@IndiAves#Matheran
Nostalgic charm of the old dilapidated houses & bungalows of Matheran.
Belonging to the English, Parsees and Bohras from the late 19th/early 20th century, most of these old houses are now in stages of decline and neglect not withstanding their heritage value!
Forlorn they stand today,but they were hubs of opulence in the era gone by. Peering at the bungalows you can picture scenes of evening parties, with their the laughter and the music,the clinking of the glasses and cutlery, and bustling about of the liveried servants and butlers !
Here is a beautiful villa near Monkey Point, proudly built by a rich shipbuilder’s family. Nobody knows who it belongs to now.
You prowl around the grounds & can smell the food the caretakers are cooking somewhere in the backside of the building. But you leave depressed !
Then, this is Parsi gymnasium which was built somewhere in 1912 to rival the Gora’s club where Indians were not allowed to step in .There are two huge sprawling lawns (or what remains of them) in front, terraced at two levels. Must have been an spacious venue !
And, here is a facade of what must have been once an imposing bungalow ! This is quite close to Ram Baug point.
The owners reportedly stay in Mumbai!
The compound boasts of a garden with a semblance of some maintenance. Wish to buy it but औक़ाद nahin hai !
Finally, a fairy tale Villa, the stuff dreams are made of, owned by one Sir Shantidas Askuran! The building is done in white, panelled in glass and relatively well preserved. The grounds are liberally dotted with Greco-roman statues of exquisite beauty in white marble.
Alas! But for the romance of these old buildings, nothing remains ! Those days of glory have gone, faded away !
Reminds you of GuruDutt’s “Kaagaz KePhool” !
देखी ज़माने की यारी,
बिछड़े सभी बारी बारी
वक़्त है महरबां,
आरज़ू है जवान
ये खेल है कब से जारी,
बिछड़े सभी बारी बारी l
.@IndiAves
That is my Gharwali (in the left pic) and her childhood friend, posing and clicking around some very unusual looking structures.
Well, these unusual structures with conical roofs are called Trulli (singular is Trullo.), and are of immense heritage value.
(1/n)
The pictures are from Alberobello, a small township, from city of Bari in south of Italy.
This place was declared a UNESCO world Heritage site in 1996, for its dense cluster of Trulli, which date back to 18th/ 19th century, when they served as dwellings for the peasants(2/n)
Apart from its heritage value, each Trullo is an architectural & structural marvel, having been built by simply piling limestones to form a self supporting structure, without the use of ANY MORTAR or steel. Each stone slopes a bit outwards to drain away the rain water.(3/n)
@IndiAves#Sikkim#Gangtok#NE#NEnostalgia
Road along the River Teesta, eventually takes you into the clouds!
To the city of Gangtok!
Beauty of the gurgling mountain streams as we crossed bridges over troughs and valleys on the way was simply mesmerising ! (1/n)
On reaching the RH, family members rushed to the mobile chargers, or to the toilets , जैसी जिसकी श्रद्धा !
But, I rushed to the windows to click pics of the valley down below !
Here are the pics.......(2/n)
There can be no hill station worth its salt which may not have a MG Road, or a Mall Road !
Gangtok is no exception !
First thing after the siesta, we all dashed to MG Road for the evening ! It was raining !
Found it a very lively place !
(3/n)
@IndiAves#indiwild#indiAves
The huge Peacock had adopted our house as his territory ! He sensed that human tenants on his territory were nice ! They would offer wheat and and other tidbits to eat !
He also brought along his harem of around 5 peahens ! (1/3)
His active love-life eventually bore fruits! Umm...rather, bore eggs .
One of the hens chose the leaf-covered top of a large crate to lay eggs on ! Here she is seen sitting on the eggs!
My family waited patiently for days to see the chicks come out ! (2/3)
Alas, no chicks came out ! And one fine day, dictated by instinct, she finally abandoned the eggs !
Here is the pic of the abandoned 'nest', if I may call it so ! 😥😢(3/3)
Came across this book 'The Irrelevant Indian' by Shantanu Basu. What a thought provoking eye-popper ! His take on NPAs, loan waivers, food imports, coal and spectrum scams and the shambles of our public finances and what not, makes you sit up and take notice.
..2.The articles on the environment bring out the battering Indians take on their health from coal-fired power plants. He weaves humour and sensitivity into issues like inter-community relations, defence purchases and life of civil servants.
..3.He weaves humour and sensitivity into issues like inter-community relations, defence purchases and life of civil servants.The closing articles out of a total of the 24 are timely reminders of the role of telecommunications and rapidly changing demographics in elections ......