An unexpected visit to Hazaribagh National Park !

That was the first day of my semester break at my hometown,Hazaribagh. On 06/07/2013, I decided to visit my very old and good friend Arnab. He was on holidays too. At around 10 am I was at his place having our usual conversation. Suddenly,it came to my mind that we should go somewhere nearby for fun. Having lived here for over 15 years, I have never visted Hazaribagh national park which was just 15 km from my house. Let me tell you a little geography about this wildlife sanctuary. Located in the state Jharkhand, this is one of the 442 animal sanctuaries in india covering over 182 km^2 of area which is around half of very famous Kaziranga National Park. It starts from about 15 km from Hazaribag town on the Hazaribag-Barhi road and extends to east and west, but mostly westward for several miles. It is claimed that the Sanctuary has wild bears, sambhar, nilgai, chital and kakar, sloth bears,tigers and leopards.

You can see Hazaribagh on east side below Nepal

So it was immediately decided that we are visiting there today. Before you question what we were doing since 15  years, you should know this national park is considered very unsafe due to maoists activites due to which people rarely visit this place and is categorised as one of the least famous wildlife sanctuary.Despite knowing the danger we decided to go there. It was me,Arnab,Sumit and Arnab's old Maruti 800 which hit the road for one of our memorable adventures.

 Weather seemed marvellous which boosted our excitement to another level. As we entered the gate, we were welcomed on rugged road on which riding the car seemed little troublesome. Further, we saw huge number of cows crossing our paths. Practically, we have seen first animal here. It was not more than 1 km we got to see something exceptional. It was the huge well built centuries ago by the king who ruled here, the purpose of the well was to trap tigers into it. Once the tiger has fallen inside the well there was no way out and a tunnel with doors was made connecting land to deepest portion of well so that people can visit there to capture injured or dead tiger.

From here we took the less travelled road between two to make this safari more exciting and evoking. On the way we got to see peacocks,deers,other birds whose names I dont know and how I can forget that beautiful fountain. We had to clime down the bridge and cross the river to get an amazing view of this 
fountain.

We travelled for more than 10 km before we reached the guest house where we enjoyed the boating experience but again an unexpected happened, our boat got struck in the middle of the lake. Thanks to Arnab swimming skills, he jumped off the boat and pushed it and we were safe. We are going to remember this for our life especially when we will go for boating. Further, we went 4 km deeper up the hill to see highest watchtower from where we got such an admirable and alluring view which can't be forgetten.

It was already very late so we decided to return. While returning we got to see nilgai which made us realise there are still many things here we havent explored and we will be visting this again for sure.

Thanks to Arnab and Sumit for such a wonderful and unforgettable day .

LIGHT THE NITE

“Light the Nite” is a series of events across india that endeavours to spread the idea of peaceful and green festive season . In Bangalore , it was organised on 12/11/2012 at The Phoenix Market City.


I came to know about this event through my friend Ritvik .The first thing what attracted me was the adorable view of thousands of sky lanterns together moving in the sky and secondly , it was for noble cause so I could not resist myself being the part of this wonderful event . We got tickets at affordable price of Rs. 150 / person . I am calling this affordable not because the amount is less but because the part of this money goes to Vanka Foundation to help underprivileged . Further , I came to know there will be DJ too after lightening the lamps which aggrandized my excitement to another level.


It was 12/11/2012 . The day when most of people where busy celebrating India’s most auspicious festival Diwali with their family but not everyone is so lucky . I woke up very late at 11:30 am and saw so many calls which I missed from my home . I called them and they affectionately wished me ‘Happy Diwali’. This time I was missing my family a lot but I was helpless . I was just hoping something special to happen in evening @ The phoenix Market City.


We , group of 8 friends reached Phoenix City by 6pm . No doubt , this place is most admirable one in bangalore not only in terms of its bizarre structure and extraordinary decorations but also for beauteous people coming there. We quickly showed our passes and got the sealed sky lanterns . I was amazed seeing abundance number of people becoming part of this epic !! Most of them were young and appealing people who looked very fresh and bright loaded with enthusiasm .


The most awaited programme got started by 7 pm with the entry of some dashing anchor who made everyone laugh and entertained by his acute sense of humour and witty talks . Further , we witnessed 10 minutes breath-taking hip hop break dance , in which two teams were competing with each other with their never-seen-before dance moves which reminded me of step up movies .Doubtless , those guys were simply astonishing dancers . Next , came the turn for Beatboxers who took whole crowd to the world of drum , beats and musical sounds . All this time , we were making noise like hell with abounding energy and even started to move our feets during beatboxing . 

Finally came the moment we were anxiously waiting for around one week . We were asked to open the seal of lantern and wait for further instructions to come . Between this , someone lighted his lamp and as we saw the first sky lamp moving up the sky , everyone started applausing and cheering the beauty it filled around us . I along with Ritvik too opened the lamp and lighted its burner fitted at the bottom with the candle but something unfortunate happened and paper of our lamp got burnt making a hole in our balloon like lamp . I was little disappointed at this but then I took courage and tried something illegal . I attempted using my already used ticket to get another sky lamp and luckly they did not check my old ticket properly and gave me another one . I was again filled with joy and this time I wanted to execute it properly but there is a proverb “as you sow , so shall you reap .“I got this another lamp bluffing the organising people so I had to pay for this in someway . Unfortunately , we failed again in our attempt of raising the lamp into sky but comfortably come out of this unhappy part as we looked above . Hundreds of lighted sky lamps rising high into the sky all in one direction made that moment most admirable , alluring , angelic and unforgettable one . I wish that moment would have never ended . Next was the DJ time where we danced with full passion and energy ; apologies to those whom I kicked with my super aggressive steps . a


Finally , we went to food court by 8:30 pm which was bit costly ; two paratha at Rs. 170 . We reached back to hostel by 11:30pm only to get screwed by our warden but who mind these small things after spending the best time of your life .



I would like to thank the “LIGHT THE NITE” organising team for the amazing hard work they put in. It was a complete volunteer driven effort and would not have been possible without the hard work put in by all the involved volunteers. But this was just a trailer and the main event is coming on 22 december to make the record of ‘lightening most number of sky lamps by India’ in Guinness World Records.

Want to thank all my friends for all the amazing time we had . Got to enjoy lots with everyone !!