Urban Nomad: The heart of fashionable travel
Side zip or flip flop boots, fitting trousers, button or tie waist cardigans and tee shirts with no serious cuss will all breeze us through the airport security. Blanket scarves, shades and the tech-case cum travel wallet were designed to make travel cushy and hassle-free. Then, what about the other side? How do you keep […]
Tracking the conscience tidal
December 29, 2012, New Delhi. ‘When the body and the brain give up, the heart takes over.’ I was pondering over this status update on Facebook when Damini died. She gave in to the diabolic assaults and rapes she sustained a fortnight earlier. ‘An abominable upbringing is no excuse for a monstrous adulthood.’ I vented […]
The many colours of the desert: Rajasthan on a festive high
In a land of 330 million deities, the risk lies more in running out of devotees than running short on festivals. Staking a righteous claim to the title ‘land of festivals’ is almost every second state of the republic – starting in the south from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan […]
There is no end to adventure: Leo Le Bon
My kitty of some 30 odd pugmarks counted at least a dozen. There was also the unending one which striped my boat’s wake for some distance or so I thought looking back on life till then but was actually headed for the herd of deer grazing on the banks across. Who counted it or whether […]
Crazy driving in a disturbed area
Come December and an almost-traditional lull in violence draws a comforting, silencing blanket over Kashmir. I was always fascinated by this phenomenon – why and how was this possible? Why would militants and separatists chose to stay indoors, stoking their butt-reddened palms by the fire? Do ideologies have Christmas offs? Or after an active year, […]
A Sri Lankan sojourn
Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, describes Sri Lanka as a ‘small universe with as many variations of colour, scenery and climate as some countries a dozen times its size.’ The futurist and author should know as he settled here in 1956 and lived here till his death in 2008. Snapshots from […]
Don’t be rude to the Creator. Travel.
“Savour every sandwich, live each day as if it’s your last,” says Edward Readicker-Henderson, contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and author of several favourites including ‘The Traveler’s Guide to Japanese Pilgrimages’, ‘Adventure Guide to the Alaskan Highway’ and the seminal ‘A Short History of the Honey Bee’. He opens up to Wanderink.com on what […]
The Theka Trail – Fermenting a New Trend
Hic! It’s time to make amends. Since the first tourist set out – maps, bags, spirit of adventure, a premature but prickly pining for home, et al – tourism has followed many paths: heritage and medical to eco and spiritual. From the not-so-widely-spoken but practiced sex tourism to new niches like ‘graveyard’ and ‘LP’ tourism […]
Nice-to-Own Travel Gears
My Land Rover phone had held me in good stead the last year when I really roughed it out – including the Parikrama of Mount Kailas in Tibet. I must have dropped it umpteen times and dropped it in flowing water, once even threw it to scare away a ferocious, snappy mutt. It was even […]