“The museum is the first place I go to when I visit a new country or town,” the effervescent Hilary Taylor told me outside Tharu Cultural Museum along the fringes of the Chitwan National Park of Nepal. Being a paleontologist, Hilary has every reason to linger over and savour the indigenous artifacts, handicrafts and other antiquated articles of traditional and cultural value. Then, visting a museum in any strange land – before you set off exploring the bylanes and art, culture and pubs – gives the place a context. This
Since summer immemorial all of us from the rest of India have been heading to Kashmir for the salubrious climate guaranteed year-round by the encapsulating Zanskar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges. The Jhelum River that flows out of a spring in Anantnag meanders slowly and purposefully before exiting at Baramullah has also given the state the name ‘Jhelum Valley.’ And along the way it adds life and sparkle to hundreds of blue lakes and streams, wildflower meadows, hidden mountain valleys and grassy plains. Endless paddy and saffron fields extend beyond
Yash Chopra, the romance goes, promised his wife during their honeymoon in Switzerland that every movie he made would have at least one song or scene set in the Alpine land. He kept his promise and in the bargain did more for the country’s tourism than the government or the tourism body could accomplish: the number of Indians visiting Switzerland has doubled the past decade. Surely, these numbers are also about the democratisation of air travel and higher disposable incomes. Before Yash Chopra Raj Kapoor had shot parts of his
The era of the freeloading traveller came to an end with that of the great emperors. The dawn of democracy meant the wayfarer earn for the road ahead – giving rise to the breed of the ‘physical’ nomad – those who laboured bodily to fund their trips. This breed might be waning today with skills like bartending, dancing or teaching English not rich enough to fund a visit visa and short stay. Out of the embers rose the new tribe – the ‘digital’ nomads. A genre probably rooted all
