Blissful journey! ......... by Siddharth Paramhans

"Silicon Valley" ……

I heard this name many times from my SON and his desire to explore his career over there. Sarang has joined UCLA some time back through a tough entrance competition. We decided to visit Los Angeles whenever he completes his masters and spend some time together.

Dream Big these will come true..

He spent 2 years doing his masters in business management & finally a moment came for which we were waiting. His name was announced from the dais "Sarang Paramhans" and he appeared confidently in black rob on stage to receive MBA degree from UCLA dean Olian. I could feel the level of enthusiasm in him and the energy flowing in crowd cheering the moment  shouting and clapping for some time …it was really the BIG moment in his life with many dreams and a satisfying feeling of having graduated from the TOP business school in USA. Why should not it be? .. …you have worked very hard, cleared many hurdles, burnt many sleepless nights and then this success which you can own.

Sarang is a confident man full of passion of doing great things. His desire to work to solve some big problem which people face, brings him in challenging position and where he clearly defines  the purpose of his life. I wish him succeeding in his life one day by contributing to society significantly.

Born to win..

Sarang was born on 2nd Oct, thus  coincidently shared his birthday with great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi the 'father of the nation'(India) as well Lal Bahdur Shastri our earlier prime minister who was a great leader. Incidentally the day Sarang was born was also the most auspicious 'Dusshera' festival hence there was double happiness in our family due to this coincidence, we were truly blessed! My father Dr. Ram Krishna Paramhans did Dusshera Puja first at home and then celebrated this occasion with family. Sarang always has been the most ideal, very sincere in his studies and most affectionate to everyone around him.

Time has grown fast studying at different cities and moving up levels in life Sarang passed his engineering degree in Computer Science from MIT, Manipal and taking up campus placement with Aditi Technology at Bangalore his career was full of ups & down, achievements and laurels. While working for Aditi technology he ventured out and took sabbatical to start new project on developing a mobile enabled IT process to help patients find best doctors around & fix appointment. Though he started this project quite well and was progressing very well, he dropped this project to take up GMAT for his next academic project of doing his management course from US around silicon valley which he did successfully. His upbringing in many Indian cities like Lucknow, Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Manipur and Bangalore came very useful which is helping him thinking Globally.

Time Spend at LA

It was great time with family at Los Angeles (LA) with our children, my daughter "Shagun" reached LA from London  while we travelled from Delhi to reach LA on 9th June considering 10th Jun was his convocation. Sarang was staying in a rented apartment along with his two other colleagues and every one's family reached there to celebrate this occasion - it was like a large family of 10-12 people staying together. One can imagine fun and involvement, cooking together, eating together and sharing, all were some very unique experience of this Los Angeles visit.

Los Angeles county with population of over 10 Mn is the largest county in USA. One can see most rich & famous people around LA in Hollywood. We visited Hollywood city for a day, some of the TOP studios like 21st Century Fox, Paramount pictures, Sony etc have their production base in Hollywood , all these were happy moments as we had only seen them in pictures and now seeing around us. These studios, film shootings sites and other infrastructure were really great experiences and opportunity.  We also took  few frames with HOLLYWOOD sign see commonly. 

Near Hollywood you can also visit "Griffith Observatory"  sitting on South facing slop of Mount Hollywood in Los Angeles Griffith park. It command view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles - observatory is the most popular tourists attraction with excellent view to Hollywood Sign an extensive array of space and science - related displays.  Since the observatory's opening in 1935, admission has been free, in accordance with the benefactor's will, after whom the observatory is named – Colonel Griffith.

Many large academic institutions including UCLA where Sarang did his MBA were worth visiting palaces. These are some big institutes both in quality and number of student those study over there. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California, United States. It became the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus system after the original University of California campus in Berkeley (1873).  

Another most interesting place that we thoroughly enjoyed was the Beverly Hills,  is a city in California's Los Angeles County. Home to many Hollywood stars, it features the upscale shopping street of Rodeo Drive. The expansive Beverly Gardens Park has fountains and rose gardens, plus an illuminated Beverly Hills sign. Besides Malibu and Santa Monica piers were other very beautiful places that we visited. Home of many a film or television star, lies west of it moving around there always builds some sense of larger purpose. You really find lot of famous name plates, big names those you admire and lot many emerging business trends.

Meeting with some  Krishna devotees at Rodeo Drive were some of the most happy moments at LA, specially chanting Hare Krishna and dancing at Rodeo Drive streets made us feel that we were their with the sprit of India and were thoroughly enjoying.

We were very happy to find Hindu Temple near Malibu in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was a pleasant long drive to reach with beautiful mountain sites on both side of roads. One will truly relaxed once being there and feeling of great accomplishment. God Venkateswara temple was built in 1981 in South Indian style and one of the famous temple in California. After spending considerable time with family and few photographs we returned back to LA, and felt very blissful day.

This was an eventful & blissful journey that culminated in making a dream come true though opening up new challenges and desires to fulfil in life. 

Rome was not built in a day it’s true! Travel experiences By Siddharth Paramhans

21, Dec 2015, Monday, Rome, 9^th Day – Visit to Vatican City and around Rome

Rome is one of the most attractive tourist destination in Europe, and one of the oldest civilization with history of over 3000 years. Roman architecture is really admirable so as their culture. I traveled to Rome with my wife Meera and Son Sarang and were there for 3 days just before Christmas.

St. Basilica Church

In Rome, we were staying adjacent to Vatican City, technically an independent country. Our flat was quite spacious and comfortable, and we were pleasantly surprised that it was surrounded by Vatican City wall. We got up early, organised some stuff for our breakfast and were ready for exciting journey in wonderful city that we always wanted to visit. Since Vatican City was not very far from our place so thought to go on walking to St. Basilica, the biggest and the greatest church of the world and where Pope stays. 

Vatican City

Vatican museum

It is the smallest and the richest country of the world having its population of just 849 residents including Pope. Almost circular in shape and surrounded by Vatican boundary, outside the boundary of Vatican City, it is Rome. There was a big circular fountain at the entrance, Musee De Vaticanni apart from St. Basilica Church, lakhs of people visit Vatican City every day. 




Special attraction is St. Basilica church, Vatican museum, XVI Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling and a spacious post office.We took a special tour guide and guided tour looking at very long queues, this may help you get fast entry in Vatican Museum and also you get to know deep history of Vatican Church St Basilica. 

Michelangelo Sculpture

The museum, XVI Chapel and masterpieces paintings of Michelangelo, the world famous Italian painter to whom the Pope invited to paint XVI chapel. It was marvellous, the ceilings, walls everything painted by Michelangelo, who was a sculptor, painter and architect widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance period around 15th Century. 

Paintings

These were looking very lively with some uniqueness of colours and sculpture, he was a genius. Some paintings were giving the feel as they were3D while they were flat. There was one painting of Michelangelo who made it when he was just 24 years old, a painting of Mother Marie holding the Christ on her lap with every minute details and very fine work of art. 







The Pope comes out in the balcony of the Church at 10 AM on every Wednesday for public. Pope has the highest authority for Christian religion, all the guidance and announcements are made from here. 

Swiss Security

Vatican has its own security, large post office, it’s own currency and work independently under the leadership controlled by Pope.

Post office at Vatican City

We purchased few post cards to send some sweet message to our daughter, it was really lot of fun writing the lovely message from Vatican post office to Shagun our daughter, who was at London and could not join us at Rome. Meera my wife dropped the post card in yellow letter box to be delivered to her. 

It was long day at Vatican seeing and appreciating Vatican City, and was being a wonderful experience. 

Lighted Street in Rome

We never realized it was around 6 PM, that we came out from Vatican, to walk on the street of Rome, was quite decorated with colorful lights as Christmas was approaching nearby. Walking in Rome was itself great experience, losing yourself in endless lanes, gives you the opportunity to explore city very closely. 

Amalfi Restaurant

After a few miles of walk it was the time to settle down for dinner. Italy is famous for pizza, we could find good joint Amalfi which is known for handmade fresh Pizza, it really came out very authentic joint and we were relaxed reasonably with special Italian wine and Pizzas.  








I recommend you to visit Amalfi on your next visit for thin crust Pizza along with local wine both blend very well. Waiter there was very courteous and took keen interest in serving us quite well so as telling unique features & history of their restaurant. Sarang clicked a photograph with waiter who mixed up with us happily, this will be a memory to cherish.




We later called Uber to return back to our place, certainly came out to be very satisfying and memorable day.

22, Dec 2015, Tuesday, Rome,10^th Day – Visit to Rome City Roman Colleseum

Colleseum

We got up a little late, we decided to have Indian breakfast, specially was a fun to have Aloo Ka Paratha with tomato Chutney in Rome. 2nd day was planned to go in city to see Roman Colleseum, took local bus ride to experience. The Colleseum is the oldest monument, built in 80 AD and is one of the seven wonders of the world. Rome is an ancient city but Romans have preserved their heritage very well. Colleseum is the ruins of magnificent architecture, it was an amphitheater run by the emperor Vesparian of the Flavian dynasty as a gift to Roman people.

His son Titus upgraded the Colleseum, officially known as Flavian amphitheater with 100 days of games including gladiatorial combats and wild animal fights. Though two thirds of the original Colleseum has been destroyed over time, it remained a popular tourist destination and an iconic symbol of Rome and its long tumultuous history. 

Flavian amphitheater

Inside the Colleseum had seating space for more than 50000 spectators who may have been arranged according to their social ranking. Gladiator were generally slaves, condemned criminal or prisoners of war. 






To see this magnificent structure was a unique experience, we captured it in our camera and also bought some souvenirs. 












From here we went to St. Cathedral church where the famous painting of Michelangelo is kept, we had to climb large no. of steps as it was on height. It was late and time to relax, we got bored of eating pizza so looked out a Chinese restaurant where we took Manchow soup, few good Chinese delicacies along with fried rice there, was a good fun and enjoyed. Italy is known for it’s style and fashion.

DAN JHON

We were in middle of posh market, all the major brands and flagship stores were there, we entered inside a big brand shop of Den Jones, famous for suiting and shirting, the sales man was very active and smart and showed us some really good suits which I liked and tried a few. They were really very nice with good fittings, I purchased few of them, a blazer, few shirts, a suit, and a long coat. Meera and Sarang, both helped me in choosing the right stuff, lot of purchasing was done today and were happy at the end of the day.

Trevi Fountain

The entire Rome city is the reflection of rich ancient heritage, sculpture and architecture, the statues were made of white marble. The national museum and fountain were magnificent and unique in style. The Fontana di Trevi - or Trevi Fountain in English -is a fountain in Rome, Italy. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and the most beautiful in the world. A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. It was very fulfilling day as we visited lots of places and also had good shopping experience, it was 11.30pm so we called Uber and came back.

23, Dec 2015, Wednesday, Rome,11^th Day – Visit to Rome City visit to Roman Forum

This was the last day of our trip, we had to catch our flight in the evening for coming back to India, while my son Sarang was going back to London to spend some time with my daughter Shagun. We thought to use our time meticulously to visit some more places in Rome, we had already taken the tickets for Roman Forum so we took the bus and reached there, it is world's famous monument, built approx. 2000 years ago. 

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome. Roman emperor such as Augustus and Trojan built the imperial forum, three arch first arch was made in 29BC, the second in 81AD and third one in 203AD. As we were short of time so had a distant look of Palatine hills, these were the ruins of ancient temple.

For a while we roamed around the streets and nearby markets, just to have some feel of Roman culture, Romans are very courteous, friendly and family oriented people. 








We were about to return to our place to catch the flight, we got the message that our flight was being delayed by two hours, means some more time in Rome. We bought few paintings, wine and cheese and had lunch in a very good French restaurant. 

Fiumicino Airport

The airport was quite far from almost at 1 hour of car ride so we called Uber and reached to international airport , it was a great rush in the evening and took one and half hours time to reach Fiumicino Airport, a very busy and large airport, one has to take the metro to reach to our terminal. 

Sarang's flight was also on same time so we said goodbye to each other and boarded our flights.

Bye to Rome will come again!

Our trip was very joyful, refreshing and full of beautiful memories, the good time we spent together with our lovely children, both of them are very intelligent, tolerant and having good understanding, they took utmost care of us. Thus we concluded our trip to London, Paris, Vatican and Rome. Will write again whenever we visit any other destination. Our good wishes to you!

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