आditi

Birthday special journey It's the husband's 35th birthday next month. And I made the mistake (?) of asking him how he would want to make it special. His reply was an all-train-trip in his birthday week...and I laughed out loud. He went on to say that he wanted to spend the week travelling in the three iconic trains of India. I saw the same smile on his face that he has when we plan our long journeys...and I realized he was serious. Now, I like to travel, but not by trains. On the other hand, the husband knows trains as much as he knows his bike. The engine, the number and the type of coaches, the type of toilets, the speed, and other details that I have no interest in. But then I am disinterested in just the  trains , not the journey . With that, he chalked out our plan effortlessly. Probably, the fastest inter-state plan that we have come up with. The destinations In terms of trains, the destinations are Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Karmali Railway station, Madgaon R

A former garden department official working with the Uttarakhand government used his knowledge to transform a barren hillock in Chaukori village into a Kaaphal orchard, an organic garden complete with six cows for dairy needs, and domesticated bee colonies for organic honey. His eldest son opened this property for homestay, while his mother -Neelam aunty -the only woman in the family -dished out home cooked food for the visitors. Kaaphal Hill, the village homestay gave us a glimpse of the life in Kumaon hills, the cuisine, and left us wondering whether we are too meek to adopt the life in the hills. It was only alter that we realised that this was indeed the window to the Kumaon life Chaukori (Kumaon himalayas) We found Kaaphal Hill homestya on airbnb. Tarun, the eldest son in the family takes the bookings and coordinates with the tourists. We traveled from Kausani to Chaukori in our self-drive ZoomCar -the Jazz. As we were coordinating with Tarun for directions, he wa

An Introduction King Bhanu Raj Singh Pal -the ceremonial King of Askote with Tejas Askote was one of our most awaited destinations during the Uttarakhand -Kumaon roadtrip. It is a small village of about 2500 people, 30 km from the Indo-Nepal border. The main attraction here is  the Jauljibi mela -a 103 year old market where traders from China, Nepal, and India come together to sell their goods and the confluence of Kali and Gori ganga rivers...not to mention the mesmerizing mountain views. While planning, Yogesh Sarkar of bcmtouring.com suggested that the current ceremonial king of Askote -Rajwar Bhanu Raj Singh Pal offers accommodation. We called him up and he agreed to give us a room. He refused to take any advance booking amount and reserved the room for us on just  sending our name and address. No details of the accommodation -photos, description, or first hand experience were available on the web. And we were too awkward to ask the king for pictures or the room ra

This is the trip on which we have spent the least time in planning and packing as compared to our earlier trips...thanks to the busy jobs and endless family functions to attend before we leave.  A trip of many firsts Ovee's first trip to the Himalayas and also the longest till date (almost 3 weeks). First trip that we are not taking our own vehicle, but hiring a self-drive car. Ovee's first air travel (We are flying to Delhi and starting the drive from there). First trip when we'll be staying at a King's palace. Not a palace-turned-hotel, but an actual palace of the current king of Askote . The itinerary We are covering only the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand in this trip and sticking by the rule of no religious places and no shopping. We start on May 7 and return on May 25 after visiting the following places: We are consciously  not vising touristy destinations -Nainital, Dehradun, and Mussorie Leaving out touristy places during our Rajasthan tri

For those following my blog, this title would remind you of my post " Being in my remarkable 30s "...the extremely grim post about Granulomatous mastitis   and the counselling sessions. Well, this one is about overcoming all of that. After six months of steroids and 1.3 years of homeopathy, the breast lump has disappeared. Three important things that I learnt from this: 1. Say NO to pestering doctors Six months through the treatment-in August 2015, my trusted breast specialist Dr Pranjali Gadgil was moving to the US and handed over my case to another breast specialist. Before leaving, she had told me that it was time to taper and stop the steroids. However, when I met the new doctor a couple of times and she had nothing more than steroids to offer. In November 2015, we went to Tata Memorial hospital in Mumbai, did a check-up there and the doctor suggested to ignore the breast lump. However, I couldn't because I had to regularly aspirate from the lump. The new d

The road trip On a hot Monday afternoon, at around 11.45 am, we started our road trip to Jambulne jungle, 18 kilometers ahead of Lonavala. It was Ovee's maiden road trip and we were all excited. We did away with our knee guards as that would have been too bulky for us. Tejas did away with the riding jacket as well, but I stuck to it since it has back and elbow protection. As always, we did not take any backpack. It was just saddle bags, tank bags and a sling bag for the essentials. Initially, Ovee insisted on sitting on the tank. So I held the tank bag on my lap and she had her way. Later, as we hit the highway near Dehu road, we shifted her between us and the tank bag went on the tank. That was our first break. After that, Ovee was sleepy and we had to remove her helmet so she could sleep well. During times when she was awake on the bike, we sang her favourite rhymes and counted the number of signals. Since it was a weekday, there wasn't much traffic and we w