2020 – Not A Year To Remember

18/12/2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

Balancing the pluses and minuses of a year in which an invisible organism bound the entire world together in misery.

On Setbacks & Silver Linings

24/12/2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

Double Rainbow over the sand dunes of Nubra Valley

Year-end reflections on personal setbacks and the silver linings that followed.

Grief, Pride & Hope In My Submerged City

05/12/2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Its been eerily silent this past week. I normally revel in the quiet of my neighbourhood, but this is the silence of devastation. Of a city knocked to its knees. I miss the sounds I whined about. Of engines backfiring in the distance. Of the howling of strays or the keening of koels that shake me from my sleep at […]

For Christine

02/07/2015.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Behind The Scenes: Three Years Of Blogging

18/01/2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

I had given scant thought to the hows and whys of blogging in the three years since I started The Urge To Wander. A nomination by the lovely Kathryn, of Travel With Kat, for a ‘Blog Hop’ that requires me to do just that, seemed like the perfect subject for an anniversary post. Thank you Kathryn! And […]

Farewell Dear Friend

02/07/2014.Reading time 1 minute.

Christine of Dadirridreaming died this morning. It is strange how some of our virtual connections seem so real. So special. How they transcend time and space and the barriers of geography, race and religion. My friendship with Christine was one such. We ‘met’ in February 2012, just a month after I started my blog, and I have cherished my interactions […]

Ten Thousand Shades Of Green…..

25/06/2014.Reading time 7 minutes.

I had forgotten the smell of the hills. The fresh clean smell of rarefied mountain air mingled with the spicy fragrance of eucalyptus and the aroma of crushed tea leaves. But as we negotiated each tricky hairpin bend on our drive up the Coonoor ghat, it was the colours that opened the flood gates of my memory. The lush verdancy […]

Melancholy Reflections…

31/12/2013.Reading time 1 minute.

I had meant this to be a gallery of vibrant reflections, one from each of our 2013 travel destinations. A year end review and a celebration of my urge to wander. But the shocking demise of my sister’s daughter in law – a beautiful, vivacious, happy go lucky and heartbreakingly young mother of a […]

Just Google It!

02/12/2013.Reading time 1 minute.

The increased reach of internet connectivity has no doubt robbed travel agents of many commission dollars – our agent has point blank refused to help with visas alone, ever since we started booking flights and hotels online – while it has opened up untold opportunities to the independent traveler. With access to vast databases of […]

Nostalgia

06/07/2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

Could be my vintage, but far too many things make me feel nostalgic these days. Photographs and memories bring it on of course. As well as my mother’s handwriting on yellowing sheets of paper. A flowing river never fails to take me back to my childhood home. Sunsets on the East coast – where I live […]

The World Through My Eyes?

22/06/2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

Considering my blog is about the world through my eyes, this week’s challenge should have been a cakewalk. But it wasn’t strangely. I found it hard zeroing in on a single image that as per Cheri’s specs. ” ……shows a command of your frame. Lead our eyes somewhere. Make us focus on something“. So I stopped […]

On Ageing And Obsolescence

19/04/2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

Old is when you suddenly find yourself on the wrong side of the generation gap. When you take time to figure out ‘LOL’ does not actually mean ‘Lots of Love’. When your boss is (was) a decade younger than you. When your four year old child/grandchild can make your smartphone do astonishing things, that you would […]