Just About Everything

black-winged kite One lifetime is indeed not enough to visit the so many beautiful places in India alone! Here is another lovely place that is easily doable if you are in Bengaluru or in any of the adjoining states. Masinaguri In Tamil Nadu is wonderful not only for bird watching but to experience the pure bliss of being amidst nature. From Bengaluru It will be a slightly longish drive, a little over 5 hours if you take the Benagluru Mysore Ooty road. However, the drive is absolutely wonderful because of the areas that you cross on your way, such as Bandipur, Mudumalai...you almost get the feeling of driving through a forest. Almost always in such drives the journeys turn out to be more exciting and invigorating! These bird pictures (and a couple of animals as well) are from this belt right up to Ooty. The pictures are from my cousin, Soma’s album. Black and orange flycatcher Black Eagles Fairy Bluebird Indian Blackbird Jerdon's le...

Akshi beach Akshi beach near Alibag is around 3 hours drive from Mumbai. If you are looking for a quiet weekend away from the city and enjoy being in the midst of nature then Akshi may be your destination. Not only is the beach clean and quiet, if you like bird watching you may be able to sight a fair number of birds as well. Akshi is around 6 kms away from Alibag. There are a number of places to stay near Akshi, you may want to stay near Alibag where you will find more accommodation options. I am sharing a few pictures taken at Akshi by Soma who went to Akshi on a weekend trip in December last year.  Arctic Skua Common Tern-Akshi Hueglin's Gull,Akshi Lesser-crested-Tern-Akshi Little Terns- Akshi Pomarine Jaeger-Akshi

I am sharing a small video clipping of the over 300 years old Itachuna Rajbari in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. This video clipping will give you an idea about the place. This is just a glimpse of the ground floor level, there is so much more... The history, the ambience, and the feeling of spending time in a place that is over 300 years old is really quite something ! You can find more information on Itachuna in my earlier post here: Itachuna Rajbari; Experience a bit of Bengal's heritage on a weekend trip

Itachuna Rajbari entrance If you want to experience living in a heritage house, it is now possible. Just a few hours (3 hours) drive from Kolkata will take you to Itachuna Rajbari in Hooghly district of West Bengal. By Car : From Kolkata we took the Durgapur Expressway via Vidyasagar setu. After driving for over an hour, on the left you will find Hindusthan Hotel. The left exit right after that will take you to the road which will turn under the bridge. Take that road and you will be in Bosipur, keep driving till you reach Halusai (around 20 kms) and then turn left towards Khanyan Railway Station, Itachuna Rajbari is very close to the station. We missed the Hotel Hindusthan landmark and we ended up doing 50 km extra! I would recommend leaving early in the morning to avoid traffic, you will be able to reach in a little over three hours. You can also get there by train, the station where you will need to get off is "Khanyan". The history of Itachuna Rajbari, which is ...