Jehan Numa – Gateway to the ‘Tiger State’
We’ve long been fortunate enough to know the Rashid family, owners of the Jehan Numa collection of lodges and hotels – from the days when theirs was our only haven of respite from the jungles we lived in within India. In those days they were in the formative years of turning their ancestral home – formerly the palace of the Begum of Bhopal (the first female ruler of a principality) – into a charming and impressive heritage...
Satpura‘s wonderful wilderness
India’s Satpura National Park – the most stunningly natural tiger wilderness in India. Watch Mugger crocodiles slip noiselessly into the reservoir as you approach by boat, the exhilarating flash of a tiger’s markings amidst the foliage as you amble on elephant back, a Barrasingha deer wading at the water’s edge, huge Gaur blocking your way or vultures and eagles soaring overhead as you ride the dusty tracks amidst dense forest...
Picture pitching-up in Pachmarhi
On a road to nowhere, there’s nowhere more pleasant in India than this Queen of the Central Highlands. Set atop a 12sq mile plateau in the heart of India on a road to nowhere, Pachmarhi, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh has to be one of the most beautifully preserved examples of Indian rural life and colonial heritage. First ‘discovered’ in 1857 by Captain James Forsyth of the British Army, Pachmarhi, although historically...
Taken to the cleaners in Mumbai
It’s not often that you’d regard a washing line full of drying sheets as a tourist attraction but in Mumbai it offers a fascinating and illuminating insight into the infrastructure that makes India tick. Notwithstanding the fact that many of the crisp white sheets you’ll curl into within your plush hotel accommodation whilst in Mumbai (or any other Indian city for that matter) are pristine, the chances are they’ve come from the...
Seeking Sikhism’s loaves and fishes
Sikhism’s remarkable feeding of the five thousand – every day! Gurudwara Bangla Sahib is Delhi’s most significant Sikh gurudwara (Sikh religious house) and at first glance yet another of India’s temples bursting at the seams with devout worshippers. True, it does appear to be swamped with devotees all clamouring to enter the inner temple or dip their feet in the huge ‘tank’ or sacred pond that lies adjacent to it – but –...
