Jhapan Festival is held in few places of West Bengal, India on the last day of Bengali month of Sharavana (mid August). The celebration is devoted to the ill-tempered deity Manasa, the Goddess of Snakes. Bishnupur is the best place for experiencing Jhapan. A procession of snake-charmers in front of Royal Palace is the highlight of the festivals. Snake-charmers display different tricks with poisonous snakes in public
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Singti is a rural area under District Howrah of West Bengal, India. Here, in winter potatoes grow in abundant. On the first day of the Bengali month of Magh (mid-January) a big fair called ‘Bhai Khna Pirer Mela’ is held in Singti. This is also referred as ‘Alur Damer Mela’ (Fair of potato curry) as ‘Alur Dam’ is the highlight of this occasion. Hundreds of sellers gather here to sell ‘Alur Dam’. This is a celebration for successful harvest of ‘Alu'(potato)
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Umden, a calm & quite hamlet of the Rivoi District of Meghalaya amidst lush greeneries is a perfect place for relaxation, but that was not our key motivation to be there; rather we were dying to see whether Eri Silk is really generated by keeping the silkworm alive or not! What is so special about…
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Travelling is not just seeing of sights. Sound matters! Darkness fell over the village, while we arrived at Kongthong, a small hamlet in the Khasi hills of Meghalaya. As soon as we got down from the car, we heard a high-pitch sound like birds chirping! Then again, another sound! And another! Yes! Here we come!…
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1. Face the Ancient Wonder: The Great Pyramid of Giza I don’t think any introduction is required for this signature wonder of Egypt! The Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu, along with the pyramids of Pharaoh Khafre & Pharaoh Menkaure is located in Giza, near about 20 kms away from the capital city Cairo. To know…
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Locality where minorities reside seems compelling; a chance to explore their distinctive tradition, rather their attempt to keep hold of that, in spite of intentional or unintentional blending with majorities’ culture & lifestyle. That was our key motivation of visiting Coptic Cairo area of Old Cairo, home to Egyptian Christians (Coptic = Egyptian). Legend says…
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To hear the heartbeats of a city, I visit markets. I watch people; observe what they do and how; hence try to assume the mass-nature and lifestyle. So wherever I go, markets are always in my must-visit list. Here I am portraying few markets of Egypt and going to explain what I think about them.…
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A cleaning staff of the ladies’ washroom of Cairo International Airport touched my hair and said “You Indians have beautiful hair quality!” I do not take much care of my hair, so was surprised, still felt good. I smiled her back, said ‘Thank you’ and in no time, found her demanding ‘Baksheesh’(tip) for this appreciation!!!…
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Still there exists a region in China beyond red lanterns, ideograms and chopsticks, where people chat less online, rather mostly face to face! This is Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where you can have a taste of the good old charm of central Asia and Kashgarh, aka Kashi, is an ideal base camp to get started. Located…
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