Indroda Nature Park, Gandhinagar

Indroda nature park is situated about 1 km from Infocity, Gandhinagar. I often visit this place, mostly early mornings, to cheer myself up and to spend some time with nature. Greenery of the nature is like a nymph which gets over your mind and irrespective of your age you start feeling young again. The red pink and yellow flowers, green leaves, jumping monkeys and running blue bulls will make you feel alive and may be jump on your feet. 

Green trees planted along the road make you feel as if they are walking along with you. The combination of greenery and wildlife is a gift of nature available so close to my residence. I am feeling ignorant by knowing and still not going there everyday for a morning walk. While entering the park, I saw a monkey relaxing on the branch of a tree. I liked his cool style and the immediate thought that came to my mind was even I should take sometime off from the work and relax like him, at least sometimes. It looked as if he was a monkey monk, different from others of his kind - who are often found jumping, hanging on a branch of tree effortlessly, not interested in any of the worldly things, not worrying or thinking about anything, but just having some good time.To capture this moment was difficult. Every time I tried, he got up and posed like a model, well aware of that fact that someone is taking his picture. The poor fellow couldn't understand what I was looking for. But finally, I got it.

A muster of peacocks could be easily seen inside the park. Even the fan formation of feathers could also be easily spotted. However, what is rare is, finding a Peahen and a Peacock sitting together and on top of it, two beautiful birds kissing each other. I was lucky that I had a chance to capture a special moment wherein the symbol of beauty grace and love was himself in a romantic mood. 

I have never found a Peahen so beautiful, but she really looked pretty with the peacock.  A morning walk at Indroda Nature Park or any other similar place can give you an amazing experience. Keep walking with nature and cherish its beauty.

My recommendation: You must go here every morning if you live in Gandhinagar. Or if you want to see some places and are a nature lover, please do visit this place. 

Mahabalipuram

Mahabalipuram was the only place around my residence where I thought life existed. I was working at an isolated location called Anupuram - BHAVINI nuclear power plant township. Anupuram was about 10 kms from Mahabalipuram. After all the stress in the office, I wanted to have a peaceful evening. Moreover, I considered everyday of my life to be very important and wanted to have something for myself everyday. 

Anupuram was completely isolated from the city. There were no multiplexes, no shopping malls, and no other amenities. I couldn't travel everyday to Chennai as it took almost 2 hours to reach in the city. Somehow, I found Mahabalipuram as the place where I could live the way I wanted. I had to rent a car to go there. Though it was a costly affair, I decided to do so to be happy each day.

Mahabalipuram beach is neither wide nor clean, but still it looked beautiful in evenings and mornings. The sky looked beautiful during mornings and evenings. 

Evening (L) and Early Morning (R) @ Mahabalipuram

Afternoons were so hot, you couldn't even think of going there. However, there were number of foreigners you will find on the beach. I always use to wonder how do they take sun bath in such hot weather. 

Gossiping with friends @ Othawadi street stretch of beach

I usually preferred to go to Othawadi street in Mahabalipuram which had some small but very nice restaurants. The street was always crowded with foreigners. There were local shops, where you could see artists hammering the stones to create imitations or statues. The fresh air and lively atmosphere  of the street did cheer me up every time I went there. There were few occasions when my friends use to come from Chennai to visit this place.

'The blue elephant' was one of my favorite restaurant. If you are anywhere near Chennai, do visit this place in the evening.

Thol Bird Sanctuary

                                     Thol Bird Sanctuary is situated about 30 Kms from Gandhinagar.  It is very close to Vadsar village where there is an air force base.

We decided to take an early 5:30 am ride to Thol as Ahmedabad has a very hot climate during this time of the year. We could easily make it toThol, but it was difficult to locate the bird sanctuary. We tried asking few villagers, but they responded as if they heard about it for the first time in their life. After going for few more kilometers we saw a sign board saying Thol Bird Sanctuary is ahead. We traveled for another 2-3 kilometers but could not find anything. Moreover, google maps was indicating that we were moving away from the destination. So, we decided to turn back and again read the sign board carefully. However, we couldn't find anything new on the sign board, but there was a narrow road near the board. We decided to take a chance and go in that direction. We went for about 2 Kms, but then we started finding it difficult to ride on the bike because there was dust all around us. Luckily we saw a guy and asked him if it is the way to bird sanctuary. He said yes. We continued for 2 more kilometers somehow. Finally, we saw a board. We could easily read Thol bird sanctuary even though it was written in Gujarati. But then we struggled in understanding the paragraph which was written below it. After few minutes we could solve the puzzle. It was written in Gujarati that entering this Sancuary from this direction is an offense and the trespassers will be punished by the government. We didn't take that risk and then turned back again. Reached the main highway in few minutes and asked few more people. One fellow, who was looking little educated, jumped out and said that for the main entrance I will have to go 4 kilometers straight and then take the left turn and again 4 Kms. He also mentioned that there will be an entrance fees from the main gate and that I could easily get in from the other way from which I had just returned. 


How is it?
We took the longer route and finally reached Thol Bird Sanctuary. The guy at the security gate charged us just Rs. 20 per person. We parked our bike after getting in and the view of the lake and greenery made us really happy. It was worth getting up early in the morning and traveling 30 Kms.

There were stretches of land which were surrounded by lake water and were inaccessible to visitors. We could see a number of birds sitting on these isolated portions of land. Though it looked extremely beautiful from distance, we were missing a binocular. A binocular would have really made it easy for us to observe the beauty of the birds. From the distance we could not see any details of the birds but only their shapes.

Anyway, we decided to take few photographs and then sit on the bedsheet that we brought from home. It was a pleasant experience, sitting near a lake surrounded by greenery. I spent my time reading a book that I had kept with me. 


You can easily spend the entire day there if you have taken enough food and water along with you. There are plenty of trees and you can easily find a place to sit down in shade even on a very hot day.

I would recommend that you definitely go here if you are a nature lover.