Another set of exciting places to see in the Northern part of India

Again, this is a collection that I felt was very useful as a guide. I remember much about these places. Joyful, it was!!!!!

Mansa Devi Temple: Situated on the Vilwa Parvat, it can be reached through the ropeway.

Rishikesh : Located on right bank of Ganges at its confluence with Chandra Bhanga stream. According to the legend times long past, Sage Raibhya Rishi did hard penance to please God. He was adorned Hari Rishi and the place was Imed after him. Lord Rama and his younger brother Lakshman also came here and stayed at banks of Rishikesh and scussed for killing Ravana. Today, Rishikesh has become a centre of learning in Yoga and meditation.

Lakshman Jhoola : 5 Kms. North of Rishikesh is the place where Sri Lakshman is said to have performed tapa. Sri Lakshman Temple was built in his memory. It is a suspension bridge with a span of 140 mts. constructed in 1939 across the river Ganga popularly known as Ganges.

Agra : Agra city is one of the five biggest towns in Uttar Pradesh, is famous allover the World for its celebrated monument -Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the world. It was built by Emperor Shahjahan in 1653 in memory of his beloved wife Queen Mumtaj. It took 22 years to complete this beautiful mausoleum. Taj Mahal, situated on the Inks of River Yamuna, stands on white marble platform of 22 feet with a height of 243 feet.

Mathura : This was considered to be the birth place of Lord Krishna. The temples of International society for Krishna consciousness (ISKCON), Dwarakadeesh and Geeta Mandirs are famous.

Allahabad : It acquired its present name during the rule of Mughal emperor -Akbar, known as Prayag since ancient nes. Located as the sangamam, the confluence of the sacred rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. It is of the holy cities for hindus. It is the birth place of the first Prime Minister of Independent India pandit Jawaharlal ehru, born and brought up at Anand Bhavan, his ancestral house. Allahabad is site for famous Kumbh Mela, which held once in 12 years.

Varanasi : An ancient city and a centre of learning for over 2000 years is one of the temples for times immemorial. The 3 famous Kasi Viswanath temple, on the banks of river Ganges is a holy place for Hindu pilgrims. The Shivalinga at the swanath Temple is among one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. It is a gold-spiraled temple rebuilt in 1776 A.D. by Rani Ahillyabai Dikar and dedicated to Lord Shiva. Varanasi is seat of Hindu religion and the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. The st wish of every ,Hindu is to have a visit to Varanasi once in a lifetime.

Sarnath : Just 10 Kms from Varanasi, was the place where Lord Buddha revealed to his first disciples the essence of philosophy, which became one of the world's greatest religion Buddhism. The emperor Ashoka erected magnificent upas and buildings at Sarnath, making it an important place of pilgrimage. It is a major centre of Buddhist studies.

Repost from the past - English 'speeched' ???

I can't believe that I found some in Andhra Pradesh. Anyway, here they are !!!

Coffee rates : One set (4)

                      Full set (6)

                      Half set (2)

Can you decode this? I could not.

Plane Dosa, plane omlette, plane parantha (?)

Conflake

With milk or sugar (what did they really mean by this question?)

Idle (very phonetic??)

Jam to a butter tost.

The following two, I found in Nellore (boohoo my birth place):

State Bank of India office:  Relation Ship Manager (Dargamitta, Nellore)

BSNL Telephone company:  Prise (????) for FCT 1450 (rupees???) (Nellore) I forgot the year.

The Temples around Parli, Sholapur etc., in Maharashtra

We took a train from Tirupati to Kinwat. Krishna Express was the only one available. It left Tpt around 9:30 p.m. We were concerned about the slowness reputation of that train. But we were glad to leave after dinner and sleep all night and reach Kinwat in day light. It was a 24 hour journey.

Nirmala decided not to join us on this trip. Rao had previously met two Pawars  and one of them Vikas offered to meet us at the train station and guide us during our visits to all the Temples. The other Pawar (not a blood relative of Vikas) also helped us in other parts of the state, close to Parli. They were really God sent. Vikas was the one who introduced Sanjeev Kumar of Lucknow whom I mentioned in my Kumbh Mela post.
Again, since so much time had past between our yatra and writing of this post, I need to tap into my memory really hard to write the details accurately. I will try my best. Please feel free to comment and correct, dear readers.

I recall the following Temples. The spellings may differ. But I wrote the way I pronounce.
Vaidyanath in Parli
Rukmini Mandir
Trayambakeshwar Temple
Tuljapur-Tuljabhavani Temple
Mallikarjuna Temple
Adinath and Parshvanath Temples
Akkalkot
Nar and Madhi falls and Siddheswar Temple
Pandaripur Vithoba Temple
and many more.

We hired a Taxi from the train  station. Actually we asked Vikas to hire a local known Taxi from his home town Pusad about 70kms from Kinwat and bring it to the station - which he did.
I will continue with the specifics soon.
My advice to all yatris - keep notes. Otherwise as time passes, it is tough to recall. I learned this with my mistakes. I am still looking for the scrap notes that I made more than one year ago.