VEMBANAD LAKE : (Vembanad Lake: one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes). Kerala’s Inland Sea.

The green state of Kerala, according to legend, was acclaimed from the sea by Parusuram, one of the redeemer-avatars. The land could well encapsule a geological truth. Clearly, however, not all the land became dry. One of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes still spreads across Kerala. It is called the Vembanad and it acts as a giant reservoir, a balancing tank against flodds, and a major ecological resource which has conditioned the flora, fauna and lifestyles of the people who live on its banks.

The boats that ply, on the Vembanad vary from the large stitched-hull, cargo carriers with domed mat-roofs, now being converted into house boats by local entrepreneurs, to little skiffs carrying lone line-fishermen with large palm-leaf hats. And all the sizes in between. Fishing methods also span a wide-spectrum range. On the shallow edges of the lake you might see women immersed upto their necks in water, terracotta pots floating beside them. Their toes are busy in the soft ooze of the bottom, searching for the shy but tasty karameen fish. When they locate them, the women submerge, grab them by their scaly tails, and pop them into their pots. Or else, a line of fishermen will swim abreast, stretching strung coconut fronds between them. And behind follow more fishermen stretching a net. Fish trying to avoid the fronds swim effortlessly into the net.Then again, at night fishermen glide over the dark waters bearing aloft a flaming torch on their left hands and a butterfly net in their right. Surfacing fish, attracted by the light, are easily scooped up.

The wooded banks of the lake attract large number of nesting water-birds and there is a water-bird sanctuary at the edge of the grounds of an old estate, now converted into a luxury hotel. Another lake-edge luxury hotel plans to create such a sanctuary. This hotel is unique. Its suites consist of some of the old, wooden, mansions of Kerala, rescued from lumber buyers and re-erected in a canal-threaded coconut grove. Visitors draw up to the reception area of this hotel in a boat and spend lazy days in the laid-back lifestyle of the people of Kerala’s Inland Sea.

Bibi-ka-Maqbara : (Aurangabad, Maharashtra).

The Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Their son, Aurangzeb, ousted the Emperor from the throne.

He, possibly, wanted to outshine his father particularly in Shah Jahan’s greatest achievement: the immortal Taj. Consequently, when Aurangzeb’s first wife, Dilras Banu Begum, died he decided to build a mausoleum for her in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, to replicate the Taj. His Bibi-Ka-Maqbara, built between 1657 and 1661 stands in a walled area of 137,000 sq. metres. Though, to the casual glance, it looks very much like the Taj, this monument has not been made of white marble but is covered in plaster fashioned to resemble marble.

The Manikaran Shrines : (Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh).

At the end of a thrilling mountain road, Manikaran appears on the right bank of the turbulent Parvati river in Himachal Pradesh. Its houses have the typical slate roofs of this area and many of the balconies overhang as they do in mountain homes all over the world. In the village are two temples and a gurudwara.

And out of the earth bubbles water so hot that the villagers and the keepers of the shrines boil rice, dal, and rice pudding-kheer in it. Water steams and flows in a cloudy rill, leaving a reddish brown mineral deposit in its course. And where it touches the cold waters of the Parvati, clouds of steam arise. In the Gurudwara there is a hot cave which is as warm as if it had been centrally heated.