No No don’t judge because I have taken up a tag on just the 5th day, I did it because part of my plan is to clear the many many drafts I have in dashboard and this was the one that was itching to get finished from a long time, so here is the Incredible India tag picked up from Bikram’s blog(I think swaram also did it once but I cant find the link to it) The rules are:
1. The list contains all the states of India and their capitals are in brackets. 2. Make bold the states you have visited, and mention your favourite memories of that state. 3. Include only states that you have really experienced, and have felt the culture of the place. The touch-and-go while travelling in a train does not count, because that way I believe I’d have seen a little more, but it does not give me a feel of the place and so they need to be actually visited.
1. Jammu & Kashmir (Jammu/Srinagar): 😦 is the only thing that can show my mood on the fact that I haven’t visited this one. I have gone to Jammu (actually thats also the capital no? the winter capital) many many times but still have to visit Srinagar… one day it will happen one day
2. Punjab (Chandigarh): aah many times and I have many many memories associated to this one, playing in my bua’s small house on the outskirts of Chandigarh with a well near by and getting totally excited on drawing the water out of the well. running out madly in the empty space behind. Going to the posh markets of chandigarh, seeing the lovely pinjore gardens and finally the boating in sukhna lake holding the BF’s hands 😉
3. Haryana (Chandigarh): well see above will work? 😛
4. Himachal Pradesh (Shimla) : 50% of my summer vacation holidays were spent in shimla 😛 because we would ask mom-dad to take us somewhere please and having people we know in chandigarh they would find it so much easier to take us to shimla. It used to be a nice quaint little hill station (unfortunately spoiled a lot by tourist now) and have many lovely memories in that place again but the one that stands out most are the lovely times we have had on the small toy train ride from Kalka to Shimla… it goes through many tunnels and drives so slowly that one can get down, walk and get in again enjoying every moment of the ride, every view that u see and ofcourse as kids screaming each time one enters the tunnel 😀
5. Uttaranchal (Dehradun): My maternal uncle my mamaji was posted in Dehradun for quite some time so we have spent some summer vacations packed up in their house, used to be lovely the weather much better than the scorching delhi heat and the plus point was yummy dehraduning litchis… god how many litchis we have had in that summer and there was a litchi tree in the house that mamu was staying and one day we all climbed the tree and plucked as many litchis as we could and eat all of those in the drive back to Delhi….
6. Rajasthan (Jaipur): I have visited Jaipur many a times, the same mamu who was posted in Dehradaun after some time was posted in Jaipur and Ajmer (bank job u see) but the time which I have the fondest memories of is of the time I went to Jaipur during my induction. Fresh out of college, some 30 of us (may be more) were packed off to Chowki Dhani (which 10 no wait 12years ago was a fairly new resort and concept and u dare not call me old ok :P) for a week and one can well imagine what would have come out, can’t u? Trainings in the day and fun in the night till very late night damn those were days….
7. Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow): another city I am dying to see, for the nazakat, the kebabs, lucknowe chikan work and ofcourse our D 😛
8. Bihar (Patna)
9. Jharkhand (Ranchi)
10. West Bengal (Kolkata): can u beat that I haven’t been to Kolkata like ever….sigh comeon my dear bloggers in kolkata invite me for a dahi maach meal
11. Orissa (Bhubaneswar) : I am starting to realise I have seen so little of India… and this is the hometown of my brother in law, must ask him to take me there soon
12. Sikkim (Gangtok) : yet again in my must to do list
13. Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar)
14. Assam (Dispur)
15. Tripura (Agartala)
16. Nagaland (Kohima)
17. Mizoram (Aizawl)
18. Manipur (Imphal)
19. Meghalaya (Shillong)
the whole of north east is a untouched territory for me 😦
20. Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal) : going there during a transit and stopping for a fresh hot meal counts?
21. Chattisgarh (Raipur)
22. Gujarat (Gandhinagar) : Oops I always thought ahemdadbad is gujrat’s capital ok just did a little google and well they are almost the same 😉 so I will count this one as done and the memory very recently done full gujju meal… what food man and what service and what a way of making chappatis
23. Maharashtra (Mumbai): A city I have done many times again my uncle stays there and I have enjoyed many a evenings on the beach there with the warmth and love of my uncle…. and there was a time we me and N used to visit the city every weekend for 2 months as N’s aunt was getting treated for cancer and have some dreadful memories of the city from that time 😦 and to the recent trip where I totally enjoyed the mumbai street food
24. Goa (Panjim): AAah my most favorite vacation destination in the whole world… there is nothing that can beat Goa nothing. Me and N have drove to Goa once, I have had a week long vacation in Goa with friends during college and most recently I have done a girls only trip to Goa, enough shopping has been done in Goa, enough lazing at the beach with loads of beer and a book, roaming about the whole city on the rented bike, para sailing, speed boats and what not…… and yeah the first time I went to Goa was when I was 8 I think 😉 a place close to my heart a place where I can go any number of times… there is something about the very air of Goa that makes one happy
25. Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad ): another place in my must visit I know I see someone frowning yet again ;(
26. Tamil Nadu (Chennai) : A strange city, I hate when I think of it, I love it when I am visiting and a city I know I can never settle in but a city I always have fond memories of from my visit… be it thulping idlies like nobody’s business or enjoying the beach but the fondest memory has to be the one when Ojas got over his fear of water in the beach this time. I felt so happy proud and relieved
27. Karnataka (Bengaluru): well well well what can I say, a City a girl came to about 9 years ago thinking she will go back her Delhi after 2 yrs… a city that I hate a lot about a city that I love a lot about, a city where I found many many lifelong friends, a city where I found the love of my life, a city where I married, a city where I became a mother a city which I have started to call home and which will be home forever I think. This is my city and a city I am proud of dispite everything
28. Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram) : Kerala is not called God’s Own Country for nothing it really is and my memory of kerala visit are so nice specially kochi as we had a lovely homecooked breakfast in kochi’s at a friends place
29. Delhi : another well well well, when u have spent almost 25 yrs of life in a city you need a novel to list down your best memories not a post 😉
And phew that brings us to the end of it… here all my fellow NaBloPoMo’s considered urself tagged… I am giving ur fodder for a post and me I am sending to N so that he can plan our next trip 😛
Monika's World 