Incredible India & Post 5

My post on Incredible India! The states I have visited and my favorite memories of the state 🙂

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 that’s 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? :P.

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 tourists now) I have many lovely memories of that place. 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 you see and of course as kids screaming each time one enters the tunnel :D.

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. The weather used to be lovely, much better than the scorching Delhi heat and the plus point was yummy Dehradun 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 Dehradun after some time was posted in Jaipur and Ajmer (bank job you 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 12 years ago was a fairly new resort and concept and you dare not call me old ok :P) for a week and one can well imagine what would have come out, can’t you? Training 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, lucknowi chikan work and of course, our D :P.

8\. Bihar (Patna)

9\. Jharkhand (Ranchi)

10\. West Bengal (Kolkata): Can you believe that I haven’t been to Kolkata like ever! Sigh come on 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 Gujarat’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, N and I 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. N and I have driven 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 inspite 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 home cooked breakfast in Kochi at a friends place.

29. Delhi : Another well well well, when you 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 yourself tagged. I am giving you fodder for a post and me, I am sending to N so that he can plan our next trip :P.