If you are suffering from a midlife crisis visit Rishikesh, I don’t say this infact the Lonely Planet declares. My midlife is far and crisis hasn’t arrived as of now, touch wood. By the way, it was a tough choice between choosing an office outing that happened after a long time and the other place in subject. Cherry and I had zeroed in the time and spot long time back. Going by the plan, we’d be pushing one day early to the promised destination.

Googling in Office

Not sure about where to stay, I did some google search. A tip free for travelers hunting an affordable stay. Step one - Type in your destination’s name, hotel and currency you are comfortable with like for instance ¥, Rs, $, ₤ etc. Your search becomes easier after this exercise. Yes, I spoke to the manager who also happens to be a Bengali, got me a place where I intended to stay, a Ganga facing “view”. Cherry was naturally more excited than me. We had 2 nights and 2 days in hand. Step two - remember, always do some research about any place you visit. Things like local fooding, culture, weather and things to do and other things. Plan your outing and think like a tour operator. You should have a flow chart ready.

Bus Adda

We moved as per the plan and boarded out bus as per the plan from Kashmere gate at 3 PM. The journey was shaky but the excitement was palpable. We reached Rishikesh only after 11 PM. Pretty late and we were wondering if the hotel was shut for us. There were cops for obvious reasons. To my surprise the manager was awake and waiting. After completing registration formalities we were guided to our Ganga ‘facing’ room. I was dead tired and very soon crashed on my bed.

Day One

The morning next day was refreshing and the first cup of cardamom tea was very soothing. A fresh wisp of air was constantly beating my face. Smell of incense sticks, sounds of mandir bells together was making the moment more heavenly. Rishikesh is a peaceful place with lot less noise made by piligrims. Atleast much less than its cousin Haridwar. Can you believe it the CM of Uttarakhand intends to run for a nobel prize for organizing a record shattering Kumbh mela this year? At least I know what does it takes when you submit yourself to the state transport department for traveling purposes during this time of the year.

Anyways, I decided to make a move to Neelkantha. We were lucky to get a jeep in this off season. The journey to Neelkantha was equally fascinating. The serpentine route and my trekker (the jeep) were racing against the young and furious Ganges coming from badri almost moving parallel. Phenomenal.

While returning back, we decided to offload ourself from that jeep and take a 12 kilometer trek back to Rishikesh town. Now, that was a sort of an adventure. We saw things like the purple coloured butterfly, that rare small bird, tasteless wild berries, the unnamed brook (which quenched my thirst), the friendly tea shack wala and the breeze. Another highlight of that small trek was that the road was much less traveled and that proved good for us, no unwanted glances or stares. We were given friendly smiles from absolute strangers, mostly foreigners and that little girl- Lata.

We somehow managed to come back to our hotel. Nonetheless, our legs were aching and stomach empty. We had a hearty lunch from a Vaishnav bhojanalya. It was 5 PM by now and we decided to spend the evening near the ghat. Rishikesh is replete with its temples and innumerous ghats making it a peaceful and spiritual place of interest.

Day Two

I and Cherry Window shopped and she wanted the pick of the day one ‘Afghani pyjama’. According to her it’s the “in” thing. We straddled between the shops checked out the pearls and metal jewellery. I was looking for fancy bags and artifacts. You will find a lot of junk lined on the streets. I sometimes wonder what pulls a lot of Israeli tourists here in Rishikesh? Anyways, out of question and my imagination.

In the evening I prefer hanging out in ‘Devraj German Bakery’, apart from the best view of ‘Laxman Jhoola’ they have an exiting menu on the platter spicy grilled vegetable pasta, potatoe cakes, salad, apple struddle (never tried and don’t know what that means), . cinnamon roll, Italian pizza, croissants, German brown bread with peanut butter, hold on you can have Yak cheese for Rs 30 and most of the dishes I have mentioned are hand picked whatever I could remember from an eight paged menu chart. Much to choose from here. I had this opportunity to have one of the best French onion soups ever @Rs25. What else? The evening was spent near the Parmarth Ashram. The arti along the ghats are magical and surely transcends you to a different world. The night dropped and thought crept slowly. We had to leave tomorrow. Sad but worth it – our trip that was. It was Holi-the festival of colours. Some people were having fun along the bonfire near the ghat, till late night.

Day Three

The next day morning, the manager asked us if we liked their services, I agreed with him
and also told him that I’d recommend my friends who would plan a visit to Rishikesh.
There is a lot more than I can mention in this piece to do in Rishikesh. The stays was relaxing and believe me, you’ll come out a different person from Rishikesh.

I was surprised to see how locals as well as our foreign guests were playing holi without any inhibitions. They mingled with each other freely.

It feels good. Rishikesh has definitely changed since the Beatles arrived and it’s not the hippie and yoga happy yappie destination anymore. It’s more than what you think, not just spiritual but developing a premier adventure sport destination count in the river rafting and bungee jumping. Laying my eyes on the river ganges and the untold changes I undergo is something that pulls me again and again to this mystical place. Inspite of sights like the hungry cow or the snappy monkey or for that matter every make-you-believe ‘guide’ appears to be a yoga expert and guarantees you how to attain nirvana, Rishikesh will remain close to me and I will keep coming time to time, irrespective of any time and space I am in.

More than 25 dead Olive Ridley turtles were sighted near Prayagi and Arjipalli this week. One of the main reasons for their untimely deaths has been attributed to an oil spill from a ship near Gopalpur port, Orissa. Over seven thousand litres of commercial oil had spilt from the MV Malabika an Essar-owned vessel on Tuesday evening. Worse, that there has been no official word of the vessel owners.
To begin with, the Olive Ridley’s are one of rarest species and are endangered ones and also listed in the US Endangered Species Act.

We are fortunate that in India, we have an opportunity to nurture them. According to trusted sources over 1,50,000 Olive Turtles were either killed in the last one decade. These poor creatures are either killed for their meat, skin or their shell. All of us, should take responsibilities of our actions. The organization in question is the entity owning that vessel. If the reported incident and the people responsible for the mishap is true then I fear that the consequences are far more frightening. The spill can cause cutaneous toxic reactions and extreme suffocation for the marine turtles. Some marine scientists have also slated that the planktons and smaller sea animals near the beach will be affected through the spill.

“Tea is a Cup of Life” - Unknown

Historically serving Tea has always been associated with get together, meetings, parties, house warming sessions and many other social events. Throughout the world people have been drinking tea in innumerous ways and methods, some of them having respective meanings and connotations.

That’s all right but why do I drink tea?

# I want my day to start with a cup of hot tea, why?? I do not know, maybe my body clock needs that beverage.

# I have a cup of tea in the middle of the day as well as night to re-energize my system.

# A cup of tea can be consumed among old and rekindle old memories associated with tea at the same time rekindle new friendship and association with new ones, I have done it

# Nothing beats a cup of tea, when you are traveling in the mountains and stop for a break, I do it.

# In a wintry evening, mid-monsoon or even the evening office snacks - tea and samosa (a stuffed pattie -an original Indian snack,) go pretty well.

Reference of tea has been clearly mentioned in Ramayana as Sanjeevani buti, however commercial consumption and distribution of tea expatiated after the British East India company. Going by the history, Tea perhaps was mentioned first in the Gilgamesh epic, during 3000 BC or something. Other important story dates back at around 2737 BC, in China. Shen Nung, the second emperor who also happened to be a creative scientist. Nung had a habit of boiling his drinking water. During this process some tea leaves accidentally fell in his tea pot. The rest is history. Today, tea is the most-popular beverage in the world. India and China are the biggest market for tea.

Below are some great tea facts (or tea trivia) to read through while enjoying a cup of tea.

• A cup of black tea has half the amount of caffeine than a cup of coffee.

• Drinking milk may mean stronger bones, but the same goes for a cup of tea!

• In a single day, an experienced tea picker collects around 70 pounds of tea, which is equivalent to create 14000 cups.

• There are four types of tea: white, green, oolong, and black. Interestingly these four types can turn into thousands of varieties depending on the influence of culture and usability.

• Tea plants come from a common plant, Camellia Sinensis.

• If left to grow unchecked this evergreen plant can reach a height of over 30 feet.

• Tea drinking can abate your appetite.

• It takes three to five years for a tea bush to grow and ready for harvesting.

• According to recent studies one cup of tea daily can fulfill over 15% of minimum daily requirement of calcium, 10% of folic acid and almost 45% of manganese.

• Used tea leaves also double their usability as manure and it improves garden soil considerably.

As I have expressed before, a cup of tea is not what it looks like in its physical form. It is my source of adda, my thoughts are laced in that one whole cup.  Well, if you still think what is so special about this drink, worse if you have never tried. Try a cuppa “T “and let me know what do you think after …..that.

Chay ya phir thanda????

So Finally I’m here, with my first ever post on VEranDA. But not writing much this time, just few visuals. Here are some of the shots from my ‘Gun‘ (wait…, don’t be scared, obviously I don’t have a gun buddy, It’s a Camera, just wanted to make an impacting title nothing else, lol !)… n, Oh please ‘m not a photographer, so stop looking for perfection . OK so just thought to post some of these pics to VEranDA, Hope you people will like them.

Some worth watching shots:

Will post some fun moments @ Veda Informatics soon…!!

Thank you so much for spending your precious time can I ask you for some more time to write a comment , much appreciated, Thanks!!!

~ Kuntal

The world waits in tense anticipation over a matrimonial controversy over a rather low-seeded tennis player from India.

We would like to suggest that any international level sports player is actually national property.

In keeping with our philosophy of democracy, liberty and ‘free-for-all’ we would like to see a national election to select who shall marry this poor girl.

Without further ado (after all we are not a TV news channel and cannot sink to those depths) we would like to announce our list of nominated bridegrooms for Sania:

Vindu Daara Singh
Why? “Desh ka aadmi hoon.” Ya, and at least his first marriage was not telephonic.

Vijay Mallya & Son(s)
Becoz “Oo la la la la Oole Oh” is anyday better than “Un dos tres Aa le aa le aa le”

Rahul Gandhi
Congress ka haath aam aadmi ke saath. Expansion plans require a forehand.

Shiney Ahuja
The only thing is Sania ko ghar ka kaam khud karna padega.

Raghu ‘Roadies’ Ram
Tell us if you figure out why.

Of course, if you are an Indian citizen above the age of 21-love, feel free to contest the election. Also, junta feeling that a worthy person is missing from the list can propose and second their nomination letters.