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Jim Corbett National Park - Traversing the buffer zone

Travel

Ramnagar in the Himalayan foothills is a doorway to the famous tiger terrain - Jim Corbett National Park. Soon after the monsoon rains we explored the plush greens there. A visit to the jungle's buffer zone...
Tags: India, Himalaya, Jim-Corbett-National-Park, Trek, Uttarakhand, travelogue, travel-guide
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Exploring Palace-town Orchha - Madhya Pradesh, India

Travel

If you take the road from Khajuraho to Jhansi, you can't miss this palace cum temple town's skyline to your left as you cross River Betwa. It is fascinating, even from that distance, to say the least. Orccha is 18 km from Jhansi, but seems a world apart from city life. True, it isn't a city, it is a well preserved video from history, with colours and sounds just as good as they must have been four centuries ago.
Tags: Khajuraho, Madhya-Pradesh, India, Orccha, travelogue, vulture, Bird-Watching
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Vrindavan celebrates the season of love

Travel

Vrindavan’s festival calendar keeps busy. In the township where God came to love and be loved as Sri Radha-Krishna, the season of love never ends. It may be the peak of summer, but Vrindavan is as popular a destination as ever. Sultry summer does nothing to stop day trippers from Delhi, Agra and Lucknow, especially on weekends or around full moon nights.
Tags: India, Vrindavan, travelogue, Holi, Mathura, Barsana, Uttar-Pradesh, Festival
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Hill trains of India - Riding high

Travel

Trains through the Swiss Alps can wait awhile as travellers take joy rides on toy trains across the picturesque Indian terrain. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), a UNESCO World Heritage Site was an engineering marvel on a 2 ft narrow guage track, in 1881, the year of its launch. The highest station is Ghum at 7407 ft. The only other mountain railway in the world that reaches a higher altitude is in the Andes: Cusco station at 14,000 ft.
Tags: India, travelogue, train, travel, Darjeeling, Ooty, Kangra, Jwalamukhi, Himalaya, travel-guide, railway, Traveller
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Sri Sri Ravishankar - in conversation with students, teachers and parents

Relax

In ancient India, children were instructed on Brahmopdesh, ‘You are love, you are anand, you are chetna, you are that. They discovered their strengths and did their people proud. Nowadays, we use the wrong kind of language, negatively charged: 'You are useless, you know nothing….' Such remarks make the child’s foundation weak. The goal of education is to increase awareness not information...
Tags: India, education, Sri-Sri-Ravishankar, Lucknow, Uttar-Pradesh, self-improvement, Art-Of-Living
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Back to nature for natural health

Ayurveda

We are a hygiene and health conscious society, increasingly depending on packaged foods, mineral water and aerated drinks. Well, what of it? Is health by our side now? Juices in tetrapak, water treated by reverse osmosis, and the rest of our health conscious choices mean zilch if we keep away from nature’s wisdom, and basic eating etiquette.
Tags: India, Ayurveda, health, food, self-improvement
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Himalayan holiday - Travel talk from Badrinath, Madmaheshwar and beyond

Travel

It was a privilege to stay in a rest-house dating back to 1890 at Gwaldam. The oak and deodar forested haven with Pindar river gushing by, with snow peaks of Trishul, Hathi Parvat preening in the cornflower-blue sky, and the playful breeze exciting the green sentinels of the hillside; was all a sensual treat for us. We were overwhelmed by this introduction to the Himalayan beauty.
Tags: India, Madmaheshwar, travelogue, Garhwal-Himalaya, travel, Ganga
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Srimad Bhagwad Gita - The greatest psychiatrist speaks to all Arjuns

Books

Gita is a dialogue between Krishna and Arjun, at the onset of battle at Kurukshetra. The act of a sheperd, a teacher to bring his sheep, his student on the right track. The most powerful component in any battle, or day to day life, is not the resources or weapons that one may have. It is the mind, which holds the reigns, and makes all the difference between success and failure, happiness and unhappiness. It is the mental programming that counts.
Tags: India, spirituality, Yoga, Sanskrit, Krishna, Ved-Vyas, Book-review, Srimad-Bhagwad-Gita
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Wondrous Taj Mahal at Agra

Travel

A blue sky cuddled the cloudlike Taj Mahal. Smartly turned out guides led tourists around Emperor Shah Jahan’s success in immortalizing his love for his queen Mumtaz Mahal. Well of course, the edifice commemorates love. It is also a synonym of Indian architecture to the world. Beauty, passion, engineering skills and optical tricks make it the wonder that it is.
Tags: India, Agra, Taj-Mahal, travelogue, Uttar-Pradesh, UNESCO-World-Heritage-Site
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Travel journal - Chitrakoot

Travel

Chitakoot, a city shared by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, is still untouched by touristy crowds. A quiet getaway, with enough happening locally to interest a curious visitor. Ram ghat, especially under the clear summer sky was a favoured place by mendicants for sleeping. Much before it was daybreak, most of them were up for a dip in the River Mandakini, and some had settled down for meditation as well!
Tags: India, travelogue, Chitrakoot, arti, Kamadgiri, Mandakini Ganga, Uttar-Pradesh, Madhya-Pradesh, Ram
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Kayaking and White Water Rafting - Devprayag to Rishikesh

Travel

Starting off from Devprayag, we lost track of all human life on the banks of the turbulent Ganga soon enough. After a day of exciting rowing, and manning the oars as per our river guide’s instructions, and lolling on sandy beaches after a fitful lunch of tinned beans and juice, we were ready to meet the stars and light a bonfire at night at Vyas ghat in Rajaji National Park, to the call of leopards, fox and wolves!
Tags: India, Rishikesh, Ganga, Himalaya, River-Rafting, travelogue, Uttarakhand, Garhwal-Himalaya
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Introducing yog or yoga for mind-body-spirit wellness

Yoga

Yog as a discipline aims primarily at God-realization. On the way to this goal it doctors the body and mind to perfect health. Yogasans or exercises being the third step of Ashtang yog, are the most popular aspect of yog, and popularly known as yoga. Yoga is a simple as it is effective. A good teacher and a receptive student is all that it takes to adopt this ancient discipline for health and fulfillment.
Tags: Yoga, wellness, mind, mental-health
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Impressions of Hanuman dhara, Chitrakoot

Travel

Chitrakoot is at its best in the rainy season, I was told. Though I was here quite unwittingly in early June, the summer storm and rain salvaged my trip by showing off the really clean and green Chitrakoot, especially the suburbs - hidden by Sal, babool, neem, bel and sundry other trees and bushes, which bounced with energy as the rains came down.
Tags: Chitrakoot, travelogue, Uttar-Pradesh, Madhya-Pradesh, India
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Walkabout Town - Annapolis, Maryland

Travel

Shalini and Yogesh Chandra visit Annapolis, while enjoying a summer break in the USA. Shalini writes about their experience at Maryland's capital....
Tags: travelogue, travel-guide, Maryland, Annapolis, USA, weekend-destination, traveller
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Courting clouds at Cherrapunjee, Meghalaya - The distant Northeast

Travel

Waiting for the summer rains, Vinita Lal recalls her tryst with monsoon clouds at Cherrapunjee in Meghalaya. Mawsynram, 16 km from Cherrapunjee is now officially the wettest place on Earth with 11,873mm of annual rain. As a geography lover it was an added delight for her to be there.
Tags: India, North-east, Meghalaya, travelogue, Cherrapunjee,
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Book - Yoga and Ayurveda - Self-Healing and Self-Realization - Dr David Frawley

Books

Prana gives energy to all our faculties, without which they cannot function. To control all our faculties the key is the control of prana. Prana is the boss. It is the power of God within us. Without the sanction of prana nothing can be done at a voluntary or involuntary level in the body and mind.  to work with our prana, we cannot get anything done.
Tags: Book-review, book-excerpt, David-Frawley, Ayurveda, Yoga
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