All Things Considered

This is an attempt to answer that question that people seem to be asking too much lately. “Not writing on the blog ? Whatz up lately ?”
- Was at IFFI Goa - 3-4 days of movies back to back. Life seemed too perfect. It was, too.
- Idlyllic Karwar and that unforgettable sunset with green(yes, green), […]

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Someone asked me this evening if I was done writing all that I wanted to write about Varanasi. No, I hadn’t. But then, most of the stuff I hadn’t written about were enormously touristy places.
But, a coupla hidden treasures need mention.
1/ Ustad’s house. An unassuming, old, a typically Banarasi building that was once Ustad Bismillah […]

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If I honestly (i.e if you still believe in that outdated idea) have to put something nice here with that theme, I’d have to go out and shoot some to start with. If I know myself well, that ain’t gonna happen for a long time. But if I know KK well enough, you should see […]

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White and Red will follow. When you get these ‘aha idea!’ moments, it becomes very easy to inflict it on innocent people.
[6AM, Commercial Street]

[8PM, IndiraNagar]

[6PM, Haridwar]

[7PM, Varanasi]

[12 Noon, PangongTso],

(For those in the know, this post could alternatively be titled ‘cheating’)

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One of the many things that I was obsessed with on my trip to Ladakh is the sight of scree slopes in light and shadow. When I say obsessed, I quite mean what the word is supposed to mean. Really obsessed. Really really obsessed. Really really really.. Ok, you get the idea. I was clicking […]

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As unchanging and static as mountains may be , when the clouds above drift and cast those shifting shadows on the precipitous slopes of rock and stone , these mountains look totally different from one moment to the next. This constant play of light and shade on the arid mountainscape , for me, is […]

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The rattling tindrum turns a sharp corner. ‘Nawalgarh! Nawalgarh!’, hollers the bus conductor from the deck above. All the buses in Rajasthan are doubler deckers. Except that on the second deck, there is no deck. People , animals , precariously hanging bags and baskets, cycles, and children form one indistinguishable pile on top of the […]

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When I ask the roly-poly guest house manager on interesting ideas to explore – a term we travel aficionados particularly like - the ghat area, I’m instantaneously inducted into the mythological mind scape of a Banarasi. ‘All ghats on the Ganges are equal. But, some ghats are more equal than the others’, he declares […]

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[A Gallong Adi man smoking rice for Apong]

Picture shot at Paia, a village near Along, West Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh.
Our man here is a Gallong Adi tribal preparing the paddy grains to make Apong. Apong is a beer made out of rice. It is atleast 3-month process that includes drying, smoking, fermenting, filtering and finally […]

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To the East.
 
Emerald green grass in the plains. Ubiquitous valley system in a canopy of green. A myriad of life forms. Orchids, Rhinos, Hornbills, Rhododendrons. The perpetual drama of rain and mist. Snow-capped peaks and high-altitude lakes. End of universe settlements. Animist worship to Buddhist meditation. The silver ribbon at the base of the valley […]

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About 5-6 kms from the Khuri village, the sun goes down without much ado behind the warm dunes in this stark expanse, making way for the first crescent of the moon. The dark sky is still a mix of grey and blue, and there is enough light to still see those handful of tiny birds […]

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The hot brown sand stretches as far as one’s eyes can go, dotted only by a few desert cacti and thorny shrubs. The dunes further away shine in the heat-haze. In this forsaken land, only an occasional well or a tiny mud hut distinguishes one piece of land from the other. There is nothing to […]

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Standing here at steep steps and gazing through through the blaze, one sees how prosaic death is. Seen from the riverfront, here the city of Benaras raises and looms tall behind the smoulder and crackle of the firewood. This is Manikarnika, where death is considered auspicious. The place where the funeral pyres burn day and […]

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 The captivating colors of marigolds , the uplifting smell of flowers wafting from the flower market, the holy graffiti on walls & vermilion painted temples, the clanging bells, the waves of crowds hailing grace to the Gods in religious fervor at the ghats, the serpentine queue outside the Vishwanatha temple, the suffocating smoke that emanates […]

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Back from a super-bumming trip around Rajasthan and areas thereabouts for a month and a half. Boy, what a land of colors! Since the next trip Northward isn’t going to be up for another few weeks, quite a bit of armchair travel is bound to happen on this blog. Watch :)
A public apology is also in […]

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