that it would pick us up at the same time the next day .


At Pochavaram- Before getting onto the launch

The ride to Papi hills

A view of Kolluru Island and the Bamboo Huts
Inside our hut

Staying at Kolluru was an experience of a lifetime. The place has no electricity while mobile connection was absent after we left Pochavaram. The bamboo huts were we stayed had mattresses laid on sand and in the night when after dinner it became very cold, Ma made me wear a sweater and jacket before covering me up with two blankets. It was like sleeping out in the open under the stars. Dinner was a buffet style barbeque on the sand. There was also a campfire and I had great fun dancing there on Biga’s shoulders. After a short while, when Biga got tired and was about to put me down, another uncle volunteered to take me on his shoulders and this trend continued. Needless to say, I had a whale of a time, riding on uncles’ shoulders.


The next morning we bathed in this stream and went for long walks in the hills.


AT Koluru, I had a little friend , Lahari ( she was just 2 years, less than half my age) and both of us would sit on the swing and talk in languages only we understood.

Soon it was noon and time to return. The sight of the approaching launch signaled the end of our island holiday and at the sight of Pochavaram, my spirits dropped considerably as I realized that the ride on water was over and the journey back home was about to start now.
That night we stayed at the Rekhapalli Forest Guest House ( about half an hour’s drive from Pochavaram). There that night Biga shaved his head after dinner in preparation of the puja he would be offering at Bhadrachalam next day. The next day was Republic day and Biga donning a completely new look participated in the Flag Hoisting Ceremony at the forest rest house after which we started for Bhadrachalam and went straight to the temple.


The journey back to Hyderabad too turned out to be quite interesting with Biga (equipped with his GPS enabled iphone) trying American style driving on Indian roads. The results?- We landed up on roads which could not be located on the map, whereas the people around us failed to throw any light about routes marked on the map. And whenever and wherever we stopped, I along with Maa got down and took a walk in the surrounding fields. Watch me plucking cotton right from its roots!


We finally reached home at 8 in the night after 10 hours of driving and armed with packed biriyani for dinner.