TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal (pronounced /tɑdʒ mə'hɑl/ or pronounced /tɑʒ mə'hɑl/) (Hindi: ताज महल; Persian: تاج محل), is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, that was built under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj" ) is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

While the white domed marble and tile mausoleum is most familiar, Taj Mahal is an integrated symmetric complex of structures that was completed around 1648. Ustad Ahmad Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer of the Taj Mahal.

The focus of the Taj Mahal is the white marble tomb, which stands on a square plinth consisting of a symmetrical building with an iwan, an arch-shaped doorway, topped by a large dome. Like most Mughal tombs, basic elements are Persian in origin.

The base structure is a large, multi-chambered structure. The base is essentially a cube with chamfered edges and is roughly 55 meters on each side (see floor plan, right). On the long sides, a massive pishtaq, or vaulted archway, frames the iwan with a similar arch-shaped balcony.
On either side of the main arch, additional pishtaqs are stacked above and below. This motif of stacked pishtaqs is replicated on chamfered corner areas as well. The design is completely symmetrical on all sides of the building. Four minarets, one at each corner of the plinth, facing the chamfered corners, frame the tomb. The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan; their actual graves are at a lower level.

The marble dome that surmounts the tomb is its most spectacular feature. Its height is about the same size as the base of the building, about 35 meters, and is accentuated as it sits on a cylindrical "drum" of about 7 metres high. Because of its shape, the dome is often called an onion dome (also called an amrud or guava dome). The top is decorated with a lotus design, which serves to accentuate its height as well. The shape of the dome is emphasised by four smaller domed chattris (kiosks) placed at its corners. The chattri domes replicate the onion shape of the main dome. Their columned bases open through the roof of the tomb and provide light to the interior. Tall decorative spires (guldastas) extend from edges of base walls, and provide visual emphasis to the height of the dome. The lotus motif is repeated on both the chattris and guldastas. The dome and chattris are topped by a gilded finial, which mixes traditional Persian and Hindu decorative elements.

The main dome is crowned by a gilded spire or finial. The finial, made of gold until the early 1800s, is now made of bronze. The finial provides a clear example of integration of traditional Persian and Hindu decorative elements. The finial is topped by a moon, a typical Islamic motif, whose horns point heavenward. Because of its placement on the main spire, the horns of moon and finial point combine to create a trident shape, reminiscent of traditional Hindu symbols of Shiva.

At the corners of the plinth stand minarets, the four large towers each more than 40 meters tall. The minarets display the Taj Mahal's penchant for symmetry. These towers are designed as working minarets, a traditional element of mosques as a place for a muezzin to call the Islamic faithful to prayer. Each minaret is effectively divided into three equal parts by two working balconies that ring the tower. At the top of the tower is a final balcony surmounted by a chattri that mirrors the design of those on the tomb. The minaret chattris share the same finishing touches, a lotus design topped by a gilded finial. Each of the minarets were constructed slightly outside of the plinth, so that in the event of collapse, a typical occurrence with many such tall constructions of the period, the material from the towers would tend to fall away from the tomb.

INTERIOR DECORATION

The interior chamber of the Taj Mahal steps far beyond traditional decorative elements. Here the inlay work is not pietra dura, but lapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones. The inner chamber is an octagon with the design allowing for entry from each face, though only the south garden-facing door is used. The interior walls are about 25 metres high and topped by a "false" interior dome decorated with a sun motif. Eight pishtaq arches define the space at ground level. As with the exterior, each lower pishtaq is crowned by a second pishtaq about midway up the wall. The four central upper arches form balconies or viewing areas and each balcony's exterior window has an intricate screen or jali cut from marble. In addition to the light from the balcony screens, light enters through roof openings covered by chattris at the corners. Each chamber wall has been highly decorated with dado bas relief, intricate lapidary inlay and refined calligraphy panels, reflecting in miniature detail the design elements seen throughout the exterior of the complex. The octagonal marble screen or jali which borders the cenotaphs is made from eight marble panels. Each panel has been carved through with intricate pierce work. The remaining surfaces have been inlaid with semiprecious stones in extremely delicate detail, forming twining vines, fruits and flowers.

Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of graves and hence Mumtaz and Shah Jahan are laid in a relatively plain crypt beneath the inner chamber with their faces turned right and towards Mecca. Mumtaz Mahal's cenotaph is placed at the precise center of the inner chamber with a rectangular marble base of 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters. Both the base and casket are elaborately inlaid with precious and semiprecious gems. Calligraphic inscriptions on the casket identify and praise Mumtaz. On the lid of the casket is a raised rectangular lozenge meant to suggest a writing tablet. Shah Jahan's cenotaph is beside Mumtaz's to the western side. It is the only visible asymmetric element in the entire complex. His cenotaph is bigger than his wife's, but reflects the same elements: a larger casket on slightly taller base, again decorated with astonishing precision with lapidary and calligraphy that identifies Shah Jahan. On the lid of this casket is a traditional sculpture of a small pen box. The pen box and writing tablet were traditional Mughal funerary icons decorating men's and women's caskets respectively. Ninety Nine Names of God are to be found as calligraphic inscriptions on the sides of the actual tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, in the crypt including "O Noble, O Magnificent, O Majestic, O Unique, O Eternal, O Glorious... ". The tomb of Shah Jahan bears a calligraphic inscription that reads; "He traveled from this world to the banquet-hall of Eternity on the night of the twenty-sixth of the month of Rajab, in the year 1076 Hijri."

HISTORY

Soon after the Taj Mahal's completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by his son Aurangzeb and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the Taj Mahal next to his wife.

By the late 19th century, parts of the Taj Mahal had fallen badly into disrepair. During the time of the Indian rebellion of 1857, the Taj Mahal was defaced by British soldiers and government officials, who chiseled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. At the end of 19th century British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a massive restoration project, which was completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber, modeled after one in a Cairo mosque. During this time the garden was remodeled with British-looking lawns that are visible today.

In 1942, the government erected a scaffolding in anticipation of an air attack by German Luftwaffe and later by Japanese Air Force. During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, scaffoldings were again erected to mislead bomber pilots. Its recent threats have come from environmental pollution on the banks of Yamuna River including acid rain due to the Mathura oil refinery, which was opposed by Supreme Court of India directives. In 1983, the Taj Mahal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

TOURISM

The Taj Mahal attracts from 2 to 4 million visitors annually, with more than 200,000 from overseas. Most tourists visit in the cooler months of October, November and February. Polluting traffic is not allowed near the complex and tourists must either walk from carparks or catch an electric bus. The Khawasspuras (northern courtyards) are currently being restored for use as a new visitor centre.[19][20] The small town to the south of the Taj, known as Taj Ganji or Mumtazabad, originally was constructed with caravanserais, bazaars and markets to serve the needs of visitors and workmen.[21] Lists of recommended travel destinations often feature the Taj Mahal, which also appears in several listings of seven wonders of the modern world, including the recently announced New Seven Wonders of the World, a recent poll[22] with 100 million votes

For security reasons [23] only five items - water in transparent bottles, small video cameras, still cameras, mobile phones and small ladies' purses - are allowed inside the Taj Mahal.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

In India, Seeing Tigers Up Close

The safari lodge has come to India. A prominent South African safari and ecotourism company, Conservation Corporation Africa, has joined with Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces to create wilderness safari experiences in India that are modeled on the sustainable standard it has established in Africa, with relatively small, low-environmental-impact lodges (with six to a dozen rooms), local naturalists, twice-daily jungle safaris and regional food, all set on the borders of India’s tiger reserves.

The first lodge by Taj Safari (www.tajsafaris.com), Mathua Kothi, opened on Nov. 1 at Bandavgarh Tiger Reserve, which has one of the highest densities of tigers in India. The second, Baghvan, outside the Pench Tiger Reserve, is scheduled to open on Feb. 1. These two luxury lodges are the first of five due to open by the end of 2007, with 22 as the ultimate goal.
India’s wildlife has long been one of the country’s most underrated assets, and the new lodge network puts the flora and fauna at center stage; though tigers are billed as the main attraction, other draws include leopards, hyenas, sloth bears, jackals, kingfishers and raptors.

SOURCE :http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/travel/10safaris.html

ANDHRA PRADESH TOURISM

HYDERABAD, one of India's largest cities and the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, has long been appreciated for its Islamic minarets, Hindu temples, British colonial architecture and centuries-old pearl markets. But now, helped by an influx of global software and financial companies like Microsoft and UBS, Hyderabad is a happening city, buzzing with coffee bars, stylish restaurants, bouncer-at-the-door clubs and sophisticated boutiques.

Situated on the Musi River in central India, Hyderabad is experiencing an economic boom that is not only attracting business travelers, but has also put the city's splendid monuments, spicy cuisine and bustling bazaars on the cultural map.

In the past three years, the number of international air arrivals has doubled to more than one million a year. From New York, round-trip flights start at about $1,300, while in India, low-cost domestic carriers like Air Deccan and Jet Airways bring tourists from Mumbai, New Delhi and beyond for quick pearl-shopping and sightseeing fixes. (You can do both by visiting the shops near the famous Charminar, the majestic 400-year old arched gate.) A new airport is scheduled to open in March 2008.

The Taj Hotels chain operates three luxury hotels in the city, but new developers are challenging its dominance. The Leela Group, affiliated with the Kempinski chain, has announced plans for a 300-room Leela Palace, while the Indian-American hotelier Vikram Chatwal is looking to import his “Dream” brand of designer boutique hotels.

Despite its new riches, Hyderabad retains a certain shabbiness, with crumbling concrete buildings and tent cities to prove it. Still, for an introduction to hip Hyderabad, take an auto-rickshaw through the scary traffic to Banjara Hills, an upmarket area west of the commercial district, where you'll find some of the city's newest, most cosmopolitan eateries.

Fusion 9, on the third floor of a modern building (6-3-249/A, First Avenue, Road No 1, 91-40-6557-7755/22), is a coolly contemporary space with a huge bar, open kitchen, eclectic menu and, unusual for this city, an international wine list (though Indian wines, like the Sula sauvignon blanc, are surprisingly drinkable). The crowd is young and casual, and seems to be as comfortable ordering wood-fired pizzas (255 rupees, or about $5.60 at 45.36 rupees to the dollar) as they are biryanis (235 rupees), the city's famous meat-and-rice dish.

For a more romantic evening, book a private, open-air pavilion in the junglelike gardens of Our Place (8-2-602/E Charan Pahadi, Road No. 10, 91-40-2335-3422). The tandoori and other North Indian dishes (about 150 rupees) are terrific. Between courses, you can check out handmade linens, picture frames and crafts at the classy Bombay Store just next door.

To see what's going on after dinner, pick up a copy of the monthly English-language magazine Wow! But be warned: some of the hottest nightclubs like Touch in Banjara Hills (Trendset Towers, Road 2, 91-40-2354-2422) and Bottles and Chimney (near the airport in Begumpet, 91-40-2776-6464) are known to turn away single Western men, for fear they might get a little too rowdy.

On a recent Wednesday night, a jeans-clad crowd of locals and N.R.I.s (Non-Resident Indians) packed the small dance floor at Ahala, a subterranean club in the Taj Krishna hotel (Road 1, 91-40-6666-2323). The space was filled with comfy cushions, glowing candles and pulsating house music.
“I felt like the oldest guy in the room,” said a 35-year-old N.R.I. from Kansas as he left the club just after 12 a.m. For all of Hyderabad's newfound hyperactivity, closing time is still midnight.

SOURCE :http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/travel/21surfacing.html

Andhra Pradesh is the home of many religious pilgrim centres. Tirupati, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, is the richest and most visited religious center (of any faith) in the world. Srisailam, the abode of Sri Mallikarjuna, is one of twelve Jyothirlingalu in India, Amaravati's Siva temple is one of the Pancharamams, and Yadagirigutta, the abode of an avatara of Vishnu, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha. The Ramappa temple and Thousand Pillars temple in Warangal are famous for some fine temple carvings. The state has numerous Buddhist centres at Amaravati, Nagarjuna Konda, Bhattiprolu, Ghantasala, Nelakondapalli, Dhulikatta, Bavikonda, Thotlakonda, Shalihundam, Pavuralakonda, Sankaram, Phanigiri and Kolanpaka.


The golden beaches at Visakhapatnam,the one-million-year old limestone caves at Borra, picturesque Araku Valley, hill resorts of Horsley Hills, river Godavari racing through a narrow gorge at Papi Kondalu, waterfalls at Ettipotala, Kuntala and rich bio-diversity at Talakona, are some of the natural attractions of the state.
Near the beach Kailasagiri hill is there, it is one of the beautiful sight which shows the entire beauty of visakhapatnam having other side sea.


The Borra Caves are located in the Anatagiri Hills of Eastern Ghats, near Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh State in India. They are at a height of about 800 to 1300 metres above Mean Sea Level and are famous for millions of years old stalactite and stalagmite formations. They were discovered by William King George, the British geologist in the year 1807.The caves get their name from a formation inside the caves that looks like the human brain, which in the local language, Telugu, is known as borra.Similarly Belum caves was formed due to erosion in limestone deposite in the area by Chitravati River, millions of years ago. This limestone caves was formed due to action of carbonic acid — or weakly acidic groundwater formed due to reaction between limestone and water.


Belum Caves are the second largest cave in Indian sub-continent and the longest caves in plains of Indian Subcontinent. Belum Caves derives its name from "Bilum" Sanskrit word for caves. In Telugu language, it is called Belum Guhalu. Belum Caves has a length of 3229 meters, making it the second largest natural caves in Indian Subcontinent. Belum Caves have long passages, spacious chambers, fresh water galleries and siphons. The caves reach its deepest point (120 feet from entrance level) at the point known as Patalganaga.
Horsley Hills Horsley Hills, elevation 1,265 m, is a famous summer hill resort in Andhra Pradesh, about 160 km from Bangalore, India and 144 km from Tirupati. The town of Madanapalle lies nearby. Major tourist attractions include the Mallamma temple and the Rishi valley school. Horsely Hills is the departure point for the Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary at a distance of 87 km.
The narrow road to Horsely Hills is very scenic. It is surrounded throughout its entire length with dense growths of eucalyptus, jacaranda, allamanda, and gulmohar trees. This place is also believed to be haunted by some ghosts.

Charminar, Golconda Fort, Chandragiri Fort, Chowmahalla Palace and Falaknuma Palace are some of the monuments in the state.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh

WHY WE TRAVELORISSA, INDIA

EXPLORING THE SUN TEMPLE, MARCH 3, 2007 Richard Heaton, 41, at left, a government legal adviser from London, on a guided tour through a 13th-century black granite temple in Konarak in the eastern state of Orissa. ''I go to India by myself most years because I love the country. I like the history and the culture. From the photograph you get an idea of what an extraordinary structure this is, with the big wheels representing the chariot of the sun god, Surya. What's really fascinating about India -- and you really get this when you're by yourself -- is noticing the small things. The detail in India is extraordinary, in the way people dress, the way people store their things and mend things, and the paradoxes: nothing is quite as it seems. So, intellectually, mentally, it's this constantly fascinating display of language and architecture and objects and craft. It's all around you. Your senses are constantly being bombarded with little details, which is fantastic.'' As told to Austin Considine

SOURCE : http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E3DA1E30F933A05751C1A9619C8B63

Pondicherry’s French Connection

AS colonies go, Pondicherry was not exactly a success story. Almost immediately after the French set up this lovely nugget on the Bay of Bengal in 1674, it was captured by the Dutch, retaken by its founders, then sacked and destroyed by the British. And though the French kept rebuilding it, Pondicherry never became more than a stopover on the way to Indochina. Even after Pondy, as it is nicknamed, rejoined India — late, in 1956 — it languished, out of step with the rest of the nation. In other words, for most of its history, Pondicherry was a backwater, in decline.
No more. Today, Puducherry, as it is officially known but rarely called, is capitalizing on a glammed-up version of that history, and emerging as an artsy, design-savvy destination with a quasi-Gallic approach to eating, drinking, shopping and relaxing. It’s like India seen through a French lens, or maybe vice versa.

On the southeastern coast, about 150 miles south of Chennai, Pondicherry is, for an Indian city, tiny. Just about a million people live there, mostly in the types of charmless, three- and four-story concrete buildings erected all over the poorer parts of Asia. But near the Bay of Bengal, the cityscape changes drastically. Soon you see tile roofs and wooden shutters, balconies and colonnades, wide brick streets and pastel Catholic churches — the neighborhood once known as the Ville Blanche, or White Town, where the colonists lived.


Here, under a very un-Indian blanket of tranquillity, Pondy is exploding. In less than a decade, the local branch of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage has contributed to the restoration of dozens of historic structures, from private homes to former governors’ residences (a description apparently applied to half the buildings in Pondicherry).

The crumbling ochre walls of the 18th-century Education Department, for example, were once covered in a sheen of gray mold; when I arrived in the rue Romain Rolland last spring, the building was smart and tidy, with pink-peach plaster trimmed in white. It had reopened as the 16-room Hôtel de l’Orient in 2000, and my room there had a four-poster bed, an antique dark-wood wardrobe and framed prints of blue-skinned gods on the sponge-washed walls. The air-conditioning was blasting, and when I turned it off, I heard something I’d never heard before in India: nothing. No traffic or honking horns, no vendors’ cries, no heavy machinery whirring from within a neighbor’s home.

Peace pervaded the neighborhood. In a neatly subdivided park, office workers on lunch break napped in the shade, and along the waterfront boulevard, couples and families — mostly Indians, the women in stunning yellow, orange and teal saris, along with a smattering of French tourists — ambled past the too-rocky-to-swim beach, the stately Hôtel de Ville and a statue of Gandhi.

In the garden of the 33-room Promenade, Pondicherry’s second-newest boutique hotel, situated (surprise!) right on the promenade, well-heeled patrons — mostly Western, with a smattering of Indians — drank cocktails and dangled their feet in a small pool. It was a Tuesday in March, but it felt like a summer Friday.

North of the park sat the equally tranquil Pondicherry Museum, an old mansion full of relics from the past, both recent and distant. For 20 minutes, I was the only visitor, wandering alone among the carriages and cannonballs, ornate dining room sets and bronze statues of goddesses, until I found a display of 2,000-year-old Roman amphorae from the nearby archaeological dig at Arikamedu.

Farther north lay the Aurodhan Gallery, perhaps the city’s finest collection of contemporary Indian art. After browsing three floors of brilliant Ganesh portraits and somber neo-Expressionist scenes of old men drinking and playing checkers, I asked the gallery owner’s wife, Shernaz Verma, what to do next. She suggested I visit the French Institute and Auroville — a utopian community founded by the Sri Aurobindo Society, whose followers were, for many years, Pondy’s main tourists — but warned I shouldn’t expect a vacation crammed with activities.

In Pondicherry, she said, “there’s not much to see, but a lot to feel.”

So, for the next five days, I tried to soak up as much Pondicherry feeling as possible. I played flâneur, strolling among the striking architecture and observing my fellow visitors. The French, it seemed, had a penchant for local dress, donning saris and kurtas as if they’d worn them all their lives. They were also, contrary to what I’d read, the only people to be heard speaking French — Tamil and English dominated les rues. Morocco, this was not.

Likewise, Pondicherry’s restaurants represented an odd mixture of cuisines. I’d heard the city was home to a unique school of cooking in which French and Indian techniques and ingredients intermingled, but if such a restaurant actually exists, I couldn’t find it. Instead, so-called “creole” places such as Madame Shanthe’s simply offered French and Indian dishes side by side, and it was up to me to, say, dunk a crust of baguette in my coconut prawn curry.

Mélanges or not, Pondicherry’s restaurants were a treat to explore, from the Mediterranean-style salads at Satsanga, an open-air restaurant popular with homesick French tourists, to the buttery sweets at Sri Krishna. All demonstrated an attention to color and design. Even humble Surguru, where the superlative vegetarian thalis cost just 45 rupees, or slightly more than $1, had a wood-beamed vaulted ceiling, tabletops covered with shellacked newspapers and a contingent of chic French expatriate wives at lunchtime.

Every afternoon, I’d find myself at Coffee.com, a cybercafe run by the Anwar family where backpackers and expatriates would congregate for Wi-Fi, espresso and DVD screenings. There I befriended a pair of young American women who offered a solution to my what-to-do-next conundrum: Go shopping.

“This is, like, the Anthropologie of India!” said Anne Kohl, a visiting Texan, referring to the American chain that sells shabby-chic clothing and Victorian-bohemian antiques.

“There’s nothing to do but spend money,” added Ellen Miller, a Seattleite who’d spent the past year teaching at one of Pondicherry’s elementary schools.

And so I spent money. At the department store Casablanca, I found progressive Indian fashions from local designers, and bought for my wife, Jean, an embroidered tunic and a crinkly yellow-and-white scarf. At Nirvana, I bought baby T-shirts featuring Rajdhani, the beturbaned cartoon spokesman for an old brand of Indian coffee, and at the local branch of Fab India, a chain that sells craft clothing from all over the subcontinent, I sifted through hundreds of brightly patterned shirts and scarves and skirts and sandals. The wooden duck figurines at the many antiques shops intrigued me, and had I known I would soon move to a larger apartment, I might very well have had a 19th-century teak dining table or carved sleeping platform shipped back home.

Instead of buying a bag (the quality is great, the style a little too sophisticated for me), I sampled the slick, soft brown-leather banquettes at Risque, in the Promenade hotel — which, by no small coincidence, is one of two developed by Hidesign. (The other is Le Dupleix, formerly an 18th-century mayor’s mansion.) Risque is a classic boutique hotel destination bar: D.J. playing loud dance music for a mix of stylish international types — the scion of an industrialist from Kerala, a rotund, mustached French artist, a San Francisco banker and his wife.

Risque was, perhaps, a little pretentious (especially given the bartenders’ mixological failings; a martini was, criminally, served warm), so everyone would generally move on to Le Space, a rooftop bar with mismatched chairs and strings of fairy lights, where it didn’t seem to matter that the owners never had enough tonic water or that mosquitoes nipped at my ankles. Here the Kingfisher beers were cold, and disparate populations mixed: backpackers, spiritual seekers, wealthy French and, a relative rarity, Indians.

More than anywhere I’ve ever visited, the invisible wall between locals and tourists in Pondicherry was a challenge to breach. In part, this was a legacy of colonialism — or at least, that’s what I understood from my research at the French Institute, in whose modern, air-conditioned library I would sometimes escape the midday heat. Gazing out a window at the remains of the city’s 18th-century defense walls, I read about how the French, unlike the British, rarely tried to change Indian society or the caste system, and explicitly cut the city up — block by block, house by house — according to ethnicity. That few Pondicherry natives now spoke French in public, or adopted Escoffier as their own personal kitchen god, or approached foreign tourists as equals, seemed natural, particularly since, as Saroja Sundararajan wrote in “Pondicherry: A Profile,” the colony’s native population was once “one of the most exploited in the world.”

If I were an academic obsessed with post-colonial theory, I could read Pondicherry’s current superficial Frenchifying as subtle revenge upon the colonizers. What better way to redress the wrongdoings of centuries past than by adopting a French facade in order to extract money from nostalgic Gauls? Hanuman, the trickster monkey god, would be proud.

Except that Pondicherry was just too beautiful and relaxing for it all to be a sham. I would walk down these pristine lanes that smelled of old French novels and come upon a night market where vendors sold roast ears of corn or spicy baskets of chickpeas, or I would wander the Tamil quarter and spot a forest-green Vespa under the tiled awning of an old wooden house, and all those old distinctions — Indian/French, native/foreign, authentic/simulated — would lose their meaning. Pondicherry was simply Pondicherry, and becoming more so every day.

A TAPESTRY INSTEAD OF A BLEND
HOW TO GET THERE
Flights from Newark to Chennai — the closest airport — start at around $1,100. Ask your hotel to arrange a taxi for the three-hour trip to Pondicherry.
WHERE TO STAY
Hôtel de l’Orient (17 rue Romain Rolland; 91-413-2343-067; www.neemranahotels.com). Doubles from 3,000 rupees ($72.46 at 41.4 rupees to the dollar).
The Promenade (23 Goubert Avenue; 91-413-2227-750) and Le Dupleix (5 rue de la Caserne; 91-413-2226-999) can each be booked through www.sarovarhotels.com. Doubles from 5,000 rupees at the Promenade and 4,500 at Le Dupleix.
The Calve Heritage Hotel (36 Vysial Street; 91-413-2223-738) is a rarity — a Tamil-style bank transformed into a chic hotel, with wood-beam ceilings, stained-glass windows and flat-screen TVs. Doubles from 3,050 rupees. The restaurant isn’t creole, as it claims to be, but it’s nonetheless some of the best South Indian cuisine in town.
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK
Coffee.com (236 Mission Street; 91-413-2339-137 or -079; www.coffeedotcom.net).
Le Space (2 rue Labourdonnais).
Madame Shanthe’s Café and Restaurant (10 rue Bussy).
Rendezvous (30 rue Suffren; 91-413-2339-132; www.rendezvous-pondy.com).
Satsanga (30 rue Labourdonnais; 91-413-2225-867).
Sri Krishna Sweets (86 Mission Street).
Surguru (99 Mission Street; 91-413-4308-082).
WHAT TO DO
The Alliance Française (58 rue Suffren; 91-413-2338-146; www.afindia.org/pondichery) runs weekly screenings of English, French and Indian movies, and its library is a nice place to hang out and flip through old policiers and copies of Paris Match.
Aurodhan Gallery (33 rue François Martin; 91-413-2222-795; www.aurodhan.com).
The French Institute (11 rue St.-Louis; 91-413-2334-168; www.ifpindia.org).
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (14 rue Aurobindo; 91-413-2225-991; www.intachpondicherry.org) runs walking tours of the old neighborhoods.
Pondicherry Museum (49 rue St.-Louis).
Auroville, just over the border in Tamil Nadu state, was founded by a society devoted to the guru Sri Aurobindo in the 1960s and is now home to more than 1,700 people from more than 40 countries. At the center of this “ideal township” is the Matrimandir, a dimpled golden globe where the late guru’s followers meditate. Auroville also has the closest beaches to Pondicherry.
WHERE TO SHOP
Casablanca (165 Mission Street; 91-413-2226-495).
Nirvana (53 rue Suffren; 91-413-4209-610).
Fab India (59 rue Suffren; 91-413-2226-010; www.fabindia.com).
Renaissance Antiques (2 rue François Martin; 91-413-2228-833; www.pondyrenaissance.com).

SOURCE : http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/travel/30Pondicherry.html?pagewanted=1http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/travel/30Pondicherry.html?pagewanted=2

36 HOURS IN DELHI

A SEAT of power for more than a thousand years, the city-state of Delhi is a survivor of conquest and change. The Lodi and Mughal dynasties ruled this area, as did the British, until it was again transformed by the refugees of partition. Today, new money has conquered the region, which includes New Delhi, the capital of a rapidly changing India. Spiraling rents have put a Swarovski shop where a small independent bookshop once stood, and in the same market, a shop called It’s All About Bling sells spangly earrings. Thankfully, much of the remarkable history has survived, allowing the visitor to travel easily through the accordion pleats of time.

Friday 4 p.m.
1) SUNSET TOMB
This is a city of ruins and none is more elegantly preserved than Humayun’s Tomb, a precursor to the Taj Mahal and an early example of Mughal architecture. Built in the 1560s for Humayun, the second Mughal emperor, the domed mausoleum has an elaborate garden, potted with red sandstone tombs, gates and a mosque (admission is 250 rupees for foreigners, about $6 at 41 rupees to the dollar). Savor it at the golden end of the day.

6 p.m.
2) ART NOW

The new prosperity has spawned a thriving contemporary art scene. Several galleries are within a 15-minute ride into South Delhi, and new exhibitions usually open on Fridays. The Neeti Bagh neighborhood has Nature Morte (A-1 Neeti Bagh; 91-11-4174-0215; www.naturemorte.com) and Talwar Gallery (C-84 Neeti Bagh; 91-11-4605-0307; www.talwargallery.com). Nearby, Defence Colony offers Aryan Art Gallery (D-25 Defence Colony; 91-11-4155-1277; www.aryanartgallery.com) and Vadehra Art Gallery (D-40 Defence Colony; 91-11-2461-5368; www.vadehraart.com). Palette is on the top floor of a house in Golf Links (14 Golf Links; 91-11-4174-3034; www.paletteartgallery.com). Consult TimeOut Delhi and other local magazines for listings.

8 p.m.
3) ART OF THE PALATE

To continue the sensory overload, head to Basant Lok Market, a buzzing middle-class shopping center in Vasant Vihar, in the southwest sector, whose star attraction is the restaurant Punjabi by Nature (11 Basant Lok Market; 91-11-5151-6665; www.punjabibynature.in). Everything about this place is loud and large, including the food. Try the vodka gol gappa aperitif: crispy shells filled with a spiced vodka shot and popped into the mouth whole for a hot, boozy explosion. Carnivores: Try the tandoor-roasted lamb or the fish tikka. Vegetarians must make do with overspiced, tandoor roasted broccoli. For mellower non-Punjabi fare, head to the Defence Colony market and prepare to stand in line with Delhi chowhounds at Swagath (14 Defence Colony market; 91-11-2433-7538; www.swagath.in), for southern seafood dishes. Not to be missed: squid in butter garlic sauce and Chettinad-style prawns. Dinner for two runs about 2,000 rupees, at either restaurant (not counting the vodka gol gappas).

10 p.m.
4) ICE CREAM RUN

For dessert, go to one of dozens of ice cream vendors in front of India Gate, where balloons, cotton candy and the cool night air provide an evening picnic.

Saturday

8 a.m.
5) OLD GLORY
Take a taxi to the 17th-century Red Fort and Jama Masjid mosque early, when they are most glorious. Then give yourself the rest of the morning to take in the uninterrupted life of the walled city of Emperor Shah Jahan, also known as Old Delhi. Every street is a world unto its own, devoted to auto parts or wedding cards or freshly roasted spices. One of the liveliest is Kinari Bazaar, a crafters’ paradise bursting with haberdasheries, bead shops and vendors of bright red wedding turbans, alongside crumbling mansions. This is also a portrait of the head-load economy of old India, with porters ferrying everything from saris to bananas on their heads.
1 p.m.
6) TRANS-DELHI EXPRESS
The chaos of the old city dissolves in the spick-and-span Chandni Chowk station of the Delhi Metro. Eight minutes and 8 rupees later, you are at Rajiv Chowk station, in the city’s modern heart, Connaught Place. Retail chains are fast taking over the early 20th-century colonnades, though several independent bookshops, jewelers and gun dealers — and several lunch options — remain. Few beat the buffet at the 1911 Restaurant in the Imperial Hotel (Janpath; 91-11-2334-1234; www.theimperialindia.com). For 3,000 rupees for two, you can choose from warm calamari, crisp rucola and tiramisù. For unusual regional dishes, try the Mosaic (M 45/1 Connaught Place; 91-11-2341-6842). Dishes include Bengal shrimp steamed in coconut and tart South Indian spinach with rice. Lunch for two, 800 rupees.

3 p.m.
7) SITAR SHOPPING
To walk off your feast, try shopping. For table linens, quilts or kurtis, there’s Fabindia (B-28 Connaught Place, Inner Circle; 91-11-4151-3371; www.fabindia.com) and Soma (K-44 Connaught Place; 91-11-2341-6003; www.somashop.com) opposite the PVR Cinema. Boho chic is the specialty of People Tree (8 Regal Building, Parliament Street; 91-11-2334-0699; www.peopletreeonline.com), and a few steps away, the legendary A. Godin & Company (1 Regal Building, Parliament Street; 91-11-2336-2809) sells sitars and tablas. Keep walking down Parliament Street, past a sprawling observatory called Jantar Mantar, to the city’s public soapbox. When Parliament is in session, groups line up to protest along this street, whether college students opposed to affirmative action or farmers aggrieved by loan sharks.

5 p.m.
8) FASHION ROW

If you want to go upmarket, head to the Lodi Colony main market to check out two of India’s most innovative designers: the understated Rajesh Pratap Singh and the overstated Manish Arora. Singh (9 Lodi Colony Main Market; www.pratap.ws) offers a muted palette, and his cuts are lean and clean — maybe too lean if you happen to have hips. Men’s shirts and women’s blouses start around 6,000 rupees. Manish Arora (3 Lodi Colony Main Market; 91-11-2464-8898; www.manisharora.ws) is cheeky and loud; a black velvet tunic appliquéd with tiny clock parts goes for just under 10,000 rupees. If you would rather explore Indian crafts, skip the designer row in favor of Dilli Haat (C-126 Naraina Industrial Area; www.dillihaat.com), an outdoor bazaar where artisans peddle everything from hand-knitted socks to Madhubani-style paintings.

8 p.m.
9) UPMARKET TASTES

The young, rich and restless have many more watering holes than ever before. Smoke House Grill (Vipps Center, Masjid Moth; 91-11-4143-5530) occupies two floors in the Greater Kailash II neighborhood, and its gimmick is smoked food. For vegetarians, the offerings include smoked artichoke ravioli; for others, smoked chicken and fennel soup, or prawn and calamari ajilo with a warm, subtle red pepper bite. If you want a proper dinner, book a table upstairs. Dinner for two is around 5,000 rupees. The bar menu downstairs is limited, unless you intend to gorge on apple mojitos (350 rupees) and admire D.J. Cheenu.

11 p.m.
10) POOLSIDE COCKTAILS

For a nightcap, you could head across the dark courtyard to Kuki (E-7 Masjid Moth Complex; 91-11-2922-5241), a tony disco where the cover charge ranges from zero to 2,000 rupees a couple, and on Fridays and Saturdays, “gents” without arm candy are turned away. Better value is the shimmering poolside bar Aqua, at the Park Hotel (15 Parliament Street; 91-11-2374-3000; newdelhi.theparkhotels.com). A disco ball hovers by the pool and admission is free.

Sunday 9 a.m.
11) YOGI RETREAT

The city’s pièce de résistance, also its green lung, is Lodhi Gardens, a free, quiet sanctuary for parakeets and lovers. Early mornings are for yogis saluting the sun, influential bureaucrats on power walks and chipmunks and doves drinking from the same puddle. There are also 100-plus species of trees and tombs dating back to the 1400s. For breakfast and a morning paper, walk over to ChokoLa (36 Khan Market; 91-11-4175-7570), a lovely cafe at the Khan Market with still-lousy service. For one last kebab fix, it’s worth dawdling until Khan Chacha, a stall inside the market, opens its shutters (75 Khan Market, Middle Lane; 91-98106-71103). The specialty is the kathi roll, stuffed with chicken, mutton or paneer and is arguably the tastiest memento of this new old city.

THE BASICS

Continental (www.continental.com) and Air India (www.airindia.com) fly direct from the New York City area to New Delhi, with fares in mid-April starting about $1,000. The Indira Gandhi International Airport (www.newdelhiairport.in) is undergoing a major overhaul, so be prepared for more chaos than usual.

Hotel rates have lately shot through the roof. If you’re ready to splurge, stay at the ultra-modern Park Hotel in Connaught Place (15 Parliament Street; 91-11-2374-3000; newdelhi.theparkhotels.com). It has a poolside bar and modern rooms normally from 16,000 rupees, about $390 at 41 rupees to the dollar, but with discounts online.

Thikana (A-7 Gulmohar Park; 91-11-4604-1569; www.thikanadelhi.com) is a new, elegant bed-and-breakfast with modern fittings and home-cooked meals on demand. Doubles start at 4,500 rupees. The one drawback is the location: it sits along a traffic-choked artery.

The 18-room 27 Jor Bagh (27 Jor Bagh; 91-11-2469-8475; www.jorbagh27.com) is basic to the point of sterile, but it is across the street from Lodhi Gardens and the Book Shop (13/7 Jor Bagh Market; 91-11-2469-7102), perhaps the coziest book store in the country. Doubles start at 3,500 rupees.

Through all the changes, New Delhi remains a city of contrasts, so gird yourself for wrenching scenes of destitution. Charities that work with children include: Childline (www.childlineindia.org.in), Butterflies (www.butterflieschildrights.org) and Child Rights and You (www.cry.org).

SOUCE :http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/travel/23hours.html

36 HOURS IN MUMBAI

IT’S the Jazz Age again in Mumbai. The populous metropolis is bursting with stock-market money, a shimmering art scene has a growing global presence, and young people are exploiting their newfound freedoms in dim bars until the wee hours. Indeed, in the city’s more rarefied circles, Champagne is sipped every night and everyone knows everyone, darling. But large swaths of Mumbai, the former Bombay, remain immune to the homogeneity of global glamour. Behind the bustling boulevards are nameless alleys where coconuts are sold, haircuts are given and the city’s frenetic traffic occasionally comes to a honking halt because of a scampering goat.

Friday 5 p.m.
1) BEACH FLAVORS

When migrants from Mumbai’s outlying areas arrive, they descend onto Chowpatty Beach, a surprisingly pristine beach in the middle of this throbbing city of 17 million or so. Children swirl around rusted merry-go-rounds; families bond over cobs of corn; vendors sell hot-pink cotton candy. An array of services is on offer, including head massages and palm reading. Buy a savory plate of bhel puri — a kind of trail mix of puffed rice, garlic chutney, coriander and tamarind — and stroll among the classless ocean of Mumbaikars taking an urban breather.

7 p.m.
2) TOAST THE VIEW

For a bird’s-eye view of the city’s high rollers, head to the top of the InterContinental Mumbai Marine Drive Hotel (135 Marine Drive; 91-22-6639-9999; www.mumbai.intercontinental.com). The hipper-than-hip rooftop bar, Dome, draws the city’s wealthy young, who flirt over hot toddies by the pool. It also affords romantic views of the Arabian Sea and the graceful arc of Marine Drive, the seaside promenade also known as the Queen’s Necklace.

9 p.m.
3) CRAB EXPEDITION

The Koli, a hereditary caste of anglers, were among Mumbai’s original dwellers. They still fish, and you can sample their catch at Trishna (4 Sai Baba Marg; 91-22-2261-4991), a venerable seafood restaurant in the Kala Ghoda district. Specialties include fresh-off-the-boat squid in a chilly garlic, batter-fried prawns and pomfret grilled with black pepper. For the main course, try the signature crab drizzled in butter, pepper and garlic, accompanied by dal Hyderabadi, a spicy lentil soup. Dinner for two with chilled beers is about 3,000 rupees, about $70 at 43 rupees to the dollar.

Saturday 7 a.m.
4) FISH SPOTTING

Wake up early and drive to the Ferry Wharf seafood market at Mazgaon Dock (Malet Bunder Road), where fishermen come in after a night or a month at sea, collect their pay and buy jewelry and CDs for their wives. A recent visit found a dozen lobsters for 900 rupees, baby sharks for 20 rupees each, and a stingray with leopard spots for 1,500 rupees. Be warned: the scene is chaotic. Workers balancing baskets of seafood on their heads will push to get past, and the floor is coated by a sludge of innards, blood and ice. Photography is absolutely forbidden, but the image of the anarchic frenzy will surely stay.

11 a.m.
5) SPRUCE YOURSELF

India is known for exporting luscious fabrics, but homegrown designers are making a name for Indian fashion. Across the street from the Taj Mahal Palace hotel is Bombay Electric (1 Reay Marg, Best Marg; 91-22-2287-6276; www.bombayelectric.in), a concept boutique on three terraced levels that embodies the new Indian cool. If you order Jodhpur riding pants (7,500 rupees), they will be stitched by the Maharajah of Jaipur’s tailor, according to the store.

Noon
6) INDO-IRANIAN BOUNTY

Few countries have exported their cuisines as successfully as India. And yet what you find in New York or London tends to be a fraction of the culinary diversity that you find back home. Take, for example, the country’s old Iranian community, whose cooking is rarely found outside of the subcontinent. Follow the city’s foodies to Britannia (11 Sprott Road, Ballard Estate; 91-22-2261-5264), a breezy restaurant with high ceilings that blends Persian and Indian cuisine. Classic dishes include sali boti, stewed mutton with tomato gravy and fried potato straws; and chicken berry pulao, a sweet-and-sour mixture of rice, nuts, cranberries and spices. Pair them with a raspberry soda and, for dessert, a caramel custard. Lunch is about 600 rupees for two.

2 p.m.
7) THIEVES’ MARKET

For the intrepid treasure hunter, few shopping jaunts rival the grimy Chor Bazaar, a sprawling maze of lanes in the heart of downtown Mumbai. The market is cramped and chaotic, coursing with wooden carts that will, if you are careless, flatten you. Expect to find antiques at throwaway prices, including colonial-era lamps, Art Deco clocks and trinkets of every kind and, at a store called Mini Market (33/31 Mutton Street; 91-22-2347-2427), a large stash of original Bollywood posters sought by leading Indian collectors. And haggling is mandatory.

4 p.m.
8) ARTY STROLL

Mumbai’s art scene is exploding, and a good place to discover it is the Kala Ghoda district, within the larger neighborhood called Fort. Behind a frosted-glass wall is Bodhi Art (28 K. Dubash Marg; 91-22-6610-0124; www.bodhiart.in), a chic gallery that features cutting-edge Indian painters like Atul Dodiya, and which has outposts in Berlin, Singapore and New York. Directly across the street is the gallery of Max Mueller Bhavan (K. Dubash Marg; 91-22-2202-7542), as well as the well-known Jehangir Art Gallery (161-B Mahatma Gandhi Road; 91-22-2204-8212), with rotating shows and a cafe that feeds Mumbai’s artists and intellectuals.

8 p.m.
9) GRILLS AND TRUNKS

Before you head out for a glamorous night, feast on an everyman dinner. Bademiya (Tulloch Road; 91-99-6711-4183) is a legendary stall behind the Taj Mahal hotel in Colaba that serves the traditional Muslim cuisine of kebabs and paper-thin roomali flatbreads. Spread a newspaper and eat like the locals on the trunk of your taxi, or duck into the empty gallery across the street. The seekh kebab (spiced lamb patty) and boti kebab (yogurt-marinated lamb) are swift sellers, as are the rolls crammed with meat and onions. It is difficult to spend more than a few hundred rupees.

10 p.m.
10) AIR KISSES AND BELLINIS

The sceney Blue Frog (D/2 Mathuradas Mills Compound, Lower Parel; 91-22-4033-2300; www.bluefrog.co.in) may be the boldest experiment to date in Mumbai’s young but decadent night life: an attempt to showcase fresh, global music in a city reared on Bollywood show tunes. A dapper crowd packs the bar three deep, waving Gandhi-adorned currency and screaming out for Bellinis. Everyone seems to know one another, with fashionable new arrivals barely able to squeeze into their reserved booths without bumping into 12 people they went to school with, or worked with or slept with.

1 a.m.
11) BOLLYWOOD BLING

Despite the city’s over-the-top, nouveau night life, the police try to shut everything down at 1 a.m. One splashy exception is Bling in the Leela Kempinski Hotel in Sahar, near the international airport (91-22-6691-1338), a posh nightclub that stays open until breakfast. Waiters are dressed like rap moguls, the sofas are studded with fake crystals, and the V.I.P. lounge looks like an aquarium. Unlike the mega clubs in South Mumbai, which tend to play Western pop tunes, the D.J. here mixes Bollywood beats with hip-hop and house. The door charge is 1,000 rupees a couple, and “couple” is narrowly defined as a man and a woman, which can sometimes leave gay tourists stranded.

Sunday

1 a.m.
12) REALITY CHECK

A majority of Mumbaikars, of course, cannot afford nightclubs or cool boutiques. For an enlightening tour of the city’s incomprehensible Dharavi slum, reserve a spot with Reality Tours and Travel (91-98-2082-2253; www.realitytoursandtravel.com). The tours, which start at 400 rupees and two and half hours, are safe and eye-opening, and showcase the hives of entrepreneurship that dot this giant shanty town. Brisk industries for recycling and leather, for example, have sprouted among the ward’s oil-slicked streets and jury-rigged homes — offering yet another example of how this megalopolis innovates at all levels.

THE BASICS

Air India, Delta and Continental offer direct flights between New York City airports and Mumbai. A recent online search found July round trips starting at $1,479 on Air India from Kennedy.

Taxis are everywhere and short trips cost under 100 rupees, which is about $2.30 at 43 rupees to the dollar.

Mumbai is starved for hotels, which explains why rates are so high in a city where the dollar still goes a long way.



Rising in steel and glass from the bustling Worli neighborhood is the new Four Seasons Hotel (114 Dr. E. Moses Road; 91-22-2481-8000; www.fourseasons.com/mumbai), conveniently situated between north and south Mumbai. The rooms, offering breathtaking views of the city, start at 18,450 rupees, with breakfast.
For an efficient business hotel with views of the Arabian Sea, the Trident Nariman Point (Marine Drive; 91-22-6632-4343; www.tridenthotels.com) does the job; standard rooms from 16,000 rupees; multinight specials.
One of the few bargains is the Ascot Hotel in Colaba (38 Garden Road; 91-22-6638-5566; www.ascothotel.com), where the spacious and clean rooms start at 5,500 rupees a night with breakfast.

SOURCE :http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/travel/22hours.html