India is almost a continent and I have barely begun to scratch its surface. Posts below span the capital Delhi, Kashmir, Ladakh, Jodhpur, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Lucknow, Hampi, Thanjavur and more. With brief cultural snippets from my home-town on the west coast and my adopted home on the east.
The Armenian church is in Georgetown, the chaotic trading quarter of Chennai that I don’t ordinarily frequent. The last time I ventured into the area was in search of a particular shade and texture of hand made paper for invites to my stone furniture sale! That, I am ashamed to admit, was over a decade […]
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The skew, in a ledger of Chennai’s pluses and minuses, would be decidedly negative. Its famously hot and humid weather leading from the front. Followed by pitiful infrastructure: a subway still under construction and lagging decades behind Kolkata and Delhi, the worst airport of the metro cities, no decent flyovers to speak of, and traffic jams fast overtaking notorious Bangalore statistics. […]
Read MoreDecaying urban architecture has striking visual appeal. But it is their sense of history that adds to the fascination. The all too familiar stories of prosperity and decline, of the ordinary people that built these derelict spaces, of how they lived and laughed within those crumbling walls, and of the reasons that eventually compelled them to leave. And the haunting memories of our own childhood homes further heighten […]
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Chowk, the heart of the city of Lucknow, is a smaller and considerably less intense version of Chandni Chowk in Delhi. A quintessential Indian ‘old town’ with its maze of narrow alleys. Where once-glorious haveli’s rub shoulders with hastily nailed together hovels. Where the smells and sounds evoke romantic fantasies engendered by long forgotten travelogues of […]
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Let’s face it, we are not the most considerate or well mannered of people. If there is a rule to be broken, a line to be cut, or a traffic light to be jumped, you will likely find an Indian elbowing his way to pole position. Any indignant readers quick to rush to the defense of fellow citizens, are […]
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Delhi’s architectural vestiges, the remains of its seven original cities, represent its complex and convoluted history. The spectacular rise of empires and the disasters and conflicts that led to their fall, writ large on every crumbling stone.. Mehrauli is the second of the seven cities, built around 1206AD by Qutub ud din Aibak, a former slave and general of Mohammed Ghori, who […]
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With the dwindling number of Jews in Calcutta – just over 20 by last count – unable to summon up the minyan, or the requisite ten men to hold a service, their shuttered places of worship stand mute witness to the once fabled diversity of their adopted land. They arrived in search of better prospects to a thriving metropolis. Their descendants opted out […]
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No, not the parade for hopeful courting teenagers! This was a trooping ‘home’ of scores of simians across the roof behind the Gateway hotel in Coonoor, and up a nearby tree to wherever it is they bed down for the night! I am guessing leaving room doors open here isn’t an option. Although not part of the parade, I couldn’t resist […]
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I had forgotten the smell of the hills. The fresh clean smell of mountain air mingled with the spicy fragrance of eucalyptus and the overpowering aroma of green 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 […]
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In my excitement over the charismatic Mr. Leopard and the elephant family, I neglected to introduce you to the less elusive inhabitants of Nagarhole National Park These creatures might not recieve prominent billing in the star cast of the jungle, but they are no less delightful, and we later regretted not spending enough time with them in our futile hunt for the tiger. […]
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No wordy post today. Just an early morning stroll through the hustle and bustle of the Kolkata wholesale flower market, overflowing with reams of brilliant marigolds strung into garlands. While I love the vivid yellow and orange blooms and always have bowls of them lying around my house, the ones that grabbed my attention here, were these less showy lotus buds. Don’t you think there […]
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The literal meaning of Bhuta in Tulu – my mother tongue and also the predominant language of South Kanara district in coastal Karnataka – is ghost. But the Bhutas of the ritual worship called Bhuta Kola that take place annually in ancestral homes across the region are not the restless spectres the word conjures up. They are divinities…deified […]
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The Urge To Wander 