Alpine Aspirations

Truly one of the most precious albums of my life so far...
Awe inspiring natural beauty with breathtaking views of the mighty and majestic snow capped peaks, pristine lakes, silvery streaks of waterfalls falling over the tall boulders, cows gleefully grazing the abundant greenery around, winged creatures happily gliding in the air, rivulets gushing past..everything looked straight out of a fairy tale. It was as if I was living my dream! My heart had already made a secret wish to live there forever :)
Switzerland...you are absolutely delightful and no wonder you are called the heaven on earth!!

My first look at Switzerland was as a teenager through Yash Chopra's movie DDLJ....and now was the time to experience it in real. 
The drive towards Jungfrau summit(top of Europe at a height of 11,332 ft.) via Grindelwald ( a beautiful village) was very scenic, unfolding the brilliant panorama along the way. 
With spring round the corner, nature had started painting the landscapes in different hues. 

Spic and span roads, orderly moving vehicles, greenery on both the sides, a view of the snow-white mountains towering towards the sky enthralled me and made travelling through those roads a sheer pleasure. 

Gateway to heaven

As we approached towards the base of the alps, there was nip in the air. Clouds were floating around. Tall mountains were giving me a high. Everything there started spinning a web of enchantment around me and I was lost drinking in the beauty of the place. 

Nature - God's greatest gift to mankind

These magnificent mountains never seized to amaze me no matter how many times I looked at them ....

   

Sheets of ice wrapping the mountains

Moving in a train (Jungfraubahn) from Grindelwald towards the top of Europe, it felt as though ice age had descended upon the place. It was white gold everywhere. 

The train took a serpentine route round the mountains and at one place entered a cave carved in the mountains

Caves carved inside the snow mountains for the trains to pass through.

 The rough walls inside the cave displayed age old pictures of how the cave was carved in those days. It indeed is an engineering marvel!

Sphinx, an astronomical observatory and one of the highest observatory in the world and an ice palace are located on top of Jungfrau. Aw!..how can I forget the restaurant 'Bollywood'. It was a gastronomical delight to savor hot tomato soup and have a sumptuous Indian meal @ a height of 11,000ft in Europe!! We Indians are everywhere ;)

Sphinx observatory

Inside the ice palace

  

A mountain train makes its way through the beautiful surroundings

Every scenery here looked post card perfect...

It was time to move on and I reluctantly chugged back refusing to part away from mother nature. 

Best thing was yet to come as the journey progressed towards Engelberg to go to Mt.Titlis. This was the jewel in the crown of the entire journey. 

Nature reveling in its epic canvas

Yet again, the landscapes that passed through were highly captivating and the scenic beauty was simply out of the world. There were rolling hills, mountain laps were dotted with small beautiful slope roofed houses and clouds were just a few meters high. The entire place looked like a playground of the angels and soaked me in its magical allure!!!

The rides taken to reach the top of Mt.Titlis themselves looked adventurous and exciting - the funicular, cable car and rotair.

Funicular pathway

The rotair rotating towards the snow covered summits of Mt.Titils

Once out of the rotair, the wide vistas of the snow covered mountains left me dumb folded and I kept watching it wide-eyed like a kid in a candy store! 

There was more in store for the adventure lovers ... ice flyer ride and cliff walk on Europe's highest suspension bridge. A once in lifetime experience indeed!!!

Ice flyer chairs

Daring to cliff walk on Europe's highest suspension bridge

Interlaken - gorgeous, captivating and a small resort town of Swiss. It gave a feel as if everyday is a holiday for people over here with many of them enjoying themselves in parks and paragliding against the stunning backdrop of the alps. 

Life @ leisure - Paragliding over the city of Interlaken

Fountain in a public park in the city of Interlaken. It is suppose to be here that Sharukh offers a rose to Kajol in the movie DDLJ, but my memory refused to recollect it showing signs that I'm growing old :)

Lucerne is another beautiful Swiss city with a rustic feel. Has a picturesque lake against a mountain backdrop. 

Lake Lucerne and its townscape

Chappel Bridge - one of the oldest, covered bridges of Europe. 

Monument of a dying lion -  best known monument of Swiss

All good things should come to an end and so did my trip to this beautiful destination. I bid adieu to it with a heavy heart but did carry loads and loads of entrancing memories which no one can take away from me :) 


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The dark side of fairs

Bangalore has just had its array of fairs recently like Kadalekai parishe, Bellitheru etc. Everyone enjoys these colourful and lively events. Celebration and joy are in the air wherever you look.
But if you try to take some time to observe a bit beyond the colourful stalls, you will notice the ugly truth raising its head. The lives of those vendors, who are responsible for making these events colourful, is completely colourless. With the popularity of these fairs slowly increasing, there is a growing competition among the vendors to put up their stalls (on the foot paths) much in advance to the events.  Having come from poor backgrounds, they lack basic sanitation facilities. Until the fair ends, they eat, drink, sleep and literally live on the pavements.  Their little ones will not even have proper clothing to cover their bodies completely. It is a pathetic scene altogether.
This blog is a humble effort from my end to throw some light on the poor living condition of these vendors through some photographs.

It was a day to appease the bull god. While the stone bull was getting worshipped (in the bull temple), this living bull was being harassed by its owner to make a living for herself. The people around turned a blind eye to it.

At an age where this boy has to play with colourful toys, he has to contend himself playing with a measure.

Kids enjoying blowing the bubbles without realising that their future is like a bubble. Some of them don't even have proper clothes to cover themselves completely

Vendors eat, drink and sleep on the footpaths itself. Footpaths literally become their home till the fairs end.

A vendor's family sharing a light moment ...

Two siblings happily playing by the roadside while their grandmother looks on ...

Boys and girls like him  have to sacrifice their education to contribute to their family's economy.

Customers bargain endlessly with poor vendors but they don't mind paying hefty sums for things that they buy from the shopping malls.

Pavement is the bed for this little girl.

A lady in her twilight years forced to earn her own living

If you have come till here, thanks for spending time to go through the blog! My sincere request with you is if you happen to go to such fairs, please do carry some clothes that are in good condition to these poor people and do not bargain with them. Let us be socially responsible citizens.