The Road Blog

“Your mission has begun. These are my words to you, My devotees. Each one of you has a unique and valuable part to play in this lifetime. Only those whom I have called can Serve me”. - Baba It was once again a call from Swami that made us wanting to visit and have a darshan of him and so, we decided to head to Puttaparthi on the dawn of 18 th July 2009. It was my second time, first being in April 2009. It is believed that one cannot set foot on the holy land of Puttaparthi until and unless called by the Lord himself. I was fortunate that by his grace, I would be seeing him again in such short span of time. This time we were 5 of us, mom, dad, sister, a friend of her’s and I. We started by around 7am and drove up to chikballapur where we stopped for breakfast. There are two good places for food here, one being the local Shanti Sagar and the other- Kamat. The distance between Bangalore and Puttaparthi is about 160kms, a little more than a 3hrs drive by road. It is ...

Along the greatest heights of the Himalayas where cold mountains meet the heated Indian plains lies the land of Yaks and Yetis, Stupas and Sherpas – Nepal . It was 9 years ago that I visited this place. I was 16 then and had no inclinations to write travelogues, but today when I look back, I wish I had. To the little I remember of the Annapurna Range....Here I go... It was the scotching summer of 2000, and May being the holiday season for all we cousins, the elders of the family planned a trip to the north. It was once again a family trip, this time to a rare destination in Nepal stretching for a fortnight. As per the agenda, it was decided that we first go to ‘Ayodhya – the birth place of Lord Rama’, from there to ‘Naimisharanya – the forest where Lord Rama wandered during his exile’ and then to ‘Pokhara’ in Nepal and further to ‘Muktinath’ , our final destination. Day 1 On the 17th of May 2000, as the evening was setting in, the epitome of excitement was rising higher as the 14 of u...

Its fun and adventure we look out for and it is this crazy enthusiasm in us that makes us go on a roller coaster ride. Be it Kashmir or Kerala, the Dargahs or the Temples, the Seas or the Deserts, its always been an enterprising experience for us. The foggy lakes of Sattal (Bhimtal), the mountain range of Ladakh, the coffee estates of Coorg, the sun tans of Goa, the coir villages of Alleppey, the heritage of Karnataka (Belur/Halebid/Hampi), the bactarian camels of Nubra, the blue colour of Pangong, the tributes of Kargil, the threats of Srinagar, the forts of Jaipur, the underwater world at Maldives, the golden beaches of Bentota, the island hopping of Philippines, the lion head of Singapore and the list goes on........ You can catch some glimpses of our journey through our pics and experiences... We’ve seen it all and yet greedy. Our bags are packed and all that we see is the road ahead.