The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Mumbai is one of the best known Museum of the country. 
Recently I visited the Museum on World Museum Day 18 May 2015 and was delighted to witness the presence of Kota at various sections of the Museum.

Noteworthy is the Indian Miniature Painting Gallery where the museum houses one of the best collections of miniature paintings in the country. Besides the examples from the major centres there are some important paintings of Kota and Bundi style elegently displayed there.

This Miniature painting section is a must visit for every art lover.

Watch Dr. Sushma Ahuja on Epic Channel as she brings you closer to the reality and gives insights on Sita Bari.. a heritage tourism attraction of Rajasthan with Host Sara Khan on Kahi Suni: the myths and legends of India.

Watch Kahi Suni today 19 th May at 7:00 pm. For repeat telecast, keep watching Epic channel and stay glued to our Heritage and History.

Watch Dr. Sushma Ahuja give insights on Veer Tejaji of Rajasthani Folklore .. his life, heroism and history along with Host Sara Khan exclusively on Kahi Suni ... on Epic Channel .. tonight 14 May 2015 at 10 pm.

For the people, by the people and of the people. #DigitalIndia

This is exactly what we have been taught right from our school days. But what about the farmers, living somewhere in an unknown village, does he know that there are schemes and subsidies available for him? Has he ever been able to reach out to that department where he knows he shall be heard and his work shall be given utmost priority?

Sometimes we do believe that since its government work, it is bound to take time. Time can be days, weeks , months, years; you never know. The problem is the time and accessibility of resources. Your documents keep piling, waiting to reach the correct department where your application shall be read and reverted back to you with a positive note.

What about those backward tribes, who stay away from reaching out to the government thinking there is a high transaction cost associated to gaining governance information. How about the Youth, do we ever try to find out the employment opportunities, credit and loans availability. Why do we often remain outside the governance region?

According to me, the governance information needs to be crisp. If it’s timely updated and is readily available when required, if its customized for individual needs and requirements and thirdly if the authenticity is maintained, if its trustworthy then the Governance information provided is Crisp else it turns cold and soggy and is liked by none.   

And I am happy to  know that our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, in his independence day address to the nation suggested that he is looking forward to transforming the country into a digitally empowered and connected knowledge economy.  E governance is core to creating the Digital India envisioned by the government.

According to me, Sarkaar Apkae Dwaar  which means Government at your door step, is the most apt and simplest way to put down the working of e governance. With e governance we shall have access to all citizen services, timely and updated information of reforms, platform to collaborate with the government where we can reach out to them, be heard and get replied back in no time. Technology is the key enabler in realizing the Digital India vision. This shall lead to two fold advantage. One for the Government where the government shall get all the statistics and reach out to millions at once . this shall reduce the cost and help manage time, at the same time Govt. shall get an idea of the problems faced by even the most backward classes, this shall help mitigate the problems which arise cause of gaps in communication due to in active channels and other reasons. Govt. can then plan the budget keeping the present scenario in mind. At the same time, paper work shall be highly reduced and loads of data can be stored of entire India for years to come and shall be available on a single click, that means another problem of searching for lost files and documents shall now be a thing of the past. Governments around the globe are becoming online and digital which helps reduce the cost to access relevant government information. One thing that I personally appreciate is that we are going to save loads of paper and this step is undoubtedly a step further towards clean green and environment friendly India.  This digitalization is of utmost importance for us, we the people of India as this adds value to us as Indians.  Intel is committed towards India’s vision of a digital India. Digital skills for India and Innovate for India initiatives by Intel are worth a mention when it comes to e governance. This shall help each Indian learn the skills of reaching out to the government online and having their problems resolved.  This initiate shall insipe the youth, policymakers, NGO, private sectors and we as an individual to then innovatively and consider our government as an asset for us that shall bring us happiness and success in our lives. http://www.intel.in/ 

SARKAAR APKAE DWAAR!

Jagah banana wala nashta, Movie wala nashta, Home work wala nashta, Chup karane wala nashta, Best tiffin wala nashta, sanskaar wala nashta, passing the parcel wala nashta and most importantly, Anaaj wala nashta. https://www.facebook.com/anaajkanashta 

Breakfast often referred as Nashta in India, sometimes becomes time consuming, early morning you have so much to do and sometimes trying to adjust to your schedule, you forget you daily morning breakfast. Breakfast need not be the same boring upma or poha. Add variations and variety and watch you and your family looking forward to breakfast with excitement asking ‘Aaj kya banaya hai?’

The heritage tourism celebrates the journey of greatness of our heritage, its culture and traditional age old historic places. Then why are we discussing breakfast? Welcome to Food Heritage. Well, an avid tourist and a traveller surely should understand the importance of fueling up. 


If you want to roam around the world, start your day with the goodness of health and you would realize you feel more active and energetic and visit more places than you thought you would in that day. It’s the power of breakfast. I believe one should always start the day with a power packed Breakfast, there is no denying the fact that wherever you go in this World, the culture and tradition of having fresh breakfast prevails and always will. 

But sometimes we get bored of the same old breakfast, sometimes we want to have the same ingredients clubbed up together in a different form to add to the freshness, a zing of style along with taste and nutrition. Is it possible? Well, Yes. Is it difficult and time consuming? No, not at all. Let’s learn the simple secrets to great tasting breakfast with Gupta ji and his family.   

Today, let’s take a tour to Gupta ji’s house and relish their traditional heritage breakfast food with a twist. Gupta ji and family invites all of us to visit them for a treat of breakfast. Cornflakes date shake, Cornflakes kewra badam, Choco mint cornflakes, Strawberry and Banana Cornflakes, Almond coconut shake, cornflakes fruity yogurt cup, Cornflakes rose falooda, cornflakes crumble mango custard, Cornflakes jelly shake, cornflakes chana chaat, cheesy cornflakes are some of the quick to prepare, healthy and delicious recipes that Mrs. Gupta prepares every other day in minutes. Let’s try one and I am sure, we won’t stop at one. We would keep going to Gupta ji's house for breakfast that's tasty and nutritious, power packed as I call it. https://www.youtube.com/user/kelloggindia

Busy keeping up with our daily schedule, it becomes tough to keep going. Sometimes the work becomes just so monotonous and we lose the optimism with which we started working and the positivism with which we look at things starts to fade away. Sometimes we start feeling that life is dull, boring and stays the same way. This is the time when we should take a break and be together with our loved ones. Being around the ones who love you, gives you the new hope and freshness to get restarted with daily schedule in a much smooth and easy way. It’s not the amount of time that we spend together but the fact that we are together is what makes us feel loved and feel happy. https://housing.com/

Recently, we celebrated the occasion of my sister’s 25th wedding anniversary. All the relatives happily got together and wished the couple. The aura of happiness all around gave me the feeling of positivism. It made not only the couple but each one of us feel special and happy. We smiled, laughed, danced, sang and celebrated the occasion; together.

They say, Marriages are made in heaven, true, but togetherness of not just two people but their relatives and friends is what makes it special in every aspect. 25 years back they both tied the knot together and whispered in each other's ear that they both shall take care of each other.  We all, the groom’s and bride’s parents, sisters, brothers, relatives were there to not just be the witness of their marriage but to share the togetherness and let all of us know that through thick and thin we all are together. And now, we all were again together, to bless the couple and meet and greet everyone. It was the celebration of 25 years of being together as one big family. A big family which smiles together and brings a ray of hope every time any one of its member feels down. We celebrated the wedding anniversary with all the traditional rituals of togetherness. The Hindu functions of Mehandi, Sangeet, Var mala and Reception. We all danced to the tunes of famous hindi song which depicts togetherness, the song of love.

Jab koi baat bigad jae, jab koi mushkil padh jae, tum dena saath mera O humnava.
Na koi tha, na koi hai , zindagi mein tumharae siva, tum dena saath mera, o humnava.

This is one of my most memorable day which filled me with immense love and motivation to look up and stay optimistic. Life is a journey, its not the twists and turns that we take, but with whom do we walk the lane, and how often the strangers on the path become our friends and we all keep walking together supporting each other and enjoying the time called Life.


Stay together, stay motivated and optimistic, be in love with life. https://housing.com/

Every time I saw traditional years old heritage slowly and gradually fading away into the past, I wished I could preserve it and protect our heritage. I wished to let them have the aura of the past but still be there in the present for us to reflect on how glorious and rich our past was. The old forts and age old temples talk about a story of the past, about the heroism of the Kings and their Kingdom, yet today these forts and the temples are just a building of the past. It’s out heritage, if it’s not us, then who shall preserve it?

I being a Historian could relate the heritage to the times to the past. I could visualize the battles fought at the forts and the victories of the Kings.  The faith of the people in their deity and the culture and tradition followed within. 

I looked around and realized, the place where I live, my city has so much of its own heritage which is calling the present and is asking it to protect the past, protect the valuable heritage. Hadoti has a grand heritage if only we take out time from our busy lives and look at the beauty of it. There are historians who know about the past and present and cherish the place they live in however, I wanted to see each and every person living in Hadoti to look our tradition, our culture, our values and our heritage with respect and express their willingness to protect and preserve it. I wanted to bring in this change, a positive change.

There are museum but how many of us have visited the Museum of our city and came out of the museum discussing the greatness of our past. How many of us have been to age old ruined temples and forts and not just clicked photographs but lived in the times of the past. How many of us have seen the old coins, vessels and other utensils gained from excavations and not just appreciated them but visualized how our heritage would have been.

This was the time when I decided to take a big step, this was my dream and I wanted to turn it into reality. They say a change is always good; I wanted to bring a change in the way people look at our culture. I started working towards the conservation, protection and preservation of our heritage. This was not easy, and brought forward several challenges, but I knew that this shall prove to be a golden step towards our Heritage.

Let's start a new life. The first step is always the difficult one, but once you have the optimism within you, no one can stop you then. I then organised several Heritage walks, photographic exhibitions of our tradition, created Heritage awareness among students and society with museum, forts, temples visits and made efforts to protect the ruins of the past and bring forward the glorious heritage. Today, when I look back, I realize had I not taken this step, today, within me I would have felt sad to see the greatness of our heritage, which was once almost in ruins and needed protection, is now non-existent. I look forward and realize there’s a lot more that needs to be done but I am happy to know that there is a hope that we shall protect our Heritage and value its greatness.  

I wish all of us bring a change, a positive change which signifies goodness and happiness for you and your heritage. 

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