Travelling Teachings !

Travelling teaches a lot ?
You know how ? I am going to tell you how I have learnt some lessons from my recent trip to #IskconTemple #Mayapur #Bengal
1) Booked a morning train, paid a hefty parking fees for 12 hours parking… as soon as I reached station, they delayed train by about 3 hours. Now at that time, I have to make a decision should I waste my 3 hours or should I continue my 3 hours of journey with my 2 wheeler, I choose later and started road journey after wasting tickets and parking fees. Lesson learnt : #DecisionMaking
2) After starting my road journey, traffic police lstopped me for signal jumping, fined. Was feeling very bad as all things were going against me. Wife said, “chalo chodo, ghar chalte hai wapas”, I thought with patience for 2 minutes, and taken a decision to return back to the station to catch the delayed train. Lesson learnt : #Patience at the time of adversity.

Finally, we made it 😜

2016 : Special for Me…

Here is the season to write posts about the past year, to write about memories that makes your past year awesome, to cherish those moments that cannot be replace ever again, to learn from mistakes that you have made, and to value those relations that you have made with the new ones. 

And I am here to share with you all what this year taught me…

I have some memories to share with you all, about how awesome my past year was started, given me a sweet surprise…

I have some memories to share with you all, that the sweet surprise also wanted some sacrifice from my side, but still that sacrifice was nothing in front of sweet surprise…

I have some memories to share with you all, that the sweet surprise brings with it the special person in my life as my bride..
I have some memories to share with you all, that my aim of exploring North-East was met with success, as I could explore Darjeeling, Shillong, Nagaland along with local sightseeing around the city of joy ‘Kolkata’…
I have some memories to share with you all, that despite the long work hours, my will power, supported me to maintain my workout routine with some gaps in between…
I have some memories to share with you all, that I was able to participate in some conferences with the support of my seniors, and also able to win them…
I have some memories to share with you all, that first time I could travel outside of India, to the “Land of Thunder Dragon”, Bhutan… able to see its beautiful landscape, simple people and was able to discover that how the responsible big country like India, can influence its neighboring country in a positive way…
I have some memories to share with you all, that my year finishes with a hectic job of completing my thesis, and because of the ‘process’ of completing my thesis along with the suggestions of my respected guide, I learned a lot, identified my mistakes, and emerge as a better person…
So guys, here was some of my memories, which I would always be cherished, and also some of the pictures from Bhutan…

Biggest Monastery in Bhutan.

On the way to Paro : Second biggest city in Bhutan

Such landscapes can be easily found in Bhutan

Do you have some, please share with me… 🙂

Indian Railways : Innovating Better Ways to Secure Life.

Essential Part of Indians. Image : scroll.in

The largest and the most important transportation network, which is the backbone of our country since beginning, and which remains in news, may be because of political reasons, or because of accidental reasons, or most importantly because of welfare reasons.
And this blog would just inform you all with one more good reason for which it is in news, and this is the “Insurance Scheme” which railways has started for its passengers.

Some days before, I was doing reservation for my professor through my ID on IRCTC, I observed that there is one option of taking Insurance for the passengers, in the lower part of screen.

I thought it is same as that of flights which require few hundred rupees, so I tried to skip it, and hits the ‘next’ button to go for final payment, but the error occured and said Insurance part to be tick.

Than that time only, I read the terms and conditions, which clearly states that would be requirement of only 1 rupee premium for the insurance of thousands of rupees.

I was like, Wao, that’s the really good method to support those who faces the bad luck during their journey and met the disaster.

Main insurance companies participated in this scheme are ICICI Lombard and Royal Sundaram.

One such example of this scheme is :

Screen Shot of that Insurance scheme by Indian Railways

Well I must praise to the Indian Railways to come up with this type of scheme, which is a Win Win situation for both the railways and the passenger, and just wishing it keeps the innovative work going…

Dr. Anshul

Writing for BlogChatter’s Dailychatter campaign.

Kolkata’s Durga Puja : Creativity at its best, Part 2

In the part 1 (read here) I had described, how we all make a plan to go together to do the Pandal Hopping, and had experianced the joy to see the creativity at its best.

Here are some of the pics of that day, hope you may like it… 🙂

Lord Durga. Image : doctorsblogging

Creativity at its best. Image : doctorsblogging

Image : doctorsblogging

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Lord Durga’s face 3D made up bamboo. Image : doctorsblogging

Image : doctorsblogging

Image : doctorsblogging

Image : doctorsblogging

Image : doctorsblogging

Image : doctorsblogging

Third eye shown of the Women, which shows their powerful character, even if they are a housewife or a working women. Image : doctorsblogging

Picture of a women on sand paper by crayons, how beautiful they are. Image : doctorsblogging

Dr. Anshul

I still have much more pictures of durga puja, if you want to see more than do let me know, will happy to share with you all.

Writing for BlogChatter‘s #dailychatter challenge

Kolkata’s Durga Puja : Pandal Hopping, Part 1

In India, the word West Bengal and Durga Puja, always comes simultaneously, and there is strong reason for it because here the people are madly in love with their beloved God Durga, who is known for destroying the evil forces and bring peace.

If you found yourself in Kolkata during Durja Puja, than you are lucky as you can witness at any place the “Pandal”, which is as grand as any filmy set and as awesome and beautifully made as you can not think of it, because here in Kolkata the pandals of Durga Puja costs in lakhs with hundreds of footfalls during each day.

So I am lucky to be in kolkata since two years and able to witness the madness or I should the correct word devotion towards Maa Durga.

This year in Durga Puja, me with my colleagues done something new. We all had decided to go for “Pandal Hopping” together, so for this we had booked a traveller for 20 persons.

That was an awesome time for all of us to roam on the roads of Kolkata, hopping from one pandal to another, walking on the roads amd experiance the joy in the “city of joy”.

Walking on the roads from one pandal to another. Image : doctorsblogging

I had enquired about the pandals from the local citizen, they had said that the preparation for pandal making starts from 2-3 months before and there was expenditure of about 20-30 lakhs in normal pandals, and I must say that is huge.
But if you observe the pandals, than you would fall in love with its beauty and design, than you could imagine the hard work they had done.

Doctor’s Day Out. Image : doctorsblogging

Overall it was nice outing with all, and making the memories…

In next blog, I will post pictures of Pandal Hopping, and grandness of kolkata’s durga puja, which you can read here.

Dr. Anshul

Writing for BlogChatter‘s #dailychatter campaign.

Bhutan Diary : My Question to you ?

This is the view after doing trekking for approx 3 kms to Tango Buddhist University in Thimphu. Image : my camera.

Just returned from Bhutan trip on this Puja vacations, and I experianced this beautiful country from so many ways and most of my experiances were good in this Land of Thunder Dragon.
But I have observed some good rules and wonderful practices which I don’t see in my country India.

Some of the good practices in Bhutan are :

• People have an awesome sence of cleanliness, you will see how much they use their dustbins (however the people of Sikkim in India are more concerned about cleanliness, which shares its border with Bhutan)
• If you cross the road by using the zebra crossing, or even when zebra crossing is not there, than also the cars stops almost 20 metres before as if they give preferenace to your safety first than anything else.
• They park their vehicles only in designated parking slot, and have a fear of traffic police, which makes their road congestion free.
• They return or take money with their both hands and along with a sweet smile.
• When you talk to them or ask for any help, they would reply you very softly, and you get the feeling that they really want to help you.
• They have a sence of attachment to the nature, while doing trekking to Taktsang Monestery, one of the tourists was about to throw the plastic water bottle into the trees as she was handling so many things with her both hands and wants to decrease some stuff, but out of the blue one of the local citizen came and said that instead of throwing bottle into the trees, you just gave it to me, I will handle this !! Have you seen this any where else ??

So my simple question to you all is that, For all these awesome practices, only the government is responsible by making strict rules and implement them, or the citizens of that country are highly responsible for maintaining their own country, like Bhutanese do ???

Participating in BlogChatter #DailyChatter challenge.

My Reflections : Bhutan and Buddhism.

Its my third day in Bhutan, and I have observed so many things about the land and about the Buddhism. 

As I have seen some the same practices in Gangtok (capital of Indian state of Sikkim), which I have seen in Bhutan, and both of these places are Buddhist dominated.

Want to share some of my observations, I may be wrong, please correct me where ever required.

1. Buddhism is mainly dominated in hilly areas, which connects it with the nature and its elements.
2. There is so much importance of colours in Buddhism.
3. They put small flags mainly in open places that are situated at hights, where air flow easily. 
   

   

   Prayer Flags. Image : wikipedia

4. They even put emphasis on architecture of their homes and monastries.

These are some of my major observations, will share my whole trip of Bhutan soon with you all.

Some of my recent pictures from Thimphu and Paro cities of Bhutan..

View from Paro Dzong.

Tango University, Thimphu, Bhutan. This is view which comes after 40 mins hike.

Thimphu Dzong, main administrative place where government offices and monastery both are situated.

I am participating in Blogchatter dailychatter challenge.

My Recent Travel Experiances.

From last 1 year I was in love with travelling, and mind it, it is not a normal love, but I have spent almost most of my free time thinking only about new places to explore in my leaves, which I normally get with great difficulty and that too only for 1-2 days.

But eventually I have learned to travel within these few days that too with coverage of most the things in any given place.

Few things what I practice in my travelling, I want to share it with you all :

1. Firstly I choose randomly any place where I want to travel, and it is based only on my instincts.
2. Than I stick to that place, and starts searching for the flights, and till by god’s grace I always able to find some, which are cheaper than the normal.
3. Throughly I do research about that place, on a travelling site, most I follow holidayiq website, read most of the reviews, and get the idea of most of the main tourists spots.
4. Than I search the hotels, and mostly search for Budget Hotels. For this I mainly follow stayzilla website.
5. Try to travel within the city through public transport if possible and if time permits (remember I cover cities within 1-3 days, so I have to be on my toes), otherwise hire the private cab.
6. I try to talk to locals about the price of cabs before hiring, so that I can have the idea of pricing. In Gangtok, because of just one person I had saved 700rs, and same was in Shillong.
7. I try to do minimal packing, mainly carry only the backpacks.
8. Apart from the routine tourists places, I always try to interact with locals so that I can know about the local cultures, practices and thinking patterns. 
9. I try to explore the city by taking any random roads by walking and just observe the peoples.
10. For me travelling is not only just visiting the tourists spots but also to feel the tradition, language, people interactions, their festivals, their main mode of earning and to know their ideology about national affairs (you may be thinking how offbeat I am).

Well this is how I travel, and shortly will starts sharing my travel stories of perticular cities.

But before going away, want to share some of my RAW pics and videos with you, have a look and share your views : 

Dr. Anshul

Meeting with Nature…

I am posting short video from my recent trip to Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Meghalaya is a small state in North East part of India, full of beauty, natural landscape and simple people.
Will post my whole experiance of that city, but for now small video to show its awesomeness.

Please adjust your phone according to video, as it is totally raw, no editing, direct delivery from nature 🙂

Learning from Travelling…

From last one year I am in love with travelling even when I am doing my post graduation in Anaesthesia and ‘always’ short of leave.
But by god’s grace I do find some time here and there,may be little, but sufficient enough to travel to visit some new place and learn from the experience.

For me, from the following experiences I can take some life time lessons for me…

1) Planning :
     As I plan to travel to a new city, I always do a lot of research about that city, their culture, their language, geography of that area, their practices, weather, and the do’s and dont’s of that place, hotels, transportation, local sightseeing and the history behind that.

So only with the thought of travelling, I get to know so many things about the place.

2) Arrangements :
     After learning from the planning stage, my second lesson normally derive from the arrangements which I have to done before going outside.
For Example ;
* I have to take leave from HOD, which is always the tough job, as my heart always beats faster while asking for leave.
* I have to rearrange my night duties (which doctors always have) with my co-pgts, and by god’s grace they are always helpful to do that, and this rearrangement thing always show you the importance of relations, importance of helping each other, importance of convincing power, and also tells you that this world is full of good peoples if you see goodness in them.

* You have to manage your house (if you are single or a only couple) and other things as you will be out and then you have to inform to milkman, paperman and a lot more.

* Arrangements of accomodation to railway station or airport in your home city and also in your visiting city and it makes a life lot easier.

3) Communicating Skills :
     This is one of the most important skill I have learned while talking to strangers on a distant land. You learned how to talk to strangers, how to express yourself if there is language barrier, how to bargain while doing shopping 😜.

4) Confidence :
     This you will surely develop even after one single trip as whole new world opens in front of you.
You will be more confident while interecting with others, while asking about anything in that city, while starting the conversation with stranger and this will shows in your character always…

5) Observant :
     When you go to any new place you tends to become more observant without any efforts, because you want to absorb whatsoever is there in your surroundings, it may be the new weather, environment, peoples or culture. And for me observation is one of the most important skill a man can possess.

Well till now these are the lessons I have learnt, lets see how many lessons the future holds for me.

What about you, what lessons have you learnt while travelling, share with me, will love to hear that…