Agra

HISTORY

            It is generally accepted that Sultan Sikandar Lodi, the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate founded Agra in the year 1504. After the Sultan’s death the city passed on to his son Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. He ruled his sultanate until he fell fighting to Babar in the first battle Panipat fought in 1526.

In the year 1556, the great Hindu warrior Hemu Vikramaditya, also known as Samrat Hem Chander Vikramaditya, as the Prime minister cum chief of army of Adil Shah of Afghan Suri dynasty. The commander of Humayun/Akbar’s forces in Agra, Tardi Beg Khan, was so scared of Hemu that he retreated from the city without a fight. This was Hemu’s 21^st continuous win since 1554, and he later went on to conquer Delhi, having his coronation at Purana Quila in Delhi on 7^th October 1556 and re-established the Hindu kingdom and the Vikramaditya dynasty in North India.

The golden age of the city began with the Mughals. It was known then as Akbarabad and remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under the emperors, Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan later shifted his capital to Shahjahanabad in 1649.

Since Akbarabad was one of the most important cities in India under the Mughals, it witnessed a lot of building activity. Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, laid out the first formal Persian garden on the banks of the river Yamuna. The garden is called the Aram bagh or the garden of relaxation. His grandson Akbar raised the towering ramparts of the great red fort, besides making Agra a center for learning arts, commerce and religion. Akbar also built in the form of the Mughal military camp in stone.

His son, Jahangir had a love for gardens and flora and fauna and laid many gardens inside the Red Fort. Shah Jahan, known for his keen interest in architecture, gave Akbarabad its most prize monument, the Taj Mahal. Built in loving memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was completed in 1653.

Shah Jahan later shifted the capital to Delhi during his reign, but his son Aurangzeb moved the capital back to Akbarabad, imprisoning his father there in the fort. Akbarabad remained the capital of India during the rule of Aurangzeb until he shifted it to Aurangabad in the Deccan in 1653. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city came under the influence Marathas and Jats and was called Agra, before falling into the hands of the British Raj in 1803.

In 1835 when the presidency of Agra was established by the British, the city became the seat of government, and just two years later it was the witness to the Agra famine of 1837-38. During the Indian rebellion of 1857. British rule across India was threatened, news of the rebellion had reached Agra on May 11 and on 30^th May two companies of Native infantry, the 44^th and 67^th regiments, rebelled and reached to Delhi. The next morning native Indian troops in Agra where forced disarm, on 15^th June Gwalior (which lies south of Agra) rebelled. By 3 July British were forced to withdraw into the fort. Two days later a small British force at sutecha were defeated and forced to withdraw, this led to a mob sacking the city. However, the rebels moved onto Delhi which allowed the British to restore order by 8 July. Delhi fell to British in September; following month rebels who had fled Delhi along with rebels from central India marched on Agra but was defeated. After this, the British rule was again secured till the Independence of India in 1947.

Agra is the birth place of the religion known as Din-i-llah, which flourished during the reign of Akbar and also the Radhaswami faith, which has around two million followers worldwide.     

TAJ MAHAL

            Agra’s Taj Mahal is one of the most famous buildings in the world, the mausoleum of Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and one of the world’s three heritage sites in Agra.

Completed in 1653, the Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal king Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Finished in marble, it is perhaps India’s most fascinating beautiful monument. This perfectly symmetrical monument took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labour and 20,000 workers, masons and jewelers to build and is set amidst landscape gardens. Built by the Persian architect, Ustad-Isa, the Taj Mahal is on the bank of river Yamuna. It can be observed from Agra fort from where emperor Shah Jahan gazed at it, for the last eight years of his life, a prisoner of his son Aurangzeb. It is and acknowledged masterpiece of symmetry. Verses of Quran are inscribed on it and at the top of  the gate are 22 small domes, signifying the number of years the monument took to build. The Taj Mahal was built on a marble platform that stands above a sandstone one. The most elegant dome of the Taj Mahal has a diameter of 60 feet (18 meters), and rises to a height of 80 feet (24 meters); directly under this dome is the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan’s tomb was erected next to hers by his son Aurangzeb. The interiors are decorated by fine inlay work, incorporating semi-precious stones.

BUY-

    Agra has many shops selling various stone products, from jewellery to small boxes and plaque’s with inlay work resembling that on the Taj. The best of these are wonderful, and even the run of the mill ones are rather pretty. Agra is also famous for its leather goods. Consider spending time in Sardar Bazaar for some shopping and enjoying cheap food.

Beware of being novercharged. Do not let anyone lead you to a shop, lest the price go up to cover their commission, typically 50%. Be very vary of the promises these people make. Bargain hard. Be prepared to walk away, you can nearly always get the same items in another shop. Also remember that in these globalized times, you can always order stuff you liked in your visit over the internet after you return.

Be careful with the Jewells, lots of stones are faulses and the price is very high!

EAT-

     Agra specialties are petha, a type of very sweet candy, and Dal Moth, a spicy lentil mix. Both are also popular souvenirs.

CHAAT- Agra is a heaven for any Chaat lover. Chaat can be of various types but there is one thing common among them all is that they are spicy and you will find crowd outside virtually every Chaat shop, especially popular places like double phatak (near Sikandra) for mangores. You will find quality Bhallas and panipuri at sardar and belangunj. Samosa and kachori are found at every sweet shop that flood the city. Some typical Chaat items are aloo tikki, paneer tikka, panipuri, mangores, samosas, chachori etc. If you want to savour the typical Agra breakfast do remember to have a bite of one of those berahi and round it off with sweet Jalebies.

SWEETS. There are quite a few good sweet shops all around the city. The best stores for buying the famous petha of Agra are at Hari Parwat a short ride from Agra fort. Amongst the well-known stores are panchi’s, bhimasain baidyanath and the pracheen Petha store. There are many types of petha available but, for the authentic experience, try either the plain one or angoori flavor. Other stores in Agra include: Bikanervala, Deviram, munnalal petha, gopaldas, and Ajanta sweets, kamala nagar. Do remember to round off your meal with a Joda of Pan, unique to the city.

There are several restaurants in the Taj ganj area, catering for many tourists staying around the Taj Mahal. 

AGRA FORT

                 Agra Fort (sometimes called the Red Fort), was commissioned by the great Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1565, and is another of Agra's World Heritage Sites. A stone tablet at the gate of the Fort states that it had been built before 1000 but was later renovated by Akbar. The red sandstone fort was converted into a palace during Shāh Jahān's time, and reworked extensively with marble and pietra dura inlay. Notable buildings in the fort include the Pearl Mosque, the Dīwān-e-'Ām and Dīwān-e-Khās (halls of public and private audience), Jahāngīr's Palace, Khās Mahal, Shīsh Mahal (mirrored palace), and the Musamman Burj. Reference required.
The great Mughal Emperor Akbar commissioned the construction of the Agra Fort in 1565 CE., although it was converted into a place by his grandson Shāh Jahān, being reworked extensively with marble and pietra dura inlay. Notable buildings in the fort include the Pearl Mosque or Motī Masjid, the Dīwān-e-'Ām and Dīwān-e-Khās (halls of public and private audience), Jahāngīr's Palace, Khās Mahal, Shīsh Mahal (mirrored palace), and the Musamman Burj. The forbidding exteriors of this fort conceal an inner paradise. The fort is crescent shaped, flattened on the east with a long, nearly straight wall facing the river. It has a total perimeter of 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi), and is ringed by double castellated ramparts of red sandstone punctuated at regular intervals by bastions. A 9 metres (30 ft) wide and 10 metres (33 ft) deep moat surrounds the outer wall.
Chhatrapati Shīvajī visited the Agra Fort, as a result of the conditions of the Treaty of Purandar entered into with Mirzā Rājā Jaisingh to meet Aurangzeb in the Dīwān-i-Khās (Special Audience Chamber). In the audience he was deliberately placed behind men of lower rank. An insulted Shīvajī stormed out of the imperial audience and was confined to Jai Sing's quarters on 12 May 1666. Fearing the dungeons and execution he escaped on 17 August 1666. A heroic equestrian statue of Shīvajī has been erected outside the fort.
The fort is a typical example of Mughal architecture, effectively showing how the North Indian style of fort construction differentiated from that of the South. In the South, the majority forts were built on the seabed like the one at Bekal in Kerala.

Save Water

Today some of our schools students were going to IIC to see a presentation of water by Anupama Mishra. He told us how people save water in places like Jaisalmer. He showed us some photos of a water harvesting system; There was a big square in the middle of a desert and right in the middle of the square was a dome kind of thing, the floor was a bit tilted to the middle so that when it rains the water which comes into the big square will go into the dome in the middle so that the villagers can take water from there to drink because just before every monsoon they clean the floor of the square so that the water that gets collected will be pure. He even told us about some step wells of Rajasthan. He showed us a photo of Jaisalmer from above the city and we could see that every house had a water harvesting system. He told us how much water the people of Delhi and Mumbai waste, for example they wash their cars with pipes that splash a lot of water. He told us that government had provided Jaisalmer water but they would not drink it and instead use it for bathing and washing clothes and they used their own harvested water to drink.      

Red Indians

RELIGION
                  Native Americans did not believe in one god. Nor had they any hell or heaven. To most of them, the world was filled with powers which showed itself through all living things, the animals, the heavenly bodies, the plants and sometimes man. This power was good if handled right otherwise it was evil. So men tried to get in touch with it and to gain its favor in order to have strength to live well. Many tribes have taught their children to go out in some lonely place in early life, fasting and praying, as men of almost every religion have done. Some animal or might then appear, praising their bravery and promising help. Plains Indians sometimes cut off a finger joint in sacrifice. They said that everything in the world belonged to the great power, so there was nothing they could give it, except a part of themselves. The farming tribes held their principal ceremonies in honor of the corn. All summer long they held dances to call the rain and help the plants grow. These dances were not like most white mans dances, where women and men dance together. Often they were performed by men only. They were like dignified processions carried out with a dancing step and a beautiful costume. Such dances are still performed among the Pueblos. Indian ceremonies were conducted by priests. Many Indian officials as medicine men should really be called priests, for it was their business to remember every act of a beautiful ceremony, just as any priest does, to recite the prayers, and to teach the songs. Sometimes a person who fell ill was thought to have been disrespectful in the ceremony, and then the priests and his helpers could make a cure by performing the ceremony all over again and putting things right. Other medecine men claimed to get their power straight from a vision. Sometimes they thought this power enabled them to bring ran or take away the enemy's power in a war. Most often it helped them to cure sickness. Most primitive people have believed that magic would cure sickness, for they have not known the scientific causes of disease. Sometimes the Indians imagined that some little stone or living creature might have gotten inside the body. The medecine man, after singing and praying would suck it out. Some Indians thought that an unconscious patients soul had floated away, and the medecine would call it back. Whites can readily understand why the medecine man's singing and praying gave real confidence to a sick person. Even in the government hospitals, with all their improvements the Indians miss this religious side of curing.      
    

Dairy 23/4/2010

Today in the morning I woke up early because it was school today. I got ready and went to school. In the morning we ran two rounds and then played football in which I was the keeper and I got hurt on my hand. The first class was hindi, in which we made sentences of difficult words. The next class was french, but my hand was really aching. So I could do nothing but sit with an ice pack in my hand! The next class was math I again could do nothing. Then it was lunch. After lunch we played cricket. The next class was SST in which I found information about the hunting of the red indians. I liked that class. The next period was free, in which we again played cricket and then the school was over and I went to the ashram to meet my grandparents. I talked to my grandfather about cricket. After some time we went back home.

Dairy 20/4/2010

Today in the morning I woke up and went to the school. We played football in the morning which was quite fun after that when we went to the class, a girl had to present her topic. Her topic was Amphibians. We had to write down the facts and interesting things. After that we had our history class, our history teacher is very interesting. We have a combined class of class 7th and 8th. I am in class 7th. Today he told us about how some of the lost monuments or temples. After that class it was our math class. Today math class was quite fun because our teacher had made two groups and each of us had to do one sum each and in every correct sum we would get a point. The class did not last long enough to finish our match and we had to go for lunch. After lunch we had half an hour of free time and in that time we played mini cricket. The next class was hindi in which we had to write a letter in hindi. I wrote such a small letter that the teacher could not find any fault in it and said that it is to small to find fault in, next time write a longer one. After that we had Drama class in which we had to come up with tongue twisters and announce it to the class and tell them to say the tongue twisters, it was quite fun.   

Dairy 19/4/2010

Today was my school so I woke up and went to school. After coming back home, I ate some snacks and then went to my Grandparents. My Grandfather had to go some where so Abeni (my sister) and I stayed with my Grandmother. My father came from his office and stayed with us. We went to the dining hall to eat snacks. After coming back I lay down on the bed, thinking about school and how much fun it was. I suddenly wanted to eat ice-cream so I asked my father if I could, so he said yes and me and Abeni went to the shop and bought ice-creams and came back eating them with joy! After some time my Grandfather came back. I also went back home with my father and Abeni. After eating dinner my father went to my Grandparents to give them dinner, he soon came and we all went to sleep.

Diary 18/4/2010

Today in the morning I had to go to play a cricket match. My team scored 200 runs in 20 overs and then the other team got all out at 101 and we won the match by 99 runs. I came back home at 1:00 PM. I ate lunch and then bathed. At four o clock Abeni's friends started to come and I watched the IPL match which started at four o clock, the match was between King 11 Punjab and Chennai Super Kings. After some time the girls went to Bijai mandal  fort with my father and some other parents. The rest of the fathers and the boys were playing cricket so I went and started playing with them. We had fun and we played for about 1 and a half hours. After coming back we ate some things and then I continued watching the match and the people started going home. The first match ended and I started watching the second match which was between Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers. I started watching the match but after half an hour we had to go to our Grandparents. We took food for them. I continued seeing the score of the match. I ate a bit and then we stayed there for half an hour but then we had to go because the gate was going to close. When we reached home Delhi was in a bad state and Delhi lost I was very sad because now Delhi were out of the tournament. I went to sleep thinking about Delhi Daredevils all the time.      

Diary 17/04/2010

I am thinking about my friend's get together. And my sisters birthday which is tomorrow. I am thinking about my cricket match which is tomorrow. I am thinking about my old friends. I am thinking about my schools work. I am thinking about some monuments. I am thinking about my car. I am thinking of my school trips. I am thinking about my trip to the USA. I am thinking about my Grandparents who have come to Delhi but are not living with me in our house but in Sri Aurobindo Ashram because my Grandmother cant climb too many steps and our house is on the 3rd floor. I talk to my Grandfather about IPL because he is also interested in cricket. I go and meet my Grandparents many times, I stay with them for about 4-5 hours when its a holiday but on school days I can only be with them for 2-3 hours. We have to take food for them from home because they don't want to eat Ashram food. I stay with my Grandmother because she likes to be with me and my sister. She is getting cured because she has a pain in her legs. Everyday my Grandfather helps my Grandmother to exercise. My Grandparents are always telling me that I have got thin and should eat more. My grandmother is getting better because we have found a good doctor for her.      

My summer trip of 2009

We went to 16 places in 18 days
Delhi > Guwahati > Shillong > Cherrapunji > Shillong > Sonapur > Guwahati > New Jalpaiguri > Kalimpong > Silliguri > New Jalpaiguri > Kolkata > Srirampore > Kolkata > Bangalore > Mysore > Madikeri > Mangalore > Udipi > Kumta > Gokarn > Kumta > Sagar > Arsikere > Shimoga > Tumkur > Bangalore > Bangarpeta National Park > Bangalore > Delhi :

22 places, 18 days, approx 5000 kilometers. 
I study in a school in which we learn by doing things so my teacher told me to write a diary about my summer vacations so I wrote this travel log. Luckily this year in summer vacation, my father had lots of work in north east as well as in south west and south coast. At home, papa, mumma and us sat together and made 20 days summer vacation plan.

Me and my sister Abeni were very excited and in fact last few days and nights we used to dream of our journey. As the plan formalised, we were supposed to go to Guwahati, Shillong, Kalimpong, Sikkim, Kolkata, Bangalore, Coorg, Kumtha. That means we were off to a great experience of all kind of mode of transport, from flight, to train to taxis, and so on.

First from delhi we went to shillong there we saw shillong peak, the valleys and hills. We also went to cherapunji which is at the border of bangladesh so we saw bangladesh, we also saw water falls, clouds and forests. We went to Kalimpong; we saw many hand-made things and I liked staying at kalimpong. We went to kolkata but could not see much because we went for only 4 hours.

We went to Bangalore, there was nothing so special about bangalore except for the national park which was filled with tigers and lions. From Bangalore we went to madikeri where we stayed in a resort which was great. We went to a water fall and ate something like oranges which we ate like lemon. We went to Kumtha and on the way we saw konakan coasts, beach; we also passed Mangalore and Udupi to reach Kumtha.

At Kumtha we first saw mama’s ancestral house which my great-grand-father owned. We stayed at Pandurang hotel. We also saw the school in which my grandpa studied, which was established in 1907. We drove till Gokarn and stayed in a hotel called om beach resort. We went to the beach and had lots of fun! We stayed the night at om beach resort. Next day we set out for Bangalore in the morning and reached at night. On the way, we passed Sagar, Arsikere, Shimoga and Tumkur. We reached Bangalore and stayed there for 4-5 days and then came back to Delhi. The long adventurous journey that had started on June 4, finally ended in the heat of Delhi on June 21st.

Day 1 — Delhi to Guwahati

5/06/09

We took off from Delhi at four am and reached Guwahati at eight am and Syed uncle with a taxi was waiting for us so with him we went to Shillong and stayed at Oberoi uncle's house. We went to Hydri park there I played in the Jhula park there I got bored so we took some pictures of the lotus. We also saw some animals we saw three bears, one jackal, and several ducks and may more I had fun there. We took a taxi to the lake where we were boating. We also took some pictures of the lotus and it was fun boating. We did boating for thirty minutes. We went to police bazaar where I got bored mama bought Abeni a pair of bailey shoes and she was very happy but I got really bored. Then we went back home and Abeni was constantly showing me how good the bailey shoes were.

Day 2 — cherapunji, bangladesh & shillong peak 

6/06/09

Today I went to cherapunji, on the way we saw the cloudy mountains. I also touched the clouds we don't feel anything. At cherapunji we went to see a water fall named nohkaljkai but because of the fog we could not so we played with two baby goats (lambs) it was real fun! We went to the cave it was fun but it was a bit tough but really an adventure. We went to see Bangladesh and we were very lucky to see it clearly. Bangladesh is usually very foggy and it is not possible to see it but we were very lucky. Meghalaya is full of mountains but as soon as Bangladesh starts its suddenly flat so the rain which happens at cherapunji goes down to Bangladesh and it becomes flooded so you can see nothing of Bangladesh but we were very lucky. We went to see water fall the seven sister falls a set of seven falls we also played at one fall with joy. We went to shillong peak there we had a good view of the whole shillong papa also clicked some photos and then we ate corn and pineapple at shillong peak itself. We went again to police bazaar where I again got bored except ten minutes when we bought my shoes.

Day 3 — Guwahati, Sonapur, Dispur... 

7/06/09

On the seventh of June in the morning we woke up early and went to the taxi stand. There was a lot of bargain about the price and which car we are to use. We took a Tata sumo and went to a centre in sonapur district. The people there said there were more than twelve thousand people in one panchayat! After seeing the centre we went to a resort and ate lunch there. After eating lunch I and Abeni drove a four wheeler motor bike at the resort itself. We went to a hotel and settled down and saw a highlight of a match and went to sleep. When we woke up it was evening. When we woke up we saw a match for a while and then went to the main market of dispur and walked through the streets but I was very tired. We went to a restaurant but papa did not like it so we went without eating anything there we ate food in a hotel. When we ordered the food came after 50 minutes! While eating the food we made jokes that if we if we order something in this hotel at night we will get it in the morning. We went back to the hotel where we were staying and saw a match till one pm and then went to sleep.

Day 4 — New Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong 

8/06/09

Next morning we went to the station and took a train to new jalpaiguri. On the way I slept so that's why I got some sleep after waking up at six am. When we reached jalpaiguri it was too tough to carry so many luggages. We took a kuli till the taxi stand which was at the station only. We bargained so much that the indica driver was saying fourteen hundred but we went for one thousand rupees! We were going with Tista River which started at Tibet and has some other name and when it comes to Sikkim and Kalimpong side it changes to tista and someone was saying it changes to some other name when it goes towards Calcutta. On the way our tire got punctured so it took five minutes for us to change the tires. On a steep way trucks were coming when we needed to go right up and so after sometime the engine got so hot that we needed to stop for some time. When we reached Kalimpong we lived in a hotel and papa mama needed to go for a meeting at the hotel itself so I and Abeni watched a cricket match. When papa and mama were back we went to the market and walked through the streets. We came back and ate dinner and went to sleep.

Day 5 — Bunnys Bakery & a visit to a Monastery

9/06/09

Today morning we drank tea and went for a walk with rohit bhaiya, Abeni was very tired. We reached rohit bhaiyas friends house there we drank tea and papa talked some things with him. While going back we went to rohit bhaiyas brothers house there we ate breakfast and then someone came and mama papa had a meeting with him after the meeting we saw rohit bhaiyas brothers bakery. We went to rohit bhaiyas sister's house there we drank orange juice and then walked back to the hotel. We stayed in the room for some time and then we went by car to rohit bhaiyas brother's pastry corner and then ate momo at a dhaba. We went to bunny bhaiyas (rohit bhaiyas brother) restaurant and ate great food. We took a cab to a monastery where I played cricket and the rest of them went inside the monastery when they came out we went to together to the main market where I got bored but we all bought something, mama bought a sandal, me, Abeni and papa bought shoes.

Day 6 — New Jalpaiguri to Kolkata

10/06/09

In the morning papa and rohit bhaiya went for a walk when they came back I went with them to the old market. We saw handmade butter it was white and yellow. We also ate something of dal. On the way back we took a newspaper and I kept reading the newspaper while walking so I was not tired. When we reached the hotel mama, papa and rohit bhaiya went shopping while I and Abeni watched cricket. When they came back we all together set out for new jalpaiguri to catch a train, on the way I felt very dizzy but when we reached very happy and sad because I was not feeling dizzy and we had to wait for one hour at the station in that time I ate cucumber and drank flavored milk. When we went to the platform we had to wait for the train to come for two hours! When the train came we all sat and two seats which were waiting lists were confirmed so we exchanged seats so that we all can sleep together. The surprising thing was that where there are two berths there were three berths so I slept in the middle.

Day 7 — Kolkata to Bangalore

11/06/09

In the morning I woke up early and waited for many hours in the train and then at last we reached Calcutta but papa had decided to take another train till a station near ashish uncle's house. I read the newspaper in the train so that I don't get bored so when we reached the station ashish uncle was there to welcome us. We took a rickshaw to uncle's house there we all bathed and ate breakfast then we all went to sleep. When we woke up uncle offered us sprite and told story of the first printed in India was in Kolkata (a) srirampur (b) former Danish company. First printing press in India, first weekly newspaper and printed book in India first college teaching theosophy established in eighteen hundred and eighteen first girls school established by Mrs. Hanna marshman, wife of missionary father marshman Mr. panchanan karmatar has sent to Portugal capital lisban to learn how to make metal type foundery. After he told me that we ate lunch and then set out for the Airport, on the way we touched the water of Ganga and then went straight to the Airport. We waited after taking our boarding pass and then after security check we boarded. After taking off the Air hostess gave me and Abeni a pencil and an activity book and so the time passed by and after landing Amir uncles driver was waiting for us and then we went for a long and tiring drive in which we were caught in the traffic four or five times. After reaching Amir Uncles house we settled down. Everybody ate food and then me Rashad and Abeni shared some jokes after that Rashad went to sleep because ext morning it was his school and me and Abeni saw television while lying down so that we go to sleep and we did go to sleep.

Day 8 — Bangalore to Madikeri

12/06/09

In the morning Rashad, rehab and Azma went to school and me and Abeni saw television for some time and then and then I read famous five and then Azma came and then rehab came soon after that. Rashad came soon and then all of us went together in a uncomfortable journey till Rajan uncle brought his alto and then we went in a comfortable journey a restaurant we ate food at kamat restaurant and I saw a old radio and we ate in a leaf plate and I ate an uthapa for the first time. We continued our journey. Once Rajan uncle did not see the speed breaker and so we were in the air for two seconds! I and Rashad slept after one hour and when we woke up we were very sleepy. So we did not see anything and went to a resort named Heritage we went to sleep there.

Day 9 — Madikeri a jungle trek 13/06/09

In the morning we woke up early and looked out around the resort, the swimming pool, the rooms and the restaurant. We waited in the restaurant for the mama, papas and the aunty uncles and ordered dosas. The dosas were delicious. I wanted to swim but we had to go to Rajan uncle's farm. At the farm we went to their land in the hill part. It was a tough and adventuress trek and two leech's bit mama and Rajan uncle put fire on them when they were stuck to mama. After the adventuress trek we went and sat in the hall and mama gave me a lemon from which I played catch and catch. We ate food at a hotel and it was really delicious food. Abeni wanted to go in the toy train but it was being repaired. We went to a museum but it was closed so we saw the fort. We went to see the Abby falls. I ate oranges there some interesting oranges which were like lemons. We saw the waterfalls and it was a huge one. A man took a photo of all of us with the water falls. We came back to the car and went back to the resort. I bathed and then everyone for a tea. The big people drank tea and the children saw television. We ate food in the restaurant I ate chicken, dal, roti, salad, dahi, rasgulla and ice cream. All the kids came back to our room and we saw television. Then Amir Uncle took Azma and rehab and the rest slept in our room. 

Day 10 — Rashad going home 

14/06/09 

In the morning I woke up early and papa went for a walk and then rashad woke and we played with my lemon and then went for breakfast after breakfast we saw television in rashads room and then we got ready for swimming but did not swim because we did not have our trunks. We ate lunch and then rashad went back to Bangalore and papa and rajan uncle went to the city so we played table tennis in the playing room. We went back to the room and geeta aunty and mama drank tea outside and I and Abeni saw television. After sometime geeta aunty went to her room and we went to eat dinner and then we came back and saw television and went to sleep. 

Day 11 — Madikeri to Kumta

15/06/09

Today morning I woke up early, got ready and played with my ball. I went for breakfast and the food was good. I ate Idli and sambhar. We went to kumtha by a taxi and saw my great-grand father's house and my nana also lived in that house. Mama wanted to see the house and the house was historical and mama told me some stories about that house. Mama's elder uncle sold the house. The owner of the house was kind and also made us go inside the house. The house was not in a very good state but it was possible to live in it so the people were living in it. They told us which hotel we could stay in. We stayed in padurang hotel. It was almost eight pm till we reached and we all got ready and saw television and then we went for dinner outside and the food was great. We came back and immediately went to sleep. 

Day 12 — Gibb school and Gokarn beach

16/06/09

I woke up early in the morning and ate breakfast. We went to nana's school in which he studied and we were in search of his records. We also took a round of the school and the campus. The school was started in 1907. There were many computers for the high school. Papa talked to the headmaster of the school about donating some money to the school. Papa talked thousands of other things that I did not understand. We went to two hotels to see which was better and on the way we went to nana's salt mine. I got bored there. We liked the first hotel but we had to test the other one but papa said no to the second one because there was no air conditioner. We came back to the first hotel and ate lunch, saw television and went to the beach. We had a great time at the beach and I and Abeni sat on the mud where the water came and once or twice huge waves came and we almost got drowned because we were going with the water backwards but papa put his foot in the middle. The water was not clean so we bathed at the toilet of the beach but not nicely. We came back to the hotel and bathed very nicely. We saw television and ate food and went to sleep. 

Day 13-Gokarn-bangalore

17/06/09

I woke up early, got ready and roamed around the resort. I took some pictures of the resort. I came back to the room and drank tea. We all together went for breakfast. I ate aloo ka paratha, fried egg and mangoes. After breakfast we immediately set off for Bangalore. When we started the road was nice but it was surprising that the national highway 206 was like one lane. Two cars had a problem to go through it. The good thing was that there was a lot of greenery on that road. There was a view point from which a river crossed in between the mountains. I felt dizzy because we were in the mountains and were going round and round. Finally a normal highway came which was national highway 206 but a good highway. After a long journey we were hungry so we stopped to eat food, the food was nice. After eating food two hundred and six kilometers were left and the time was three pm. The driver drove fast so we reached Bangalore city at seven pm. There was a lot of traffic so papa called rajan uncle and asked if there was any other root. He said go to something ring road. So we reached Amir uncles house at nine thirty pm after taking the ring road if we would not have done that we would have reached at twelve am! Rashad rehab and azma were sleeping so we ate food with amir uncle and salima aunty. I bathed and immediately went to sleep. 

Day 14-Club in the colony 

18/06/09

I woke up early when amir uncle and rehab were awake. Amir uncle gave breakfast to me. After breakfast rashad woke up and I and rashad went to play tennis it was fun. When we were coming back rehab, azma, abeni, salima aunty and amir uncle were going to the club so we went back to the club with them. Abeni, azma and rehab played in the swings, salima aunty and amir uncle played table tennis and me and rashad saw them play table tennis. After sometime we came back and azma, rehab and rashad went to school. I played squash in the garage and abeni soon joined me. When we came out mama woke up and everybody drank tea. I went back to the garage to play squash. After some time bathed and came down to breakfast. After that I read some comics and then went to the garage to play squash. I went to pick up azma from the bus. I saw television and soon rehab also came. We ate lunch and then salima aunty and I wanted to play carremboard but azma disturbed us and soon rashad came. We went to play tennis but instead played table tennis with two other children. We came back and played cricket. I helped rashad do his homework. We ate food and played with rashads gameboy and then went to sleep. 

Day 15-Expensive auto’s 

19/06/09

I woke up and rehab went to school early. I went to leave rashad and azma to the bus. We came back and ate breakfast and then papa went for a meeting and amir uncle went to office. Me, mama and abeni soon got ready and went to abeni's friend's (aditi) house we went by a auto so it took us a lot of time to reach there the auto’s of bangalore are very expensive they take 7 rs for 1 kilometer. When we reached aditi's sister (shama) came back from school but aditi was in school. I read a book for some time and then we ate food. Aditi's mother made something for us and we helped her make something for us. Soon after that we had to go but aditi did not come. After we reached amir uncles house a phone came from aditi's mother that aditi was crying that she could not see abeni. Rashad was home when we reached and we played with his gameboy for some time then we put mud in atleast thirty pots we were very tired so we bathed together (rashad, me and rehab). After bathing me and rashad played with the gameboy and rajan uncle, geeta aunty, neelam aunty and nishant bhaiya came for dinner because it was mama and papa's anniversary. Soon after the guests went we went to sleep.

Zoo, bangalore-delhi

20/06/09

Next morning we woke up, got ready, ate breakfast and went to get rashad's made. We soon went to the zoo and we saw hippo potomas, white tiger, tiger an lions all from very close in a bus ride. Masi had changed the ticket from night to four twenty in the evening! We rushed back home packed the things, ate food and set out in the Honda city. The driver drove very fast because it was already two twenty and we had to reach in one hour where we reach in at least one and a half hours. When seven or eight kilometers were left the tire got punctured! Luckily we got a taxi and put the luggage in the taxi and reached the airport just in time. We ate ice cream a nd drank cold coffee before boarding and we were the last four passengers to board. After spending one hour in the plane we ate sandwiches in the flight and the flight landed early. Delhi was really hot and it took us thirty minutes to find our luggage. We took a taxi and came back home, it was so hot that as soon as we came home I bathed with cold water.

Guwahati, Assam 

Best things: 

Beetle nut, Tea garden, Quite hot and humid in summers, the centre for North-East.

Guwahati has a railway station and airport

Shillong, meghalaya

Best things: 

Police Bazaar good for shopping, lake, Hydri park, View Point, Greenery, Juicy Pineapples

Nearest airport Guwahati 130 kilometers. Nearest railway station Guwahati 130 kilometers.

Cherapunji, Meghalaya

Best things: 

Monolith Stones, Water Falls including Seven Sister Falls, a view of Bangladesh, Mangrove.

Nearest airport Guwahati 195 kilometers nearest railway station Guwahati 195 kilometers

Kalimpong, West Bengal near Darjiling. 

Best things: 

pickles, weekly rural haat in kalimpong town with had-made items, skilled football players, beef momos, hand-made lollipops, water pipes look like telephone line they are seen everywhere

Nearest airport bagdogra 75 kilometers nearest railway station new jalpaiguri 70 kilometers.

Kolkata, West Bengal

I did not roam around kolkata.

Kolkata has an 

airport and a railway station.

Bangalore, Karnataka

Best things: Bangarpeta national park

Bangalore has a railway station and airport.

Kumtha, Karnataka

Best things: is a one lane small town, beaches, a 100 year old british time school named gibb high school, many old houses including my great-grand father's house.

Kumtha has a railway station nearest airport panaji less than 250 kilometers.

Madikeri, Karnataka near Bangalore

Best things: 

Coffee plantations, robasta 

coffee is world famous, greenery, many birds, water falls

Nearest airport Bangalore 270 kilometers railway station Bangalore 270 kilometers.

Gokarn, Karnataka

Best things: 

beach, greenery

Nearest airport panaji less than 220 kilometers nearest railway station kumtha 30 kilometers

My favourite Cricketers of India

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar-Experienced Batsman

Sachin Tendulkar is India's best cricket player, he is very experienced he has played more than 150 test matches and more than 300 One-day Internationationals. He is a great player in ODI's I think he has more than 40 centuries he plays good not that he has been given more coaching or he is an old player he just plays good, he is known good all over the world. I think he is the world's best cricketer. He makes a lot of pressure on teams. He just cannot stop hitting centuries, but sometimes he is not in form. In test matches his record is 248*. He is so experienced that once he starts hitting he never ends. In ODI's his record is 186 almost breaking the record of 194. He also bowls but not so well he is a spinner. He played in the IPL as the captain of the team Mumbai Indians. He was opening with Sanath Jayasurya. He could not show much in the IPL he was not even with 1 half century.

Anil kumble- Mysterious Spinner

Anil Kumble is the captain of the Indian test team. Anil Kumble is a very mysterious spinner, he bowls at about a speed of 105kmph. Once he took all 10 wickets in an innings giving just 74 runs. Anil Kumble is a 39 year old cricketer but still he plays good cricket and is a good captain and a good bowler and bats quite well too so he is a good all- rounder. He has been playing cricket from the 1990s. He is the best spinner of India. He is the oldest player of India. He has taken more than 600 test wickets and more than 300 One-day internal wickets.

Suresh Raina- Batsman
Suresh Raina played brilliant in the Asia cup with 2 centuries and 2 half cen- turies in 6 or 7 matches. He played like this 116, 102, 84 and the 4th one I don't remember but he played brilliant, he came back in the Indian team because of his brilliant presentation in the IPL in the team; Chennai super kings. Suresh Raina played well in the series against Sri Lanka too.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni-Keeper/Batsman

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain of the Indian ODI team and the T20 team he led his team to a world cup in the T20 cup. Dhoni is a good captain and a good player too. His highest is 186* in ODI's he is a good wicketkeep- er too he does everything good except bowling. He was a good captain, he is a good captain and he will stay a good captain. In the IPL he was the captain of the team Chennai super kings, he led his team to the finals but lost the finals. In the Asia cup he led his team to the finals but lost the finals still he played good..

Zaheer Khan- Fast Bowler
Zaheer Khan is a good fast bowler. He takes early wickets he has taken more than 150 test wickets and more than 180 One day international wickets. His best bowling in test matches is 5/29 and in one day internationals 5/42. He comes last in the batting order but still his highest score in test matches is 75 and in one day internationals 34*. His bowling economy in one day interna- tionals is less than 5.
Rohit Sharma- Batsman

Rohit Sharma is a good batsman. He has not even made a century, but still the way he plays is a good way he has made many half centuries when he has got a half century he does not end up with less than 60 runs. He played in the IPL and once hit a very fast 50 of just 24 balls with many boundary's he played in the team; Deccan charges and the captain of the team was Gilchrist, Rohit s team did not play good in the IPL, they won only 2 matches out of the 14 they played .
Sourav Ganguly- Batsman

Sourav Ganguly is a good cricketer. In one-day cricket his highest score is 183, he almost broke the record of 194. He is one of the best cricketers of the cur- rent India team. He played in the IPL as the captain of the team Kolkata Knight Riders; he could do nothing in the IPL his team did not even come till the semi finals.

Yuvraj Singh- Batsman

Yuvraj Singh is India's vice captain he hit 6 sixes in a row against England in the T20 world cup. He hit a flying 50 0f just 12 balls with a strike rate of more than 400 and led the match to a win. In the ODI series against Sri Lanka in one match he was out on 172 of just 121 balls with 13 sixes and 8 fours. That is his record.

Gautam Gambhir- Batsman

Gautam Gambhir played in the IPL. Reached his 500 runs playing in the Delhi team (daredevils). The opener with his captain Virender Sehwag. Led his team to the semifinal but lost the semis. Now playing in the Indian one day internationals team still opens with Virender Sehwag. But in the series against Sri Lanka Virender Sehwag was injured so he opened with Virat Kohli who was the captain in the U-19 team is now 20 so he is in the Indian team opens with Gautam Gambhir. Gautam Gambhir played in the T20 world cup was the man of the match in the final match against Pakistan made a half cen- tury. In 5 tests he was with three half century's.

Virender Sehwag-Batsman

Virender Sehwag is a fast player he is an opener in the Indian team he opens with Gautam Gambhir. He was the cap- tain in the IPL the captain of the team daredevil's opener with Gautam Gambhir in that too, he led his team to the semi final but lost the semi finals. Virender Sehwag is a very experienced player. In 1 test he has a double century and a half century. He was about to brake Lara's record but he got out at 319 against South Africa.

Ishant Sharma- Fast Bowler

Ishant Sharma is a tall fiery fast bowler with long hair. The reason he can bowl fast is because of his height and he is only 20 years old. His best bowling in tests is 5/117 and in ODIs 4/38. He is not a very good batsman but he can sur- vive till some balls his highest in tests is 23 and in ODIs 8. He is selected in almost every Indian team. Ishant Sharma is a great player.

Rahul Dravid-Experienced Batsman

Rahul Dravid is an experienced batsman. He did wicket keeping for five or six matches and captained india many times he has played more than 300 One-day Internationals and more than 120 test matches. His highest score in One-day Internationals is 148 and in tests 271. People call him a wall, because if he goes to bat he stays at the crease making runs or not making runs. He scores runs at about a strike rate of 50.

Indian Team T20 World Cup Winner

India won the world cup t20; Gautam Gambhir was the man of the match with a half century and Yuvraj Singh with 6 sixes against England. India won the final match against Pakistan, India were 157-7 after 20 overs and got Pakistan all out for 152 in 19.4 overs. But anyway India won by 5 runs the captain was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who led his team to a world cup.

I have just started my blog. Its past eleven i will go to sleep, tomorrow i will write more