Munnar vs Darjeeling vs Shillong vs Mahabaleshwar

Hill stations are everyone's favorite holiday destinations as they inherently has the calmness,coolness and brings in peace and change to our monotonous daily routines.

However I feel there is a difference in all these hill-stations based on their demographics maybe not sure though still I feel like.

Shillong

Starting with Shillong my favorite and best amongst any hill-station in India its not because I am a northeaster and just getting this biased opinion.Shillong was the original capital of undivided Assam which later on was split into two states Meghalaya and Assam.
Shillong is very very different from other hill-stations the pine trees the atmosphere around the place, the hip and happening and uber stylish crowd and top of everything the awesome Chinese food we get here.Besides this we have the the Rock culture totally engraved in the heart of the place.
Be it Bara Pani lake,Wards Lake , Police bazar, Barra bazar,Shillong peak etc the ever raining romantic weather and chillness. Anyone and everyone cant help falling in love with it.

Positives:Chilly romantic weather, awesome places to go around, awesome food, happening places to shop, picturesque churches, rock culture
Negatives:No volvo buses running,lack of publicity about this beautiful part of India

Darjeeling

Second, in my list come Darjeeling which is in West Bengal.
Its an amazing place just when you start entering Darjeeling you are amidst the clouds that feeling is heavenly when you travel amidst the clouds. the toy train again an awesome experience. Then the rose garden in a high altitude its pretty. The sunrise at tiger hills worth watching and walk around the town is pleasant.Besides this on the way you can touch base on Sikkim and Nepal, Kalimpong which is an added bonus.
Positives:Nice place , awesome chilly weather
Negatives:None

Munnar

Third comes Munnar, its slanting tea plantations are a delight.Besides the tea plantations there is not much to do except the flower gardens.Besides the temperature too doesnt dip much, its surprising you can go around in a hill station without even a sweatshirt during the month of October.Well its a pleasant weather though still not chilly at all.Not much to do in proper Munnar except going for the tea plantations.
There's Eravikulam wildlife sanctuary but that needs a full day stading in an unending queue which I dint  prefer to.
Positives: Picturesqueness of the place, tea gardens in slanting mountains
Negatives:Dint have the exact hill-station feeling, finding good food was a problem, hotels are all quite scattered and far away from the main town

Mahabaleshwar

Fourth comes Mahabaleshwar in my list there is not much to do in this small hill-station in Maharashtra. there are some view points from which you can have views. Scenic drive with waterfalls all through small and big. Very near to Pune and Mumbai so people can have a good weekend outing. Waterfalls and horse-riding,rafting, paragliding etc.are available alongwith happening crowd.
Positives:Well connected to Mumbai and Pune, nice to visit on misty and rainy days
Negatives:Couldnt find good non-veg joints

My eternal favorite will always be gorgeous Shillong-Scotland of East.

Small industrial town Namrup in Assam,India

Where do I start from I have written the opening lines of this blog several times and have delete them unable to decide on where to start from. There will be quite a few number of people in this world who would be knowing about Namrup. So lemme start by giving a brief history about it (promise to keep it restricted to a couple of lines !).

Well Namrup is a small industrial town in Assam which in turn is a small state in India. I do have a lot of memories attached with this place this is the place I grew up obviously you have real lot of affinity for places where you spend the childhood and grow up it really has a lot of contribution to your personality. There is nothing much in Namrup except three industries one Petrochemical, one Fertilizer and one Thermal Power Plant so its a small place which really has a great talent pool of well educated people . 

My Dad being a Mechanical engineer was also no exception and he started off there after his engineering the first job and at that time the plant was also in its initial phases so he saw the place grow as he went up the hierarchy to be the topmost official in the company.

So the three campuses were demarcated with walls and there were entrance gates with tight security for outsiders entering the campus. Very beautiful and well maintained campuses with large bungalows(as I grew up in those bungalows) as well as other type of housing accommodations. Greenery and  cleanliness were two things that were given utmost priority,never knew what is power cut and what is electricity bill when I grew up . Keep all the lights on across the 8-9 room bungalow. Trees like Gulmohar,Deodar,Neem,Peltophorum,Eucalyptus surrounded the campus and we had Bottle brush, sunflower,weeping willow,night jasmine,jasmine,varieties of Dahlia, narcissus,chrysanthemum etc all sorts of flowers in our bungalow garden along with that we also used to have a kitchen garden with fruits and veggies. Life's really been too kind to let us grow in such an atmosphere (dint understand that then though now when I stay in a metro realize it and miss that life and wanna get back that from the core of my heart but time once gone cant be brought back!)

Everything was so timely and the surrounding was so safe although this is something I am talking 20 yrs back still I dont think there is much change in the lifestyle except for the modernization creeping in and the internet culture getting into the heart.

There's easy accessibility to Art, music and martial arts ..

No issues of traffic although every person has a car and we had two most of the time as we had our own as well as the chauffeur driven office one. (Hmm miss those things too!)

Very good calm and peaceful environment to study and learn things and very less distraction so mostly its easy to have a good academic background as well as cultural background too.

Really miss that small town of mine where I spent my childhood and teenage days although I was not born there nor have I settled down there but I have spent the most beautiful and innocent time there.

How I wish I could go back there someday relive my memories. 

Eternal San Francisco

A trip to San Francisco city in US was one of my most memorable trips in life. I had far exceeded my expectations.I reached SFO airport by night 9.00 pm PDT..My friend had come over to pick me from airport with a couple of her friends.On our way back from the airport we stopped by at Whole Foods.She  was put up in Hilton suites , it was office accommodation.It was a suite with a bedroom , small kitchen cum dining,bathroom and dressing room. All so cozy and well done up.
We took our dinner and then kept all the stuff lying there as it was coz the room service would clean up the stuff and there was no dishwasher , washer and dryer inside the suite.Both of us lay down on the bed and kept on talking the whole night which is very natural for two girls if they meet after long.

Next day we got up quite late with the room service's call.After having light brunch we both started in her car.Infact my friend was pretty new to driving in the US, she had been driving since one month only and it was a test for her to be driving alone.Nevertheless we both had no tension no worries just wanted to enjoy our time.

Our first destination was as anyone could blindly guess THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE..It was long weekend so it was so very stacked and crowed with people from all over the globe..I never ever imagined it would be so beautiful sight...I am out of words to describe the beauty that you experience when you are driving across the clouds through the Golden Gate bridge.We couldnt find a place to stop and take pictures , NO PARKING AT ALL so we had to drive across and go take pictures from  a far off corner.

The unique thing about SFO which I felt is the hilly,crooked roads and even the cars were parked in the uneven roads  it was surprising(atleast for me).Amongst all the places I have seen this was very unique or I can say a specialty of SFO.
Travelling through those criss-cross roads of SFO we moved towards the cloud clad Golden Gate Bridge.Wow what a sight it was so blissful and beautiful felt like heaven.As it was a holiday there were loads of tourists and no place for parking. So we couldn't stop at the bridge and we decided to move on to a nearby beach Stinson beach ( don't exactly remember the name ).The route to the beach also had an awesome scenery as it was agian a criss-cross hilly road and  on top of that  the horizon between the ocean and the sky on one side and the mountains on the other, it was simply great. We stopped at a few viewpoints clicked a few pics and and  enjoyed the view .I wished if I could have been there forever and if I could have maa-papa also with me there at that place.After that we  reached the beach and had fun for sometime.We went to the Crooked road and then went back to Hilton suites .We cooked food and again talked whole night .

The next day we went to visit Alcatraz although we dint have much time so we had to see it from outside and come back infact.

The next destination was Sausalito a bay-front beautiful busy town with innumerable shops and restaurants it was a busy small town.Its an adorable little town just on the otherside of the Bay Bridge. It is said to be one of the happiest seaside towns and there was a lot of fun and entertainment in the boardwalk.
I did souvenir shopping, had coffee and soaked in some more awesome and breathtaking views of the SFO city.

The final destination was a ride to have a look at the beautiful villas of  Hollywood superstars as well as celebs like Robin Williams,Danielle Steele etc, the locales were so very scenic  and the villas out of this world kind.Accumulating all my special memories of SFO in my heart I headed back.