Skip to main content

Featured Post

Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
1 comment

2011 - A Retrospective

2011 has been a memorable year in more ways than one. It brought me not just more opportunities for travel, but also brought me some much needed boost in the form of recognition as a travel blogger!

I brought in the new year with a visit to Hampi, Badami and Pattadakal......




Our preoccupation with World Heritage Sites continued with a visit to Ajanta and Ellora, and soon after, to the Elephanta caves.



April brought an unexpected trip to Delhi, and May a veritable deluge of travel.... Coimbatore, our home-town Nainar Kovil, Madurai, Pondicherry, Kanchipuram, and then Mount Abu, Udaipur and Chittorgarh!



The next few months I was busy with festivals at home - Varalakshmi Vratham, Ganesh Chaturthi and Navaratri.



And then came the trip of the year - an invitation to the Club Mahindra Bloggers Trip to Corbett. Over 4 days at the Club Mahindra Safari resort at Corbett, i got to interact with fellow bloggers Lakshmi, Shivya, Neelima , Deepak and Karthikeyan, and also Akshat, Sourabh and Arun Nair, while taking in the sights and sound of Corbett National Park and its environs.



I had scarcely returned from Corbett that it was time for another trip - this time to Karnataka - Sringeri, Udupi and Kollur, followed by a couple of days of complete bliss at the Jungle Lodges' River Tern Resort at Bhadra.



Back home once more, we made a short trip to Bhimashankar, a much planned trip which finally happened!



This year also marked another first - Samhith's first 4 day trip from school - the Shivaji Trail, where they visited Raigad, Pratapgad, Panhala and Lohagad. En-route, they also visited Mahabaleshwar, Kolhapur and Bhaja Caves. 

So much travel has also brought along with it, the consequences, such as work at home never getting completed, and lagging behind with my posts on this blog! It took me months to complete my Hampi series, but I am yet to complete writing about the trip.... Pattadakal is still not done, and I have yet to begin writing about Delhi and Rajasthan! 

On the other hand, this year also brought me my first guest posts, and also paid articles on other sites! 

I wrote about Pondicherry and Corbett for the Club Mahindra Blog....


Munnar for the Mahindra Homestays Blog...

and Bhimashankar for Spice Flair

I also became a contributor for Pocket Cultures,

and wrote a couple of articles for Urban Leaves. 

and finally, my tips about travelling in Mumbai with kids was published in the form of an interview on Women's Web!

It has been an eventful and exciting year, and I can only hope that the new year turns out to be as good or better! Meanwhile, the year promises to begin on a hectic note. Even as you read this, I am packing my bags for my annual trip to Tiruppur to visit my sister in law. Usually, the trip is to give Samhith some time with his athai (aunt) but this year, I have work in store. We are planning Samhith's Upanayanam (Thread ceremony) at Sringeri in Jan, and much work needs to be done! Those of you who are wondering what this is all about, you can read about it soon enough right here on the blog!

I will be back only in the first week of the new year, and hope to get back to writing as soon as possible. Meanwhile, you can read all my posts of this year.... Simply click on the locations in this post, and you can read all the posts tagged with it....



Labels:

Comments

  1. Mridula DDecember 24, 2011 at 11:08 PM

    And may you travel even more in 2012 Anu.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anu ShankarDecember 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM

    Thanks so much, Mridula! hope the new year brings more travel to all of us!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ArtiDecember 25, 2011 at 2:35 PM

    May you travel more and more and blog about it too in 2012. Also you forgot our collaborative post on Ganpati!!! Hosting it was one of the high points of my blog:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Santosh bsDecember 25, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    was waiting for this and was sure would be quite envying for others...but not to this extent LOL :)
    you sure had a great travel year and hope 2012 is much more bigger and better for you and your family!
    and wishes to Samhith on his Upanayanam. 

    ReplyDelete
  5. ZephyrDecember 27, 2011 at 6:17 AM

    My! That's a lot of travelling! wish i could do at least a fraction of it. All the best for a better and more lucrative and satisfying year :) A very happy new year to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nav BajwaDecember 28, 2011 at 9:17 PM

    very nice blog, thanks for sharing such a wonderful information and your thoughts with every one! holiday homes uk

    ReplyDelete
  7. NishaDecember 29, 2011 at 6:26 PM

    Hey Anu,

    May we all travel more in the year 2012. Same here with travel writing experience. I have been travelling so much that I either decline writing offers or put them on hold.     
    Your interview on women's web was quite good.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:08 AM

    Thanks so much, Santosh!! wish you too a great year ahead and wish we all travel much more in the coming year and those ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anu ShankarJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:08 AM

    Amen to that, Nisha!! and thanks so much! 

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anu ShankarJanuary 8, 2012 at 12:15 PM

    Thanks so much, Zephyr!! Wish you too a great year ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  11. ArtiJanuary 9, 2012 at 3:41 PM

    Just WOW! So much travelling, its a dream for any travel lover! May you travel more and more so that we can travel along too!

    Wish you and your family a very happy nad prosperous new year :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anu ShankarJanuary 10, 2012 at 1:06 PM

    Thanks so much Arti, for posting the comment again and for the comment itself! Wish you too a great year ahead!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw...
9 comments
Read more

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’...
1 comment
Read more

Rama Temple, Gokarna

To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.
3 comments
Read more