the light baggage

Overview: One of my favourite places. Modelled on Windsor Castle in England, this place is the trademark of Bangalore. The entrance to the palace itself makes us feel like entering a European style Garden. Sometimes reminds me of the Marlinspike Hall in Tintin comic books. The railway line connecting Bangalore City and Bangalore Cantonment railway stations is visible from the entrance gates. The palace was built for the Maharaja of Mysore in the 18th century. Lot of movies have been shot in this palace premises. The creepers around the pillars gives it a classical look. The interiors are equally beautiful with paintings and furniture. Lined with exquisite paintings and woodwork, this palace has 35 rooms. One striking picture one can see of a lady appearing sad from one angle and happy from the other. Also kept on display are some memoirs made out of animal parts like a table made out of elephant legs, and pictures showcasing the capture of elephant tuskers can be seen. Also there i...

  It has been a wonderful 1 year of blogging and hard to believe that a lazy person like me who hates to spend time typing stories has indeed published 62 blogs to date. Thanks to a little less work in office the same time last year when I decided to start sharing my travel experiences with the world. Choosing a name for my blog was a big challenge for me. After considering several options, I finalized ‘Payana’ which means Journey in Kannada. Also the name of the travel portal in Infosys..:-) In this process of blogging, I made a lot of friends in the blogging and also made a lot of fans along with myself becoming fans of many bloggers… All are special for me. And of course I have learnt a lot from each blog I have read from every blogger.. My previous post was on the place where I had spent my years of childhood(Chandigarh) and the next post would be on the place which is my hometown and the place I love the most(Bangalore).. Dedicating this post to all fellow bloggers who fol...

  Day 6: We reached Chandigarh early in the morning at 4:00am. We went to a friend's place where we set as our base for the rest of our trip. I decided to show around the city to my wife as it was my childhood place and she was visiting Chandigarh for the first time. We visited the usual tourist places like the Rose Garden, Rock Garden, Sukhna Lake, Sector 17 Plaza. It was refreshing for me to revisit Chandigarh after 7 years. My wife particularly liked the Rock Garden built by Nek Chand. It was a big Garden built with waste like ceramic pieces, broken plates, bangles and many other items which are usually thrown away as thrash. It is beautifully presented and some artificial waterfalls added to the beauty. We spent close to 2 hours inside the Rock Garden.       Day 7: Visited a friend’s place in Panchkula and went to Mansa Devi Shrine near Chandigarh. Mansa Devi temple is one of the Shakti temples in North India and tourists throng this place everyday ...

  …Continued from North Indian Sojourn - 1 Day 5: We reached Amritsar at 7:00am in the morning. Got fresh and headed straight to Durgiana temple which resembles the Golden temple. Built in the 20th century, it is a serene place having repository of Hindu scriptures.    Then after this we left for the Golden temple. The temple looked stunning from a distance with the Amrit Sarovar which surrounds the Golden temple. The upper part was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh with 400kg of gold leaf. The temple of Harmandir Sahib is bustling with tourists almost throughout the day. The temple was initially built in 1574, and when the Mughal emperor Akbar visited the site, he was impressed that he gave all the villages in the vicinity to the Sikh Guru and the temple was started being constructed in the 16th century by Guru Arjun Dev. We were approached by people selling Bandanas to cover our heads for Rs 10. We bought it and went inside. The winter morning in Amritsar was very soot...