Prologue “The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops….” My trance of the horror was cut short by the doorbell and it was none … More A Night in Castle Naggar
Prologue “If you are brave enough to say goodby, life will reward you with a new hello…” Paulo Coelho’s words were ringing like a bell in my thoughts. Mesmerized by the sheer Godliness of the Maitreya Buddha temple, I hardly had any words to express myself. The Maitreya Buddha Probably I had surrendered my soul … More A Monastery, the Indus & Me
Prologue We were on our downhill journey from the perpetual snow-land of the monumental Chang La. The severe cold inspite of the car heater and the tough road trip through the scary avalanche zones was already beginning to have toll on our near to be fatigued bodies. A Picture Post Card from Chemrey We were … More Memorable Moments at Thiksey Monastery
Prologue We were mesmerized by the sheer brilliance of the great red sandstone mausoleum. The aura of the sunset was amazing. The cacophony of the parrots, the chants of the evening prayers from a nearby mosque and the cool breeze dancing around the tomb garden were soothing our spirits after a days’ tour in and around … More An evening in Humayun’s Tomb
Prologue Melancholy was grabbing our spirits very fast while we were on our way back from Chitkul, passing the Godly valleys looking so ever mysterious in the growing cloud cover. The sun rays were playing hide and seek with the clouds, the mountain tops were looking darker and shaded than before and there was growing … More A memorable evening at Fort Kamru
Prologue We were excited like anything when Mr. Mukesh Negi our tour guide explained us the details of the Sangla-Chitkul trip at the lawn of the Hotel Kinnaur Kailash Kalpa (Altitude: 2960m i.e. 9710 ft) . We were literally amazed by the depth of his information and knowledge about the place. There was hardly a … More Sangla Unplugged: A Paradise in Kinnaur
THE AMAZING SHAH JAHANI MAHALS, AGRA FORT Emperor Shah Jahan was one of the finest admirers of white marble architecture. It is said that he might have had demolished many of the Akbari mahals to modify them into his white marble palaces. While moving out of the Akbari mahals, our guide directed us towards the … More Amazing Shah Jahani Mahals, Agra Fort
THE MAJESTIC AKBARI MAHALS The Akbari Mahals are perhaps one of the oldest mansions in the Agra fort lying in the South-eastern part of the fort complex. These mansions are in ruins and very few could be seen in their original form. Yet we did have a nice time around them. As indicated by our guide, … More Exploring the Akbari Mahals, Red Fort, Agra
PROLOGUE The Red Fort Agra: Symbol of the Mughal Grandeur and Pride The morning chill of Agra was literally shaking our roots. It was misty and cold at 6 am in the morning. Although it was 6am, but believe us it looked as if it was 4am in the morning. Hardly could we find anybody … More Exploring the Jahangir Mahals, Red Fort, Agra
PROLOGUE Agra had been known for ages for the Taj, Fatehpur Sikri, the Red Fort and Akbar’s Tomb at Sikandra. How many of us are aware of some of the other monuments in and around Agra forgotten by people. Inspite of restoration initiatives taken by the ASI, these monuments had remained away from the focus … More Forgotten Monuments in Agra
PROLOGUE In earlier issues of mytravelnama, we had presented you some amazing facts and figures including pictures of Fatehpur Sikri depicting the pinnacle of administrative and spiritual glory of the Mughal empire during the reign of Akbar the Great. Well, in the new year, let us have a long journey to the great emperor’s Royal … More Fatehpur Sikri: Exploring the Royal Court
Prologue The ship was miserably carried away by the furious tornado and the sailors knew well they were well away from their route to Rangoon. Captain James Stewart was not dejected like the others who had lost all the hope. Suddenly one of the crew came running in to his cabin, shouting that a huge … More The Amazing Sun Temple of Konark
Prologue …..The brave teenager with dark complexion was beating a furious multi headed gigantic venomous serpent to its doom. His parents and neighbours were crying for help and God’s mercy on the banks of the Yamuna. The water and the air around the river were bitterly poisoned by the venom spitted by the evil serpent … More Incredible Vrindavan
Prologue We had a long cherished dream of having a rendezvous with Akbar’s Tomb…one of our country’s precious architectural marvels. The opportunity came during our prized winter vacation in Agra. We were returning from the Mariam’s Tomb towards Agra city taking the Agra Delhi Highway (NH2). Our journey was fairly quick, we had to turn around and … More Akbar’s Tomb: One among India’s prized Architectural Marvels
Indranil Mutsuddi Prologue I hope with the immense popularity of the Bollywood flick PK (directed by Rajkumar Hirani), all of you must be aware how the talented journo “Jaggu” (played by Anushka Sharma) dug out the alien PK’s (played by Aamir Khan) hideout at the Ugrasen Baoli in C.P. (Connaught Place), New Delhi. PK’s Hideout … More A peek into PK’s Hideout in Delhi…The Enigmatic Ugrasen Baoli
Indranil Mutsuddi Prologue The moos of the horses from the stable and loud trumpets of the war elephants in the royal pilkhana (a shed where war elephants stayed) announced the beginning of another day in the wee hours at the Royal Fort Complex at Fatehpur Sikri. They were about to move out to the adjoining … More Too good to be at the Fatehpur Sikri….an experience of a lifetime Part II
Indranil Mutsuddi Prologue “On a magnificent Friday evening, the fading rays of the day’s light were bathing the all white marble Taj Mahal with mystic orange delight. The emperor Shah Jahan was seated in his temporary royal tent looking at his ever busy engineers and their assistants hovering up and down the tomb-site. He had … More Poem of Eternal Love on White Marble….Part I
Indranil Mutsuddi Prologue There was quite a gloom around us when we left for the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah from our engaging morning at the historic Mehtab Bagh. We once again obliged ourselves with the woolens to remain comfortable in the growing chill. Our cab stopped near the allotted parking space on the main road … More Memories of the Jewel Box Tomb
Indranil Mutsuddi Prologue Although historical writings have not given importance to the legendary queen Jodha Bai as the consort of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, but with the sky rocketing popularity of the “Jodha-Akbar” soap opera telecasted in Zee TV and Ashutosh Gowarikar’s hit movie “Jodha-Akbar” – she has become “viral” in every Indian household. … More Jodha Bai: The Legendary Rajput Mughal Empress..Chasing the Truth
Indranil Mutsuddi Prologue The hymns of the early Morning Prayer were coming from Jami Masjid. The emperor of Hindustan, the great Akbar was seated towards west direction, at the direction towards the holy Kaaba, Mecca for Namaj. After finishing the Namaj, now morning bell was rang from the Nahabatkhana (Chahar Sukh). The beat of starting … More Too good to be at the Fatehpur Sikri….an experience of a lifetime Part I
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