Nainital, Uttarakhand, India

Nainital is a hill station set around an emerald lake. According to Hindu mythology, the Naini Lake is one of the eyes of the Goddess Parvati, wife of Lord Shiva. It is said that the modern Naina Devi Temple at the northern end of the lake is built on the exact spot where Parvati's eye fell after Vishnu, another Hindu God, hacked Parvati's body to bits to end Shiva's cosmic dance of destruction. 

Sailboats skim across Nainital's waters now and there are trekking trails, temples, forest groves, a zoo, a 100-year-old golf course, and an aerial rope-way.  Around Nainital, there are other smaller resorts that make for good one or two day trips. The region is also called the Lake District due to a string of closely located lakes, including Bhimtal. Ranikhet, another hill station, is nearby and in the foothills of Ranikhet is the Corbett National Park, where you can sight tigers, if you visit the park in the right season. 

Nainital is one of the more pleasant hill stations in the northern part of India for walks through forests and superb glimpse of the Himalayas, though Naini Lake or Nainital primarily defines the character of this hill town. Naini Lake is where the locals and all the tourists go. Boat rides are the favorite pastime. There are boat operators who will take you around the lake. You can also hire a yacht from the Nainital Boat Club. But if you like to be on your own, you can take a pedal boat for a fee and float around the lake.

Major Attractions other than boating:

Snow View: A rope-way called the Aerial Express takes you to the popular Snow View that offers breathtaking views of the majestic Himalayas dominated by the Nanda Devi peak. 

Paragliding in Kumaon: At Naukuchiatal, 23 km away from Nainital, the kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam organizes paragliding in association with a private operator. This is a tandem joyride and a trained pilot always flies with the passenger.

How to reach Nainital:

By rail: The nearest railway station is Kathgodam, 35 km away, which is connected with Delhi and Kolkata.

By road: The most convenient way of getting to Nainital is by road. It is a 303-km drive from Delhi. One can take a private cab. Plenty of daily night bus services are available from Delhi to Nainital  and back. A Bus can be taken from near Old Delhi Railway Station or from near Chandralok Building on Janpath in Connaught Place, New Delhi.

Where to Stay:

There are very premium hotels in Nainital to stay and enjoy your holiday. Some of those are:

• WELCOMHERITAGE BOB'S PLACE
• SONAPANI HIMALAYAN VILLAGE ACCOMMODATION
• FAIRHEAVENS
• THE MANU MAHARANI
• THE CLARIDGES NAINI RETREAT
• ARIF CASTLES
• SHERVANI HILLTOP INN
• SWISS HOTEL
• VIKRAM VINTAGE INN
• BALARAMPUR HOUSE
• ALKA THE LAKESIDE HOTEL
• CLASSIC THE MALL
• GRAND HOTEL
• MOUNTAINTRAIL
• KMVN TOURIST RESTHOUSE SNOWVIEW 
• HOTEL HIMALAYA
• THE EARL'S COURT
• ALPINE CLUB

There are also many smaller, budget but decent hotels are also available in plenty in Nainital.

RESTAURANTS:

• MANU MAHARANI
• VICEROY - THE BAR
• CAFE DE MALL
• MACHAN RESTAURANT
• GARDENIA - THE COFFEE SHOP
• EMBASSY
• SHER-e-PUNJAB
• SAKLEY'S RESTAURANT & PASTRY SHOP

BHIMTAL

Bhimtal, 23 km away from and larger than Naini Lake, has water sports, a beautiful island and restaurant.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre took place in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the northern Indian city of Amritsar on 13 April 1919. The shooting was ordered by Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer at a crowd of about 15000 - 20000 people, who had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh public garden in protest against a ban on all meeting ordered by General Dyer, who suspected that a major insurrection was on. In the firing, 1302 men, women and children were slaughtered. Some of them jumped into the well in the complex and thus perished. Some historians considered the shooting episode as one of the decisive steps towards the end of British rule in India. 

Lotus Temple, New Delhi, India

The   Baha'i House of Worship in New Delhi, India, popularly known as the Lotus Temple due to its flower-like shape, is a   Baha'i House of Worship and also a prominent tourist attraction in Delhi. Built in the expressionist architectural style, it has won numerous architectural awards and been featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. 

Inside the structure it is a huge hall with benches for people to sit silent. 

Images from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi, as he was fondly known by people the world over, is revered as the Father of the Nation in India. The soul that demonstrated to the world at large that the greatest of the powers at that time could be moved to veer round to your point of view through means of sheer non-violence was dealt a violent blow during a scheduled prayer meeting at Birla House in New Delhi. The assassin fired at Gandhi in quick succession three shots at point blank range. We have brought you images of the place  where Mahatma Gandhi attained martyrdom on Friday, the 30th January 1948. A memorial stone has been erected at the exact location where Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. We have also brought images of the personal articles used by Mahatma Gandhi during his lifetime. 

Here is an eyewitness account of the fateful evening of January 30, 1948, a passage from The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi:

As Gandhiji passed along the cordoned lane through the prayer congregation, he took his hands off the shoulders of the two girls (Abha and Manu), to acknowledge the namaskars of the prayer congregation. All of a sudden someone from the crowd roughly elbowed his way towards them. Manu Gandhi, thinking that he was coming forward to touch Gandhiji's feet, remonstrated saying something about it being already late for the prayer and tried to stop the intruder by thrusting back his hand. He violently pushed her back, causing the notebook, the spittoon, and the mala, which she was carrying in her hands, to fall down. As she stooped down to pick up the scattered things, he planted himself in front of Gandhiji and fired in quick succession three shots at point blank range.The last words Gandhiji uttered were "Hey Ram". A spreading crimson spot appeared on the white clothes, the hands which had been raised in namaskar to the gathering slowly came down. The limp body softly sank to ground. Gandhiji breathed his last at 5.17 p.m. 

Birla House, where the assassination took place, is now known as Gandhi Smriti and is a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi. It is situated on Tees January Marg in New Delhi, India. It is the location where Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life before his assassination on January 30, 1948. The place now houses the Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum established in 2005.

Feroz Shah Kotla

Feroz Shah Kotla was the core of the city of Ferozabad, established in 1354 as an imperial capital by the Sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq. Ferozabad, one of the seven cities founded by various rulers at different times in the history of Delhi, was an extensive city. According to the historian Shams Siraj Afif, who lived during Feroz Shah's reign, the buildings of the city stretched in the north as far as the palace or hunting lodge constructed by Feroz Shah on the Northern Ridge (known today as Pir Ghaib). To the south the city extended to site now marked by the Purana Qila or Old Fort. It also grew to be quite populous, and might have contained a population of some 150,000.

The earlier sites of substantial settlement in Delhi had been further south - Lal Kot/ Qila Rai Pithora (now the area around the Qutub Minar), Siri a little to its north-east, and Tughlaqabad in the hills to the south-east. Ferozabad was not only much further north than these three early settlements, it was also the first of the capitals  to be built on the bank of the river Yamuna.

Feroz Shah Kotla was the grand and opulent royal citadel of the city. Visitors such as the invader Timur, as well as contemporary chroniclers have left behind glowing descriptions of its buildings. None of the costly stones and gilded and painted features described by them exists today. Apart from the vagaries of time, mankind  itself has also been responsible for this ruin. In later centuries, building materials were plundered from here for construction work for the cities to the south (Din Panah and Shergarh) and to the north (Shahjahanabad). Ironically, material for the construction of Ferozabad itslef had come from the older cities of Siri, Jahanpanah, and Lal Kot.