Collage

  All year long, little hands scribble and scratch, swirls of colours in waves and giant balls. They gleefully rip, many times carelessly snip and then glue the bits. The characters begin to come together; snakes and lamps, planes and trees, traffic lights, Santa, creatures under the sea. Then comes the time when it's imperative …

Food Drama – Alien Eyeballs anyone?

Sunday evening, I sat haunched over my phone, multiple pages open- 20 must see places to visit in Delhi, 10 places accessible by Metro, Broadway shows in Kingdom of Dreams, HoHo Bus 1 Day tour, Akshardham timings, I was in the flow. Then it hit me; almost all my must see places were closed on …

My Hymn For The Weekend-The Jhanda Fair

The widely popular Jhanda Mela began with a gusto on the same day the world turned green celebrating St Patrick's Day. Here it was a sea of saffron as far as eyes could see, it was the opening event of the annual pilgrimage to the Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib. For the uninitiated, the Darbar …

Calling on Goddess Surkanda Devi

My most vivid memory of the one visit to the Surkanda Devi Temple is of me huffing and puffing and almost collapsing in exhaustion, dragging myself behind my enthusiastic mother, a virtual mountain goat. That was 23 years ago when I cluelessly believed that the temple was right there on a hilltop, which it was …

The path less travelled.

This photo was taken during a mission to locate 'Rani ka Talaab' (the queen's pool) listed by a travel website as a must see place in Ambala Cantt (the same sleepy town where I went Ravana hopping). The details were woefully scant but I was intrigued as it supposedly existed slap bang in the middle …

A Shangri-la called Mindrolling Monastery

The story begins not so long ago when the Ancient One gave her word to the gangly knight, "if you can battle the horde of blue dragons and pass through the valley of poisonous fumes and make it to my lair, the path to Shangri-La, The Mindrolling Monastery with its magnificent treasures will be revealed …

“Mural , mural on the wall…”

Dan Brown is writing a new Robert Langdon book 'Origins'. What if he heads to India this time? Well I lived the life of Robert Langdon over the weekend, for a short while. The mission - to decipher the clues left behind by the artists of the bygone era. Of course the setting was neither …

Look up !

Looking up is something I don't often do , especially when I go for an evening walk .In the interest of personal safety, one has to be alert with regards to vehicular traffic as well as other walking enthusiasts who resist slacking their pace for anyone. Plus whipping out your phone while supposedly on a …

Seeking a pop of colour / Photo challenge

Seek colour! Finally a challenge that should be easy enough . After all, I do have enough practice seeing the world through rose tinted glasses. Right away the ordinary okra patch, currently resembling a mini Amazonian forest of green , made me look twice . It was like a super power granted to me. Yup …

Harela and other Kumaoni things.

"Tomorrow is a holiday because of harela . What in the world is harela?" "Harela ? Actually it's a Kumaoni festival during which cereal grains are sprouted at home. After a few days when they begin resembling long grass ,they are cut and distributed among the family members in a ritual, praying for their good …