Inside the Blue Mosque

It is still early evening when I head to the blue mosque, at the heart of the Sultanahmet area in Istanbul. Despite the quickly fading sunlight, Sultanahmet is bustling and crowded as always, with tourists and touts, crafty shop-owners and wary shoppers. I ignore all the calls and offers of the locals and join the [...]

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United colours of Hampi

Back from Hampi – tired, tanned and happy! I will work on a more detailed post soon, but for now, soak in the colour and character of Hampi market.

And the doors and windows!

Have a nice week! Come back soon for the faces of Hampi.

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…and popcorn at 17000 feet

Continued from: Breakfast at 14000 feet…

And so duly momoed, Maggied and acclimatized, we begin the second part of the drive towards Gurudongmar lake. Just in case we imagine that the rest of this drive is going to be as easy as it has been so far, our driver warns us to brace ourselves for [...]

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Breakfast at 14000 feet

4.30 a.m. and it is bright outside our tiny hotel room in Lachen. At just less than 9000 feet, Lachen feels pleasant; my teeth are already chattering but I choose to ignore that and focus instead on the dozens of families already up and about, children shouting to get on to their jeeps first. You [...]

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Bombay: city No. 1

CNNGo, the new city-pulse website from CNN has a great piece on Bombay – 50 reasons Mumbai is No. 1 – and it got me all choked up and nostalgic about Bombay (like I need a reason).
So here I am, with my own reasons on what makes this the city I love so much [...]

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Idyll by the sea

A good holiday is one that is spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours ~ J. B. Priestley. I smiled as I read this and thought about my weekend holiday at Kashid.
Despite being close to both Pune and Mumbai, Kashid remained undiscovered and ignored for a long time, just [...]

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For a glimpse of the Kanchengunja

“Why do you want to go to Yuksam? There is nothing there”. I have lost count of the number of times we hear this in Gangtok. Travel agents, cab drivers, even perfect strangers earnestly advise us against Yuksam. Some of them go on to elaborate, “no sight-seeing”, and suggest we go instead to Pelling [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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