Whilst in Madurai, a heaving, working, shouting city of blackish earth streets and slow-moving buffalo, we take a rickshaw to Meenakshi Amman Temple. The thirty minute drive lasts for an eternity, and I disembark with a dam of unshed tears. Cycling through the slums, weaving in and out of sloppy wet mud and through rivulets … Continued
Curiosity, with certain scepticism, made me say yes, when asked if I would like to come along to the Kumbha Mela, the largest religious congregation of people in the world. Curious because over the years, I have seen innumerable photographs that have captured the Mela and wanted to see for myself its appeal. To see … Continued
Rajasthan, Northern India. 2 hours away from the Pakistan border. Our location was Jailsalmer. I never imagined I would be in this territory in my life. I had made my way up from the southern parts of Kerala, through Goa, Mumbai, and Udaipur consisting of long train journeys, regularly awoken by the sound of ‘Chai’ … Continued
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
More than a decade after qualifying as a Doctor and having bounced around various jobs in India and the UK, I am now practising in a College in Melaka, Malaysia, charged with sharing my knowledge with budding Doctors and Dentists. Hence, most of the time I spend my days shuttling between classes and clinics dreaming … 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