HALLOWEEN @ WARWICK CASTLE

Halloween could never have been better for me, than celebrating it in one of the oldest castles of the UK. My celebrations took me on an unforgettable journey to the Warwick Castle. The Castle is situated at a distance of around 2.5 hours by road from Manchester. All throughout the early morning journey to the Castle I saw people around me take a nice nap as sleep was compromised on as they had to wake -up early in order to reach the pick-up point. Let me very honest, I too occasionally drifted off to sleep when I was not trying to get some good photographs evading the high reflection from the bus windows or when I was not listening to music and chatting with a friend from home.

 We reached Warwick after crossing Stratford, Keele and Birmingham at about 10:45 in the morning. With the cold wind brushing against our bodies, the moment we got out of the bus, all acts of sleepiness left us in an instant. We proceeded to get the tickets. The ticket counter is situated in a beautiful arena hosting a restaurant/café with indoor /outdoor seating and a gift shop in the same complex.

The Castle grounds are vastly spread and had various different activities taking place in it. The Hollow Haunted was a very interesting concept of walking though a trail with props and people dressed up as fairy-tale characters. While the Wolf of the Little Red Riding Hood seemed a bit too scary, the evil Step-Mother of Snow White obliged in being a part of the photographs people wanted with her. Going through the trail would once again transport you back to your childhood where you listened to fairy tales which are lost today in your busy world of academics and work.

Up next was a beautiful rose garden with seating arrangements. This place had nothing much to see except the myriad hues in the form of full bloomed roses.

Going further you would see archery and fencing grounds where mostly children come to play and learn the tactics of a medieval knight or an archer. These are paid trainings and one would have to pay a small amount (usually between £3 -£5) which is not included in the ticket.

 Moving forward from the fighting arena is when you actually enter the fortress. There is a beautiful light and sound display of the culture, occupation, military, art and craft of the medieval age which sheds light on the life and times of people who had resided in the grounds years ago.

Next is the Time Tower for which one has to climb some steep steps to enter a room which takes around 15 to 25 people at a time for a 15 minutes movie. This video makes you relive the castle grounds in its glorious days.

Right after the Time Tower, you can climb steeper steps and alleyways to reach the peak of the castle from where you get a bird’s eye- view of the entire castle grounds and off course of the Warwick County itself. The tower of the county church clearly stands out amidst rows of houses.

 Further in the lawn there were many different attractions like the bird show where a 4kg eagle named Archie was performing with his trainer. At some distance were the Halloween attractions, complete with a cauldron, a graveyard, a spell- maker, and some freaky friends. There was also a story –telling corner for the children.

People here came from all over the country to celebrate Halloween. They were dressed up as witches, wizards, banshees with all sorts of costumes and hair and face make-up. In fact, there were specialised make- up artists who were painting faces for a minimum fee.

The ghoulish music which played all over the fort through speakers could be heard right till the parking lot gate where a man holding a lantern was accompanied by a headless chap on a horse.

 The atmosphere created by the Warwick Castle clearly complemented the purpose of doing so. The people were warm and friendly and even when they were dressed up as Halloween spookers they never forgot to smile during each of the photographs taken with them.

Warwick Castle is a must visit for those who are planning a holiday in the UK or are planning a weekend trip while residing here. It is bound to mesmerize you. And yes, do not forget to pick up a souvenir for yourself!

HERITAGE AND LANDMARKS OF MANCHESTER

On one windy afternoon a group of around twenty five students from my University set out on a tour of some of the legendary places of this city. This post, in short describes some of the must see destinations of Manchester but every destination would be individually highlighted in later posts.

CHAPEL STREET 

Chapel Street is famous for being the first street in the city where street lights were switched on. Chapel Street today hosts the Peel Park Campus of the University of Salford.

PEEL PARK 

Some distance down from the Chapel Street is Peel Park. This park is a very pretty place to lose yourself amidst natures beauty. The colours of autumn, in full bloom, can be best experienced in the silent surroundings of this park. In fact one of the campuses of the University of Salford has been named after Peel Park.

THE CRESCENT

 Right opposite to Peel Park is The Crescent which has always been a great hangout place for the youth. Moreover, the Crescent gives special discounts to the University students.

THE BLACK HORSE HOTEL

 The Black Horse Hotel is another beautiful building standing almost entirely on its own. When I first saw the inn I was very impressed by it. In fact I had even made up my mind to go there one day and check it out; but very recently I found out that the hotel itself has closed down. Now only the building stands as a remembrance of what used to exist days ago.

ST. PHILIPS CHURCH

 Manchester is filled with churches and cathedrals. Every neighbourhood has one church of its own. This is St. Philips Church beside Peel Park. This church displays Greco-Roman architecture.

SALFORD CATHEDRAL

Two steps from the St Philips Church is the Salford Cathedral which has the aura of a mighty gothic- looking structure standing erect and high claiming its authority over the place.

CHURCH OF SACRED TRINITY

MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Moving further on you would find the Church of the Sacred Trinity and if you walk straight ahead you get to the Manchester Cathedral. This cathedral is said to be the Centre of the city as it is from here that the City Centre and one of the biggest shopping malls Manchester Arndale starts which later on merges with Market Street which is one of the high points of the city.

CHEETHAM LIBRARY

For those who have the slightest connection with Karl Marx, the Cheetham library would be an ideal place to visit. Not only because the membership is free but also because it was the very place where years ago Marx met his fellow companions and propagated his ideas.

CHEETHAM SCHOOL OF MUSIC

 Western music is always described by bands like Beatles, Eagles, pink Floyd, and more recently by Jackson, Madonna and the rest. But Cheetham School of Music has been imparting music to children and youth for years alike making it one of the most famous destinations of music.

VICTORIA STATION

Opposite to The Cheetham School of music is the Victoria Station Railway which connects the city to places like London, Leeds, Newcastle, York and Scotland.

SINCLAIRS PUB

 The Manchester City Council can be reached via a shortcut through the Sinclairs pub. It is said that when the city centre was being built, the Sinclairs pub was relocated to a new place brick by brick.

BEETHAM TOWER 

 A little further away from the City Council one comes to the Beetham Tower the tallest skyscraper of the city. With 47 floors tall, this building houses a hotel and is a primary landmark for those (like me) who frequently get lost in the city. The Museum of Science and Industry is built very near to this hotel.

CANAL SYSTEM

Right opposite the Museum is the Canal System of River Irwell. In fact I was told that many students take this unique arrangement as part of their studies and research work.

THE WORLD BEYOND HORIZONS

With the canal being our last point of visit, our tour came to an end. But as they say “the road goes on and on”, my journey is far from over and I would definitely try to visit all these places again and know more about their history and legends. 

OFF TO A NEW CITY : MANCHESTER DIARIES

Life takes a different turn when you decide to relocate to another country. Apart from the feeling of missing your house, bedroom, study table, friends and other objects of interests, you have to face the herculean task of facing what's waiting for you in the new country.  The people, the landscapes, the language, everything changes . Most importantly you have to start establishing connections and make friends all over again. But, this is part of your journey . In fact, I believe that relocation does not only correspond to physically moving to another place but mentally moving yourself and adapting to the newness of the place.

Most know why I am talking about relocation but for those who are unaware it is because I am having to go through the task of adjusting and settling down in Manchester after having taken the decision of relocating here for a year to complete my higher studies.

Manchester is one of the most beautiful places I have seen, not because geographically it is picturesque but also because the people play an immense role in making it look beautiful. The city flourishes because of the people who live in- Courtesy seems to be everyone's middle name. The smiling and cheerful faces even on the rainiest and darkest days in this city can brighten up anybody's day . 

To be really honest I have not been around the town in my sightseeing mode so as to start describing the city ; but there are some photogenic places which I have been able to capture at this stage through my lens. So, the photos in this post can best be considered as a prelude to what is to come. 

With new experiences and friends in this cosmopolitan city, hardly will there be a day when I would not have anything to share with you. But as of now I would leave you with some photographs so that you get an idea of what is to come in the following days.

TOWN HALL MANCHESTER NEAR THE CITY COUNCIL

EMPTY BENCHES NEAR THE TOWN HALL

BEAUTIFUL AND COLOURFUL  TREES OUTSIDE (SOMEBODY'S) WINDOW

RANDOM STREET PHOTO

STREET SHOT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

STREET SHOT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

CLOUDS OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

Travel, Memories and Me

Travel has no real meaning without memories collected from experiences. This post as the name suggests, is on a very personal terms, where I try to recall and relive the memories gathered from various travels. Of course, while some were made with friends most were embarked upon with family. I do not wish to hinder the privacy of any person and thus the names are strictly withheld. But the memories which are shared by many would surely make them remember their part in it. This post is a rather different listicle than I have ever made till date; and I do so because most of us are on a verge of starting a new life- joining work, pursuing masters, maybe even getting married (who knows!). This may well be the last time before we hear of many until we meet in person years later.

So, let us begin!

1. I remember having gone to Shantiniketan with school friends for a project. Though the project itself took us only three hours of field work (and God knows how many months of analysis and factory manufacturing of graphs later); the rest of the time was free to explore the place. The excitement of travelling with friends (maybe for the first  and last time) started our day with some of us actually forgetting to bid goodbyes to our parents (me included).Upon reaching the place, all of us were most interested in taking in the air of a new place and enjoying a part of the authentic culture of West Bengal. We visited a park- played bowling, took some groupfies (the term wasn’t very popular then), and caught our teacher lying flat on the grass trying to capture some insect which had camouflaged itself in the grass. The next morning a dear friend was greeted by a monkey and I, well saw someone rather good looking outside my window. Well, I cannot miss out on the great food that we had especially snacks (at least I had never had such tasty veg pakodas in my life before and sadly never after too). The evenings were spent working on our project, sharing ghost stories and one distinct night we indulged in a sleepover. Most of us are in different parts of India today, but I am sure that these memories of our trip together (and also a promise to have a reunion ten years later in 2021) would always bind us with an invisible chord.

2. Mandarmani has been covered at large in the blog previously, but here are some more tit-bits which actually made the trip so interesting. This trip was made immediately after my higher secondary examinations and involved my family members. We had a quite uneventful journey except some constant blabbering from the driver regarding the choice of  songs that I played on the mobile phone. Our first day spent in the beach passed quickly. We admired the beauty of the place. My grandmother started talking to the people of the hotel. We found out the timings when there would be no electricity and planned to leave for sightseeing during those times. I also spotted a couple (maybe honeymooning, who knows) wearing  matching clothes at all times. Evening came, and our super smart driver instead of taking us to the local shops drove us straight to the fish market and got the tyres stuck in a quicksand! The rest of the evening was spent in telephoning the reception to fix our AC till both we and they got equally irritated of it and replaced it altogether. Oh and I missed the shell collecting part! The next day saw my uncle hastily entering our room while my aunt and I were playing (cards probably) to say that he had been calling my aunt many a times but she had not picked up. She replied calmly that the phone was on silent mode and thereafter he left. I spoke aloud just then that he actually did not say the purpose with which he was calling though he came and asked why she did not pick up the phone! That apart there were no memorable incidents and after a two night stay we reached home safely and I was indeed happy with the trip and to get rid of the fidgety driver.

3.  The first time I went to Delhi was in 2009 and I fell in love with the place. The ambience is such that every nook and corner of the city reminds you of an era of royalty. Our first destination was the Rajghat where I almost burnt my feet. The second was the Red Fort where I almost fell down in the moat below. It is said that in the Mughal era, the moat was filled with crocodiles .I thanked my lucky stars that I did not fall on a moat full of crocs! Let me also hint, that this isn’t the first and last time I was about to fall on a moat. Looks like I have a magnetic pull towards moats of all forts. The usual sightseeing followed with Lotus Temple, Street Shopping, Birla Temple, Humayun’s Tomb and Qutub Minar. I distinctly remember the name of the hotel we had lunch in -Art Chillies. Delhi Haat was reserved for some shopping. In fact we had such a friendly driver this time, that he actually influenced us to change our train schedule to Mussoorie, the next day to another road trip to the place. (But it was not altogether a bad idea!)

4. My visit to Mussoorie deserves special mention. I was practically dragged out of bed- a groggy eyed me – at 3:30 am by my mother. All of us were up and ready by 6 am. It was to be a long trip and we were to start as early as possible. But we got delayed. Apparently, the driver was not informed that we were to reach Mussoorie and so he backed out. But, the hotel staffs were cordial enough to get hold of another chap who took us. We stopped for breakfast at nine at a place in the highway (the name of the inn quite evades me) but I never knew highway food could be so tasty. We resumed our journey through sugarcane fields, a very rocky stretch of road near Ghaziabad and lastly hit the mountains. We stopped for lunch at the foothills and then continued. On our way back a day later we proceeded towards Haridwar before going back to Delhi.

5. My next trip to Delhi (2014) was just a stopover to check on a relative and then proceed towards Agra the very same day. But, the day happened to be the oath taking ceremony of PM Narendra Modi. Delhi was jam packed and so we were diverted to Jaipur for a halt till the Delhi airport got cleared. We were already delayed by a long time. Nevertheless, we resumed our journey checked on our relative and proceeded towards Agra. The next morning finally ended my patience of 19 years to look upon the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort (where I  was about to fall in the moat again !). The evening was reserved for shopping. But  Agra is an expensive place. The handicrafts are best to look at for people like me. For those who know me, they might recall the fact that a baby donkey, which I was trying to photograph, did not appear very polite and its push nearly wrecked my camera.

6. The same journey continued the day after to Jaipur stopping en- route to Fatehpur Sikhri and Salim Chisti. I had great fun riding  a local shared auto which is quite different from the ones found in Kolkata. It is more colourful and spacious. Of course thereafter inside the monuments I burnt my feet . A little kid started stalking us inside Salim Chisti repeatedly saying that he would recite poetry for ten rupees. Finally after seeing the monument we heard his poetry, gave him some money and bid him goodbye.

7. Jaipur was my favourite amongst the lot. The feel of Rajasthan is something different and invokes in me an excitement that no other place has managed to invoke. Chouki Dhani a village resort is a must visit for those who haven’t seen it. That apart I visited the usual places. The best part of the place was our hotel. It was built on the upper storeys of a shopping mall. The food was nothing less than that of 5 star hotels. The only thorn in the entire trip was the return journey when our Kolkata bound plane got delayed by almost six hours .

8. Asansol was my last family trip taken in December 2014. This trip also had our neighbours join in. Actually, it was on the insistence of my friend and me that our parents took this short journey. The first blow was when my father’s flight got delayed and we had to shift the entire schedule by a day. We were to start early in the morning but got delayed because I slept on. I was woken up by my friend at 5 am but then I got back to sleep and was late by almost an hour. We visited Maithon and Kalyaneshwari Temple. The next day just as we were about to start our journey – the car broke down. It took around an hour to get it fixed. We saw Panchet and so excited were we to reach our next destination that we forgot all about lunch. At nearly 2 pm we remembered , abandoned our destination , started food hunting and got something to eat nearly an hour later. The rest of the journey was quite smooth and on our way home we stopped at Saktigarh to buy Langchas –which are my favourite sweets. The days ahead were filled with my examination and were quite boring.

This post is probably the longest I have ever written but what is the fun of reiterating memories if not explained in details? Keep following for more such experiences, memories and travel accounts. 

McCluskiegunj- A Settlement Lost Under The Sands Of Time

That which flourished years ago is on a verge of disappearing from the hearts of men and that which flourishes now would soon overshadow the remnants of a glorious past.  This post refers to a very special place which is hardly remembered by many but was a flourishing Anglo-Indian hub years ago – McCluskiegunj. This settlement lies 40 miles northwest of the capital of Jharkhand. This settlement was founded and established by the Colonization Society of 1933- especially by Earnest Timothy McCluskie. It was home to more than 400 Anglo-Indian families, though now only a handful remain in this settlement.

 

http://goo.gl/Qu15AI 

What is unique about this place is that no matter what happens in the world, McCluskiegunj has never succumbed to its modernity. Even though it is less inhabited now, it still remains full of greenery and one breathes fresh air on entering this place. For many, it goes unnoticed but a handful of them still continue to make it their favorite weekend getaway . 

                                      http://goo.gl/U5z9L7

There are hardly any modern hotels in the area. Thus tourists mostly spend their time in lodges and guest houses run by the families living here. As the buildings used for accommodation facilities are old and antique, one could feel being transported back to the heydays of McCluskiegunj.

                                         http://goo.gl/KuUH4u

One very peculiar feature of this area is the projection of its secular culture with the presence of a Mosque and a Temple in the same complex. The chance to experiment two different religions within the boundary of a single complex often becomes a reason to draw tourists from all over the world. However, one should note that Churches are also present in this settlement. The St. Johns church is very famous in these parts and often sees the descendants of the old families coming in for a mass or a prayer. The presence of so many different religious structures makes us wonder sometimes about the people who originally resided here. Were there more communities other than the dominant Anglo-Indian Community? Were the Mosque and the Temple  built before the Anglo-Indians came and settled here? The origins of these structures are still being traced though no particular date has been zeroed on till date.

http://goo.gl/16r2J8

http://goo.gl/xvG8PH

The plaque and the fountain head which are now being protected and preserved in memory of the commemoration of this place in 1934 by Earnest Timothy McCluskie is a sight which one should not miss in these parts. Another interesting feature of the area is that the nearby forests used to act as hunting grounds long ago. Thus, hutments which are now nearly in shackles can still be seen.

http://goo.gl/QnuRwG

                                      http://goo.gl/S7oLrD

It is interesting to note that the Don Bosco  Academy opened a residential school in McCluskiegunj. This has given employment to the few Anglo-Indian families that are left in these parts. Moreover the old bungalows and houses which were deserted are being used as hostels and residential campuses for the students, teachers and staff of this school. This has boosted economy and employment opportunities in these parts after a long time.

http://goo.gl/bYZt79

However, not all bungalows are being used for either guest houses or school purposes. Many lie still in brambles and shackles with stories of their own to tell. Many are just properties in which foreigners and other Nationals have invested but are never used for staying purposes. Few had been captured by the Adivasis and when the descendants of the original owners came to claim it, they were driven out from the land. Some more have stories of apparitions and ghosts being attached to them due to an infamous suicide or a murder. But alas, one would never really come to know about all these stories as they have been lost in the sands of time or buried under the walls of the deserted bungalows. Many other stories must have just come to an end with the death of their owners.But the fact that this long gone community is trying its best to be recognized and draw in more people just to let them know about its presence is commendable in itself.

http://goo.gl/XKnoOu

With this I hope I have been able to provide you with some of the reasons why this place is a must visit and tops my personal list of places to see before I die.