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 […]
Borobudur at daybreak
As you ascend the over 100 steps to the top of the Borobudur Temple you actually pass through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology all the way to Nirvana. Chances are that you will be climbing up, unawares, in the pre-dawn dark at 4.30 AM to catch the famous ‘Borobudur sunrise’ your progress aided by […]
Prambanan and a pickpocketing
Contrition followed admission. Two men sat on the ground with their heads tucked between their knees; three women, faces covered, sat on a wooden bench and whimpered. These were the core members of a notorious pickpocket gang who worked the Prambanan heritage site; a well-oiled operation that involved several ancillary hands depending on the scale […]
Siallagan and the story of a beheading
If you are a fence-sitter when it comes to the supernatural – and its different ways of coming alive – Indonesia is a not-so-gentle nudge into adherence. The folklores and urban legends abound with spirits infamous for a lack of benevolence – some shriek forcing you to veer off the highway in the middle of […]
Anthony of the high seas
From a distance it would have looked like the crystal and other jelly fishes had gathered for a surface party in the middle of the night, their unearthly bioluminescence in full swing. There was music even. In place of the emotion-shorn trance and techno, lovelorn songs from Malayalam cinema filled the air. Belted out by […]
Some Leh people
Nothing comes in the way of your interaction with the locals other than laziness and prejudice; even an alien tongue doesn’t. I say this with conviction as I wrote a road tripping book on Chhattisgarh when there was no GPS (definitely not in Chhattisgarh) and my Hindi was pidgin at best (it still is). My […]