A space to call their own

It is Sunday morning and the roads leading to Chandni Chowk are deserted. We cross the chaotic merry-go-round of Connaught Place in a trice and head to old Delhi. Where are all the people? The buffaloes that amble through the roads listlessly? The children who dart at unexpected moments across the road? It is so [...]

Read Full Post »

The apsaras of Angkor

From a longer piece I had written on the Angkor experience some time ago…
*When I first catch sight of them, the apsaras are resting on the cold stones of Angkor Wat. One is flexing her foot, mimicking the action of the stone apsara dancing just behind her on the wall. The others are talking to [...]

Read Full Post »

Ladies Special

I came across this bit in a travel magazine recently about rooms for female travelers at the Movenpick Hotel in Hanoi. Sounded interesting. I have traveled enough on work and been alone at enough hotels in strange towns to know what feels like to hear that random knock on the door in the middle of [...]

Read Full Post »

Flower power

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat
Alas, how often do we notice them; the joy and cheer flowers give us, don’t we take for granted?
I am in Chennai just now to visit my [...]

Read Full Post »

Footprints on the sand

I am looking out of the window of my room in Sindhudurg at the rain crashing down, as I sip the ginger tea (my fourth cup… fifth? since morning, I have lost count). It was clear and sunny just a minute ago. Just as I put my book away, finding rain-watching more absorbing, the downpour [...]

Read Full Post »

Pontificating on portrait photography

I used to, and still do, have difficulty in taking portraits – pointing a camera towards a person’s face always felt like intruding and I kept away from portrait photography, preferring instead “faceless” images of all kinds. A moment of epiphany and I set myself the task of bravely pointing my camera at people.
And [...]

Read Full Post »

A slice of history

This piece on Fort Kochi appeared in HT Cafe on Saturday as ‘Historical Potboiler’…

Walking out of St. Francis church, I see a tour guide escort a group of British visitors into the building, leading them to a flight of steps to sit on comfortably while removing their shoes. “In India it is customary to remove [...]

Read Full Post »

To school in Sikkim

We are on our way back from North Sikkim to Gangtok when Shelly waves down our cab. As we stop to let her in, she confidently gets in and sits next to the driver, telling him the name of her village. Her school is seven km away from her house and she has already walked [...]

Read Full Post »