India From a Bureaucrats Eye

Mussoorie was getting cold,

And so off we were sent to travel & learn;

Looking people at work,

Our mind was expected to churn.

We travelled, we travelled, and we travelled;

We travelled distances short and long

Meeting new people, witnessing new traditions,

And picking up good ideas all along.

Traversing the length of India,

We experienced the diversity it holds;

From Srinagar’s snow to Andaman’s tropical sun

Let us see how the story unfolds.

We landed in Srinagar,

Where season’s first snow welcomed us;

Then travelling along the serene Jhelum valley,

With everything covered in snow, it felt like Christmas.

While we enjoyed army’s hospitality,

We were also struck with wave of reality;

Life of a soldier is really hard,

He faces enemy and also bears nature & terrains cruelty.

From paradise to pink city,

We journeyed from serenity to creativity;

Forts, palaces and beautiful handicraft on display,

Even the air of Jaipur has a hint of royalty.

Moving on we reached Ajmer,

Where it was a day of pilgrimage;

In Pushkar we visited world’s only Brahma temple,

But before that, to Moinuddin Chisti we paid our homage.

We moved on to Udaipur city,

Popularly known as city of lake;

The city palace there makes for a grand view,

We captured in our eyes all the beauty we could take.

Next we boarded a train to Gujarat,

Reaching Bhuj we decided to see Rann Of Katch;

The Kutch festival there had brought the area to life,

And we saw sunset in the sprawling white desert.

Deserts gave way to sandy beach,

And we reached Mandvi’s calm seashore;

Next we moved to Kandla port,

And saw from close the ship’s engine roar.

Next in line was the city of Ahmedabad,

Where we saw the grand Akshardham shrine;

Then In a diamond factory in Surat,

We saw how stones get their shine.

Bidding Adieu Gujarat we entered Daman,

A beautiful island blessed by nature;

Old churches & fort ruins here remind of an era bygone,

Together with greenery & beaches they make the tourist treasure.

We travelled from Daman to Mumbai,

The view dominated by Western Ghats standing majestic;

The journey was marked by nature’s bliss,

But alas, in Mumbai we were welcomed by infamous traffic.

Mumbai is a city of great contradictions,

Where slum and high rise buildings stand side by side;

Here we saw the gateway lit up in the night,

and enjoyed the evening breeze at the marine drive.

From Mumbai to Pune on the expressway,

The beauty of Western Ghats was again on display;

Pune is a great contrast from Mumbai’s chaos,

And its calmness is mumbaikars perfect get away.

Next stop for us was the tropical Chennai,

Which is a never-never winter land;

Braving dust & heat we welcomed evenings,

Seeing violent sea waves hit Marina beach’s sand

We took a flight & landed in nature’s lap,

And thus, Chennai’s hustle gave way to Andaman’s serenity;

From the sky what looked like tiny dots in sea,

Was Andaman where nature has poured all its creativity.

We read an important chapter in India’s history,

When we visited the cellular jail;

The white beaches and transparent green water,

In impressing us Andamans did not fail.

Transitioning from nature’s beauty to man’s ability,

Ramagundam was the city next in line;

Power plant there is a state of art technology,

Aiding in building India of today, it is our modern shrine.

Journeying further we reached Rajnandagaon,

A giant leap from grand success to state’s failure;

An erstwhile hotbed of left wing extremism,

Its recovery gives hope that naxalism does have cure.

This marked the end of our study tour,

In which we learnt lessons of administration;

Although bureaucrats are blamed for everything that's wrong,

Still they are the ones looked with most expectation.

                                                    ----------------------

                                                                         Akanksha Ranjan