I travel and read.
What is offbeat travel? You keep seeing these lists of offbeat travel destinations everywhere, and you let them shape your ideas of what offbeat travel should look like. Isn’t that very familiar to people telling what the most happening professions are and you shaping your career that way. We have seen that happening. And we let... Continue Reading →
Wild elephants in the mountains and a serendipitous journey to a bridge in Mae Taeng river. A little research into Thailand and you would see that the best voted activities for families, and people who love wildlife are elephant camps and tiger kingdoms in Chiang Mai. After our first day riding up to the hills of... Continue Reading →
My first experience in a Ladyboy cabaret show in Chiang Mai, Thailand. An experience you must not miss. An honest confession — I have always been fascinated by ladyboys, beautiful feminine creatures who dance like butterflies on delicate high heels and elaborate headgear. They look nothing less than a peacock in the rain. But, I never thought... Continue Reading →
Ever wondered why Buddha heads are such an ornamental piece in hotels and art galleries? Why just the head and not the entire body? Read on to find out what I discovered on my trip to Ayutthaya in Thailand.
I find my professional skills often spill into my personal life, which I spin into analogies in the midnight thinking hour. I met my husband based on the sheer power of content(marketing?) and an online database. Any disillusionment I ever had with my job, was quelled by this logic. I was working as a marketer for... Continue Reading →
I became a marketer. Covid-19 is in the air, humans are locked down. As usual, I was lucky. Lucky to be living in a gated community where I could still long walks, alone, sometimes with my husband. I’m luckier because this gated community also happens to be the most beautiful in Bangalore. Where there was... Continue Reading →
My father is a prophet. Just like my mother was before him. She died. I hope he doesn’t. He is the only prophet left for me. Before I left my job to sit at home and write, cushioned by my husband’s handsome salary, my dad had prophesied that a day will soon arrive when I... Continue Reading →
It has been a long while since I wrote a book review. Exactly two years to be precise. The reasons for not being consistent with reviewing the books I read don’t matter, the reason for writing a review after 2 years of drowning in books matter. This book is phenomenal, period. I have never read... Continue Reading →
“Newton” is a Bollywood movie in the most unlikely Bollywood terms. It portrays an India that urbane Indians have never seen. It questions the meaninglessness of democracy and then answers the quest for meaningful democracy through a single honest electorate officer who is fighting against a world that doesn’t see the point of selfless honesty.... Continue Reading →
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
I have always been in awe of this writer Khushwant Singh. When I was in school, I remember a notorious classmate bring Khushwant Singh’s autobiography “Truth, Love and a little Malice” and the entire class had a field day reading the parts where he describes his sex life explicitly. Train to Pakistan is different, it... Continue Reading →
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Or The Dungeon of Utmost Unhappiness? This heavy tome of a book ain’t gonna make you happy. But does that mean you should not read it? No, that means you should jump headlong into it. Get sucked by this dementor of a novel, And arise with a mind that knows... Continue Reading →
Stumbling on a strange 'Phallus Shrine' at the Phranang Beach in Thailand. Did I tell you about the time I walked on to a beach in Thailand and discovered a shrine full of phalluses? Not one, but two shrines! Thailand never stops titillating your senses. Being from India, I did not find the shrine... Continue Reading →
A woman has a grotesque dream and turns into a vegetarian when she wakes up. In South Korea where they love their meat, this decision turns her own husband and family against her. But things turn weirder when she does not stop at abstention from meat. She starts fantasizing herself as a plant and stops... Continue Reading →
Poem coincides with the COVFEFE of life. I found this line “All we are not stares back at what we are” - W.H Auden in a book I was reading last night, Janice Pariat’s “Seahorse” and it kept me awake all night. Today morning I woke up to a new word coined by a new President Trump... Continue Reading →
Book Review of Life of Pi, by Yann Martel When a story claims to make you believe in God, can a mere mortal not be intrigued? I saw “Life of Pi,” the movie, directed by Ang Lee years ago, and found the movie along with its 3D effects entertaining enough. Only when I began reading... Continue Reading →
There is something between me and ancient, dark caves. When I was a kid my favorite book was “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” The part where Tom and Becky get lost in the caves was the most thrilling part for me. I longed to be inside a cave and get lost. Somehow the entire story... Continue Reading →
Our host who turned out to be my most favorite person in Thailand. That’s Chaibutr in the extreme right. I took this photo when we were leaving Chiang Mai. When we were searching for a stay in Chiang Mai on Airbnb, I zeroed in on her “Ban Come in” stay because of the extremely good... Continue Reading →
Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss? Book review of “The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai. When I first started reading “The Inheritance of Loss”, I was excited because I was holding a Booker baby here, but 20 pages into the book, and I was not so excited anymore. I went into a slump, I... Continue Reading →
Have you ever experienced the sadness of leaving a place that you knew had etched a permanent beauty in your soul. Tha Phae Gate of the Chiang Mai old city. I felt that immense sadness as I bid adieu to my host Chaibutr in Chiang Mai and left for the airport. When I was researching extensively... Continue Reading →
Beedi Queen 