Magical and empowering stories from the fringes of the largest archipelago.
Ayo Mandiri Foundation
“When even the physically fit and mentally sound finds it difficult to land a job these days…
The Komodo dragon influenced the 1933 'King Kong' movie
An adventure was easy to conjure: Manto the captain of the bowrider confessed to a non-functioning GPS. Everyone wore dark glasses, cigarettes…
"13,466," said the UN.
"17,504," claimed Indonesia.
A thousand here, there
The 4,000-odd in between were mostly atolls and a concatenation of minor cays which disappeared during high tide, countered the UN, basing…
Pigeons traipsed in circles and trilled in distress over smoke-blackened rafters at the ongoing intrusion. We had stopped for lunch at Karumbalai, three kilometres out of Salem, ushered in from…
Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now. Steven Wright (wit, writer, actor)
Time in slow motion
A mat was placed and the lady, tall, dark and easy on the…
The sloth bear had turned in for the night, that too stoned, so it was alright our Gypsy had stalled. I and the tracker returned to announce breathlessly that we…
An Edinburgh party scene (Photo from 10best.com)
The ‘From the Middle East to the Mount Everest’ part is over half way into the book with the climactic final assault of the…
Looking for pusta # three-and-half
Most direction-giving is associated with landmarks. Hence the parlance here changes with topography. While the Metro introduced the ‘pillar’ as a driver marker over a decade…
The metallic clanging from the lathe shop falling oddly in step with the strides on the makeshift catwalk next to it could have been an installation. Then, this is what…