Where are the tourists ?

Probably its the recession or maybe the season is getting over..but we hardly found any tourist in Kumbalgarh, but for a few Indian families on a summer vacation..the fort was not their destination as they preferred to swim in the pool and beat the heat..I didnt speak to the couple in the picture, but the guide told me that foreigners have not been coming of late..Sad, for tourism !

In Kumbalgarh still

Meet Dimple..

She's from Udaipur and has come to Kumbalgarh for a dance performance with her friends .


Dimple has just appeared for her Class X exams and says she has learnt the dances from her mother


She says she has been dancing she was eight years old.

And she is very clear when she says -" yeh math samjho ki mein eh paise ke liye kar rahi hoon . Mein heroine banna chahathi hoon. Mera favourite hero hai John Abraham."
("Dont think Im doing this all for money..I am doing all this because I want to become a heroine. My favourite hero is John Abraham."

I couldnt take a video of her solo performance, but here is a short clip .I love the haunting music.Thanks for watching.I think its people like Dimple who make your travels worthwhile..At 15 she is so sure about what she wants and where she wants to go..With stars in her eyes and great talent, hopefully she will go places.

Kumbalgarh Fort-Voices from the past

Travelling to me is all about the sights and sounds of a place. The Cerebrate team visited the Kumbalgarh Fort after a brainstorming session and here I am celebrating the heroics of Rana Kumbha who built the fort in the 15th century.The wall of the fort at 36 kms is supposed to be the second longest continuous wall after the Great Wall of China.

Im leaving you with some videos, pics and audio clips of the place..The clips were recorded on my mobile as the guide narrated the stories..Im just posting a couple of them here with our own English translation as well, courtesy Rashmi who was one of the participants at Cerebrate .


One talks about how the fort was built -the legend talking about the sacrifice of a priest who asked Rana to build the fort . The second talks about the war between Rana Pratap and Akbar and then the many gates of the fort..


I do not have a high end gadget..so I do hope the quality of video and audio is fine..Im also a bit lazy now and I do not want to write too much..but will soon do another post on the fort soon.

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Cerebrating at Kumbalgarh - a celebration of passions

When you are in a room with ten achievers speaking about their lives and ideas that build their lives, you are stuck with one thought - that they think with their hearts and not their brains. I have just come back from a wonderful brainstorming session from Kumbalgarh where Cerebrate 2009 was held.Organised by Club Mahindra, the event is an unconference . The achievers included Cmdr. Satyabrate Dam who has scaled the two poles besides being an acclaimed mountaineer, best selling author Tim Murari, IIT-ian turned agriculturist Madhavan who is a pioneer in creating entrepreneurship among farmers, wildlife photographer, filmmaker and naturalist Kalyan Varma, singer and actor Andreah Jeremia, social activist , Rashmi Dhanvani , designer Abhijit Bansod, RJ Anjaan and entrepreneurs Sriram Bharatam and Suresh Sambandam .


It was a celebration of passions - thats what I call it .Inspired, overwhelmed and humbled after meeting so many interesting people, Im now charged to do something on my own as well.And one of my best moments - spotting a falling star at 4 am in the morning under a jewelled sky..

More pictures of Cerebrate here