Explore Jordon- A Series on Travel XP Channel

Travel XP is an wonderful channel. As evident from its name, it takes us to various places, tells us about the it, its history- culture- cuisine, and many more interesting facets.

Recently they aired a series on Jordan. Jordan is country which is situated in west Asia.

In one episode, they took us to the city - Jerash, which is a place where the Romas ruled for a long time. So we can witness many remains of the Roman civilization in the city.

North and South Theater are such two places of Jerash. 

North was used for discussion and it has the capacity of 1600 seats.

South is the theater having the capacity for 3000 people. Originally the number was 5000. It was built around 90 AD. Programmes are still performed in this theater.

Another famous ruin of Jerash is the Oval Plaza. It was a forum which had 56 columns, and was built around 1st century.

We also went to Madaba, in another episode. This place is situated around 40 km South West of Amman. I was really surprised to know about the famous 'Mosaic Map' at Madaba, which is there in the Church of St George.

It is made of around 2 million pieces of marbles/ tiles! Amazing work indeed! It is the oldest and best preserved map of middle east. It was made around 6th c. AD. It is slightly different from today’s maps as it is east oriented in the place of north, (which we are more accustomed to look at). It is the oldest known geographical floor mosaic in art history. It shows many biblical sites from Lebanon to Nile, from Mediterranean Sea to Eastern Desert.

Mosaic art was very popular in Madaba. Here are some more pictures-

In another programme, they also took us to Aqaba, which is the coastal city of Jordan, having a wide beech. It is situated on the tip of Red Sea. The most astonishing fact is that we can see three countries- Egypt, Saudi Arab and Israel, from Aqaba. Its location is so special that it is also in the middle of three continents - Asia, Europe and Africa.

Jordan is famous for its Sand art! I was surprised to see the sceneries made inside glass bottles.

And here is the process of making the same, from a forwarded video.

I enjoyed this series on Jordan. The whole series contained many more famous places, here I have shared about only a few of them which I could remember.

Excellent work by the channel!

(Photos are taken from internet and the Map from Google. Credit goes to the uploaders, creators. Used only for the appreciation of the beauty of the place)

'Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai' – Episode featuring Saina Nehwal

'Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta hai' is programme on Sony TV, where they take us to the homes of many famous personalities, we listen to their stories from them and also from their near an dear ones. Vinay Pathak is the anchor of the show.

The episode about Saina Nehwal took us to her house. We listened to her parents, their memories about the childhood of Saina. Her father shared his struggles for giving a better future to Saina, for making arrangements about her training, and many such stories. We were also taken to the school of Saina, where all the students were so happy, so proud about the achievement of their former student :) :). They even had a wing of the school named after her J ,Wonderful!

Loved the programme because of its simple content : ). Thanks to Sony tv for such a nice programme.

Here is the YouTube link of the episode. It was aired on 27 September 2015.

All the best to Saina for her future :)

World Book Fair 2016 at Delhi

The World Book Fair is going on from to Jan 9-17 at Pragati Maidan, Delhi. The timing is from 11 am to 8 pm. We visited the fair on Sunday and had a great time J.  We arrived quite early, around 11 and found many people standing in a queue in front of the main gate, which was something new to us, generally we don't find many people in Delhi interested in books.  

There was a fountain in front of the Ticket Counter :)

We visited the ‘National Book Trust’ stall. A significant stall having many types of books. They are working so sincerely in this field!

We also came across the stall of ‘Sanskriti Bharati’, this organisation is doing a great work in making Sanskrit popular in today’s world. Great work indeed!

We also found 4- 5 Bengali Book Stalls who have come from Kolkata. Among them was the stall of the ‘Publishers and Booksellers Guild’ of Kolkata.

The stall of ‘Penguin Random’ was a big big one, both area wise and content wise. They had so many books of various types, attracting much crowd.

We visited the stall of ‘Gita Press’, Gorakhpur. After hearing the recent disheartening news about the closure of the publication house, we were very happy to find the stall in the fair, with many books in many languages. And as always, the stall was crowded :).

Here is a unique decoration by papers, in the stall of ‘Bharati Bhavan’.

There was an exhibition of Manuscripts in one of the halls. They displayed many old manuscripts of various languages, mentioning the writer, the time of composition and the language. It was wonderful to go through them.  It war organised by the ‘National Mission for Manuscripts’. Very sincere work they are doing.  Here in this exhibition, general public could have a look at their endeavors which otherwise we don't have any other way to know.

 

In the same room there were the photos and information about the World Heritage Sites of India. We enjoyed that as well. The whole exhibition was named - Vividh Bharat.

In the afternoon we took lunch at the Food Court. Nice ambiance there.

There is a lake at Pragati Maidan in the middle of the halls. The lake has many fountains in it. Here is the picture of some of them :).

I was very happy to visit the fair. The enthusiasm which was noticed in the visitors about books were so encouraging! It opposed the idea that books have become less popular these days. Being a Sunday, the fair became really crowded in the afternoon, when we were returning home. Book Fair is characterized by this gathering of people, the jostling and pushing in the stalls have a distinctive charm altogether, so familiar in any book fair J.

We visited many many stalls, here mentioned the names of only a few.

I wish the fair to do a good business in the city.

With lots of best wishes.


Hari Aum.

Koshish se Kaamyabi Tak- Episode featuring Dia Mirza

'Koshish se Kaamyaabi Tak' is a series on Doordarshan National, where famous persons are invited to share their life stories. I  have watched only one episode of it, where Dia Mirza was the guest. Kiran Juneja was the anchor of the programme.

Till now I knew Dia Mirza as a beauty queen and as an actress. But in this proramme, I came to know about the real person behind all these professional identities. She told us about her childhood, her memories, her struggle, her experiences and her opinion about life. I was very surprised to now how she got the exposure to many religions during her childhood and growing up days, as her mother was a Hindu and her father was Christian and then her step father was Muslim. Indeed, all these influences has made her what she is today :). Felt really good to know all about it. She also told about her experiences during Miss India Competition, about Film Industry and about meeting her would be husband, whom she is married now.

I also came to know about her charitable work – Truly a wonderful effort by Dia!

Here is the link to her website, which I visited while writing this post.

Lots of love and best wishes for her future :)

Nice programme by DD National.

(Picture taken from internet. Credit goes to the uploader.)

'Aaj Savere'- Featuring Shanno Khurana

'Aaj Savere' is a daily programme which is aired on DD National, from 7:30- 8:30 am,  where they bring eminent personalities  who share about their life, works and about themselves. Recently I watched an episode where the famous classical artist and musicology expert Shanno Khurana was the guest. She narrated her experiences about learning classical music, about maintaining her passion for music throughout the obstacles of life, about her research on Classical music in India. I didn’t know about her before watching the programme. But after watching it, read about her from Wikipedia and came to know many more details.

It was a nice programme, inspiring the audience about the undefeatable spirit of Ms Khurana, who is working untiringly all her life.

Lots of best wishes for her future.


Jai Shri Krishna.

(Photo taken from internet. Credit goes to the uploader.)

A visit to Chittaranjan Park, Delhi

A few months back, we went to Chittaranjan Park. I enjoyed the visit, as always :). We had a darshan of Ma Kali, Mahadev, and Radha Krishna idols at the three temples.

A handicrafts fair was also going on in the premises.

I was quite excited to notice that a garden and fountain in the temple premises were inaugurated by Mrs Anita Pfaff, daughter of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

We also visited Market I and bought some bengali articles. And yes, we bought some Bengali books and magazines :)

We took lunch in the canteen of the C R Park mandir. Food and ambiance - both are our favourite.

It was a nice day J

Jai Shri Krishna.

Celebrating the birthday of A R Rahman

Today is the birthday of A R Rahman. So the Live music programmes on both Aakash Bangla (Good Morning Aakash) and Ruposhi Bangla (Aaji e Probhaate) presented songs of A R Rahman today. A treat to all Rahman fans :). Samayan Sarkar was the guest on Aakash Bangla and Arfin Rana was the guest on Ruposhi Bangla. I enjoyed both the programmes. 

Here are some of the songs which were sung by both the artists of these two programmes :) 

Tu hi re (Bombay)

Nahi saamne (Taal)

Tanha raahi (Bose)

Roja jaaneman (Roja)

Hai rama (Rangeela)

Vande Mataram (from Album)

Now some more songs which I heard today-

Nahi saamne, Ramta jogi (Taal)

Mera rang de basanti,  Des mere (The Legend of Bhagat Singh)

Saathiya (Saathiya)

Piya Haji Ali (Fiza)

Chhaiyaan Chhaiyaan, Satrangi re (Dil se)

Humma Humma (Bombay)

Rut aa gayi re (1947 Earth)

Mitwa (Lagaan)

And while listening to these songs I was remembering many more songs from his other films which we enjoyed back then, when they released. Still cherish many of them-

Pukar

Zubeidaa

One Two ka Four

Swades

Yuva

Jodha Albar

Ghajini

Delhi 6

These are just some of the films which I could remember now. Many many songs are still left out of this list.

What words can we use to appreciate these beautiful creations!! Uplifting music as well as the personal touch of all the singers!! Memorable!!

Now some special songs, about which I have also mentioned in one of my previous posts-

Here is the link to my previous post - "PIYA HAJI ALI / KHWAJA MERE KHWAJA / ARZIYAAN ...MAULA MAULA : HINDI SONGS"

- Now with these three songs, I want to add a new song- 'Pathaka Guddi' from the film Highway. It presents Surrendership in such a beautiful way! The depth of this song touches me every time.

Enjoyed the morning with all these delightful songs :) :)

Lots of best wishes for his future life.

Jai Shri Krishna.