Trying To Lose My Way In A Forest

Once you get off the bus and find yourself in the over-crowded mall road/market, a figurative question mark forms in your imagination – why did I sit through that jumpy bus ride for 10 hours for this? The answer appears for those who are willing to walk some more, do a bit of a struggle with their backpacks in search of what they originally left home for – a bit of hard-to-find god damning peace of mind and that elusive scene without any asbestos roof or brick wall or electricity wire jutting into the scene…

Meeting Death At Pondicherry’s Manapet Beach

Ocean calamities have been a recurring threat to the coastline of Pondicherry but none of it did as much damage as the Tsunami of 2004. The beaches of Pondicherry are still peppered with fisherman colonies which sing about the wrath of nature. One of the worst hit villages, Pudukuppam, lies about 2 km to the right of the Manapet beach. Broken boats lie enmeshed in ipomoea climbers, sunk like corpses in the sand…

Kolkata skyline just before Pujo 2019

If it rains before Pujo, it is said that Maa Durga is coming home on a boat. Here’s bringing you some moments from the storms which ushered in Durga Pujo 2019.

Extreme Summer Vacay Anyone?

I spent 5 days of May in Bikaner in the Thar Desert and braved 50 degree temperature – here’s what it did to me

Death Of An Eatery

By Chanchal Thapa  Two years ago my usually laid-back uncle decided to buy a new smart-phone. So, he took me along as a ‘tech support’. It was late in the afternoon and in the circular Mirik Bazaar, we did a semi-circle and inevitably, landed at Bablu Da’s shop. There weren’t many shopping options back then.

Vazhapally: An Accidental Discovery In Changanassery

By the time the headlights of Hari’s Datsun Go was illuminating the mossy residential walls of Vazhapally in Changanassery, I knew I had truly gone off beat with my Kerala drifting. Two weeks ago I had had to Google Changanassery and struggled to pronounce it without losing my way in the alphabets. And now, here

Hunting For A Decent Meal In Varkala

I would have continued staring out of the window had it not been for the out of place backpackers on the platform. Where else could there be so many backpackers in Kerala but in Varkala. However, out of the train, into the spic and span platform and then out of the station, there is no

The Kerala Local: A Cinematic Pause For Travelers

The next morning, life has moved on. It’s a Friday and I have to push off to Varkala – the beach paradise in Kerala I have heard of so often. For a while Pabla will part. She will head down to Kovalam and will join me in Varkala, a day late. This was September 2nd.

Kanyakumari Is A Celebration

The south couldn’t care less whether you feel comfortable or not, whether they fit your standards of travel or not – here you fit in. You adjust.

Thirukkural Express: Train To Kanyakumari (Part 2)

(Read Part 1) Somewhere around 11.58 p.m. Vodafone informed me that I’m in Maharashtra and then somewhere at 5.15 in the morning, when I was fast asleep it did its duty by welcoming me into Adhra Pradesh and Telangana. Now that’s where I am. I have crossed Vijayawada and can now feel the ocean on