Farewell to Lord Ganesha

As the Ganesh Chaturthi festival comes to an end people come in hordes to bid farewell to their favorite god. In India we simply love all our festivals or let me put it this way that we just need a reason to celebrate!! With Ganesh Chaturthi our festive season starts and it comes to an end only with Christmas and New year. India has so many different religions and customs all living in peace & harmony it really makes me proud to be an born in this Great Nation.

Here are some pics of Ganesha from my neighboring area.

Skywatch Raigad

I had taken all these pics at Raigad, It was a small trek but i enjoyed it a lot.
I plan to put up more photos of Raigad in the coming week. Raigad was the main fort or headquarters of Shivaji the Great Maratha warrior.

The first rays of the morning sun appear on the horizon(enlarge and see the difference)

The view of the mountains, look at the snake like winding roads

Sun-rays are now showing up as we begin to ascend towards the fort

Now that day is bright we head towards the view point (takmak)

Hope you guys enjoyed these pics.

I'm sharing this with my friends at Skywatch

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Starting today most parts of India celebrate the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi welcoming the elephant god - Ganesha. The festival will the be celebrated for the next 10 days.
These are the pics of the Ganesha that we have in our house, this is the 101st year that our family is celebrating this festival continuing the tradition started by our great grandfather.

I wish and pray that this festive season let Ganesha bring lots of Happiness, Peace and Joy in everyone's life.

Day @ Beach

It's monsoon here in Mumbai and I'm terribly missing the Sunshine and my good old cycling days at the beach.

This is what I miss!

I'm sharing this with my friends at Skywatch

Sunset Times

Another wonderful Sunset that i was able to see at a beach close to my house.

Every dog has its beach!

I'm sharing this with my friends at Skywatch

Global Vipassana Center

Since the past few days my thoughts have been wandering and sometimes to the extreme, at such times the one thing that i look forward to is "Peace". The learned one's say that Peace lies within and today I'm going to take you to a place which helps you in finding that inner peace.

The Global Vipassana Pagoda at Gorai, Mumbai

The magnificent pagoda stands tall at 320ft approximately

The dome is probably world's largest stone built dome

I've seen this structure so many times but it still amazes me every time

It's all a matter of Faith!

The Vipassana center offers various in-house meditation courses and as far as I know all of them are offered at free of cost.

I'm sharing this with my friends at My World Tuesday

Was it the Doomsday?

There I was as usual enjoying my evening stroll on my bicycle and suddenly i see this big evil looking cloud, like a Monster spreading its claws.. I wondered "Was this the Doomsday?"

I realized that the roads were deserted

With fear in my eyes I went ahead to take a closer look..Yes it looked vicious

Before I could say anything the monster was all set to gobble up this tree

A crow nearby was watching everything as amazed as I was


I asked the Lord "Is this how everything is going to end?" and then...

Came this Ray of Light, Ray of Hope. Yes he was listening

There it was my beloved Sun, refusing to be conquered and telling me with a smile "Doomsday can wait". Satisfied with that assurance I returned back home

Sharing this with my Skywatch friends

Flowers from my garden

Here are some of the flowers from my garden , I don't know their botanical names but all i know is that they make me Happy.

I'm sharing this at Ruby Tuesday

Lazy day

" I can, but I won't "

Posted for Camera critters

Sunset on River Nile

Watching Sunrise and Sunset is something that i really love to do. Sun is such a beautiful object for photography. I think i can never get tired of shooting Sunrise and Sunsets.

Today I'd like to share the Sunset on river Nile which was clicked during my last backpacking trip to Egypt.

I'm sharing this with my friends at Skywatch Do visit them

Salt and the City

Salt is that one key ingredient which always wants to be a part of every dish that we make, Love it, Hate it but you just can't ignore it!! Try ignoring it and it will come back to haunt you.

Today I'm going to take you to the salt pans of suburban Mumbai, these salt pans have been a part of this region for over a 100 years now. While the final processing happens in a fancy factory unit but not much has changed when it come to extracting the crude salt.

Here are some pics of the salt pans.

The guys who work here hardly make $150 a month in wages

Are you worth your Salt?

When i used to visit these salt pans as a kid they were spread across everywhere but sadly nowadays a large part of their land has been grabbed by the building construction guys, who want to create a concrete jungle here.
May be in a few years time these pictures will be the only memory of what the landscape once looked like.

Salt and the City.


I'm posting this for My World Tuesday do visit them.

My World - Harishchandragad

On a cool December morning me and a few guys decide to trek to Harishchandragad, which lies in the Ahmednagar region (Maharashtra, India) and is a part of the Sahyadri range. This was an overnight trek and we camped in one of those old caves up there.

I'd like to share some pics of that journey.

My path is rugged roads are long!

Got some catching up to do

"Put your best foot forward" one slip and that's the end of the journey

Wild Flowers - some motivation to continue with the journey

That's the view we trekked for

Watching Sunset from Konkankada is worth all the pains

"The feeling of space - limitless space can only be experienced by living in the mountains" - Ruskin Bond

Harishchandragad Temple

ShivaLinga - there are 2 local legends for this Linga 1st is the day the 4th pillar collapses it will be the end of the world and the 2nd one is that the water surrounding this Linga has magical healing powers


Hope you enjoyed this Journey with me.

For more such stories check My world Tuesday and Skywatch

Beloved

Love conquers in the long run. It won't do to become impatient--wait, wait--patience is bound to give you success - Swami Vivekananda

Beloved

I share with you my dreams, my success and my joy
I bring to you my laughter, my fear and my celebrations
I search in you strength to overcome my conflicts and my pain
I have gifted you my heart, my love and my life
because I know - You Care

(Author- unknown)

Posted for Skywatch Lovers

Girl on the Beach

The girl on the beach
who is she?
She seems so happy
wants to be free
Freedom I think
is a state of Mind
Just open your arms
and see you can fly!
The girl on the beach
who is she?


Hope you enjoyed my post and a crazy attempt at poetry, do visit Skywatch