Day visit to Taj Mahal Agra

Perhaps the smallest so far but long due and worth writing, I am penning down my memories of recent visit to see Taj Mahal, Agra.

Haven’t been fond of art and monuments to a large scale, neither do I empathise with the love and sacrifice that underwent in the construction of the monument which is considered as one of the seven wonders of the world. But there has always been a curiosity to see it and check out what the hype is all about so, this time, when I was travelling to Agra city for work, I decided that I will spare some time to satiate my curiosity.

As I mentioned I was travelling for work, I couldn’t think of travelling at slow and leisurely pace, thought of exploring the Yamuna expressway that took me about 6 hours to reach Agra from Lucknow. The toll is a little heavy on the pocket however the route is smooth, traffic and hassle free that makes the journey quite cozy.

The former capital, Agra doesn’t have much to do and people anyways stay here for a day or two, visit the astounding monuments, local markets and close their itineraries for the place. I was put up in close proximity to Taj Mahal, hotel Howard Plaza for a night. It’s a cozy hotel with all the amenities, courteous staff and good service.

Coming straight to the best part of the visit, seeing the Taj Mahal up close!

The structure is just mesmerising from the moment you set your eyes on it. I entered from the western gate, went through the security and was standing in front of the Taj within minutes. May be, because it wasn’t the tourist season or I got lucky. I spent about 2-3 hours walking along the monument, gawking at the beauty from every angle possible and taking some good pictures. If you are planning to visit anytime soon, here is a pro tip:

Once a month on the full moon night, Taj Mahal is open to viewing during night time. I wonder and wish what an amazing opportunity would it be to enjoy. Plan accordingly !

The cherry on top is that Agra fort is just 2.5 kilometres from Taj Mahal, so you can get some time to visit the main residence of the Mughal emperors before they moved their capital to Red fort in Delhi which you all must have studied in your history class. What else should I say about these two monuments, especially Taj that hasn’t been said before!

You have good eateries, small restaurants, sight seeing historical monuments and evening bazaars in the vicinity to keep your tour fun and frolic through out your stay. If you are planning to visit, do keep in mind that Taj Mahal is shut on Fridays for religious activists and is not open for visitors. So plan accordingly!

Plus, don’t forget to boost me by hitting like and feel free to shoot any questions if you have or just in case you need any support during your visit. Thanks and see you again, hopefully soon!

​10 Military Habits That Make Soldiers Awesome Personality !

No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck..
 Here are some of the common military habits that make the soldiers awesome.
1. They are extremely polite.

You can easily pick out service members by their over usage of “sir” and “ma’am.” The soldiers never discriminate among people when it comes to politeness. A shopkeeper would get the same amount of respect that a Colonel would. All thanks to the military discipline.
2.Their haircut!

I have never come across any defence personnel how doesn’t have a smart haircut. The crew cut is the signature haircut that most of the service members have. Years will pass by and the soldiers will never get tired of sporting their smartly- cut hair.
3.Sunglasses!

Wearing sunglasses has become like an unwritten norm for the military personnel. The military personnel wear sunglasses even when its’not sunny outside! So much for a habit!
4.They walk fast.

Military personnel walk with a purpose, as if their trip to the grocery store is actually a Ministry of Defence briefing! Their walk defines another parameter of confidence.
5.The power stance.

Habits are hard to kick. The posture of the military personnel literally makes you feel that they own the place!
6.Use of jargons

The military personnel have the habit of using jargons ( example- Roger, etc.) in their normal daily way of speaking. If a non-defence background individual is to hear them speak, I’m pretty sure they would be awestruck!
7.They have the tendency to scan the crowd and are very observant.

If you are in a room full of people and you spot someone who’s been scanning and observing the crowd, you are most probably looking at a soldier. They can easily sense if something is suspicious and act accordingly.
8.They can sleep anywhere.

Military personnel can sleep probably anywhere, in any weather, on anything. They also come out of it rapidly and coherently and it’s no big deal for them.
9.They are unbelievably punctual.

So they have this really unbelievable punctuality. 1800 hours, for them, can become 1755 hours but not 1805 hours. They will always be on time, irrespective of the event, etc.
10.Their determination and courage are unmatched.

The military personnel has so much determination for whatever they do. No task is big or small; they put their 100% in everything that they do. Their courage is something that inspires other people to be like them.

Have a Happy ‘Gold Morning’!

My mornings usually start with my roommate’s alarm at around 6:00 a.m. following myself to forcefully get out of the bed.

Yes, struggle! Extreme struggle, my mornings are full with. I lead a very hectic schedule as I have to travel 20 kilometers to my workplace and apart from that my professional life includes a lot of travelling from one client to another. I deal with arrogant managers and demanding clients.

However, otherwise my day is a celebration with regime and natural exercise flowed in the form of working out in the morning, arranging for my daily activities. It is a very tedious process as I stay 1000 kilometers away from my family and its very difficult to do all of it by myself as I have been a pampered child throughout.

To transform our mundane mornings into #Colgate360GoldMornings, Colgate has launched a 360 charcoal gold toothbrush. The color of the brush is gold and it is quite effective as we begin the day with an attempt to save our teeth from various germs and bacteria no matter which paste you use (with salt or without :P)

As the slim bristles reach the insides of the teeth easier, the brushing is smoother than with any other brush. The black bristles in the middle are charcoal infused making the brushing session refreshing.

So, are you going to try to have your own #Colgate360GoldMornings? Lets make each and every morning the beginning to a lovely day with an option like Colgate 360 Charcoal Gold toothbrush. Having good teeth without cavities is something that we can cherish forever. I have only a few of such perfect teeth left, and I hope to make it count in making my day better. Well, Colgate 360 Charcoal Gold toothbrush is a warrior and it goes through to claim the golden morning for you in the form of #Colgate360GoldMornings!

Time has come when you need to transform your good morning to gold morning through brushing your teeth with , it will bring the freshness and brings the best oral health for the rest of the day. To ensure the benefits of #Colgate360GoldMornings, you should brush your teeth twice in a day, morning and before going to bed at night.

Aamchi Mumbai’s Local Train

Warning: Sarcasm and Satire ahead! Read at your own risk.

Believe me, it takes years of practice to come out of it alive!

Infact at several stations such as Dadar and Andheri, boarding a train seems like ‘now or never’ affair. The plight is such that travelling in Mumbai local trains should be declared as adventure sports in India.

Such Ecstasy!

The tales of local train are such that once a famous sprinter tried to board the train at Dadar which he could manage at the next station by demonstrating his ‘the best speed possible’ and that too in the ladies compartment. To his respite, he felt he could do it but as he was about to gain a sense of achievement, he was beaten by a bunch of aunties and thrown out of the compartment. These were the same set of women who last week threw Falguni Pathak out of train thinking her of a man when she tried entering the ladies compartment.

No less than Olympics we have at stations of Mumbai suburbs!

Eunuch gang outside a station

At a HR consortium expressing their deep concern on their employees being harassed by eunuchs more than in offices by their bosses, it was decided that this year onwards, employees shall be given Eunuch Allowance as a salary component.

HR pointed out to how their weak employees are tricked by them to pay money. In fact some employees have even stopped shaving to avoid being referred to as ‘chikna’ by the eunuchs.

Such an empathetic decision after these many years of sleep, HR department!

The voice of the female announcer on the train is the only saving grace after all these not-so-pleasing incidents. The lady’s eloquence is just perfect and her knowledge about different languages is just commendable.

The craze for the voice is not just for me, a young guy was found to be profoundly in love with the woman behind the voice and even tried to locate her several times at various stations of Mumbai railways. When asked, he says that his heart actually goes in the ‘love mode’ the moment she says,

“pudhil sthanak Dadar”,

“Agla station Dadar”

“Next station Dadar”

Displeased with the son’s obsession with ‘Train wali’, the mother has tried setting him up with various dates and has even opened a Tinder account but all gone unfruitful.

Such are the vagaries of metro city life! Comments section is open for your experiences!

Encourage me by liking the post.

My Source of Inspiration, Ambition and Aspiration; My Mother!

“Whenever you’re happy, look up to those who are more successful than you for inspiration and whenever you’re sad compare yourself with people who have less than you to learn how to live life”

These are the sayings of my mother which I remember most and they have helped me profusely so far.

My all time source of inspiration and optimism is my mother. Just like other Indian mothers, she does scold me often and never lets me make a girlfriend. She works for Indian Postal Service and has been an outstanding student throughout her life which explains her concerns towards my education. She got married at the age of 18 years after she passed out her Intermediate exams and then was expected to juggle with household, studies and children in an orthodox village. Yet she proved her stance, succeeded to complete her graduation with distinction and now serving as head of the department.

This story is of the time when I was struggling with my future after 12th board exams. In-spite of collective efforts of my school teachers, my parents and coaching tutors, I wasn’t able to fetch any good engineering college. Not because I hadn’t studied much, may be because I didn’t have that kind of caliber in me and I was not made for such places. I was left with limited number of options for my future studies and majority of them had high fees structure or didn’t have better curriculum standards.

Coming from a middle class background, it was very difficult for me to comprehend what was the best decision and where would I land up in the course of these decisions. I used to be devastated and depressed as I couldn’t talk to my parents about money issues because I didn’t want them to be guilty of not giving their child of what he desires. I never let it out, not just in front of them but none. I used to keep looking for various fruitful options that could suffice my ambitions and aspirations.

It was my mother who supported me at that time, she sat me down with extreme love and affection one afternoon and told me her story. The story of how she has succeeded midst the orthodox villagers who didn’t allow a girl to get education post 8th standard, married her to strangers by 18 years of age and her story of learning how to cook at her inlaws with taunts and yet being able to complete her graduation by fetching more marks than her brother-in-law who was pursuing the same course as of hers. While he used to sit, study and eat the food she used to cook, she had her child and a north Indian nagging family to take care of with her husband serving Indian Army on high altitudes. She didn’t even have her own family to support her at that time because telephones didn’t exist back then. All she could do was write but whom had she written? to her illiterate mother? or to the father who didn’t know the exact value of having a daughter.

Although you’d be thinking that how is this even related to my story? It is! Because I got to know what my mother has been through when she was of my age and being her child how courageous I should be at this point of time.

Image courtesy: http://www.quoteshelp.com

This was one of the stories of how I look up to my Ma, you can have your own through Housing.com and bring optimism to the world.

When You and Me met, post 10 years!

Being an Army kid, I have to travel to a lot of places with my parents. Since childhood, I had to change a lot of schools and make new friends after every 2-3 years. Well this has always been the most amazing part of my life but the sad part has been how to find the ones I left behind because they were the best I had and I didn’t want to loose them. But to my rescue, came these social media platforms and I can now very easily connect to the friend I was friends with in my kindergarten.

This is the story of a friend who I knew in my 5th standard but I had to let go of all of them because we were shifting to my native town, Ayodhya. I left for the new place, new friends were made, got involved in studies and left to Mumbai for higher education. Being a marketer, I am active on almost all social media channels.

Suddenly I get a call from a friend that she has been placed at Cape Gemini and she is coming to Mumbai for her first posting. I congratulated her and I was ecstatic to see her after these many years.

I also gave her few contacts and referred to few sites like Housing.com for searching flats and PG. She finally came, settled in Navi Mumbai but we couldn’t connect for sometime as I am undergoing last year of my undergrad and am jittery of my future therefore putting in all efforts possible.

There was this one time I was feeling low and homesick that I don’t have any support system in Mumbai and I am staying 1000 miles away from my family. I don’t know what led me to this, but I called her up and said, Hey Anshul, You have been here for long. Do you want to grab a meet?

Anshul: Hi, I was thinking the same but I thought you’d be busy which is why I didn’t contact you.

Me: No, yaar. I am sorry. We would have met earlier only but anyways let’s meet. What say?

Anshul: Sure. 

Me: Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?

Anshul: Umm.. I haven’t seen beaches, want to go to waterside. Or wherever you say.

Me: Ohkay, Waterside?! What better than Carters! Let’s go to Carters, will make you eat the best Showarma you can ever have in Mumbai and we will go have coffee somewhere post this.

The meet was decided and we went to Carter road, met Anshul and we both enjoyed each other’s company to the core. We discussed about life, how we used to be during childhood, our mischievous pranks on each others. After this meet, I felt like I was surrounded by friends and I am not alone in this journey as she told me about how her life has been through all crests and troughs.

This meet was very much needed for me to look up with optimism as it is the crucial year of my life and I want support of all my near and dear ones.

Image Courtesy: http://www.tv.com