After a stay of about a month in Switzerland we were ready for a brief tour of Europe. We had bought Eurail passes in India which allowed us 14 days’ unlimited travel over any of the European railways, including the high speed French Train a Grande Vitesse (TGVs), in 1 Class. Unlike today, in 1987 […]

My wife and I had a horrid time yesterday. Aiming to get to an office-furniture shop we came out on the Sultania Road and, lo and behold, there was a jam. We did some stop-and-crawl and by the time we got to the Royal Market tri-junction we knew it was impossible to get to the […]

The last one hundred years were full of international strifes and wars during which two world wars were fought involving most of the countries of the world. Apart from them there were smaller regional wars or ethnic movements for independence. Barring Australia – a single country continent – no continent was spared the luxury of […]

Another morning (this time I was alone) I got on to a train for Lucerne, a famous town in central Switzerland by the side of a lake in the shadows of the Alps. It was around a three-hour ride that passed through Neuchatel, Biel and other towns. Neuchatel is an important station, being headquarters of […]

This year quite a few Hindu pilgrimages are scheduled. In fact, some have been gone through, some others are continuing and still others are yet to commence. An ancient religion as it is, it has a number of auspicious days as prescribed by the scriptures and the same have designated a number of holy places. […]

Originally posted on Proloybagchi's Weblog:
Indian population We have hit the 1.27 billion mark. This only means that we are only less than three quarters short of 2 billion. In 2011 we were 1210 million and in less than four years we have added more than 60 million. It is now estimated that at…

We have hit the 1.27 billion mark. This only means that we are only less than three quarters short of 2 billion. In 2011 we were 1210 million and in less than four years we have added more than 60 million. It is now estimated that at this rate we will overtake the Chinese population […]

Another day out was perhaps the most interesting as it was into the Alps. My brother decided to take us to Jungfrau, German for maiden, one of the main peaks in the Bernese Alps. As is well-known, Alps are one of the great mountain ranges of Europe, stretching approximately 1100 kms across seven countries – […]

This is one scam that the Hindu right wing party ruling in Delhi and in Bhopal, the capital of the central Indian province of Madhya Pradesh, will have to live through for a long time. It is so big that most parts of the country are involved in it and its reverberations have travelled far […]

Long years ago, perhaps in mid 1970s, I happened to be in Bastar – a district that was till then not fully explored. It is inhabited by the members of the ancient Gond tribe. During that trip I had occasion to visit the Kutumsar cave known for its stalactites and stalagmites. Only 38 kilometres from […]