Mechuka – The Old Man and the Bowl
Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh of North-East India. Beautiful, peaceful, alluring... Remember Hemingway's novel "The Old man and the Sea"? Well this is "The Old Man and the Bowl" in a small monastery there. For me, he was the highlight of my trip to Mechuka. Here’s the story of the trip… The Old Man and the Bowl - Mechuka...
Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India – Haunted and Hauntingly beautiful
Bhangarh Fort – history, royalty, wars, a one-sided love story, black magic and GHOSTS
Bhangarh fort! Let me tell you a story about it - a fairy-tale with a twist. This is a story of a beautiful princess. She lived in a majestic fort on a hill in Rajasthan. A poor magician nearby fell in love...
Travel Musings – Being Shiva – Create with love, Abandon without a care
Travel musings
Solo travel has a great way of clearing the mind. It allows one to think and delve into the self in relative anonymity. Paradoxically, the constant movement of travel induces a strange stillness of the mind - Samatha and hence Vipassana, as the Buddhists would have it... These are some of my travel musings...
Chambal Valley – Protected by Infamy, Curses and Crimes
Chambal Valley – Protected by Infamy, Curses and Crimes The Chambal Valley is a cursed land as per mythology. It boasts of a barren and ravaged landscape, ravines, gorges and jungles. Bandits and dacoits. Outlaws and lawlessness. The setting for many iconic movies and the backdrop for many legendary Indian Robin Hoods… It remains pristine and untouched...
Malana, The Magic – Of ancient Sages, Myths, Alexander & Malana Cream
Malana, The Magic - Of ancient Sages, Myths, Alexander and Malana Cream. This is a strange story and a real place. It involves ancient sages, kings, mythology, legends, history and drugs. To understand this, you have to get to know the ancient sage, Jamadagni, and a bit of Hindu mythology. Let me start with ancient times...
Quarantine Queues
Quarantine Queues
This is a ramble about the Quarantine. And the self. Why Queues, you ask? No reason, I say. Of course, the Quarantine has Queues – in front of the provision shops, transport hubs, liquor vends, etc. Hence, Quarantine Queues. There is no other connect that this blog has with queues. Actually, I used the word...
Trichinopoly Cigar, Churchill, World War II, Sherlock Holmes and Trichy in India
Trichinopoly Cigar, the one that Churchill loved and Sherlock Holmes used was from a town in British India that lent its name to it - Trichy What was it that Winston Churchill, Sherlock Holmes and the average Balaji in South India loved? The Trichie or Tritchie. The Trichinopoly Cigar which is a type of cheroot that...
A Bazaar that connects Burma and Madras
Burma and Madras have traditionally been linked by the British rule, people and customs. They still are...
Burma- A mix of the old and the new
This is a picture that I had clicked of a monk in one of the temples that I visited in Burma (current Myanmar). He was delivering a sermon under a makeshift...
Kiruna – Northernmost town of Sweden
This northernmost town of Kiruna, Sweden might not be a part of your bucket list but you might find your true calling in this cold, cold town if you are one for me-time, we-time or adventure. Kiruna is at the north of Swedish Lapland. The town is known for its huge coal mine which was the...