Photo gallery

Katra Masjid was built in 1724 as a tomb of Murshid Quli Khan, after whom Murshidabad is named; his body is said to be buried under the stairs of the entrance of the mosque. The mosque had four seventy feet tall octagonal minarets with holes which used to hold weapons, out of which two are still remaining. It is said that around two thousand people could pray together at the mosque...

I had visited this region about forty years ago. Then a bunch of college students, 6 of us walked up from Mangan to Yumthang in the month of October. Entry to North Sikkim was restricted and we had to obtain permit at Gangtok. The beauty of the place had mesmerized us...

As soon as we left plains, the road became meandering mountain road with mountains on one side and deep gorges on the other side. Tall wild bamboo groves were shooting up straight towards the sky all along the gorges. Those lush green deep forests up to the horizon became haunting with the fading soft light of approaching evening..

From Udhampur we didn't take much time to reach our first destination Patnitop. The tour organizers already booked our rooms at in Hotel Patnitop. Today we would take rest here and start tomorrow early morning for much awaited Kashmir valley...

The sun was now high overhead. No shadow of the hill on the valley below. With dense tree cover all around them, the colorful little houses lay supremely peaceful under the sun. The whole world was so beautiful...

The sun had risen only a few minutes. A delicate touch of pink painted the snow top of the large hill straight across the valley. Thought the cap looked thick, it is not permanent snow. It just will last longer when winter ends. The whole of the valley and our side of the hill, all were dark without sunshine yet...

In Jammu and Kashmir Himalayas, Kashmir is one famous tourist place, but Himachal is all dotted over with many popularly known and not so well known tourist spots of great natural beauty. Overall on the basis of variety, Himachal was favored. And which place should be the first? It was easy to decide—Dalhousie was still considered a prime hill station in India...

It was not a planned trip. My friend announced the evening before, “Tomorrow I have to visit Dharamshala. Would you like to come? We’d be back by evening.” No question of not agreeing. As usual start from Jammu was comfortably in the morning at about eight thirty. With three of us, the small red car rolled again...

If you like—come, stay for at least one night, roam around on foot, drive along the roads on both sides, be one with yourself and nature and finally take back something with you that will always remain valuable to you...