Located on the south eastern part of Delhi, it was built in the 14th century by Muhammad Bin Tughluq and stands facing the mammoth Tughluqabad Fort built by his father, Ghiyasuddin. Built on a hill that rises up steeply from the surrounding flatland (which used to be a lake when Tughluqs ruled), Aadilabad makes for an excellently aerobic climb. By the time you have crossed the impressive gateway and stare at the fort ramparts, the wind is completely drained off you!

The first thing you notice apart from the sprawling ruins is the near complete silence and the absence of people…nobody in sight, not even lovey-dovey couples. Ibn Batuta, the 14th century Moorish traveler and chronicler of Mohammed Bin Tughluq, recorded the splendour of the hazar sutun (thousand pillared hall), where Muhammad-bin Tughluq sat under a wooden canopy for public audience. The pillars might have been savaged by the centuries, but with a little imagination, reconstruction is easy.

The most unique part of the fort is the bijay mandal. It is a part tower, part bastion built on the western side of the fort. Higher than the rest of the structures, it commands an excellent view of the adjacent areas and could have been used by the emperor to observe and direct troop movement. Today, tramps like me spend hours on this windy edifice trying to photograph eagles that dare to soar over the kingdom I survey!

Anyway, I left Gawahati for Shillong at the mercy of a drunk driver and the hair-pin bends of the treacherous mountain roads. On reaching Shillong (safely!), I wasted no time in climbing to the roof of the Tata Sumo which was to take me and an assortment of locals and Americans to a place which is also known as Sohra.

Meghalaya was given its name by none other than Rabindranath Tagore and for a lot of reasons. Cloud seems to come out of the wand of an invisible conjurer at the flick of his wrist. It envelopes you and the car you are in and after some time, it simply vanishes. It pounces on you like a leopard on a prey and does things to your skin that even a dermatologist cannot explain. When you get to experience the temperamental clouds at increasing frequency, know Cherrapunjee is close.

It is always a good idea to plan a trip to Cherrapunjee well in advance, for if you have not stayed at the local circuit house, you have definitely missed out on something. As for me, I just begged the manager into giving me a room! Located on the edge of a cliff, it gives you an unbridled view of the famous Seven Sisters waterfall and the valley beyond. The other side is a rolling green meadow leading to the main town and the highway. The same highway will lead you further inward from Cherrapunjee to the Mawsamai Caves.

These are ancient limestone caves that have been hewn from solid rock by tectonic movement and flowing water. The entrance is narrow and that’s about the only thing you remember after entering the cavernous grotto. Senses are then numbed by the artistry of nature and the nurturing hands of the murmuring streams that trickles by your hiking boots. It feels like some giant with a cauldron of molten wax has spilled the contents on the walls of the caves. Rocks have been moulded into fantastic shapes and the rich mineral content had added strips of dazzling colours to it.

When I caught the Sumo back for Shillong (again perched on the roof with other people’s luggage) I sat facing backwards and kept looking at this wonderful place until it vanished round a bend. Land of clouds, I WILL be back.

It is generally believed that around 1968, a man popularly known as “eight-finger-Eddy” and other ex-pats found a warm beach and a paradise like heaven in which they could enjoy a life free from other distractions. These people started to have “parties” on the beaches and the jungles. Another pioneer, Goa Gil, was one of the originators of the famous Goa full moon parties. At the beginning of the 1980’s he introduced the first post punk experimental electronic dance music and electronic body music. Goa techno trance actually originated from hard line, electronic body music, groups like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Frontline Assembly and as well as from Eurobeat.

In general, the structure of a typical Goa trance track is reflective of a journey, both in a mythological sense and as a LSD generated stream of consciousness. Like the archetypal hero setting out on his quest, the song begins with subtle undulations of sound, intensifying slowly with constant timbral evolution, carrying the listener along the narrowly defined pathway of the trance experience. The listener, just like the metaphorical hero faces challenges on the way, guised as periodic breaks in the trance flow, often containing some mysterious text quotation or chant. This is designed to involve the mind on a different level to that of the otherwise constant pulse of the music.

The tracks are generally around eight or ten minutes in duration, reaching the climax around the seventh minute after which it moves towards its end. In the same way as each individual track takes the listener on a journey, there exists an expanded level of this process in the party/rave itself. The classic Goa full moon party can last eight to ten hours. It starts usually around 10pm when the energy and the mood of the party is relatively restrained, but it slowly builds over the next four or more hours until around 2am to 4am, when the highest energy levels are attained.

In the late 1980’s and the 1990’s a typical rave had a PA, a few coloured lights, some black light and occasionally some psychedelic banners. There was one dance floor and the music generally started around midnight. Now the aesthetics of the party has changed. Raves today are much larger, with booming state of the art acoustics, laser imagery and novelties like theme-based events. Anjuna beach, the “freak capital of the world” is popular for its nightlong trance parties. The amiable climate and the pulsating music system here, make it the venue of many raves around Christmas and New Year. Other than Anjuna, Calangute, Tito’s at Baga, Ziggy’s at Colva, Lido’s at Dona Paula, and Temptations at Red Cab on Vagator are other popular party destinations. Terms of the party can vary from place to place, but generally all places do charge a sum for entry and additional amounts for liquor.