Category: Travels

Oaxaca – A travel guide

Image Credit: Sumaiya

We started our trip from Oaxaxa city. Stayed there for two days and stayed a day in Puerto Escondido. The trip was absolutely thrilling, fun as well as informative. We experienced ruins, beaches, mountains, lagoons, nightlife: in short everything a place can have. We learn new perspectives from our  trips, but there lot of trips, returning from which I can say I learnt something new. This was one of those places. So, have a read, enjoy the pics and have a good time.

Our day 1 started on Saturday.
The first thing in our list was to visit Hierve el agua, which was, in a nutshell, a waterfall that appears to be frozen. Frozen, because it appears whitish, but essentially these are rocks that have been calcified. The sight is beautiful from there. It also has two water pools where in swimming is also possible. The water in the pool is blue with a yellowish hue on the edges that makes it superb spot for clicking photos. 
The place has a nice stairway entry and has a lot of stalls where in you can get decent food.


Our next stop was El Tule, a tree older than 2000 years. It is around 1 hour drive away from Hierve el Agua. The tree is historic as well as the stoutest tree in the world. The tree is pretty picturesque and seems as if the whole centro area has been centred around it. As you can see from the picture below, the tree looks splendid and is still standing strong and lushy. We tried some local flavours of ice-cream there and indeed the flavors were pretty rich. The whole place has a calming aura around it which makes it a good candidate to sit around and relax.

After relaxing for a bit, we moved for the last location of our day, which was Monte Alban. We were already quite starstruck from the previous two sites, but we were in for a surprise when we visited Monte Alban.
Monte Alban is the ruins of the ancient city of Zopotec of the Mixtec era. Zapotec is said to be one of the first cities in the Americas. The people used to literally live on to the hilltops spread across a vast area. The main hill has a view of the city from all sides.The site of Monte Alban is also printed on the 20 peso denomination currency note.

After finishing the places, we returned to our hotel which was around 100 metres away from the centro. We visited a local karaoke bar and tried Mezcal, which is a local drink of Oaxaca. This wrapped up our first day.
The second day, we had a good breakfast in the centro and we started for Puerto Escondido which was a worrisome 250+ kms away from Oaxaca city. Lucky for us, conditions were overcast and we had a great drive. The weather helped us and the songs kept us going. We stopped a couple of times for lunching and snacking and we were not disappointed. The food was always delicious and always had a unique flavour, whichever food we selected. After 8 hours of approximate drive, we reached to our hotel in Puerto Escondido and after a little rest, we went to explore the nightlife. We chanced upon a club named ‘Dubai Discotheque’ which had a great space for dancing. We sat, drank and danced our tiredness away and called it a night.

The next day was special and my favorite part of the trip. We experienced unique things that are exclusive to Puerto Escondido.We got ready in our beach wears, and started for Carrizalillo beach. Its a surfing beach where you have to descend 160 steps to reach the beach. They have shacks made for you to relax and have some refreshments while admiring the beach. The closed structure of the beach allows for a good scenic view that can be captured in the camera really well. After relaxing and having a sumptuous sea food lunch, we moved to Playa Bacocho(Bacocho beach). Bacocho beach is one of the locations from where sea turtles are released in the ocean. The beach in itself is a huge one, but what makes it special is that the local organisations effort to help out in the turtle’s survival. The turtle release activity starts at 5pm, where they first huddle you up and explain what they are doing. They have made special structures where they keep the turtle eggs until they are hatched. Then they are released into the ocean. Turtles are given to tourists in a coconut shell costing 100 pesos each. These donations help the organisation to keep these efforts going. Now out of the remaining 7 species of sea turtles in the world, 4 of them come to the beaches in Oaxaca to lay their eggs. Interestingly the sea turtles have this memory, wherein they return to the same place where they were born to lay their eggs again. So, the turtle that we released will return in 10-12 years to lay their egg again and the cycle continues. The guides also told us how these species are being endangered due to climate change as well as man-made risks.We had a chance to release Oliver Ridley species of the turtles into the ocean. They are pretty abundant sea turtles species found on the world.So, after releasing the baby turtles and watching them struggle to get into the ocean, we returned to hotel to prepare ourselves for the final point in our trip.

The place is called Laguna de Manialtepec. Its a lagoon, which is famous for its bioluminescence. So, obviously you have to visit the place after sunset. The water shines really nice when stirred. We were taken a little away from the city lights into the center where it was easy to observe and since the water is warm, the guests are encouraged to have a swim to get a better experience. The water was indeed magical and observing bioluminescence firsthand really made the experience special. We spent around an hour enjoying the water and then returned back to the hotel as we had early morning plans to return to the Oaxaca city, return the rented car and take flight back to our home town.We started in the morning, had a rough ride in the mountain, ate some lovely local food again in lunch and reached Oxaca city centro to do some final shopping.

This kind of wrapped our joyous trip of Oaxaca. 

A Pensieve in a Muggle world

It’s always a good time to give up your general indifference, get rid of recklessness in the name of independence and start feeling a little responsible once in a while. That said, you can only learn to be responsible towards others once you can solely and wholly feel responsible towards your own actions, accountable for your life decisions and answerable to your ever-confronting self doubts. While you can always benefit through your professional engagements to achieve this, there’s another non-methodical, relatively deeper plunge that you can dare to take. Travel .Travel across boundaries and horizons and languages and cultures.

The deal kicks off with the planning itself. You are already levelling up in your responsibility-meter as you chalk out an entire roadmap for the trip, book tickets and hotel rooms at the best price, pack in necessary medications for emergencies, prepare a checklist for all the cuisines to try and work out a line-up of all the locations sequentially. If you are doing this in your early twenties, do it more often. If you’re doing this in your mid or late-twenties, you are already running late. In hindsight, you’ll realize that you could have certainly started earlier.

Image Credit: Sumaiya

All things said and done, now you have taken charge. The dates are finalized, the place is fixed and your leave has been granted as well. But then there’s the glitch. To balance out anticipation, there must be a glitch. Do you have friends who get cold feet at the last moment? Too many rain-checks all of a sudden? Or colleagues whose schedules turn super busy as the time for booking the tickets approaches? Or family that takes up the longest time to make up their minds? And amidst all of this, you have to cancel out on your plan and on yourself? Don’t.

Here’s the amendment : Travel Solo.

The thought of travelling alone morphed with the society’s forced categorization of unsafe places, a ‘proper’ age, the weaker sex and much more can be a little daunting initially but it has everything to give you the much needed push that you otherwise lack from sitting in your cubicle. You get to run your own show here. Want to go hiking? Go for it. Want to do Bungee jumping? Do it. It’s on you whether you want to cut some slack on your expenses or you want a satisfying budget trip. You can take take any number of detours, stop by as many halts as you want, wake up as early as you wish and start with the day. The perk of travelling alone is that you get to change your mind and your plan innumerable times without driving anyone crazy. Revel in this freedom. Always carry a book, a good playlist and lots of snacks to nibble on if you ever feel lonely. Run into familiar inhibitions in unfamiliar people and learn that you aren’t the only one fighting. Document your journey with good photography instead of check-ins. Avoid social media and phone calls except notifying your extremely anxious mom and terribly worked-up dad about your whereabouts from time to time. When you are on your own, you will realize that being responsible becomes liberating in itself.

Allow newer establishments to teach you about older civilizations. Pick up words from the local language, strike up conversations with strangers. Search for the place’s culinary identity, do your taste buds a little favour. Inform yourself about the rooted prejudices of the place. Find out how the system along with its people are trying to curb it. Travelling alone is one of the finest ways to increase your resourcefulness. Don’t think of it as a trip. Think of it as a process to grow independently.

If you’re in love, take the distance to see how far love travels and allow that to make powerful revelations to you. If you are heartbroken, let travelling help you find some respite and maybe, even closure with time. Now, if you are single and lucky, you might come across a little holiday romance too. If you are very lucky, it might materialize into something serious but the odds are very low and there’s a reason why it should be. The prospect of meeting new people, preferably among the likes of Juan Antonio, while travelling is always thrilling and you might even be swept off your feet by a sexy accent or a heavy voice but that is no prerequisite of love and by the time you realize that, it’s already late. So be seduced by it, just don’t fall for it. Use travelling to let go of your baggage, not take in some more. Try to strike a balance between your vulnerability and self-preservation during the trip. Know whom to let in. Know where to stop. If you don’t want anything rash, travel solo and eventually learn to say ‘No’. Take care of yourself in new cities at nights. Do a lot of bar-hopping but be watchful of your drinks. Keep an eye on your valuables. Your responsibility-meter is beaming right now.

Scream your lungs out at the top of a quiet hill. Seek solace at the heart of a new city. Travel alone to lose yourself once. Travel alone and find yourself again.

It’s always a good time to start. Travelling helps you do real-time adulting without the pointless philosophizing part. Give your mundane day a little structure and your frayed life a little hope. While you are coming out of a pub and captioning the night(that you are possibly not going to remember the next morning post-hangover) as #YOLO, there are people with their backpacks on who are literally making the most out of it. No trip is ephemeral on its memory count. You get to decide the ones you will bring back home. Keep a diary, upload the videos, make a scrapbook, start a travel blog. Do things to make sure your time-stamped photos live on forever and not just digitally. Get in there to share your experiences with people who will never be able to afford a trip . Make yourself heard. Write a book. Release your stories out. Let the universe create a cosmic ‘Pensieve‘ for you and others to have a full retrospect of the beautiful life you crafted out of small paychecks and larger than life goals.

Once upon a time – Terror Tale

We had an office group and we planned for a trip to Matheran, a nearby hillstation decorated gracefully by nature. We had heard so much about its huge waterfall and its beauty in the rains. Everybody was excited about the trip and nearly everybody joined. The journey to the upper hills and the different points were fun, but the highlight of the trip was when we started to return.

Image Courtesy: Someone from the group.

We had visited all important points, did some trekking, clicked great photos and were enjoying the clouds at zenith. It was around 3 or 3.30 in the afternoon and time to return was upon us.

As soon as we started, the clouds started collecting, reducing the visibility and little drizzles also started pouring. It was a welcome change in the atmosphere.

We knew the path to return, but someone suggested a new path which would be shorter to return, so for obvious reasons, we took that path.

Little did we knew, that path will make us rewind all the scary movies we have seen in our lives.

We started on the path. On one side, we had this great view of the city kilometers below. If someone were to fall, he/she will have a mini experience of sky diving, before being shattered to pieces. On the other side, we had a hill where forests had taken over.

While walking, we could feel someone was following us and each one of us felt that. And we could listen to a constant sound, as if someone walking in the bushes from the right side of the hill.

At first everybody was joking and having fun, as it was a classic Bollywood(specifically Kaal type) situation. We were throwing small pebbles at each other feet’s and act like we know nothing, to scare them off.

Suddenly the clouds darkened and visibility reduced even further. It must have been around 4 pm, but the darkness corresponded to 7 ‘O clock evening time.

And then we saw the path on which we were travelling, it was laden with fog. So nothing could be seen of the path on which we were travelling. We couldn’t see what lay even 5 meters ahead.

We formed 2 groups and started walking when we came across an electrical pole half fallen on the ground.

It was bent as if wind knocked it over. We came close to realize it was not only knocked down, but it was twisted, as if some monster or devilish power had knocked it in half and then twisted it.

That part scared me the most, still sends chills down my spine when I think about devil work’s on that pole.

Anyways then we moved ahead, scared like Dobby is scared of his master.

We took around 30 minutes of walk and couldn’t see any soul apart from our group. In the whole area, that must have been spread around 5-10 kms, it was hard to believe that no humans were spotted.

We came across a crossing, from where 3 roads originated and we didn’t knew which to take.

Then we all got collected at the junction and sent one person to check on one of the paths.

He went ahead on the right sided path and crossed a curve on the road, so he wasn’t visible to us. After sometime, when he didn’t return, we started shouting for his name. He didn’t answer!

We had to send another person and he repeated the same.

And then we heard a loud thunder and it started raining heavily all of a sudden.

Everybody panicked and started taking out their umbrellas, while some ran for cover. I had to shout at them to stay together. We regrouped again with the exception of the 2 person that were missing.

The two persons later told us that when they started to explore the path, they had heard some sounds like someone watching a TV, so they had moved further away from us to find out the source of the sound. Hearing them come closer, a very old woman in her eighties, came towards them asking something in Marathi. She was wearing a white sari and living alone in that isolated place. She was indicating the direction with her hands and that was enough communication they needed from her. As soon as they understood the directions, they ran away from her.

Anyways, back to the story. Somehow we felt that the right side path is the one that we should take that would make us reach our destination, so we started for that together.

When we reached on the curved path where the two guys got lost, we saw them coming towards us, the smile on their faces indicating that we were okay. Another guy came with them to help us with the path.

We felt a sigh of relief to see another soul apart from us.

I looked back once on the cursed path that we had travelled and then continued our journey.

Though it was not a scary place per se, but the way nature conspired to get us scared was an experience in itself.

 

My team in ILP!


When I look back at the last three months, I see a journey that has components of a lifetime…
I am not a fan of travelling, but even I would have to admit, it was a sort of essential experience to have. It was a different journey altogether. We wanted to learn; it wasn’t like it was for an exam or something. It was the start and we all wanted to make something out of it. We tasted apartment lifestyle and it was awesome. We acquiesced to the 9 to 6 schedule and so upon returning, all that

we could do was to play table-tennis. Some became serious players, while for some, it remained a kind of mini-badminton. During the learning, I found a group that, in simple words, was the most positive team (not group), that I have ever seen. I will accept that at start, we weren’t the most enthusiastic of batches, because  we all had our college groups with us, and hanging out with them more often, logically made sense. But as soon as we realized that our time to disband has come, everyone was like in a hurry to get to know about each other. We hanged out more often with each other and started making memories. We joined Gujaratis in their celebrations in garba, executed a night out starting with open-theatre and ending with dozing off at office canteen at 7 in the morning, going out for dinners more often than usual and many such more in relatively short span of time.
On the final day, we bid goodbye to various people, saw them crying, became part of their commotion.
Finally, when my time arrived, I felt like something was missing, which is a strong testament that I will seriously miss this part of life. I saw a lot of people leaving with smiles going home and on the contrary, saw people crying, on being separated from their long known buddies. Got an opportunity to meet various different kinds of people, some introverts like me, some dynamic extroverts, some exemplary team workers.
When you leave such a group that has been conflict free and remained positive during the entire tenure, you feel like its not enough yet, you need some more time. Since, we became a team a little late, so there were few interactions that were still incomplete; some wanted to make the most of the time, some wanted the memories to stay forever, while some wanted to stay back at any cost. But in the end, we all had to move on because career was calling. Everyone departed with the words ‘touch me rehna’.
There are times that you like to remember, as in that would make you smile, but you don’t want to relive those again, it was good when it happened, that’s all. And then there are memories that you want to relive over and over again. This was one of those times.

The unforgettable journey has made me stronger in multitudes of skills and that’s something that everyone would agree to. It has been like a gift that will help me in different ways. The gift that is the memory, laden with useful skills and great friends.
(With inputs from Geek )

Allah(ke)abad!

Allahabad, a city that every country deserves, but not the one it may need right now. While Allahabad is an excellent city per se, but has been clouded by some very unfortunate mishappenings. The wrath of bhaiyas of Allahabad still enounces on my mind even when I am 356 kms away from it. How a city welcomes a guest greatly defines a city. Allahabad welcomed me with dahi-jalebi and introduced me to the ever-tasty bun-omelette, which even after four years of continuous eating remains a favourite day-starting breakfast.

WHAT I WOULD MISS!
The discussions over bun-omelette and tea in the morning as well as evening. The serenity of Saraswati ghat was one I would crave a lot. Some destinations leave an everlasting footprints in your minds; Saraswati ghat is one such place. The people of Allahabad are also very versatile in giving opinions(reminds me of Gorakhpur, but Allahabad is a tad violent :p). If you are even a little interested in politics, this is a place to be. You never know, you may get acquainted by a future minister of state. Giving opinion boldly, come what may, is in the blood of an east UP person and Allahabad kinds of leads in that trait.
Being in the center of independence fight, gave this city a gift of great historic significance. The Azad Park commemorates Chandrashekhar Azad’s martyrdom. While the Sangam area and Naini bridge adds to the aesthetics of the place.

WHAT I WOULDN’T MISS!
Ofcourse the young successors of Indian politics, the student leaders…the most feared species in whole of Allahabad. Want people to concede to your demands, call the species; want to take revenge from someone who wasn’t giving you a pass on the road, call the species; don’t want to study today, call the species in havoc mode; want to get even with the professor for his tyrant ways, call them. From the innocuous thelawalas to the helpless VCs, they assert their authority everywhere.
Being crammed in the auto-rickshaws comes next in the list. You are living in the city, your girlfriend has called you to meet at this great restaurant, you did your hair, applied gel, worked on it for God knows how long, put on your best set of clothes and go to makeshift auto-stand feeling great about your life when suddenly an auto comes at the station, with the conductor yelling ‘tation-tation’ (in case you missed, its station with a silent ‘s’), you enter the auto and two sweat drenched aunties block the exit to the auto. You are thinking it’s just 10 minutes away, but the auto-wala will stop at the place where the scorching sun shines the most and make you pay for all the past life sins. He will wait for more unlucky souls, until his auto looks like a scene where we are attempting the Guinness Book of World Record for cramming the most persons in an auto.
Another interesting thing is that Allahabadis have adopted this system, they don’t mind sharing that seat with three more broad-assed individuals. Even if he gets one of his buttocks in place, he won’t complain.
But overall, Allahabad invites you and takes care of you if you adapt the city well, that’s an assurity I can give, being a former resident of this city. But still, do take care :p

Discovered happiness!

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but they seize us.” –Ashley Montagu

Recently, I got an opportunity to experience this quote first-hand. Well yesterday, we went for ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and what we thought would be the highlight of the day was totally eclipsed by what we discovered just before the movie began. We reached early to the mall and so we had solid one hour before the action began. We decided to go for KFC to have lunch. We were 14 in number and were deciding what to order and clearly taking a lot of space. A staff motioned us to get in line and then decide. He wasn’t saying anything, but just instructing us to get in line. I found it rude, but ignored it. Later on, I was told by my friend that he was deaf and mute. I realized it now that this KFC had a different aura altogether and it didn’t had the unnecessary chatter of the staffers that we usually experience in the franchisees. I observed that nearly every staff there was using sign language to communicate with other staffs or using gestures to communicate with the customers, and all that with a smile that will melt your heart. There was an air of confidence emanating from everyone working there, which was unaffected by the curious stares by the ongoing crowd. I was eagerly waiting for my turn to order, because I wanted to get the feel of communicating with the person and to see how they coped up with the standards set by KFC. And yes, as expected, the transaction was flawless. I pointed out my order and the person at the counter asked me the quantity and I gestured it too, then after confirming the order from the screen, he politely directed me out of the queue and proceeded to serve the next customer.

KFC’s initiative to employ deaf and mute persons in front-end jobs is surely commendable. Firstly, it gives them a respectable place in society earning their own bread and not depending on any relatives. And secondly, it gives them a lot of similar people in their company. This will ensure that they are in a community where everyone can readily communicate with them. The world certainly looks a nice place when you experience such nice chapters. We were so elated that we kept talking about them and agreed that this initiative should be carried on to every self-service franchises.

A little research reflected that this move was first initiated by Virag Joshi, CEO of Devyani International Limited, which runs Pizza Hut, KFC, Vaango and Costa Coffee chains in India. Really felt proud after getting acquainted with the fact that the move has been a great success so far, with the special KFCs at par with every other KFC in town. At Devyani International, they are given a training of 2 months to excel at communicating and handling customer requirements. Hats off to such an initiative by the man whose team was honoured for executing this successfully, which instils a ‘feel good’ factor in both customers and employees mind-set.

The world definitely requires such moves and positively enough there is no dearth of such leaders that can use such ideas and more to keep the spirit of humanity alive.

Life at Kota!

Well, Kota is one of the few places that I got an opportunity to visit and it certainly is a place that blew my mind away effortlessly with its energy, aura and the way of living. And believe me I am not alone who felt that way.

The students who studied at Kota share a special bond among themselves that reminds them of the golden days they spent at the temple of study. The city is like a honey to the ants for coaching institutes, a way of unstoppable profits to the residents and a treat for the overcharging shopkeepers. But still life can never be more fun…if you have been in Kota once. The streets filled by the students, the air containing the freshness of youth, the institutes bearing tonnes of expectations from the parents are just some of the highlights why it stays not only in the brains but in the hearts. Seriously, if you are a youth and want some flavour in your life, then Kota is the place to go.

      Not exquisitely a place for tourists, but a resident or a student who has there been for long, knows how to use the place for fun…and I know for sure, my fellow students know it pretty well. Be it spending the evening after the exam for a game, be it watching movies, be it strolling the mall, checking the ‘flavours’ at newly opened outlets or any activity that I haven’t tried (I would love to know some more), there is something for almost everyone; nerds, foodies, jazzy, nonchalant, romeos (and ofcourse female romeos), rowdies; everyone finds his/her‘s. The fun never ceases and you’ll never feel enervated even if it has been a long, hard day.

            It’s like if you have cherished your life at some point, you must have visited Kota at some stage of your well-planned life. It may be an overstatement but there is a lot of feelings and time gone in writing this article and I enjoyed it as if I was reliving my Kota days again. Every day stood out from the previous day in fun, academic learning, girls etc.

            Enter the city at first and you think ‘How am I going to survive in this unknown city’ and after few weeks, it accepts you like a fat kid accepts a candy from a stranger. At this time your mentality is like ‘Dude, I am never leaving this place’. From being cynical at first, then slowly imbibing and catching up, you become one of the many individuals struck by its cordial hospitality and taken gradually into its welcoming arms. You melt away in the arms like you have been craving for this warmth for all your life.

            The favorite pastime of a Kotan resident is the movies at the cyber-cafes which are sprouted at every nook and corner of the city for the ‘good’ of students. Trust me, there are movies and movies in every folder of every computer of the café. You can go for a never ending spree of great movies one by one and still end up with entirely new collection at another café.

Talking about the highlights; there is a breakfast of fresh ‘pohas’ or ‘jalebies’ to give your morning a brisk start. Sometimes, for a change, tea with ‘pakora’ does the same magic. Since, I had my classes in the noon, so I had the luxury of cherishing these delights even more leisurely.

Then there is the new attraction, the mall. The new outlets included some fancy restaurants, MacD, Fun cinemas and a large space for celebrating specific festivities. Remembering the photo-sessions we used to execute with our hostelmates from time to time makes me nostalgic.

Playing cricket at the roof, flying the kites with hundreds of accomplices at Basant Panchami, visit to parks, really cherishing the holidays are some of the things in my experience that really stands out.  

And yes it was Kota, which among lack of topics, inspired me to write and continue my blog.

            I am thankful that I got a shot at being a denizen of the city and I would be really glad to know if I inspired someone to try the same.

Life at Gorakhpur

Gorakhpur…….my birth place, where I was born, grew up in the early decade of the 21st century, but now leaving for the sake of my future, I mean to study. Situated in the eastern UP, this city has everything a big city has, but for the skyscrapers (and the home delivery by Domino’s Pizza which I kinda have loved to have in this city). Its a big city in terms of the land, but the technically still to fully called a ‘mahanagar’. Its got its name from a saint named Gorakhsnath, who founded the city.
            Well, I can’t tell you about the history & geography about this city, but can certainly give reasons why one should visit here atleast once.
Starting about the things that will make people here feel good is the fact that it is the headquarter of north-east railways. This city is famous for its ‘Bhaiyyaji log’ & many films & TV serials have made several hit shows on our bhaiyyaji. The common language here is Hindi mixed with a little bhojpuri. Even many comedians found their roots from Gorakhpur.
            Places of interest here are The Gorakhnath Temple, The Taramandal (Planetorium), Gita Vatika, Gita Press, and many more including the new city mall(a very small mall which was like a feather in the cap), adding to the charm of Gorakhpur. Students are seen enjoying their evening either with a movie or just chilling up.
The nightlife is at an inactive stage, coz there aren’t many who like it.
The people here like to comment, they have an opinion for virtually everything in the world……even a layman may give you an expert opinion on a crashed NASA shuttle. On the contrary, it has been a constant provider of natural talents from all walks of life, be it Premchand from literature, Syed Modi from badminton, Diwakar Ram from hockey etc..
Premchand stories has long been the inspiration for the young tots & even the teenagers. The themes of his stories really pour some thoughts in one’s mind, & his stories on the poor farmers & other ignorant class of people ought us to think about them.
One more interesting fact about Gita Press is that it is the publisher of many Hindu holy texts, including the Bhagvad Gita. The Press was the first to publish the text as a book; prior to this the Gita existed solely in the oral tradition of the Brahmin. Gita press holds a place in the Guinness book of world records as the largest publisher of religious books in the world in terms of volume.
          In educational field, Gorakhpur has a world class DDU University and MMM Engineering college which gathers the upper cream of students.
In a nutshell, you can visit here as a tourist, as a guest(to your own relative, ofcourse) or in whichever way you like, but you will get a mix of traditions, people living a colourful life.