Aurangabad

Its 18/08/2008, and we are on our 2nd leg of our trip, we've now arrived at the city of Aurangabad. Normally finding a hotel would be a piece of cake, but it so happened that this time, the was a sugar plantation conference and all hotels were booked. It took us almost 2 hours to find a decent hotel. anyway, heres a picture of a place we went to in Aurangabad, at the top of this hill is a fort which is where we are heading

This is some well I think at the fort

Anand & Shivani sitting on a fort

Shivani loves hiding in cubby holes, even at home, here shes found a mini cave

An entrance to a garden.

I was the only one who climbed to the very top of the fort, the others were too tired. But no more pictures of this I'm afraid.

Have a look at this, do you think we've made our way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal? Well no surprisingly enough, this is the original Taj Mahal in Aurangabad, its not as spectacular as the one in Agra since the Agra one is made of Marble and this is made of stone, but this one was built before the Taj Mahal, so really the Taj in Agra is a copy.

Mum and kids

The only other difference with this Taj is that its thin compared to its counterpart in Agra.

Well next stop its Ellora caves

Mahabalishwa + and a bit of Mumbai

Here we are on the first leg of our 2 week holiday in India, first stop is a hill station called Mahabalishwa, where as you can see you can see some breath taking scenery, its 16/08/2008

Whilst in Mahabalishwa we experienced all 4 seasons in one day

Kids in the play area

Me and the kids

A family shot on route to Mahabalishwa

Kids with mum

A spot of horse riding

Mother and daughter shot

Nice scenery without people

A very reluctant Shivani

Now we are backtracking, this is the Sanjay Ghandi National Park, as you can see a family of 5 have no need for a car, they can all fit in on a motor bike and get about safely.

Mum and shivani outside a garden

An even more reluctant shivani having a photo with me, I get the feeling she don'y like me

Mum & kids somewhere in Mumbai

Me and anand outside the gateway to India.

Us in a tree house at national park

Shivani's face says it all

I was threatening to push Shivani of the tree house

Shivani pinching mum

Retailer Jewer Awards + Family are comming

Here we are its 10th Aug (I think) and just before Rajani and the kids come I thought I'd treat myself to the Retail jeweler award ceremony 2008, if you have NDTV, it will be shown on 30th Aug 2008.

The begining bit is boring but the finale is nice

This is the finale just some of the 49 size zero's modelling expensive jewelry

Heres a few more or are they the same?

These are different, unfortunately, I cant get all 49 in with my camera.

I guess this can only happen in India

Yes they sure do look expensive and the jewelry

I tried to find out the cost of these jewelry but no luck unfortunately

Well thats enough of that, lets move on to a patriotic topic.

Its 15th August and its Independance day, the ITC have invited all guests to hoist the flag, however they only told us this early in the morning and I had just 10 mins to get ready, hence the scruffy appearance

And yes it seems that I was the only guest who atteneded the ceromony, not very many patriotic guests by the looks of things.

I guess its nice that ITC are doing this.

As its indep\zaA\endance day, the ITC also hired out their hall free of charge to a charity for nder privaliged children, where they laid on food and entertainment throughout the day, the show was nice but I only got to see some of it.

Could not resist a photo with me and Prianka been as this is my last day, and this is what I wore to work that day.

Oh, I almost forgot, as it was a Friday, I invited Lin and Manisha to dinner and to meet my wife Rajani, and judging from this picture, I don't think that Rajani on the left is looking that pleased, neither is Lin come to think of it. Oh well you can't please them all.

I've been stood up but the nights not gone wasted

This is Monday 4/8/08, heres me sunbathing on my own.

This is my yoga teacher Nitin Jain, he's done a sterling job getting my body and mind in shape

Now is'nt this nice, I come home from work and I'm greeted by Sekina, this would never happen in the UK, I have to say India's the best.

Heres us again, I think I'm going to suffer from withdrawl symtoms when I go back to UK.

Sian, if your watching this blog, please make arrangements for me to go back to Mumbai, otherwise I want that teeshirt back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heres my favorite gym receptionist, Prianka, now even my top sparkles, as a receptionist, she's responsible for booking my hair cutting, hair dyeing and massages. How I wish she would massage me instead of bokking it for me, never mind I can only dream, but there again, dreams are a reality here in Mumbai!!!!!!

Meet Clare Penny from Capita Prudential (no theres no spelling mistake in Clare, thats how its spelt), We've had dinner on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, we were due to go clubbing the two of us at Rock Bottom on Wednesday but due to emergency, she had to fly home on Wednesday night, so I've been stood up.

As my luck has it, it just so happens that at the hotel, they were holding a party for Bollywood stars on that wednesday night, heres the press crowding one of the stars.

Too much pushing and shoving amongst the press with my shitty camera in the middle of it all, heres a picture of Shilpa Shetty's arm, thats the best I could get unfortunately

Not sure who this is

Nor do I know who this long legged girl is

Come on Chaya, I know your on holiday in India but help me out, who's she? The press were infactuated with her and your the only person I know who's into all this.

Probably some TV serial actress I guess

Got some names now Megna Naru
famous film actress appeared in Howas

Everyone preparing themselves to go in, but before we do just wait a bit

Who's this in the Rolls Royce?

Yes its no other than Akshay Kumar, he's a real stud as you can imagine with his leapord skin top and for UK SME's who were here, he's the main star in the new Bollywood film comming out 'Singh is King' which you may have seen advertised while you were out here.

Remember him SME's if you don't I'll remind you 'Capita car Capita car', yes he was on guard duty that night making sure that no rift raft get into the party, but obviously when it comes to me, exceptions are made, thanks for letting me in mate.

Heres a front view of the Bollywood stud

Thats how they do it in Mumbai, all Bollywood stars must be surrounded by drop dead gorgeous women to have any sort of respectability

Heres a slightly better view of them, he was talking about a programme similar to UK version of fear factor, where he and these girls were performing various stunts

Theres 8 women there, but only 7 days in a week, he probably has 2 on one day!!!!!!

Heres me getting ready to rub shoulders with some stars

nice, is she a star? Help me out someone, Ah got the name, its Sonali Kulkarni, another actress.

Even nicer

Heaven, no i aint no perv, she is an actress, just dont know her name

Another top night comes to an end, its 2.00am lots of free drink and food, and boy am I glad I got stood up.

It gets better and better even on my own, lots more planned in the comming days.