Wanderink

What the cliffs don’t tell

Our eyes glowed and cheeks were radiant, laughter rang and words flowed wise. Actually it was like any other table of middle-aged drinkers where a lot of wine has been consumed. The dinner I was hosting for my friends who were musicians from Greece and XXX – whom we will get to know in time. […]

A reclamation called Shaheen Bagh

The Rosa Parks moment was when Shaheen Iqra sat on the road flanking Shaheen Bagh which connects Kalindi Kunj in southeast Delhi and Noida blocking the busy traffic on December 15, 2019. Earlier that day police had forcefully entered the Jamia Millia Islamia University nearby and brutalised students in retaliation for a massive protest they […]

Hygge on the highway

The urge to be ‘out there’, to be surrounded by vast open spaces, is as old as mankind itself. Making his argument about why it is not exactly a ‘concrete jungle’ but a ‘human zoo’, English ethologist Desmond Morris writes in ‘The Human Zoo’ that man ‘Trapped…by his own brainy brilliance, has set himself up […]

Pappanji rises from the ashes

It is not just our sins Pappanji has to grapple with – and eventually burn for, of course – but also how his looks are taken. If he was perceived to be too cheerful in 2017, the year when Cyclone Ockhi ravaged Kerala, this year it was alleged that he bore a close semblance to […]

Wait for side

The lorry juddered to a halt. We were passing through one of those Himalayan hamlets that always looked like they were shut for the night. Like many others along the way this one too had sprung up around a sharp curve on the winding road. Habitation, commerce even, around these bends made sense as vehicles […]

Wintry morning in a sleepy Himalayan village

Since most of the bigger discoveries were made already I lay content making smaller ones. Like the snooze alarm built into the rooster is set for exactly half an hour. A dog howling in the mountains is interpreted in many ways, some even borders the supranatural; but the truth is that they are actually booing […]

Escape to Nainital

The compact speaker had seen better days, been on many treks and taken several falls. It was rusted around the edges but continued to play with such high fidelity that it was easy to see why my friend took it everywhere with him. Right now it was tucked into the cradle of his arms and […]

The world in slow motion

There are three things I look forward to during breakfast at Walton’s homestay: the masala omelette made with the spiciest home-grown curry leaves by Mrs Walton, the strongest black coffee whose unending supply is ensured by her comely daughter Charlotte and meeting other guests. During these jentacular jaunts I have come across travellers from so […]

Vagamon – hilly tales

Belgian monk Francis Acharya decided to come to India after he met Gandhi in London. So impressed was he by the Mahatma’s espousal of the tenets of Hinduism that he wanted to work for the ‘encounter between Hinduism and Christianity.’ After several unsuccessful applications for visa he finally approached Vijayalakshmi Pandit who was the Indian […]