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Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’t ju
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Navaratri Experiences – 10

Navami – the ninth day of Navaratri is dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of learning. At home, we place books and writing implements near the altar of the God, and place an image of Saraswati over it. We do not read or write the whole day, taking the books out and reading them only on the next day, Dusshera, when it is auspicious to begin studies. We pray not only to the goddess of learning, but also to those things which aid us in learning. In the south, students welcome this day, as it gives them a respite from studies, but for us, it has never been so. I remember, we not only had school, but also exams during this period, and had no choice but to study on this day too. My mother used to make me keep textbooks of those subjects whose exams I had already completed, and had to use the other books to study. Not once did I get a break from studies as my cousins in Chennai did. Today, Samhith has no exams, so thank God; we can keep his books for the puja, but just for a couple more years. Then he too will experience the same things that I did.

Navami is also the last day for the decoration at the temple, and predictably, it was of BRAHMA and SARASWATI.

From Miscellaneous

From Miscellaneous

Meanwhile, where ever I went, I could see preparations for seeing off the Devi underway. Here is a photo I clicked of a vehicle being decorated to carry the goddess on her journey to her home, via the sea. It looked beautiful even as they were decorating it. It will look fantastic in the night with all the lights on…..

From Miscellaneous

The festival dedicated to the goddess comes to an end with Dusshera –the tenth day. The images of the Devi all over India will be immersed in the water, Kolus will be dismantled, and this series of blogs on Navaratri will also come to an end. We have much planned for Dusshera, but to read about it, you will have to wait one more day. Goodbye until then………
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