Wanderlust Sajid

I am really surprised at the announcement of Barrack Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Its not that I don't admire him or that I consider him not a person of noble means. But being just noble enough is not a prejudice for a Nobel Peace Award. No doubt Obama seems an apostle of harmony, at least by the virtue of the innumerable speeches he has given on this subject. At least he has initiated a correction process of the misdeeds done by George W. Bush in the 8 years that he has tormented the world. Obama definitely has shown intent to cool-off the global political heat. However, his intent has not been translated into action as yet, anywhere; Iraq, Afghanistan or besides. Apart from Cuba somewhat, and that famous "Beer Summit" offcourse, which had made so much journalistic headlines, rather over-hyped I believe. If intent of peace by now becomes so strong manifestation for bestowing an award of such high global reverence like Nobel Peace Prize, I am deepl...

The weather when we reached Khajuraho temple was enviously beautiful, with cool breeze and mild sunlight stroking us. We earlier made a phone call to Rajesh Tiwari, the guide whom we promised to hire and he was waiting for us at the entrance gate. We were put together as a group of six by Rajesh himself with our consent, for the sake of his guide fee sharing arrangement making it economical for us. The group was of me and my wife, discounting my son, offcourse ; Bhaiya and Didi and a seemingly newly married couple who looked a little disproportionate in terms of body size. The man was a hulk and his wife a petite in true sense. Bhaiya named them Amitabh Bachchan & Jaya Bhaduri. We were lucky to hire Rajesh. He was a real pro. His descriptions really put life into the stone murals. They are not merely figurines in front of us now. They are as if lively figures awaken by the transcriptions of Rajesh. We started the tour with a structure which I think is aptly Indian. There lies a sin...

We woke up the next morning at the sheer depression of the sight of rain still pouring very heavily. The hotel garden now resemblances a miniature lake and the sky seem swollen with dark anger, as if it is on a vengeance call against us. I lolled back to the bed. My wife tried to console me saying that a full day rest at the hotel room is for us surely a rarest way of spending a day in our life. I returned back a wry smile to her.   After about an hour, we finally re-charged our spirit after a multiple round of inanimate discussion with Bhaiya and a fifteen minute pep talk by Didi. We decided to damn the rain and planned to visit Raneh Falls first, which we thought might be a good adventure in the rain. Then we will move to the temples hoping by that time rain to stop. The photograph is illusory. The depth of the gorge is not less than 200 ft Raneh Falls is about 20 kms from our hotel and is on the edge of the Rewa Plateau, which lies to the southeast of the Bundelkhand Uplan...

I often wonder, why we are so contemptuously demanding to Mother Nature. We fancy rain, but only when we are indoors. If it pours when we are out, we get viciously annoyed. We yearn for sunshine, but desire it just strong enough to put our sunglasses on, not more than that. The chill in the wind should only be apt for our designer pullovers. Tailor-made climate and weather on-demand, is what we seek. The same was in our case also. Being slouched in the car for so long we became increasingly exasperated with rain. Our hunger pangs got us better and then thought to finish our lunch first. There are many decent looking restaurants across the road facing the Western Group of Temples. Incidentally, the temples of Khajuraho are clustered and named Eastern, Southern and Western Group of Temples. The Western group is most illustrious and thus attracts most visitors. The striking facet of the restaurants here is that, most have well organized shaded roof-tops. The Blue Sky Restaurant even h...

Hotel Ramada is a of mid range standard, but quite good in that category. It is two storied building with all rooms either of poolside view or garden view. The garden is quite sprawling. Actually the entire hotel compound is vast and well maintained. The rooms are spacious, with Bath Tubs and Shower Cubicle in bathrooms. It also has an Authentic Ayurvedic Massage Parlour. The hotel offers an "Off-season Summer Bonanza Package" from June to August. We went for a 3 Days-2 Nights Package with Buffet Breakfast and Lunch or Dinner for a twin sharing room, with two children below 12 years sharing the same room without extra bed, all for Rs.5999. We further got 999 bucks discount through a friend of mine, who runs a travel business and has tie-up with this hotel. Cool deal! The package also offers 15-20% discount on Food, Beverages, Laundry and Ayurveda treatment. The hotel is just 1 km from Airport and also the same distance away from the Khajuraho temple site. Khajuraho itself is...

At last, I got a seemingly disinterested nod from my boss for my leave approval, but only after three and a half hours of extended working on the previous day, and the day before. The place for which I am embarking on, is Khajuraho . A frantic Internet search has already been made for it and rims of paper has been printed with gigabytes of information, including 13 road maps for navigation. I am going by road and learnt that Khajuraho is 230 km through shortest route, from my current nest at Kanpur. We are a gang of four and a half people : Me; my wife; Daughter and Son-in-law of my Kanpur 'local guardian', with whom I stayed as PG for my initial two years at Kanpur; and off-course my seven years old son, whom I have considered here as "half". The ignition of our car was switched on at 7.30 in the morning. The route on which we are, is through Ghatampur-Hamirpur-Mahoba. The significant part of our road will traverse through Kanpur Dehat district, considered to be one ...

I am a wanderlust. Wanderlust who dreams of travelling, day in and day out...With a haversack on his back and a cool digicam hanging on his neck. But I seldom travel. There are 157 "I Must Visit" list languishing in the most prominent corner of my work-station, to be daily read and neatly folded. Till now I've managed to visit only handful of places. Constraints? Many! Clients not approving of letting me loose, Money, Time, Shoes, T-shirts, Shorts, etc., etc. I am also a frugal. A kind of frugality of a monk I seek. But things entice me, people entice me, and so does knowing. I am in perpetual search of knowing.  Btw, I am a Financial Consultant by profession. I advise people on managing money. Even though I have very few money myself. But, so does every other people on earth think of himself.