Mango showers and the ‘real finance minister’
Every weather pattern has a name. And used to have a timeframe as well. The recent rains – which we all very clinically called ‘pre monsoon showers’ – used to be ‘mango showers’ earlier, helping in the ripening of mangoes. An outcome of thunderstorms over the Bay of Bengal, they fell in April and were […]
Rain, rain don’t go away
With so many factors at play, it was best not to try and analyse what caused the slight drizzle that cooled off a sweltering Delhi on an early June afternoon. Instead I, along with hundreds of other Delhi-ites, focussed on enjoying it in its most famous landmark, the India Gate, well into midnight. The manicured […]
Chronicles of a capital monsoon: The beguiling bit
The wheeling months go round And back I come again To the baked and blistered ground And the dust-encumbered plain And the bare hot-weather trees And the Trunk Road’s aching white; Oh, land of little ease! Oh, land of strange delight! From the diary of a member of the British Army Engineers, walking from Calcutta […]
Homestays and other cases for experiential tourism
Did god create the beautiful land first and then peopled it with a tribe to match? Or did He do it the other way around? A niggling question when you are in Nagaland. My initiation to the charm took place outside Kohima – with yummy-ripe pineapples and a sleepy smile by the roadside. I was […]
352 – Lessons from my dad
A Father’s Day Special – for that great guy who first put my hand to wheels, who made travel grow on me. And who still drives with two chairs so that he and mom can sit and take in the scenery wherever. After my studies, after I got my first job, after my first marriage, […]
Riding out: Five states in two days on my Bullet
On Ugadi day if you are in Andhra Pradesh you won’t be able to spot a single mango tree without somebody on it. This day of Telugu New Year – March 23rd this year – is also the harbinger of the mango season. The Hyderabadis love their mangoes. When I say love, they really dig […]
When in Nepal eat Newari
Maheshwor Shrestha, like several thousand other youngsters like him, came back from the Gulf when prospects there dimmed. He returned to hometown, Gungapur in Kathmandu, Nepal, to pursue his dreams of starting a restaurant. And to marry his childhood sweetheart – a courtship that lasted for 13 years and ‘quite a lot of convincing’ as […]
Curio capital: Kathmandu
The winding road set in the midst of a coniferous forest was a continuing reminder of the place I was leaving behind. Definitely, Nagarkot was cleaner and greener, above all, quieter. If you are looking for quality time introspecting or bonding, then you have to be away from the hubbub of Kathmandu. And the quickest […]
Nagarkot rising
Most of us urbanites find forests irresistible. For my part, I just couldn’t bring myself to leave Chitwan. So I asked at the Unique Resorts, where I was staying, to arrange for me one last ride through the forest. Niranjan, the mahout, came with his black beauty, Champakali, an intelligent, frisky hulk with twinkling, naughty […]