India: Absolute Relatives After living in India for the past month and a half and Indonesia earlier, we’d gotten pretty much used to power cuts. But not like this one. If it was any other day, the electricity would cut off every now and then, a few hours here, a few there. For that time, … Continued
Water-Borne Love in Varanasi Awe. It’s not a three-letter word. More like a three-letter feeling that is known to inject rapid bursts of Faith, Hope and Love, into disillusioned grown-ups and children. Now the story I am about to narrate does not involve ravines, Burning Men or shooting stars. This particular story is simpler, shorter but … Continued
I had a lot of trouble pronouncing the name of this town: “Thiruvannamalai”. It required me to roll my tongue too much and too many times. It had too many syllables. Hailing from North India, living in the south Indian city of Bangalore, I initially found south Indian names to be tongue twisters – especially … Continued
The Wagah Border Ceremony between India and Pakistan To say that the border closing ceremony at the Wagah border between India and Pakistan was the most bizarre day of my life is an understatement. Witnessing this daily tradition between the two countries to me felt like an anthropological experiment, like I had just walked into … Continued
Thank you to Charu at the Butterfly Diary for publishing my article about India: “Raft Building on the Banks of the Lake Palace, Udaipur: Changing the World One Bottle at a Time.” I thought sharing this piece on backpackers changing the world was a good fit for Rosh Hashannah, the beginning of the Jewish New … Continued
Kerala is a travel destination with a lot going for it. It was the breadth of landscape in this one small South Indian state that constantly surprised me and filled my one month there with such variety even though I wasn’t clocking thousands of travel miles. Bus journeys of only a few hours will take … Continued
Thank you to Jonny Blair for interviewing us on Don’t Stop Living! WORLD TRAVELLERS: LISA AND GEORGE FROM WE SAID GO TRAVEL It’s time to meet Lisa and George who have recently launched their travel memoir, Traveling In Sin!! Lisa and George also run the highly successful travel site “We Said Go Travel”. It’s a … Continued
In his book, Awakened Leadership: Beyond Self-Mastery, Alan Shelton shares stories of his journey of transformation across decades and continents. His self-actualization to become an integrated awakened leader shines as an example of possibility to others. One of his gifts to leadership thinking is the new word: “intellectuality, the ability to be engaged in the shared … Continued
I walked toward the grey-eyed fisher, crossing two brown and white cats sprawled out on the wooden platform. Beneath my feet the wooden boards made a creaking sound. Were they safe, I wondered? I took the worn rope from the fisher’s hand, and for a moment, my body stiffened. We were about to reel in … Continued
“Welcome to Mumbai International airport, the outside temperature is 30 degree Celsius…”, the landing announcement came on while my mind wandered off. I was 22, moving to Mumbai, often dubbed India’s own New York, from my small town down in South India. Unfamiliar faces and language was what was ahead, but I was thrilled. This … Continued