Garden of Five Senses

Garden of Five Senses or Saidullajab Garden is located near Saket in New Delhi. I was interested in visiting it since it had been constructed a few years earlier, but didn’t manage to do so for quite some time. The first time Nitin and I visited the garden last year (during our pre-digital days ;-) ), the spring was almost at its end, so there there were not very many flowers in bloom. However, we were quite impressed by the partially landscaped garden spread over quite a large area. An idle weekend in Feb, we made another impromptu visit to the garden, expecting a beautiful flowering season. Our expectations were more than fulfilled – the place was a riot of colors – a flower festival was on!!!

Some interesting sculptures enhance the charm of the place.

The huge wind-chime in the centre of the pond looks beautiful. At the time of the flower festival, the water was covered with flowers floating on it.

Here we saw the most amazing Dahlias.


This was the first time I saw a Japanese miniature garden.

The flower arrangements included an assortment of a wide variety of beautiful flowers - Zerbera, Lily, Ribbon flower, Rose (some pics posted here). The others were Pansy, Carnation, Bell flower, Gladiola (and many other names that I forgot!)

Pansies come in many beautiful color combinations, but the ones I loved most were these white and purple ones.

Then there were these colorful arrangements.




And here are some violets and carnations looking pretty.

Temple on the move ?

This photo actually does not belong in my travel memoirs. Although the quality of the photo is not good (it was taken with my cellphone camera from a moving car), I found it rather amusing, and decided to post it anyway.


Did you notice the man seeking heavenly solace in Holy Father's lap ?

Walking in the clouds

In July of 2005, we travelled to a place called Chakrata with a group of colleagues. Chakrata is a small village in Uttaranchal, about 100 kms from Dehradun, up in the hills. Chakrata bases a military cantonment, and almost all the activity in the place is driven because of the military presence. It has very limited facilities (there were hardly one or two half-decent hotels); in fact, it is not a frequented tourist destination. But, the natural beauty is untouched and unspoilt (probably because of the very fact that it does not encourage tourism).

It was quite cold, even in July - none of the hotels' rooms or 'dhabas' (the place had no restaurants to boast of!) were furnished with a fan !! Most of the time we were walking in the clouds - which seemed like dense fog in the mornings and evenings.

For the rest, I'll just let a few pictures speak up.

On the way

Majestic Deodars

Lilies ... growing in the wild

Sunset - through the clouds

A Golden Langoor mother with her baby

(The baby is not clearly visible though)