ITBP Gauchar Residential Areas

Those buildings are family quarters of ITBP personnel and their family and SO's Mess, the  first long building (middle) right at the visible road. The above flats and the lower ones are separated by Rishikesh-Badrinath highway -you can even see half of the bus just on the power lines. 
There are two gates here. 

The first gate (from Rishikesh to Gauchar direction) goes directly through the Officers' Mess, Commandant's House and Type 4 family quarters where officers of assistant commandant rank are housed. 

The main gate, a few meters ahead the first gate -on the same direction, directs you to the ITBP Administrative Block on the left and to the Unit Hospital, SO's Mess, and Type 3-1 family quarters on the right, which is shown in this photograph. 

The last buildings are of Kendriya Vidyalaya School. There was a huge old tree at the middle of the school which the forest department got it cut, for what purpose, I can't say. All you can see in this picture are logs cut from the said tree.

The river is almost always dry all throughout the year except during the rainy season.

ITBP Gauchar, is the 8th Battalion of the ITBP Force Organization. It is situated around 2 kms. outside Gauchar.

More pictures of ITBP will be posted here so keep visiting. My goal is to show to readers how places look like so that they'll get ideas of what and how they are before they decide to come permanently or temporarily.

Statue of Lord Shiva

This is the statue of Lord Shiva located in the city of Haridwar in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Haridwar is regarded as one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. Haridwar stands for "Gateway to God" - Hari means god and dwar means gate. And true to its name derivation, Haridwar is indeed a gateway to reach Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamonutri pilgrimage centers.

This staue is situated at the river banks of the River Ganga and along the highway - Haridwar to Dehradun or towards Rishikesh.
This statue enthralls hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world every year.

This photograph of Lord Shiva statue was taken early morning in May 2011 on our way to Badrinath, during which for the period of 6 months my husband was assigned as one of the Medical Officers under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Uttarakhand.

Pomegranate: A Perfect Grenade?

This is pomegranate bud, still about to turn into a full-grown flower. Whether it matures into a fruit, we still yet to see for  quite a number of monkeys have an eye on it and the others along with it. Many would have seen its full-grown fruit. Many would have eaten its juicy sweet seeds but none would have seen how a delicious fruit turns when it's youngest stage.

Pomegranate is revered to be a symbol of health, fertility and eternal life. Why exactly, you can tell me yourself.

It is known to be native of Persia and has been propagated in various places. It is available in grocery stores and fruit stalls all year round. Although, it is on the costlier side here in India, people tend to buy this fruit for pooja (prayer offering) purposes. While for my husband and I, it is part of our daily breakfast meal - 2 pomegranate fruits every morning along with other fruits like apple, orange, grapes, guava, etc, whatever fruit is in season.

In Philippines, we call it granada, (grenade) because of its shape, the word being of Spanish influence.