Pune is a city of many facets. Historically, it is the former seat of the Maratha Empire formed by Shivaji — a warrior-king from the 17th century. Academically, it is known as the ‘Oxford of the East’ due to the several well-respected educational institutions located there. These days, it’s a seat of power for the …
India
Atop the Walls of Jaisalmer
I write this from the shores of Lake Te Anau, on the saturated fringes of Fiordland National Park. Here in the midst of lush forests and craggy fiords, I find myself missing the desert. Dunes, the endless expanse of featureless scrub-lands, baggage trains of camels… and I miss that crumbling fort at the edge of the …
Flying Fox Zipline in Jodhpur
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” – Leonardo da Vinci I’ve been on ziplines before. Once between the slopes of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains in British Columbia, the other time in the Herb Hillz …
Colors of Rajasthan: Six Highlights in Jaipur
I reached Jaipur after almost 24 hours straight of traveling, having left the hill station city of Darjeeling the preceding morning. I was shambling by the time I got into an airport taxi, and couldn’t find the energy to care when the driver charged me a couple hundred rupees extra. But even as fatigued as I was, …
The Fort over the Blue City of Jodhpur
A palace that might have been built by Titans and colored by the morning sun.” – Rudyard Kipling I came by night through the teeming bazaar, so I didn’t see the azure city until the following morning. The fort I glimpsed only from a distance — as the train I rode chugged into town under …
Camel Safari in the Thar Desert
If you don’t die of thirst, there are blessings in the desert. You can be pulled into limitlessness, which we all yearn for, or you can do the beauty of minutiae, the scrimshaw of tiny and precise. The sky is your ocean, and the crystal silence will uplift you like great gospel music, or Neil …
A Walk through the Mists in Darjeeling
“Moonlight disappears down the hills, Mountains vanish into fog, and I vanish into poetry.” ― Sanober Khan The owner of the Cozy Nest Homestay, Wangchuk, had drawn a route map out for me on a scrap of paper. He’d done the same when I went exploring the tea fields previously, further emphasizing that home-stays are so …
A Walk through the Lanes and Tea Fields of Darjeeling
I slept well Friday night. I had to, for the next few days would involve very little sleep. I only managed a couple hours collectively over the next two nights — a few minutes grabbed on an airport bench, a few passed out against a wall, a few more in the shuddering seat of the Boeing …
A Walk through the Lanes and Tea Fields of DarjeelingRead More