Mackinac Island

Lately I have become a very bad person in neglecting my first and foremost blog "Blooms Unlimited". I have been devoting my time in creating my new food blog "Spicy Lounge"  and when I see the frequency of this blog its like only one entry per month and that my friends, thanks to Blog-a-ton! How mean can I be !

I'm going to change this rule.. so here I am posting about this wonderful weekend getaway. Probably its the first trip that I'm writing about in my blog or so I remember !

J is really busy these days with his work & planning a trip is really hectic with the tight schedules. Generally we plan such trips together, doing our own research, finding out from friends & booking hotels & stuff. But this time, I had the sole responsibility as we needed a break very badly and soon comes winter.

Mackinac island is an island (oh yeah it says that ) that separates the northern & southern peninsulas of Michigan state in the United States. It is very famous for its ancient locations , fall beauty & cycles, thats what I heard.Anyway just in a way, I happened to know that this was the last weekend for the year and so I made my decision to pick up this destination.

Mackinac here we come.

This place can be reached from either the Northern side(St Ignace city) or the southern side (Mackinaw city). The big Mac bridge connects these two cities.You need to drive to either of these places and take a Ferry from there to the island. Its a 20 minute drive to the island via the Ferry. We stayed in Mackinaw City which by itself is a very small area.

The weather was really very chilly , so it should be for the month, when we boarded the Ferry. The trip was wonderful and you get to know the history of  the island on the way.

The island is only 8 miles in total circumference and motor vehicles have been banned since 1898. And so the only modes of transport are either by cycles or horse drawn carriages and ofcourse by feet.

We rented cycles , though it was very hard to get as most of the shops were closed, and drove the entire island. I was driving a bicycle nearly after 10 years and it was so much fun. (Though not to forget my leg cramps @ night ! ) The weather was very romantic and the places just reminded us of Pondicherry back home.

After spending our time in the island we went back to the city and took a walk along the streets. The city was almost deserted and people said that it does look like a ghost town after the season.

Altogether it became a weekend to remember and if ever you are planning a trip to that place, I suggest you to go through this site. It is a best destination for honeymoon couples.

The Indian Dream

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 3; the third edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Happy to be back in blog-a-ton ! And what a ironic topic when I'm away from the country.
Before proceeding to pen down my thoughts, I would like to display a picture that caught my eye,

This is from google.com & thats India to the rest of the world !

I was sitting in my window seat on my flight journey to the US , engrossed in my novel when I noticed muscular guy with huge tatoos all over his hand.

"Man,thats frightening" even as I couldnt just think these words,
he said "Hi" & sat next to me.
"Whew.. big time lady " that was me grumbling.

My flight took off and I put my own headphones to watch "The Proposal" - a romantic comedy movie starring Sandra Bullock .
"Which country are you from" he said.
"India" came my reply. I knew he was an American & didnt reciprocate.
"Thats great. I'm just back from India" he said.
This interested me & now I wanted to know more.(True Indian huh ? )

And here goes our conversation
"Cool..so what did u do in India"
"I worked on a project for my college in Kolkata"
"Oh.. what kind of project?"
"Okay its an NGO which takes care of the needy & as part of the program we donated some computers & helped the people in a remote village in Kolkata.."
"Thats great...how long did you stay?"
"I stayed nearly for 6 weeks and now back to my home"

He then explained to me about his work & his Indain experience including his eating rasogolas which is irrelevant to the topic here so that goes in a separate post later !

(Are you saying that I have still not come to the topic?
Dont curse me guys.. I am on my way :-) )



Now think about this.
Here I am a software engineer working for an MNC based in US, on a long leave, going to join my husband who is also a software engineer, also working for the same MNC !

And here is this guy, back from India, been to remote places which I know most of us have never been. Did a really good deed & planning to do more again.

I was really a bit ashamed to hear this. I dont know if many of you feel the same.

But we Indians write code for programs to run all over the world.
We have many unknown swiz bank accounts hidden smartly.
We have many NRIs in the richest people's list.

Yet people from other countries feed us.
Are we already not in a position to feed ourselves?

And thats exactly what my Indian dream is - Diversity.

If we are diversified and the difference that we have here between the slum and the Bungalow diminishes at least to a reasonable level, we would have automatically taken care of all the thorns on our way to success.

And on that final day, people from our country would be travelling around the globe to help the poor & needy.
Hope to see those stepping stones soon.

You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" -George Bernard Shaw

Jai Hind !

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