Dear Diary: Our India Travel Bucket List

The Road always beckons

It's November already and we are just 2 months away from 2016! Oh MG! 2015 went off in a jiffy. I know it's not "that time of the year to look back" yet and I am not exactly looking back. I am looking back and forward too. The other day while casually chatting P & I thought we would make a list of the places we have to go in India. Since that was sure going to be such a H-U-G-E list; so we thought of finding out the states we have not been yet.

I took out my "travel notebook" to jot down the names of states within India that we have not been and must make a plan to go soon. No sooner than we started, P declared he had been to ALL the states. Ok, here we don't mean the extensive travelling. For us it meant, atleast one place within that state we had been to. Well that's not entirely wrong. P's work takes him to different places and thus he had been to all the states. It's only few Union Territories that he is left with. So I decided I will note down the States I have not been yet, including UTs.

The List :

STATES ::
1. Arunachal Pradesh
2.Bihar

Walk Roam Explore

3.Jharkhand
4.Mizoram
5.Odisha
6.Punjab
7.Tripura

UNION TERRITORIES::
8.Andaman & Nicobar Islands
9. Dadra & Nagar Haveli
10.Lakshadweep

All the 3 UTs common between P and I.

It was shameful realization that I have not been to 3 sisters from the 8 sisters of the North East India. Arunachal Pradesh is actually just on the other side of the river Brahmaputra from Dibrugarh where I grew up. I guess I never paid too much attention to Mizoram and Tripura. Same goes for Jharkhand. Guilty I plead.
I had the chance to be in Bihar about 6-7 years ago when one of our batch mate invited me to his wedding in Gaya. I could not go and thus I am yet to be in Bihar. After planning for 3-4 times to visit Jagannath Temple in Puri when I still couldn't reach Odisha , hence I concluded - Lord Jagannath does not want me in his State! But dear God, this will change and I am sure soon.

Golden temple
(Pic source : http://www.santabanta.com/photos/the-golden-temple/9106064.htm)

Punjab is one state I would love to go. Blame that on my fully filmy inclination that I have such colourful and vibrant image of this State. I had been to Anandpur Sahib and Virasat E Khalsa but let's not count that as being in Punjab. That was just a day trip from Chandigarh. I will strike off Punjab from the list the day I land in Amritsar and go visit Harmandir Sahib.

Going to Andaman and Lakshadweep is a cherished dream of both P and I. We do not want to rush there. We would want to spend some days in these two places. Managing leaves and planning a holiday will take time but we will be there too. Dadra and Nagar Haveli honestly never thought of, but now I feel why leave that place. Let's explore that too.

It is not that in all States we have travelled every nook and corner of the State. Like in UP I had only been to Agra and Lucknow whereas P had been to Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Allahabad. We both have not been to Agra together for that quintessential photograph on the iconic bench with Taj Mahal at the back! I know cheesy; but we both love cheese.