My hubby (Amitesh) was very desperate to go somewhere for holiday, especially on hills. Poor thing – he was bored of the routine Delhi life. He was asking for “Valley Of Flower”, but I don’t feel good traveling in hills. He was insisting that option somehow. Finally we settled to go on short trip to CHAKRATA which by no means I was aware of – “God” only knows. As a surprising co-incidence, his close friend and family were also planning to go somewhere and contacted us. And all of us unanimously finalized our trip to Chakrata.

When I was skeptical about this unknown destination, Amitesh assured me …heavens…it will be an experience of the life time… bundle out your suspicions …so I did.

We 5 people, me, hubby, his friend and family moved ahead towards Chakrata on 27th July, 2010 at 5:30 am. We took the route on road by Car from Delhi -> Baghpat -> Shamli -> Saharanpur -> Vikas nagar -> Kalsi -> Sahiya -> Chakrata. From Delhi to Saharanpur the road was awful…to put it lightly.

Delhi-to-Saharanpur

At 10am we had our breakfast at Saharanpur that was not so good. I had to skip my breakfast because there was only South Indian food in option and I don’t really like it. On the way to Vikas Nagar, huge mango tree groves on both sides of the road with apparently fine-looking mangoes swinging lured us like anything.  We couldn’t control ourselves and stole two mangoes (Oh Landlord…forgive our Sins!). and it was a soar experience, since the Mangoes were not ripe.

There was drizzling when we started our journey, but it became a heavy rain during the journey. Amitesh was more than happy that he’ll feel the actual touch of clouds in this rain. But after some time we started hating rain – for the weather must be open now so that we can explore Nature’s beauty so lively.

We came to know earlier that Kalsi has a gate system, which opens for road traffic after each 2 and half hours, but fortunately there was no barrier for us. We found a beautiful waterfall on the way to Sahiya. But we couldn’t enjoy much due to heavy rain – still it was an unforgettable view.

However, even in this monsoon season, the road from Kalsi to Chakrata, was really good and there was not even a single pothole, though it was very narrow.

After a drive of 7-8 hours to cover around 330 km, we reached Chakrata at 2 pm.

Chakrata is an army cantonment area of Dehradun District, Uttarakhand, at an elevation of 7000 ft. It was earlier known as Jaunsar Bawar, cantonment of British Indian Army. It is very naturally scenic and beautiful town. There were only 2 renowned accommodations in Chakrata; one is Snow View and other one Himalayan Paradise. We decided to move direct to Hotel Snow View, where accommodation was fine without any luxury, but still manageable. People say it is famous for the viewing early morning sun rise.  Unfortunately we couldn’t see because of clouds but what we explored was more beautiful I must say.

The nearby major attraction around Chakrata is Tiger Fall. It was around 4pm after having lunch and we did not have sufficient time to go over there. Localities told us that the destination is 17 Kms away from Chakrata and the road is not in good condition.  And yet we braved to go there. There was no sign boards; no human beings in sight, who can tell us about Tiger Fall. It was 5:30 pm and dark due to bad weather condition. Cursing our ill-luck, we decided to retreat as otherwise we will face any kind of problem. So we returned to Chakrata and visited its local market.

Dinner was worst than lunch in the hotel. We were all tired up and so went to bed early.

Next morning me and Amitesh took a walk, the weather was clear now but so chill. We looked at our car and one of the tires got punctured. Only then we remembered we didn’t fuel up our car after Delhi. There was no fuel station in Chakrata.

Amitesh and his friend changed its Stepney; then both of them went in the hunt of tyre repairing and diesel. They came to know from the local market, there is only one shop of tyre vulcanizing which is being managed by a 12 year-old boy, who repairs the big military truck tires too. And diesel will be available at only one shop who sell diesel on a hefty premium. Unfortunately that man didn’t have diesel at that moment and they got to go 7 km away for the diesel. At long last, one shopkeeper was selling and it cost 10 rupees per litre! Making hay while it still shines!!

And finally we did breakfast in the same hotel and after lots of instructions from us, it was better than the previous day lunch and dinner. We checked out from the hotel and moved towards Tiger Fall and with the help of a goat grazer, we found the way to Tiger fall. After leaving our Car there was a trek of 3 km. or so but it was very steep slope.

We were just wondering about Tiger Fall – how will it be… and that was the moment which will be memorable the whole life. We were seeing a cloud-like picture, which was passing through the two mountains. When we went much closer….ha… it was breathtaking, mesmerizing. I am feeling helpless with words to describe you what exactly we saw there.

Tigerfall-Chakrata

It was huge, huge and very huge.  After the continuous raining from last three days, this TIGER FALL was looking like a real Tiger. It was on full boom of water and water everywhere, falling from 95mt. height. We were watching the falls with our jaws wide open as if a barbarian seeing an airplane for the first time.

We were all wet due to the drizzling of the waterfall. We were looking at side view, for taking a front look, we had to cross a fast stream and that was too scary. The water stream was so rapid and loud, but all of us wanted to go there, unmindful of the obstacles. And we did after all “Dar ke Aaage Jeet Hai”. (Victory comes after fear). We crossed the river by closely holding each one’s hand like a human chain. I don’t have right words to explain, I can just say it is ““Stupendo Fantabulously Fantastic” !!

The drizzling was so heavy that we couldn’t take proper snaps, but still we tried once with our new camera Canon SX20 IS.

We had lots of fun, no one of us wanted to come back from there. We found a safe place where the water flow was less hasty where we took proper bath and lots of masti (?). In this fun my specs was broken and the new mobile of Amitesh (Nokia E71) fell in water… we picked that but it went into eternal silence…oh these innovations coming without water-proof!!

We returned back from a steep climb, it was tiring but the nature’s view was so pleasurable, the beautiful color combination, with velvet touch of super green mountains, sparkling blue sky with feathery white clouds… ahhh… I feel good even now, when I remember it.

The same day we all decided to move towards Mussoorie via Chakrata -> Bairat Khai- > Yamuna Pul -> Kempty… . We started our next journey at 3pm. We reached Bairat khai at 5pm. View was breathtaking; there were only clouds out there. And we came to know we were at 7500 ft above sea-level.

Due to geographical landscape of mountains, the place is completely full of clouds. Around after passing half an hour on the road, we realized that not even a single vehicle is coming from the other side, and we were moving lonely. We entered in a small village for confirming the reason and a policeman told us that Mussoorie road is blocked due to heavy landslide. It was around 5:30 pm and Mussoorie was only 45 km. away from there, hardly at one or one and half hour journey.

We confirmed from lots of people and finally we came to conclusion that we have to take another route to reach Mussoorie. The alternate route was back again to Bairat khai (10km) -> Kalsi (38 km) -> Vikas Nagar (11km) -> Dehradun(45)  > Mussoorie (35 km).

Bairat khai to kalsi road was very slippery and scary. In total 38 kms. We found only one vehicle enroute and that was JCB which was clearing the road after land slide, occurring after each few kms.

Finally we reached Mussoorie at 10:30 pm. Had dinner in Sagar Ratna (South Indian Again ) and stayed in a hotel of Mall road… Next morning we had a morning walk on mall road and ate breakfast. And moved towards very renowned Kempty Fall.

Unlike the previous day journey, this road was complimenting, looking like cream, and we reached out Kempty in just 20 minutes.

We took rope way to go down to waterfall, but quickly learnt we have wasted our money. Kempty has been completely ruined; we were not feeling or seeing any natural things there, although we have gone there 8-10 times earlier. But this time it was completely damaged, may be due to monsoon season, We halted only 2 minutes there and moved towards its source from where this waterfall originates.

Finally we managed to find a place where we can have fun with water.

After returning we shopped some local things like its famous homemade chocolates and handmade accessories. Had lunch and returned. There are lots of places around Mussoorie like Lall Tibba, Gun Hill Point and more… but we have explored these places earlier and obviously after watching the beauty of Chakrata we didn’t want to go there.

There were lots of Kawariyan on the road in returning and we were forced to take alternate road after Haridwar via Deoband to Muzzaffarnagar. We halted in Modinagar and had its very famous Jain Shikanji, MK Hot Dong Burger, Aloo Chat, and Falooda. And finally we reached at home at 11:15 pm.

Chakrata is very beautiful and a place filled with Nature’s wonders.  I request you all, please don’t let it ruin like Mussoorie. Do not throw polythene bags, bottles, and other wastage products there. This is our India, and all these places people go for sight-seeing are ours for enjoying the beauty. So we should refrain from spoiling them – even if not helping for their preservation.

UTV Bindaas is unfolding its Emotional Atyachar season 2 with Ajay Devgan and Emraan Hashmi. The program is going to be aired from 7th August 2010 at 7pm every Saturday. The star cast will be seen in the opening episode resolving the relationship of Abhay and Sanya (first participants of Emotional Atyachar season 2). The show will be hosted by Pravesh Rana (same host of Chak Dhoom Dhoom, Colors TV).

Opening episode will be about two tuition pals Sanya and Abhay, who have been in a relationship since three and half year; but it is still in a turmoil. Abhay doubts Sanya and gets help from Emotional Atyachar season 2. Ajay and Emraan help to sort out their relationship but Abhay found himself another girl.

In full swing with lots of emotion and drama EA season 2 focuses on loyalty, commitment, love and misunderstanding. All the aspects behind these situations are unveiled on UTV Bindaas. Their teams announce that don’t try to cheat as is usual elsewhere.

Let’s see how the show starts and moves forward.

HTC decided to launch its Wildfire unlocked in India. As a cheaper substitute to the HTC Legend and HTC Desire this Wildfire is priced at16,000 INR (`) only, it possess Social networking integration (Twitter, Myspace, Facebook), 5 MP Flash autofocus camera, 3.2 inch QVGA touchscreen display with UI Sense, FM radio, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm headset jack, GPS, HTML browser. HTC Wildfire is powered by 512 MB ROM, 384 MB RAM and 528 MHz processor. It has 1300 mAH battery which provides 8 hour of talktime.

As per rumours HTC wildfire will be available in late July or early August 2010.

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Motorola Milestone XT720 is launching today, 19th July, 2010 in the UK market. Motorola Android Smartphone characteristics 8MP camera with Xenon flash and Autofocus, 3.7 inch capacitive display, 512 MB Ram, ARM Cortex A8 720 MHz processor, 8GB MicroSD card slot. Other features are Wif-Fi 802.11 b/g, 3.5 mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, and 160 gm weight. It is priced at £381.88.

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Panasonic revealed it latest Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 compact Digicam. This Digital camera has 10.1 megapixel with 3.8x optical zoom, 1/1.63 inch sensor, a F/2.0-3.3 Leica Summicron lens, HD video recording at 720p/60 or 720p/30. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, with 3 inch display will be available on July 21, 2010. but price is still not announced.

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Stuart Hughes Collection unveils its latest masterpiece the White iPhone 4 Diamond Edition. Well, it is unlocked edition of white iPhone 4 (32GB). The entire border is covered with top quality VVS circa 6.5cts, ‘F’ colour diamonds, separately set shining gems. In the meantime, the back side is having a solid diamond and platinum Apple logo. This Apple iPhone 4 Diamond version is priced at approx $20,000 or about £12,995. You know, there will be just 50 units of the iPhone 4 Diamond Edition. Plus Stuart Hughes also announced a luxuries wallet with hand-finish from real Ostrich foot. This lavish limited version wallet is capable only to clutch up to 4 credit cards. Keep rocking Stuart!!

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Nokia has revealed the latest Nokia C6-01 that characteristics 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash rather than single one, 360 x 640 pixel touchscreen display, QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Ovi Maps with free navigation etc. and of course Wi-Fi. Nokia C6-01 has currently emerged at official website of Nokia Netherlands. It is priced at $360 or around €279.

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Acer eMachines eM350-2074 10.1" Netbook Computer

Acer eMachines eM350 10.1 inch netbook is announced to be at $279.99. This Acer’s mini laptop is heaving with 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 10.1 inch LED backlit bigscreen display, 1GB RAM, 160 GB hardrive, webcam, Intel GMA 3150 graphics, Wifi, card reader, preloaded with Windows XP Home SP3 OS and a 3 cell battery.

As per rumours, Apple is about to launch the latest 11.6 inch MacBook Air in future. The latest MacBook Air will be power-driven by the newest Intel Core Family processors and propose to be out in the third quarter of 2010. The latest Apple MacBook would be manufactured by the Quanta Computer. It will be feature as lighter and slimmer design than the earlier generations’ models. Lets wait for its release…

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