Aga Khan Palace and its significance in Indian Freedom Movement

It was during a visit to one of our cousin's place in Pune that we visited Aga Khan Palace. It was just a day's trip to Pune and during our casual talks, did I check with cousin about the place. All he said was, its just a small building with few photographs of Mahatma Gandhi displayed. I remembered from our visit to Mani Bhavan about the significance of Aga Khan Palace, and didn't want to miss the visit.

The palace was built by Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III in 1892. It gained significance during the Indian Freedom movement, when it served as prison to Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi, Mahadev Desai and Sarojini Naidu from 1942 to 1944, following the launch of Quit India Movement.

There is ample parking inside the campus and you need to walk through the lawns to reach the palace. The palace is multi storeyed structure and known for its Italian arches on all floors. Its only few of the rooms which are open to public which display photographs and portraits depicting Gandhiji's life. Even though we visited on weekend, it was not that crowded and we could easily get along the palace.

Inside the palace campus are samadhis of Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai, who lost their lives during their captivity in the palace. There is also samadhi of Gandhji, which is said to have his ashes.

Travel Info:

Aga Khan Palace is on Pune-Nagar Road.

Timings: 9AM to 12:30PM, 1:30PM to 6PM

Entry Fee: Rs. 5 for adults and Rs. 2 for kids

Birds and Wildlife of Kutch!!!

Kutch is well known for its wild life and immigrant birds. Our first encounter with the wild in Kutch was a jackal while driving back from White Rann at the night, though I couldn't click it. Its said that Kalo Dungar is the only place where you can find jackals feeding on vegetarian food. People from Kalo Dungar and around feed jackals before having their meal.

Though the immigrant Flamingos attracts most of the tourists to Little Rann for bird watching, every lake and river in Kutch can give you a glimpse of these winged beauties. The Hamirsar lake in Bhuj and Rukmavati river in Mandvi are places where you can find Flamingos and other immigrant birds.

The Sharad Baug garden, being very close to Hamirsar lake, too attracts birds, we found so many bats hanging down the trees at sharad Baug

We found these white browed bushchat or Stoliczka's bushchat at Toran resort on the way to Kalo Dungar and the other at the Kalo Dungar hills, they look very much like sparrows and are of same size,

The dense forest surrounding Vijay Vilas palace too offer you with bird watching and wild life, we encountered with a jackal, few wild asses and few peafowls.

How I wish I had better lenses to capture them better.  

Finally I wind up my posts from our weekend trip to Kutch, Gujarat. Do have a look at the complete tour here.

Narayani Dham, Lonavala

Going on with my posts on Lonavala, here is the post on Narayani Dham. I used to view this place, every time I travelled to Bangalore by bus, and wondered about it. Then only to be told by one of my friends who visited Narayani Dham. Being just next to Mumbai-Pune Expressway, you can easily get a glimpse on this place while travelling. On one of our drives to Pune, we planned a visit to the Dham. We took the first Lonavala exit on the Expressway and that made us to take a tour of whole Lonavala city to reach the place.

Dedicated to goddess Narayani, the temple is a beautiful white marble structure. The entrance is a 4 storeyed structure, there are fountains lined up on the pathway from entrance to temple. I had seen few of the pics on net, with beautiful view of the temple from the entrance, but when we visited the pathway was covered with roof and that hide the complete view of the temple, not sure if that arrangement was permanent.

The main deity of the temple is Ma Narayani and on the either side of the main shrine are shrines dedicated to Ganapathi, Hanuman and other Hindu deities. You can plan your visit during aarti or even a visit at night to get the view of the beautifully lite temple.

The deities are beautifully decorated with glittering jeweleries. There is accommodation and veg food available at the dham. Other attraction for kids here is Goshala, where you can feed the cows.

Travel Info:

Temple timings: 6:30AM to 1PM and 4PM to 10PM
Visit here to plan your trip to Lonavala and other posts on Lonavala here.

Book Review: Capturing Wildlife Moments in India

I am not a person who is interested much in fiction, all that interests me are those books which create awareness on global issues or those travel books narrating the tales of history, heritage and culture. Being associated with few of the campaigns on wildlife conservation and animal welfare in the recent past, when I received an email from Saevus Wildlife India to review their coffee table book 'Capturing Wildlife Moments in India' by Ashok Mahindra, I happily accepted. Ashok Mahindra is a Chartered Accountant and is now a wildlife and travel photographer. Through Hemchand Mahindra Wildlife Foundation, he promotes the protection of fragile ecosystem and conservation of wildlife through various activities in India.

Book cover, with Ustad(T-24) of Ranthambore National Park

Book:  Capturing Wildlife Moments in India

Author: Ashok Mahindra

Publisher: Oxford University Press(OUP) & Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS)

Binding: Hardbound

Pages: 160

Price: Rs. 1450

Genre: Nonfiction, Wildlife Photography

'Capturing Wildlife Moments in India' contains 120 photographs of animals and birds of India, photographed from author's visits to over 30 parks, sanctuaries and other locations. Through the book, author tries to create awareness of real danger to wildlife from different sources, mainly poaching, man-animal conflict and deforestation. The photographs accompany the location information, along with camera settings and photography techniques. Author relates some of the species to Indian God and Goddess and legends. He also links to myths and tribal rituals which creates the fear of endanger to certain species. None of the wildlife books with Bengal Tigers are complete without Machli, Tigress Queen of Ranthambore National Park, there is a collection of photographs of tigers from different sanctuaries of India. Its just not about wild, but also the forest environment, be it Sal trees of Kanha or roots of Sundarbans mangrove trees, the author showcases the beauty of the forests as well. I liked the way the author narrates the story behind the photographs, spending hours together to get the perfect clicks. The one which interested me was the escape of a butterfly trapped in a spider web. 

Asiatic Elephants, Kaziranga National Park

The book introduced me to many lesser known creatures and sanctuaries, which I hadn't heard of, and interesting facts about certain creatures. The book also sums up the wildlife hotspots and interesting places to stay to explore the wild, which helps wildlife photographers and travellers to plan their visit. As a wildlife enthusiast and travel blogger, I would recommend to add this book to your shelf.

The book will be available at most of the major retail outlets across India and also through online retail sites like Amazon, Flipkart etc. It will also be available for sale through the BNHS website.

"This post is a part of the book review program at Saevus Wildlife India in association with The Hemchand Mahindra Foundation for the book Capturing Wildlife Moments in India" 

Karla Caves, Lonavala!!!

These pics of Karla caves are from my visit 8 years back to Lonavala and since I posted recently on Tiger's Point, thought of covering other places of Lonavala in few of the upcoming posts, from my different visits. Lonavala being on the way to Pune, we just drop by on most of our drives to Pune, but the visit to Karla caves was during our weekend trip. We stayed at The Adarsh, it was quite a comfortable stay. Just opposite to Adarsh is Hotel Chandralok, we couldn't get a booking there, so had to opt for Adarsh. Chandralok, serves the best Gujarati food and we used to have most of our meals there. Hotel Purohit just close by too serves very good Gujarati food.

Maharashtra has many Buddhist caves, be the world famous Ajanta and Ellora caves or many of the caves well with-in Mumbai, Kanheri caves, Jogeshwari caves, Mahakali caves and Elephanta caves or Karla caves of Lonavala, with nearing Bhaja caves and Bedse caves, to name few of many caves of Maharashtra. That really proves the Buddhist influence in Maharashtra, just after Bihar and Nepal, as its origin.

Its around 350 steps climb to reach the cave complex with few shops selling snacks on the way. So, if you are travelling with kids, be prepared for the climb.

Dating back to 2nd century BC, Karla caves is the rock cut Buddhist cave complex, with chaitya(the prayer hall) and viharas(dwelling places of Buddhist monks). The inside walls are intricately carved with sculptures and inscriptions. You can know more about Karla Caves here on Wikipedia. Most of the complex area is occupied by hindu temple dedicated to goddess Ekveera.

Travel Info:

Check out my post here for the travel guide to Lonavala. Karla caves are around 12km from Lonavala city. You can hire an auto rickshaw or taxi to visit the caves along with other tourist places of Lonavala. 

Timings: 8:30AM to 6PM
Entry Fee: Rs. 5 for adult