Two Tuesdays ago when I was driving home from Lucknow airport with my father, I saw a few pandals on the road serving food. My dad, whose love for pooris and kachauris is not a secret, suddenly had a happy grin on his face, “I am getting the aroma of pooris being fried,” he said. While I had a confused look on my face, dad went on to tell me the story behind these pandals and the story of Bada Mangal.
Last year I travelled to Japan and I still wonder what made me pick such a difficult country for my first international trip. Difficult not because of food (I love Japanese food), difficult because the communication there isn’t easy. I got some help from friends as I was planning the trip but most of the stuff I learned while I was there. In the past few months a few friends and acquaintances reached out to me asking questions about my Japan trip. So here’s a list of QnA that I have created based on those questions. It’s purely based on my experience and research. I was in Japan for 10 days and travelled to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. There were a lot of things I wish I knew before hand, but then you always learn from your mistakes. I hope these questions help you in planning your trip.
The Story
A bonfire’s lit in the centre, a group of travellers sitting around it warming hands, when someone starts a story – there was once a man who fell in love with a tree. They wanted to get married but the man’s community didn’t approve. The man married a woman and bore kids with her. However, the tree’s love for the man never died and he created a bridge over the river with its roots. It was the tree’s gift to the man it loved.
During British Raj Calcutta was divided into three parts – white town where the British established their offices and residence, black town or north Calcutta where Indians were forced to move to and grey town where Cantonese, Portuguese and Jews lived. As racist as the whole setup sounds, this sadly was the reality of the then India. While the divide doesn’t exist anymore, you can see a difference of culture, lifestyle and architecture. A walk through various faiths and cultures of Calcutta was my second heritage walk with Navpreet (FunOnStreets) during my trip last month.
Calcutta is brimming with History and the only way to soak it all in is to walk through it. Last month as I stopped over at Calcutta on my way to Meghalaya, I was introduced to Navpreet Arora – the heart and brain behind FunOnStreets. Navpreet quit her corporate job last year to follow her passion for History and introducing locals and tourists to her city through walking tours. Her in-depth research and love for story-telling is what make her walks most interesting. In two days I went for two walks with her exploring completely different aspects of the city.
