When you come to travel across the vast regions of India, and begin to explore all the wonders she has to offer, you cannot help thinking: what makes India so much diverse and colorful? What makes India so great? The answer lies beneath the inquisitive eyes of the wanderers. It’s all there, right in front of your own eyes. Since the dawn of time, the land of India has been one of the most important cradles of civilization: a glorious land of thousand cultures and languages, and the melting pot of Earth’s all kind of distinctive topographic and geographic wonders.
From the sands of the magnificent Thar Desert in the west, the icy peaks of the mighty Himalayan Range to the north, the fertile Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in the east, and the vast and whirling Indian Ocean to the South, India’s terrain and landmass is shaped by her unique diversity.
You can also experience all types of climates and weather patterns that exist on the surface of the Earth, exclusively here in India. Can you imagine suffering from excessive heat in the arid dry deserts of Rajasthan one day, and the next day waking up in Himachal Pradesh, and feel the chill of the cool winds of Himalaya on your cheeks, and experience snowfall from your window, unless of course you run outside to lie down on the great white bed of snows. Yes, you can. It’s possible here in India.
India is a country that is ethnically, culturally and linguistically more diverse than continental Europe. There, being Indian is not a race, it’s a common identity forged by people of different ethnic background, culture and language. The concept of “Unity in Diversity” is what binds them together. It does not matter whether you are ethnically a Rajasthani, or Bengali, or Marathi, or Punjabi; you’re still Indian.
In our expedition, we explored North India, and experienced its unique heritage, diverse culture, magnificent architecture and wide range of various different landscape. Our journey enabled us to initiate a voyage which ranged from Kolkata to Mumbai, and from Delhi to Manali, including almost all the major cities of North India, where we were amazed to discover stark contrast between nature and lifestyle.
We witnessed the reminiscent of British colonial architecture in Kolkata, the City of Joy, where we felt like we never left home because we were still in the Bengali domain. But this changed, as soon as we arrived in Aurangabad, where the grand and majestic scale of Ajanta and Ellora Caves captivated our mind and we could not stop marveling at the excellence of the Rock cut architecture of the past Buddhist and Hindu era of the Marathi and Indian Satavahana and Rashtrakuta Empires.
Then our journey carried us to the shores of the Arabian Sea, where the City of Mumbai bade us welcome with all of its glory. The roads, the streets, the high rise buildings and surrounding everything flashed the modern architecture look. Then After Mumbai, we reached for Ahmedabad, the City of Educational Excellence, and the IT City, and felt the warmth of progression through Gujarati winds.
Next came Rajasthan, the Land of Kings. Once the dominion of the mighty and proud Rajputs, the land was divided into four Kingdoms. Jodhpur (the Blue City), Jaisalmer (the Golden City), Udaipur (the White City), and Jaipur (the Pink City) all served as the capitals for the four Rajput Maharajas, and each city has their own fair share of forts and palaces as witness of time. The ethereal beauty of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer can only be compared with the ancient metropolis of the Greek, Roman and Byzantine periods. Jaisalmer is also the checking point from where the Wild West of India begins. Beyond this point, it’s all about the sands and dunes and heats of the mighty Thar Desert.
Our next venue was Agra, the City of Love. The streets of Agra and the numerous forts and palaces represented the glorious days of Mughal Empire. And of course, there was the Taj Mahal, the ultimate Mausoleum of Love- a somewhat Mughal show off.
After Agra, we reached Delhi, and the Capital City welcomed us with a mix of its own unique traditional and modern wonders. From the Sultanate, Mughal and British periods to the modern era, Delhi retained its prestige and heritage and rightly deserves to be the Center of the modern Indian Union.
At this point, we started looking for a break as we needed a rest after the non-stop continuous travelling. And Manali, the Land of Gods, provided us the opportunity. It was very cold even in the middle of summer, and after the long voyage through the hot-dry regions, Manali felt like heaven. Even though we could not experience snowfall or ice under our feet, it was still worth it to breathe fresh air around the mountains and valleys of the Deva Bhumi.
And then it was time to come back home.
One aspect of India that must be acknowledged is its wonderful railway system. Both the interstate trains and the city metro rails felt like pure bliss, as the whole system was appeared to be very organized and evidently efficient.
Another important aspect of travelling India is each state has its own approach towards specific cuisines. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan prefer vegetarian foods, and so it was very difficult for us to find non-veg foods while we were there, and the available veg foods (like dosa and veg thali) tasted funny as we were not used to them.
And one last aspect is the linguistic and cultural barrier. If you speak or understand Hindi, you may find it easier to walk around the streets of India. Even though Hindi is not the mother tongue of maximum Indians (because of languages like Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati etc are dominant in their own respective states), Hindi works as somewhat lingua franca of this very diverse country; so most North Indians can communicate in Hindi more or less. (Although the case is different in South India, as the South Indians have some kind of unpleasant relationship with Hindi as a matter of fact). Anyway, this expedition program acted as a portal to the outside world for us, which enabled us to experience the world from a different perspective. And we definitely hope that it was the first of our many expeditions that is yet to come.
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যেকোন সৃজনশীল কাজে ‘স্থান’ (Space) এবং ‘কাল’ (Time) এর প্রাসঙ্গিকতা এবং গুরুত্ব অপরিহার্য। কিন্তু, কেবল স্থান আর কালের সমীকরণই সবকিছুকে পূর্ণতা দিতে পারে না। আমাদের জাপানী দর্শনে “মা” (ma/
The Raeth 