A Journal of Travel Tales Across 72 Countries
Kamala Pandey may appear petite, and even frail, but like all hill women, she is a formidable powerhouse. Saree draped neatly around her slender frame with nary a crease and a smile that seldom leaves her face, Kamala spins like a top, attending to the …
WITH wildlife habitats shrinking rapidly, we are hardly surprised when wild elephants raid villages for water or noisy red-wattled lapwings choose urban rooftops to raise their fledglings. But it takes some time to get used to the reality of an oceanic turtle getting up-close to …
AS I hold on to the razor edge of a jagged limestone rock jutting skyward like a giant pencil so as to heave myself up to the next level, it breaks off in a huge chunk, leaving a bleeding gash on my palm. This is …
Valparai beckoned, a hidden hill station, seductively veiled in mist and untrampled by tourists. We drove from Bangalore in about eight hours. After Pollachi, the climb begins, offering panoramic views of pristine forests and endless tea estates, terraced fields redolent of ripe green peppercorns and …
Ranikhet is virtually in your backyard if you’re a Delhi resident. Over two decades we used to drive up to the hills frequently – not only to Ranikhet, but to Almora, Nainital, Munsiyari, Chaukori, Pithoragarh, Bagheshwar, Jageshwar, Badrinath, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Mussoorie, virtually every dot …
Having been to many wildlife sanctuaries including the Rann where kiangs roam, I was pleasantly surprised to find a signage for Daroji bear sanctuary en route to Hampi. Tiger or elephant sanctuaries sprawl across central and southern India as well as the Himalayan foothills. Even …
This travelogue comes in three parts. Part 1 is on that iconic tree, the baobab, Part 2 on Lemurs and other exotic wildlife of the island and Part 3 on the land and its people “A Caliban of a tree, grizzled, distorted old goblin with …
Metal, we know, is malleable. Did you know that Ranakpur sculptors could make stone dance to their tunes, making it malleable and ductile, extruding it, bending it, coiling it and shaping it at will? How could they coax such fine filigree designs on something as …
So near, yet so far. Hampi teased and tantalised, for decades. Finally I made it to these magnificently regal ruins on the banks of the legendary Thungabadra. Perish all preconceived notions about Hampi. It surpasses your wildest your imagination, grander than anything you conjured up …
She saunters languorously, as if disinterested in the clutch of peahens and their weeks-old hatchlings that fidget nervously. A handsome black neelgai regards her with supreme indifference, secure in the knowledge that he is too big for her. But today, the young leopardess is not …