Foot Notes: Street Theatre
It’s one of the best ways to experience the architecture and culture of a city. Walk along some of India’s most interesting streets on these five heritage walks.
Bastar Dushera
Written for Chhattisgarh Tourism, this coffee table book explores the history, significance, current ambience and seasoning of different days of the Jagdalpur Dushera in Chhattisgarh. The festival is held in October, overlapping with the Navratris as a run up to the end of the festival, but is not connected to the usual legend of Lord Ram’s […]
Work, Sing & Love Together
Earlier this year, Homi Adajania’s misplaced tribute to women making their own choices didn’t quite get the stamp of approval from everyone. It fell somewhere between patronizing and superficial! One didn’t feel the need to hear it from a Bollywood diva swishing her hair to a gripping soundtrack, interjected by rapid visuals of women from […]
A Goddess For A Day
Our maali was an uncontroversial man. Digging at the soil with relentless vigour, transplanting creepers from one edge of the wall to another, watering two large sprawls of grass and a long stretch of furrowed area with a thin hose with trickling water thanks to the compromised pressure. To watch him go about his business […]
Bundelkhand Circuit
A fusion of inimitable architecture, stories of dynastic struggles and roaming the stark arid topography, which has witnessed the valour of some of the most eminent freedom fighters of India, will leave you in thrall at Bundelkhand. Bundelkhand lies wedged between the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the north and the low Vindhya Mountain range to the […]
The Indian Festival Calendar: Nov–Dec
As autumn rolls into winter India’s best and glittering festivals warm up the atmosphere. Plan your holidays for a joyful end to the year.
The Indian Festival Calendar: March-April
The last month of the travel season, March is a great time to explore not only wildlife sanctuaries and other tourist hotspots. After the frenzy of Holi, April seems a little low-key. But for the offbeat traveller, this may be a chance to explore unchartered territories.
Best Hacks To Survive An Indian Festival
To immerse yourself completely in any Indian festival can be quite an experience, one that people cross the mighty seas for. But no one wants to be left overwhelmed, fighting for air to breathe, and without a place to call home for the night. Here are some tricks every wise traveller should know about when […]
Pocket Bastar
Pocket Bastar: One of the most untreaded states of India, it was a delight to author the Bastar book for Lonely Planet. The region offers a riveting melange of dense forests, tribal culture and history. Even though the region is now fragmented by district boundaries of Kanker, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Dantewada, Jagdalpur, Sukma and Bijapur, together […]
Tribal Culture Chhattisgarh
Tribal Culture Chhattisgarh: In Chhattisgarh, step back a few hundred years – in the land of some of the most fabled, ancient, unique and more importantly, proudest, tribes of India. Reticent, as they are, the tribes of Chhattisgarh have stirred the interest of many travellers in the region. Veer off the main tourist circuits to […]
Colour And Valour
In the urban context, sports in India starts and ends with cricket! Fortunately this seemingly pervasive sentiment remains confined only to cities! Out in far flung destinations of the country there is more at stake; honour, team spirit and most of all, tradition. Away from the world of controversies and TRPs, strapping young men are […]
Ever Been To Crab Island?
Elusively tucked away about 22 kms from Cochin, is Njandu Kadu or the Backwater Crab Island. Patronized by heavy weight travelers from all over the world and yet pretty obscure even to the locals, the ‘island of coconut groves’ is a spectacular treat. Strips of coconut groves intermingled with thickly foliaged canals from a 36 […]