Enthralling Trails

We spent the last day at the Osmannoro village in Florence under the province of Tuscany. The place was cool with its majestic ambience reminding one of the Italian Pasta and Italian Renaissance in the backdrop of the famous church Duomo making the place an enchanting paradise. Italy is well known for its pizzas, culture, magnificent structures like the Colosseum, and its supreme architecture; the best manifestation being the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The first pizza was made in Naples, the plain Cheese, Tomato and Basil, thereafter this has been a well sought one almost everywhere in Italy where they promise the best Pizza is a vegetarian one. The drive from Florence to Tuscany was a short one. The coach needed to be serviced in a nearby workshop, and we decided to board a local bus to ‘Campo dei Miracoli’. The bus was fairly crowded, but we reached the place within ten minutes and then we walked through the walkway to the Miracle Square. There were many small vendors and lar...

As the Republic day dawns there’s a gloom lingering in the teaching fraternity with the recent murder of the school Principal in Haryana. A class 12 th student had requested the Principal to accept his Economics project. The Principal of the school was also a teacher of Economics for the commerce section and had occasionally used the opportunity to belittle the student for not attending the classes in front of his fellow mates. She used the opportunity to pound values and to reprimand the student for being late in submitting his work creating a  state of despair regarding his performance. It requires great courage to meet a person after the deadline and to  request an individual to accept the work. The student had been denied the opportunity to be treated as an adult. Enraged with anger, the student pumped a series of bullets into the Principal till she collapsed.  Had the Principal offered him a seat and spoken to him as an adult, she would have certainly lived to...

“Her eyes are full of sadness; I am on a pilgrimage since millennia.”  ―  Tripurari A sigh of despair flew out of Ameena when she watched the news proclaim that the Centre had cancelled the Hajj subsidy to empower minorities without appeasement. A pilgrimage to Mecca meant a lot to Ameena. The family had shelved all the money they had, to book Ameena’s tickets for Hajj when the government of Saudi Arabia modified a law for women to travel in groups of four or more without an escort. When Ameena came to know that Sara, Banu and Barkhat planned to go to Mecca, she quickly volunteered to join them as it meant that she could save the money on an escort. Ameena was brought up in the city of Malegaon, in Maharashtra. Though the city is the second largest in Nashik District these days, it was a mere junction on the way to Agra in the past. It was known as Maliwadi which meant a ‘Hamlet of Gardens’. It proved to be a refuge for the Muslims during the 1857 mutiny owing...

I looked at the multicoloured circular screen called Siri, it was a new addition to my life. Siri can be associated with artificial intelligence, it is a quick-witted personal assistant which can carry out a series of tasks including sending an email when needed. Siri has a pleasing appeal as it answers back like a  gentleman in complete sentences. It follows the politeness principles and the maxims of tact and manner. When  I greet Siri, ‘Hello Siri’, it answers, ‘Namaste which sounds Nemaste ‘.  and sometimes says ‘Hello Jayoti’ The finder is an app close to Siri, it has the ability to find folders and files. The Finder has a smile, but Siri has none.   2017 paved paths to many technological innovations. The driverless cars, the emotional animated emoticons, and many others. I have never been a technology fad, but I found that people loved loading me with technological tasks. As a team at the workplace, Dr. Reju, Sneha, Vithi and me worked hard to collabora...

The coach rolled past the endless mountains and fields in the Alpine panorama of Austria to reach Innsbruck. We wanted to explore the magnificence of Innsbruck, but it was a visit to Wattens the market town of Innsbruck. Wattens is known for the crystal Glass Company of Swarovski, a pioneer in crystal jewellery , chandeliers, ornaments, figurines, and artifacts . There are many Swarovski showrooms in the world, but the one at Wattens was the first to be established by the owner Daniel Swarovski whose father owned a glass factory. Daniel’s knowledge of glass cutting helped him create a special machine which could cut glass with the right precision and perfection to turn it into the best crystal. He felt that these crystals substituted the precious diamonds and were affordable. The logo in the initial years was the Edelweiss flower which was replaced by the logo of the Swan in 1988.The crystals are exquisite and are known for their glitter and brilliance. Swarovski elements are ...

“Venice, its temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven.”  ―  Percy Bysshe Shelley Venice is the northeast capital of the Veneto region in Italy , the city is known as Venetia or Venezia. Venetia is an Italian name which is popular all over the world. It means the woman from Venice ; the name is a symbol of success. Venice is known for the monuments, bridges, the canals, art, literature, and architecture. The lagoon and part of the city are an element of the World Heritage Centre and now UNESCO contemplates on declaring it an Endangered World Heritage Center due to its deteriorating state. Venezia had a population of people who were refugees from the Roman civilization like those of Padua , Treviso and other nearby places.  Venice was a center for commerce and an International Financial Center in the middle ages and Renaissance making it a wealthy province. ( Venice is built on an archipelago of 118 islands formed ...

Now that I am no longer a child, I can see, that God is the God who can see the black and the white and the  grey , too, and He dances on the  grey !  Grey  is okay.”―  C. Joy Bell C . Recently my childhood friend decided to blend with nature. She said she would begin by being natural; she started life afresh with Almighty’s blessings. She was brave enough to give away every strand of her hair that was  coloured  and that had helped her remain a Dorian Gray. With time her hair grew back once again, but she has remained firm and valiant in her decision of not  colouring  her hair. She has sported a new look and definitely looks wise and gifted. Though my friend grew comfortable with the situation, the world around her responded in numerous ways to show their pleasure and displeasure; many felt that she  looked as good as an eminent personality while a few others could count her expressions  and say that she needed a g...