The Wonder That Is Taj

Okay! The picture in the last post is the Naqqarkhana [resthouse] that flanks the Taj at the right, according to the Islamic architecture. And the next few posts are going to be dedicated to the great specimen of architecture, that is The Taj!

I might be committing a grave sacrilege, but the fact is that the Taj does not inspire me as a monument to love. However, in beauty, grandeur, architecture and engineering, I find it an unparalleled marvel. The white marble structure stands imposing in the lush green lawns. And though I have seen it a few times, on each visit, the first sight does not fail to strike an awe. For those who might not have actually visited the Taj, the pictures must look magnificent; but believe me, it is an experience worth all the trouble and hassle to visit it in person. The sight is such that cannot be described in words, on in any number of pictures!

About ...
(Click to enlarge to read!)

The Main Entranceway


Wah! Taj!!

The waterway

The Naqqarkhana
(As seen from the marble platform of Taj)

The Naqqarkhana again
(On its own base, flanked by two cupolas)

Guess who?

This picture comes by the way of introduction for next series of posts. Any guesses?

(click on the image for a larger view)

Flowers from the himayas

In one of the posts about my Kedarnath trip, I had posted pictures of wild flowers we saw on our way. I posted the pictures as they were taken - the reason being the context. Pijush had suggested cropping the pictures to focus on the object under consideration. Following this useful input, what I did was crop all the flower pictures, and create a collage of them. An here we are!

(Click on the picture for a larger view)

Himalayan Adventure - The End

The story of this adventure in the himalayas concludes here. We started back from Kedarnath after lunch, and aimed to cover as much distance as possible. We made a stop at the picurusque town of Srinagar, though we could not explore it since by the time we reached it was quite dark, and we started early morning the next day. We had little [and little, in the sense of the word ;-)] compensations ...

The flower starts developing from the stem
The leaves become flowers, or the flowers become leaves?

And then they grow into these beauties
(The diameter of each full-grown flower was about 1 cm)

And then there were these blue belles
These were still tinier - about 3 mm

The view from the rooftop of the hotel -
The clouds, the mountains and the river

Himalayan Adventure - VIII

While climbing up, by the time we reached the region of flower-laden slopes, we were too tired to take photos, or even to admire them. But when we were descending, we had just started when we found those flowers. Thus, for the last post in this "series", I have pictures of flora and fauna (though mostly the former) we saw on our way down.

Himalayan Adventure - VII

I prefer to post pictures either in chronological order, or by logical group. However, the previous post was out of sequence. :-) I had not yet finished with the details of the climb up!

The path up ...
... by the side of Mandakini

Again ... multitude of waterfalls

In the upper regions, the slopes were full of tiny, colorful flowers!

And the mountains stood majestic
with a halo of clouds

By the time we reached up, we were almost dead on our feet, and walking each foot was a torture. We had planned to stay in GVMN hotel, though we had not made advanced bookings. When we finally managed to find the hotel, we found that it was deserted! Searching for another one was demoralizing, the least.
A sort of village has developed around the temple, purely to cater to the visitors. Since there are a lot of pilgrims, a number of dharamshalas (rest houeses) have developed. These cater primarily (for a charge, of course) to people from a particular community or region. We managed to find decent rooms in one of these, a Punjab and Sindh Awas. There are small shops, selling articles required for offering prayers, woollens and souvenirs. In the winters, the access paths are closed, and so does the temple. At this time, the rest houses ans the shops close down as well, and the owners go back to their native places.
After resting for a while, and having some hot tea, we went for an evening darshan. There was quite a crowd in the temple, being the time of the arti. And we were pestered by the priests, and badly hounded by the beggars and 'sadhus', which was quite a turn off.
Back at the dharamshala, we requested for simple food - dal, roti and rice. Rather than having it in our rooms, we decided to have it in the kitchen itself, by the fire. Mats were arranged round the cooking fire, and it was a nice experience, having food in the traditional style, after a long long time.

Next morning, we planned to have an early darshan, and start back as early as possible. In the morning, some of us got up earlier than the others, and ventured out to admire the mountains. Kedarnath is the confluence of the rivers Swargdwara and Mandakini, and the source of Mandakini. In the early morning, the sky was very clear and blue, and the confluence of the river so calm and peacful, despite the force with which the water flowed.

The confluence
To the left is Swargdwara, to the right, Mandakini
One can see the glaciers as they melt into these streams

As the snow melts ...

Closer look at the glaciers

Far away from the maddening crowd

Himalayan Adventure - VI

Early next morning, we woke up to a clear day, and caught beautiful views of the snow covered peaks.

The sun rising over the Mighty Himalayas
A part of the Kedarnath shrine in the foreground

Snow covered peaks in all their glory

The Temple of Kedarnath
As viewed from the backside
(It was impossible to get a complete front view)

Imposing entrance of the temple
Himalayas in the background look enchanting

Early morning activity

Devotees exiting from the side entrance

An ancient temple dedicate to Lord Shani

Himalayan Adventure - V

Moving on ...

Mahadev Falls - perhaps the biggest of 'em all

Mandakini flows down with force
We struggle to move up and up
(The cluster of shops on the upper left corned marks the center of the 14 km journey)


Where'd he come from ...
Where'd he go ??

Perfect Pose
He stood still and stared at me while I took his snap

Coming straight from the heavens

Himalayan Adventure - IV

As mentioned in the previous post, we made an overnight stop at Guptkashi. We planned to leave very early morning, so at to reach Kedarnath as early in the morning as possible, so that the climb up would be easier.

Guptkashi - still asleep in early hours

We continued the journey along Mandakini, crossing a few more confluences, like Nandprayag and Sonprayag. As we gained altitude, the vegetation became greener and denser, the waterfalls became more frequent, and roads became worse. The view was breathtaking, but we could not stop to take photographs, since the roads being narrow, there was hardly any space to park the vehicle on the side, and morover, we were running short of time. We were advised by our driver that we would need about 5-6 hours to climb the 14 kms stretch, and since it started raining by 2 pm or so, and it got dark after 4 pm, we should aim to start the climb by 9 am. However, we reached the base point, GauriKund only around that time. There is a motorable road till Gaurikund; Kedarnath is at a distance of 14 kms from here, and the options to cover this distance is to walk, take a pony, or take a palaquin. We visited the temples at Gaurikund, had breakfast, and started the climb rather late than planned. The sun was up and shining with force, and it was quite hot, making the steep climb much more difficult.

There is little to describe about the climb, except that we were soon tired, and after three kms or so, we had to oush ourselves real hard, and by the time we reached the top, we were almost dead on our feet :-) As for the rest, the sights were amazing, and the pictures can do the talking better. :-)

Colorful lizard with blue limbs!
It merged perfectly with the rocks!!

The first waterfall we walked beside
There was a rainbow at the foot
(though we could not take a picture of the rainbow)

Another waterfall on the other side of the hill
We could see it fall all the way from the top!

And yet another one ....

A million streams ...

Himalayan Adventure III

Since we still had some time left from our leave, we thought of making the best use of it, and visiting another place in the area which was still accessible. The only option turned out to be Kedarnath. Although there is a road that goes to Kedarnath from Chamoli, we were advised against using that one, since that was not so well maintained, and could result in long delays if we got stuck there. We were advised to go back to Rudraprayag, and take the national highway from there.

We stopped at another waterfall/landslide on the way, which we had crossed hurriedly on our way up. We found these rocks particularly interesting – the one word they brought to our mind was – Muffin!!

We were stuck in the way due to yet another landslide. Although they gave us a lot of bother, they also gave an opportunity to take in beautiful sights at leisure.

Amid all of the chaos, we also managed to have a flat tire. While the driver was busy replacing the tire, some of the people played a game of throwing a rock farthest in the valley.

We retraced our steps (or treads, rather) to Rudraprayag, and followed the course of Mandakini this time. It was quite dark by the time we reached Guptkashi, where we stopped for the night. The debacle of the planned tour had made the mood as dark and gloomy as the clouds!