[gt_bhp]

Nice trip you've had. makes me want to drive on it.
After seeing your pics, I've realised that all BPCL ghars seem to be layed out in the same layout. I've see one BPCL ghar till now on B'lore - Krinagiri NH7 and it looks just like the one in your pics

[pkumar]

Originally Posted by Pragmites

Amazing travelogue! Superb pictures!Will log on again for the rest of the story. My determination to do a Bharat Darshan by road grows. Hope to be able to take a month off some day! Definitely One of the best threads on tbhp that I have come across

Bharat darshan by car was a distant dream many years back. But with highly reliable vehicles and superb roads in most part of the country, it is very much doable. It is no longer an experts' only domain.
The only difficult part is convincing your family.

[sushantr5]

Post some pics of yourself... I want to see who is this amazing guy...

[jacs]

pkumar, you must be a die hard traveller to do this

Hats of to you and your better half (Very few Wifeys get convinced with such an idea).

Nice photos....especially the ones took inside Jaigarh fort made me speechless. Do share more...

[Majic]

Hi,pKumar, the travelogue is shaping up nicely, lovevly narration and real beautiful pictures,keep the good work going, looking forward to the next post.

[Gandhi]

Don't have any words to describe your travelogue. You have phenomenal physical and mental strength to drive these long long stretches. Your wife's contribution is equally great.

How do you guys manage such long drives? Music, songs, chats, what?

[ambivalent_98]

Do keep the pics coming. It is becoming a very interesting travelogue. I am impressed by the roads in Rajasthan. Perhaps scanty rainfall and fairly honest road laying folk seem to have made good roads

[anainar]

PKumar, keep it coming. Very interesting reading..

Originally Posted by gt_bhp

Nice trip you've had. makes me want to drive on it.
After seeing your pics, I've realised that all BPCL ghars seem to be layed out in the same layout. I've see one BPCL ghar till now on B'lore - Krinagiri NH7 and it looks just like the one in your pics

Yes, I have seen so far three or four Ghar Dhabas, in different NHs and they all look the same. Including the table and chair.

Nainar

[pkumar]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Don't have any words to describe your travelogue. You have phenomenal physical and mental strength to drive these long long stretches. Your wife's contribution is equally great.

How do you guys manage such long drives? Music, songs, chats, what?

Speaking about music, i usually have hunderds of songs with me anytime. But on this trip i had only 1 CD with 40 odd songs. And whenever i switched on the AC and the music at the same time, my wife would fall asleep, as if i was playing some lullaby. On the last day of the trip when we were driving back to Bangalore, suprisingly she was awake and listened to the complete CD. She asked if i have changed the CD, and that she didnt know i was carrying another CD. I informed her, that it is the same CD but she is listening to it for the first time. And i had already listened the whole stuff looped over countless number of times.

I always have few loud "item numbers" with me, songs i mean. It came handy on the last day,which was very long. When i was feeling a bit sleepy, the funky numbers surely helped lift the spirits.

[Majic]

I guess that you didnt have much time to listen to the music as you were engaged the whole time looking out of the window of your car on the wonderful sceneries that is passing by. It is really a great trip and i look forward to the rest of the posts

[zen91]

I guess all Kumar's have GQ in common.

[pkumar]

Delhi

3 days for Delhi is too less, especially when you have to mark your attendance at all the relatives’ place(which we did not ). But we tried our best to cover some of the popular destinations.
So where do we begin? India Gate was the obvious answer.



This place is amazing. The grandness of this place is unparalleled. The India Gate stands tall on one side, and the majestic Rashtrapati bhavan on the other end. And in between is the royal carpet Rajpath.






Amar jawan always invokes special emotions.


North Block, South block, Parliament House, all these are grand structures and befitting symbols of democracy. (It’s a different story what kind of democracy our country has).




We also came back to this place later in the night. We were 8 people in my brother’s Safari. And we thought that it is a nice place to have ice-cream, at 1’o clock in the night.

We are done with 26th January. Now time for 15th August. Lal Qila (Red Fort).
We hopped on the Delhi Metro and got off at Chawri Bazar station. Having seen the Kolkata metro before, I must say I was really really impressed with Delhi Metro. Magnificent manifestation of technology. And very disciplined commuters was a surprise in India. Yeah, the Mumbai local train and bus travelers are also disciplined to a extent, but there is still an element of roughness in the setup.

Anyways, we are in Dilli-6, walking the narrow lanes of Old Delhi. Every old city in India has some area like this. But Dilli-6 has a special place of its own. We didn’t get a chance to go to the famous Paranthe wali gali, etc. But we still got a nice feel of the place.





After some distance of walking we reached Jama Maszid. Took a snap from outside.


We were 4 ppl. We took a 4-seater rickshaw. Two of us sat on the normal front seat. And two of us settled ourselves on the miniature back-seat. But tell you, it was real fun. I had not got this kind of ride for a long time. Our legs were touching(or almost) the cycle, scooters, and everything coming behind the rickshaw. And we finally reached the Red Fort.


The wall around the fort was grand.


When we went inside, we noticed that there were so many places inside that we would not want to cover everything.

This was a small market place inside the fort. Personally I do not like commercial ventures inside places like forts, temples, etc.



The things these shops were selling were the same that we saw in Jaipur shops. Similar looks, apparently similar quality. We realized that these days there is nothing like a particular piece of art would be available at only a given place. You can get those things everywhere, the only difference could be price. Yes there are things which you would want to buy from only a given place.

Few more pics from the inside area of Red Fort.



And we were done with it. We came out and hired the same kind of rickshaw ride back to the nearest Metro Station, Chandni Chowk.



One interesting thing I noticed about parking in Delhi, especially around Connaught Place (CP). There are layers of parking (due to lack of space). So you would have to leave your car in Neutral, without hand-brake on. The parking folks would play with your car, move it back and forth and manage the space. It is a common practice there.
But it was interesting for a guy from Bangalore.

Next on the list was Qutub Minar. Everybody told us that there was nothing there except that you would want to click few photos of the tower itself. But my wife wanted to see it for herself. So here we go, to the Qutub Minar.

The entrance.


The campus inside was big and lot many other structures in addition to the Minar.


The green garden


Camera stuck close to the Minar and shot.


This must have been an arc, destroyed over time.

[pkumar]

Delhi continued :

The Qutub Minar.



My personal favourite.


The iron pillar you see is the one where people used to wrap around their hands backward and ask for a wish to be fulfilled. Remember Chini Kam movie and Mr. Bachchan asking for the kid’s life ?


So many more structures.




Iron pillar with Qutub Minar in background.


And we were done. Checked out of the place.


On the way back to home, we stopped at the Lotus temple, to find it closed for the day.
Managed a picture from outside. I had to stand on a boundary wall to click this.


We had nice 3 days in Delhi. Met so many close relatives which we had longed to meet.
Saw so many places in Delhi. And it was time to pack-up and leave for the next destination. Agra it was, and then Kanpur for the night halt.

[n.devdath]

Wow Wow..this is all I have to say. Hats off to both of you for doing it. Moreover, the pictures are so "real", making me feel as if I were there with you. Superb route, superb pics and yes, a superb, simple, realistic travelouge.

My 5 stars to it.

Please bring on the rest.

[advaitlele]

This thread rightfully deserves 5* rating.
Great travelogues, one of the best I have ever seen.
One request though - All of us, I am sure, would like to see the face behind this journey. Please post some of your photos too.
You brought back all my memories when I was in Delhi about 5 years back and of the places I visited - Jaipur, Amer etc as a child with my parents.
Bring it on, we want more.