Day 1

Day 0: Leaving Delhi

I admit, I was a little apprehensive of the plan albeit replying in the affirmative to the mail from Puneet regarding the plan for a trip. But it could be great I presumed, since my experience with Puneet was (and still is) great, and I'm sure wherever he goes, he'll definitely find likeminded (creative) people around. And so it went. There was a random exchanges of messages and e-mails, and faster than expected, we had a team of travellers raring to explore the beauty and history of Udaipur.

We boarded the train to Udaipur on the 28th of September 2007, an ideal Friday evening. It didn't take much time for what appeared to be formal meeting to grow to a much personal gathering. We enjoyed the journey every bit, shared the dinner, sang songs, shot pics and videos. Awful moments. We never had even the slightest idea of what is awaiting us in the forthcoming 4 days.

The Journey Begins

Udaipur: Our Newly Found Love

Udaipur, or the capital of the erstwhile Mewar kingdom, is known as the land of lakes. The land of warrior kings, the throne of Mewar was adorned by eminent rulers such as Rana Udai Singh II (whom the city is named after), Maharana Pratap Singh, Maharana Sangram Singh etc. The Mewar dynasty traces its roots to the Sun God. Its history has been a continuous struggle for freedom of religion, thought and land against other Rajput groups as well as the overbearing Mughals and Muslims of bygone eras.

Sisodias, offshoots of the Chauhanas who ruled the Mewar region, were against Mughal dominion and tried every trick possible to distance themselves from them. Udaipur remained untouched from Mughal religious and aesthetics influences and remained so till the coming of the Europeans. Maharana Fateh Singh of Udaipur was the only royalty who did not attend the Delhi Durbar for King George V in 1911. This fierce sense of independence earned them the highest
gun salute in Rajasthan, 19 against the 17 each of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bundi, Bikaner, Kota and Karauli.

Recently, the Travellers were on a trip to Rajasthan again. It is Udaipur, that was on our radar.
Begining today, here's an account of how it went. Keep watching this space for more

The Trip to Udaipur

The past weekend was a remarkable one. Watch out for detailed reports from the heart of Mewar.

Traveling to learn

It might seem unusual to find people traveling to learn or learning without traveling, and still being called a Traveler? Here's one such group. We have revamped the concept of traveling. Any part of information on the culture/history or architecture is exchanged between two entities (individuals or groups), I'd like to call it traveling, since the basic purpose of my traveling is related to any of these.

These spaces therefore, are to contain more information from these parts, than just travelogues.

Innovation: An Article That Inspired Me

The following was blogged on ZDNet.

Don’t Look Back by ZDNet's Andrew Keen -- How to innovate? That was both the spoken and unspoken question on everyone's minds at the Wall Street Journal's memorable D Conference this week in Carlsbad. How can we radically improve the experience and value of interacting with one's digital device? What is the next chapter in the evolution of information and entertainment technology?

News! news!! news!!!

There are changes happening about Travelers since January 07.

Maharani of Jaipur has moved on to greater career vistas. Also did she change her home. Maddy has a new bike she loves to sport. Sim just quit her job...due to, I think, matters of the heart.

I just moved to a different division. Bins has changed his project.

All's news!

Another Traveler Has Moved Out

It's unofficial now. One of us just chose to move out. It was a career breakthrough for him, and moments of disbelief for us. The group, developed from the roots with a set of values of which he played an active role, is gradually losing its charisma. Apart from being an active Traveler, he was a good sportsman, the opening batsman for the department cricket team, a belt holder in Taekwondo and above all, a person whom newbies lookup for inspiration.

The best face of his that I could never forget was the moments of panic while we were returning from Pushkar to Jaipur, Rajasthan. A couple of our senior friends were over drunk and it was unmanageable to continue the journey with a drug-inflicted driver. With 3 women onboard, it was risky to drop ourselves midway in the highway and riskier still to continue all the way to Jaipur. All the way they kept abusing Naresh, and he maintained his calm. We couldn’t actively support Naresh than provide our moral support, just to keep things under control.

After we just missed an accident (I still feel the shock), we chose to step out of the vehicle there and then. The journey back home was the most memorable one I ever had. We’ll miss you Naresh! Bye for a while.

Some of us share our evenings together

The Travellers sharing a moment at the Jaipur Palace

Khalbali@Murli's home

At our old palace

One with the rocks and sand
One with the green grassland
Onw with the clouds and hills
And lo! the passing mills
Behold the Western Ghat smiles
All through the passing miles.

It was an uneasy homecoming.

Traveling happens from anywhere to everywhere....The journey just goes on, it never concludes. I've changes lanes a few times, knowlingly or not. And now I've carved a vehicle for myself.

I'm in the process of metamorphising a brief experience into a readable travel-writing stuff. Watchout!