Tag Archives: chai ki dukan
चायबाज़ अर्चना (Chaibaaz Archana)
Cha
The english word tea traces its roots to the name for tea in the Chinese Amoy Dialect: Te (pronounced tay). Cha is the Mandarin Chinese word for tea. Some countries use both. It’s not unusual to hear someone in England request a “hot cup of cha”.
Chai walon ki Jai
Am out on a longish drive this weekend, and drove a almost brand new Ford Fusion yesterday for about 5 hours straight… I am surprised with the smoothness of the car, never expected Ford to be this smooth… will write more when I am back !
And the winner is….
So I made chits with all the 15 names as you see below 🙂
Folded them properly, and made sure there I did not have a clue of which chit had what name….
Decided that there should be more than 1 winner, so picked up 3 instead… and here are the results !!!!
Congratulations Teekhi Mirchi, Subbu and Geet…
So now the three of you can choose a picture each from the Holland post, and write to me at prashantbhardwaj[at]gmail[dot]com with the picture details, and the address you’d like me to ship the photograph to !!!
Thanks people for participating 🙂 and apologies to those whose names did not come up in the draw this time! come up with ideas to have your names in the winner’s list and we will do something similar in June 🙂
The Draw of Tulips
So this is the list of people who commented on the Holland travelogue and their names are going in the draw tonight..
1. Rhapsody
2. Joy
3. Geet
4. WishesGalore
5. Jas
6. Iya
7. Reeta
8. Deeps
9. Aarbee
10. Sam
11. Reema
12. Vaishali
13. Rahi
14. Teekhi Mirchi
15. Subbu
The name which is picked up gets to choose a photo from my previous post, and I will send a print to his/her place. There might be slight changes in how the print looks as I would manually edit it this time, instead of using Piknik.
Tell me a way to make this draw more interesting…
Chai ki dukaan: by Chaibaaz Sunny (चायबाज़ सन्नी)
Time for some more Chai 🙂
The picture comes from a small tea stall in Banaras, UP, India… The city of a million and more stories, located at the bank of Ganges and said to be the oldest living city in the world… Banaras. Also known has Varanasi or Kashi.
Sunny, who has taken this picture is one of the very few people who proves that its not really the camera but the photographer who takes pictures. He is capable of producing excellent pictures, using his basic point and shoot camera and is a source for inspiration for many!
Click here to enjoy some more of his work.
ये कहाँ आ गए हम, यूँ ही साथ साथ चलते
चाय की दुकान crossed a landmark yesterday night…
Fifty Thousand
पचास हज़ार !!!
and I am thankful to everyone who has been here once, twice, or many times !!!
I have always maintained that I write for myself, to clean my system, to make myself happy, to vent out, to share a laugh, to avoid dropping a tear, to be honest to myself…
That still stays the primary reason for this blog’s existence, however I would be lying to myself and to everyone who visits, if I do not agree to these visits being a key motivator for this long journey…
मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब -ऐ -मंजिल ,
लोग साथ आते गए और कारवां बढ़ता गया
Thank you शुक्रिया धन्यवाद благодаря 谢谢您
For the records…
The blog used to be called
Life as a (W)hole when it started… reason being that I was talking about life, and everything about it… and the hole signified that everything was going into this blog hole…
It became चाय की दुकान… Sometime in August last year… almost one year ! Read more HERE…
For the love of numbers: Today the main page gets about 100+ hits everyday with an average visit length of about 3.5 minutes…
60% of visitors are from Asia, 30% hits from the US, about 5% from Europe…
74% of visitors use Windows XP, 17% use Vista, 2% Linux and 1% Mac OS (I wish Mac Users were more… seriously)
35% users see Chai Ki Dukaan on IE7, 34% still use IE6, and 29% are Firefox users…
And
Thank you Again everyone… hope to see you around !!!
P.s. (thanks to Mayuri for the idea)…
This weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 1-3rd August’08), all your Canteen ki चाय, Roadside ढाबे की चाय, Parle G Biscuits, Tiger Biscuits, समोसे, Bread पकोडे are on me !!!
Enjoy yourself and share the bill with me, I promise to reimburse !!!
पर ऐसा मत करना के,
खाया पिया कुछ नहीं
गिलास तोड़ा बाराह आना
MP Diaries : Bhopal to Ujjain
but at the back of our minds we knew there was much to see, and much to go to… so we kinda picked up some pace and go ready around 1130 hrs and had our breakfast at a Haldiram types restaurant just outside our hotel !!!
Oh, yes ! I am back to finishing off my MP travelogue 🙂
Here are the first few parts if you have missed them :
Delhi – Kanha
Kanha and around
Kanha to Bhopal
We wanted to go to Bhojpur, had heard nice things about it, a 1000 year old incomplete temple, world’s tallest Shivling etc etc and we also wanted to go to Ujjain… ok I wanted to go to Ujjain (I feel some connection with Shiva and hence all the Jyotirlings come into the list of places I feel good about; and the Shivling @ Ujjain happens to be called MahaKaal too)
Talked to a few people and found out that there was an intercity express to Ujjain from Bhopal at 1700 hrs and will take 4 hours to reach Ujjain…
Now this made perfect sense, we could take an auto, go to Bhojpur come back, pack our bags and leave for Ujjain… come back to Bhopal tomorrow and take it from there… super..
So after talking to a few Autowallahs, and doing some bit of not to successfull bargaining we agreed to give the guy 270 bucks to take us to Bhojpur ( around 25 kms away from Bhopal) and bring us back…
The drive was fine, the sun not too strong and once we were out of the city between the farms it actually became must pleasent !!! I realised how much Wheat MP must be producing looking at the wast span of the golden fields all around !!! lovely view it was… Did stop at a few places to enjoy the calm and finally reached Bhojpur…
The temple is massive, and was my second stop next to the river Betwa (The first being Orccha), and we were surprised at the size of the Shivling too… no wonder !
We spent a good couple of hours at the temple before we decided to move back to Bhopal and catch the train !!!
The return journey was equally nice and we did manage to reach the station on time too, rather before time… I remember buying the tickets and then coming out of the station to eat something… how could we not…
So this time… we had rasmalai, some other local mithai, some tea, and some cold drinks, not in this order though 🙂
Soon enough the train journey started again, this time a different flavor… General Coach, Wooden Benches, not too crowded though 🙂
did take us close to about 4 hours, but enjoyed every minute of it… talked to people, took pictures, got a small lesson on gun management from a Railway Policeman too 🙂
We reached Ujjain around 2100 hrs and checked into a hotel near the station only… Learnt that the Bhasm Aarti starts at 0500 hrs in the morning and we should be in the temple by 0400 hrs to get a decent view !!!
Now this meant a quick dinner and sleeping without much talking !!! And that happened too !!!
More to follow…
Some Data now..
Bhopal – Bhojpur : 25 kms
Auto fare : about 250-350 bucks depending on how you bargain…
What to do in Bhojpur : Nothing 🙂 just sit back and relax
Train for Ujjain from Bhopal : Intercity Express @ 1700 hrs everyday
Fare : 50 rs. for the General Class, You can take that ticket and enter the reserved compartment too where the ticket can be upgraded for about Rs. 17 for that coach… the difference is better seats only !!!
50000 and still going strong !!!
About three and a half years after I bought my car, I still feel as great as I felt the first time I went out for a drive…
and this Sunday, we reached a milestone of 50000 kms… a journey worth it !!!
We met people during these years and kilometers, we lost some, we still have some… we saw people who loved us and understood us, and we also met people who did not understand the bond between the living and the non living… At one instance, I was even asked to go to hell and make babies with my car 😀 hahaha.. how I wish !!! A lot of my friends would not have to wait for the lakh rupee Nano then… I would have given them a lot of smaller cars for free !!!
So me and her when look back saw a lot that has happened in the last 50000 kms and we smile together !!!
It has been a life worth living !!!
and hope it stays that way !!!
God Bless !!!
The Jungle Kilometres and back to Jabalpur….
We had filled in the forms the previous night to enter the park so did not have much to do in the morning except wake up on time, have a quick cup of tea, and rush to the gypsy which was ready to rock and roll… Manoj was our driver, and he looked like a pretty quiet fella, and he turned out to be one lost character too… too bad, but never mind…
So we were at the Kisli Gate around 0600 hrs, the main gate had already opened, and we were let in quickly… 3 kms later was the main gate of the park, which is where a route and an essential guide is assigned to the gypsy…. Our park guide for the day was Dinesh Kumar Soni… a young but enthusiastic fella… was ok with admitting that he was in the second layer of the guides, but this enthu and nature made up more than enough for some lack of knowledge… not that we were taking notes anyway…
Kanha is full of Saal Trees… and here is a small point of view about Saal..
Sau Saal Khada
Sau Saal Pada
Sau Saal Sada
Stands for 100 yrs, lies does for another 100 and takes 100 more to decay…
This is the same tree, wood from which was used to make a base for the railway lines sometime back, which is now replaced by concrete and iron…
So we moved around the park on the route number 10 looking at animals, trees, dust, listening to many birds stopping and moving and stopping and moving…
In the center of the park (The Kanha Side) we took a break, had breakfast and also registered for the Tiger Show… At a fee of 100 rs. per head you are taken to a spot where tiger is seen, and then you climb the elephant back and go into the bushes to have a face to face with the jungle CAT….
We did too… and when I saw the tiger, I was hoping that he does not look at me, because I could sense the attitude in his eyes and I was having mixed feelings of excitement, fear, nervousness etc etc… but it was really sad to see how the Elephants were made to chase the tiger to make sure people who have paid get to see the tiger… and this poor animal only kept running around to avoid the crowd.. but then how can we step back… we are known to bully when the other person is backing off… so all the gypsy drivers, the 4 mahauts were after this poor guys life… I only wonder what would happen if the TIGER decides to charge… on second thoughts, this tiger show is generating a lot of revenue for the park which I feel is essential, and is also helping the park give employment to loads of local people around…. I feel a balance is what needs to be made though, these wild cats needs their space and independence and should not be bothered like I saw… it hurts…
Our Safari finished by 1200 hrs, and we were back in the resort by 1230 hrs… all covered in dust, the first thing I noticed when I entered the resort was the swimming pool… and I knew what I was going to do next… so a rushed walk to the room, and a even more rushed walk to the pool… and 45 minutes of fun… Even managed to have the hippo who walks like an elephant to take a bath in the pool… And Aro loved it too 😀
Had some real good lunch and slept but not before we planned to get up around 1600 hrs to take a hike into the jungle to a few nearby villages… but we managed to wake up only by 1530 hrs and obviously the plans to walk around were to be canceled…
At tea, we met Mr. Pramod Singh who manages Foreign traffic to Kanha and is a active member of loads of wildlife clubs and has been an avid trekker himself… He also suggested that he could join us for the safari next morning, which did sound like a good idea…
We had tea and got talking to a few people around the resort, one of which was a driver called Dilip, the elder brother of Manoj… Dilip had been around for a while, and that small 30 minute conversation with him was full of many interesting stories about the tigers and other wild cats making rounds of places… it was a very very interesting half hour of the trip… and then he suddenly decided to give us a night safari, and we left the resort around 1900 hrs… and kept driving around till 2130 hrs in the dark… did not see many animals but the sky was obviously wonderful, and the dark interesting…
Were finally back and decided to eat quickly and call it a day, to wake up early and be the first in the queue. Told Mr. Singh that we would be ready by 0515 hrs…
So next morning we indeed were ready by 0515 hrs, and left only to realized that we were a li’il too early for the gates to open… We still were the 3rd gypsy in the queue, filled the forms and managed to reach the main Kisli gate around 0545 hrs… I think the route number today was 14… Manoj was at his lost best, and the guide even though knew a lot, was put off by a few remarks made by Mr. Pramod when we started the safari…
Highlights of the day were Bisons, some spotted deer, the barking deer, and some foreigners with loads of 1Ds and L Series lenses… I think that group of 4 had 2 EOS 1D each loaded with L series lenses of different focal lengths… phew !!!
The second day, Aro and me agreed was more or less of a waste in the jungle… and I guess to compensate we ate like wild animals at lunch… whoever said that eat light when you are traveling may please go to HELL 😀
so a stomach full as full is, and a body not ready to move, we checked out of the Mogli Resorts and rushed to catch the 1330 hrs bus, but only to realize that it had already left… and the next bus was about an hour later…
This bus ride was also very interesting as expected…
We changed the bus at Mandla again, which reach Jabalpur around 2000 hrs with one pitstop at Narainkunj…
So here we were in Jabalpur, with an open plan… we could stay back in Jabalpur and go to Duandhar the next morning and then move to Piparia and to Pachmadi (where we planned to stay for the next two days) or we could go to Piparia straightaway and go to Pachmadi the next morning… we knew that Piparia was about 4 hours away by train and decided to take the Overnight express (Jabalpur to Bhopal; leaves Jabalpur @ 2300 hrs and reaches Bhopal at 0615 hrs)…
We check the availability and then moved to the booking clerk (with the train number this time) who suggested that we could take the ticket from the counter at the station itself in about an hours time… This is when Aro realized that he had dropped his mobile and we rushed to the bus stand only to search the bus without any success… not too good an incident, but we could not really do much about it… so we let it be…
Came back to the station, took the tickets for the overnight, and then asked one of the guys at the counter about a decent place to have dinner and he was kind enough to walk us to the restaurant… We had our food without much talking as we were pretty tired and were only waiting for the clock to strike 11…
We finally boarded the train, and found out that the train leaves Piparia at 0230 hrs which was definitely not a convenient time to reach any new station… but the thought of doing something of that sort was exciting enough for us to change our minds anyway… and so we slept… only to be woken up by the kind hearted TC at 0130 hrs ( so about an hour and half of sleep) because the train had already reached Piparia…
We quickly walked out of the coach thinking that the stoppage was quick there, but looks like the train reached there well before time and was only waiting to leave at its scheduled time… so we sat on the platform bench, thinking if we should sleep on the platform itself ( which honestly did NOT seem to be a bad idea) or walk around and find a hotel… after a lousy cup of tea, some odomos rubbing on the arms to avoid the killer mosquitoes, and some serious thinking later we decided to walk around the town to find a hotel for ourselves 🙂
It did turn out to be a very good idea because it did not take us much hardships to find a decent, rather more than decent Alka Hotel with an AC room for 400 bucks a night… its a different story that i twisted my ankle bad enough to almost scream in pain in the middle of a desert lane in a town which was sleeping silently at that hour 🙂
So here we were… Piparia, Hotel Alka, Room number 203, AC on.. and a TV and we talking again.. God when would these conversations finish… I don’t know when I slept and when Aro did, or who slept first… all I remember is waking up the next morning, all fresh and happy happy…
……………………………………………………
Now some travel information
Safari Costs:
900 per gypsy (Morning Safari; 0600 hrs to 1200 hrs)
700 per gypsy( Evening Safari; 1600 hrs to Sunset about 2 hours usually)
Entry per gypsy : Rs. 650 (500 entry charges + 150 guide fees)
Gates open 0600 hrs in the morning
Approximate per night expenditure in Kanha : Rs. 1200 per head to 1800 per head depending on the place you are staying in…
Kanha to Mandla : Rs. 36
Mandle to Jabalpur : Rs. 50
Jabalpur to Piparia ( 3rd AC ) : Rs. 300 something…
To Do:
Carry water
Carry Dust Brush
Cover Your Camera to save it from the dust when you are not using it
Enjoy the jungle and the sounds ( They are more then enough to make you fall in love with the place)
Ask questions (thats what the guide is there for)
Do Nots
Avoid Changing lenses ( Carry two cameras instead)
Avoid throwing stuff on the road or walking on the road except the designated areas
And blah and blah and blah…
……………………………………………..
What happens the day we wake up in Piparia is pretty interesting… and I am happy it happened the way it happened… so watch this page for more…
Till then… ROAR !!!!
And I did this and I did that…
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I traveled in trains, AC and General compartments…
I traveled in Buses
I was in a rickshaw, I was in a Jeep, I was in a gypsy, and I walked….
And for people who don’t know, the above vehicle is referred to as Ganeshji because of its hood looking like the trunk which resembles Ganesha…
And I saw the world’s highest Shivling, and the world’s third largest Mosque… and rock paintings made about 12000 years ago…
And I went into a jungle and I saw animals… many 🙂
And I saw a gully cricket match 🙂 …
And last but not the least… I loved my trip !!!
And I think I did not mention this.. the coins in the first picture are arranged on the towns I have visited 🙂 the one on the top (Gwalior) being just a reference point for where I entered the state from…
Yaari Dosri Taaza Maaza…
Bimal Kumar… called Kaliya… has a chai ki dukaan near the Khari Bawli T point, Fatehpuri Masjid, Chandni chawk..
Kishan, the cool dude who handles the shoes at the Shani Dev mandir near the Metro Station, Chandni Chawk…
Bitto… who sells fruits near the Tpoint as mentioned above…
Munna, the pan wala, who knows that me and Aro do not want the hard supari in our Meetha Pan…
Anil Yadav, who sells flowers in the Chandni Chawk Phool Mandi… and looking for a job outside…
And Munna, told someone who asked what and who we were… that we are writers and photographers, and thats our line… and that we are writing a book… and we are thinking that we should actually…
Photos coming soon…
and if you think you are a foodie, i might make you rethink about it…
And So I Travel…
10 people
Doing what… Singing songs for 3 hours, songs on demand, songs of our choice, songs of my team’s choice, and songs just like that…
leading the brat pack… your highness 😀
Occasion… my team outing… took a train to Kalka… an open three wheeler to the bus stand, a bus to Shimla…
and loved it…
3 People…
Arobindo Sanjit Gaurav…
On our way back from McLeodganj…
Argued on India and various situations for over 3 hours… non stop… stopped only when the throats started hurting of speaking…
5 people…
On the banks of Pangong Tso… high up in the mountains… looking at water, hills, mountains and nothing at the same time… walking around doing nothing and all by ourselves…
Subbu, Me, Pondy, Gupta and Deepu… in Ladakh…
4 people…
Uttarakhand…
Drove around the state for 4 days… almost 12 hours everyday… with minimum words spoken…
Friday worked hard… started driving in the evening… and drove almost continuously till 0800 hrs next morning… over 12 hours again…
Met Ankur for the first time… and Neitya and Nidhi and uncle and aunty for the first time too…
Salt Lake to Korunamui to Hawrah to Belur Math to Dokkhineshwar to Harwah to BBD Bag to Esplanade to Park Street to Robindro Shodon on a richshaw, bus, boat, bus, ferry, and my tired legs…
alone…
My date with Kolkata…
Thanks Aro for keeping me company on the phone and helping with directions…
4 people… adventurous…
trying to climb up a hill top the difficult way…
realizing that they have done something really stupid when they found out that it was no defined path… and they made their own way through rocks, stones, cactus plants, and no spaces and vertical falls…
Welcome to a different Pushkar with Me, Gupta, Adi and Shubhi… oh… and how can I forget reaching Pushkar in a li’il less than 6 hours? top speek 160kmph… vehicle : the rocking Petra !!!
Flight to Banaras… and an overnight sleeper class to Ambikapur… humidity, rattling seats and dust…
Boat ride in the Ganges
Aarti from the top of a boat…
Disgusting commercialization of the temple…
Delhi – Rishikesh – Chamba – Dhanaulti – Dehradun – Delhi…
one tank full in my Palio…
first long drive
Loads of Buransh all around
Sunset and sunrise in the hills
Telling a German friend about India… so loads of talks and drive and silence all around… with Aro, and Martina
About 15 hours of drive…
about 4 hours of trek…
Snow and Snow all around…
White gets a new definition…
and Snowfalls gets a new viewer…
Tungnath… with Tushar, Deepu, Aseem, Subbu and a few more…
Cab full of people…
Raft full of people…
My favorite Left front seat…
Water all around… water all over… every Rapid like never before… Three Blind Mice, Return to Sender, Good Morning, and many more…
Flowing in water…. sleeping on the sand…
Fun, Team, Cheers, Loudness…Tushar, Me and a few more… many times…
I have
- looked into silence
- heard nothing
- talked with myself
- shouted
- driven
- walked
- trekked
- loved
- hated
- liked
- adored
- cried
- slept
- counted stars
- took a bath in a mountain river
- not spoken for hours
- talked for hours
- had heart to heart conversations with strangers
- almost died
- felt like God
- felt with God
- seen myself getting wet in rain
- made a fool out of myself
- driven fast and very fast
- enjoyed my own singing
- cursed
- smiled
- thought
- remembered
- been surprised
- been disappointed
- fallen in love
- let go
when I traveled…
Did i say I have also taken a few pictures when I traveled? 🙂
p.s. If you want to read about my travel tales… look for the link on the top of the page called “I Travel I Tell” and if you are interested in having a look at the pictures, check out the column on the right with links to all the photo trips… Enjoy…
And I thought it was only fair to have a few pictures in this post too 🙂 so here we go…