Windy Skies

Water Woes

2009-06-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

I opened the newspaper today to news that water supply to the city might be restricted to every alternate day unless the south-west monsoons drop their load on the streets soon. The Met department would like us to believe that it may not rain as much this time around. I cannot be sure though.Last week saw one heavy burst that brought parts of the city to a standstill before weakening to

The Painted Day

2009-06-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

Kala Ghoda, Bombay. 2009.When life throws a palette of colours your wayStep away from the wind.For, if it is too strong as it will likely be,The colours will blur quickly into one.And where you could have painted your day brightlyIt will now shiver in the bleakness of none!

The Palmist

2009-06-10T02:34:00.001-07:00

Mumbai, 2009The future you trace in the sands of time,Will tempt the waves into washing over it.Instead, let the ocean embrace you,And I will show you how to ride the waves of life itself.

The Masjid-e-Ala in Srirangapatna

2009-06-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

I could’ve passed by the open door oblivious to its significance if not for the two towering minarets that rose from behind the high walls along a path hewn from the earth not far from where the Bangalore Gate of Tipu Sultan’s fort in Srirangapatna lay.From the street the door parted on young children in kurta pajamas, mostly white, and skull caps moving about the open courtyard fronting a

Leaves Of Life

2009-05-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

In the early hours of the morning before the sky lights up over the horizon the city wakes up to urgent feet scrambling to make their rendezvous with street-side markets in Dadar, and elsewhere.Fisherwomen hugging baskets of fish board local trains on their way to suburban fish markets along Central and Western railway lines that bisect the city into ‘West’ and ‘East’ sections. They must start

Vintage and Classic Cars Rally at Nariman Point

2009-04-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

In the distance Gopilal Sharma appeared nondescript among the others, featureless in the bright white uniforms of chauffeurs waiting their turn by the vintage cars to the back of the line along the sweep of Marine Drive in South Bombay last week.Gopilal Sharma had ridden Ajaypat Singhania’s 1956 Mercedes 300 to the rally and reveled in the attention it was drawing from curious onlookers.Across

The Innocence of an Evening

2009-03-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

When I look at this picture now and reflect on the fate that befell the pigeons that used to gather across the road from The Taj Mahal Hotel before the terrorists struck Mumbai the night of November 26 last year, I try not to think of whether this particular pigeon made it through the night of carnage. I like to believe she survived the night.Early one evening several months before the terrorist

Butterfly Morning in Mollem

2009-03-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

If it wasn’t for the frog that I was chasing across the stream with my camera we might never have discovered the tiny sandbank hidden from view by trees along the turn the stream took before cutting through the wildlife sanctuary at Mollem, 56 kms. off Panaji and bordering Karnataka State to the east. And we wouldn’t have seen the Common Map Butterfly (Cyrestis thyodamas).Much of the stream along

A Holy Bath in the Tirumala Hills

2009-03-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

On my way to the shrine to Ganga (India’s holiest river) at Papavinasanam I avoided looking in the direction of little Ramu while he pranced around his handler lest I pause and let the little fellow inveigle me with his charms and delay my schedule. I have difficulty in telling the age of a monkey just by looking at its face excepting of course when they’re newly born and only a few days

A Riverside Inn

2009-03-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

Finding no one around to hear her out the old lady turned to me and said, “I asked him for tea. He hasn’t brought it yet.” Then she turned to face the youth she had come with, possibly someone she knew from the village or maybe her relative. He stood near the door talking into the mouthpiece of a yellow coloured coin phone resting on a narrow table that also doubled up as a shelf, and a counter.

Best Travelogue Nomination in the Lonely Planet Travel Blog Awards 2009

2009-02-25T03:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you for nominating Windy Skies in the Best Travelogue category in the first ever Lonely Planet Travel Blog Awards 2009.Lonely Planet released the top five nominees in each of the 14 categories from the nominations received, and I’m thrilled to find this blog listed in the top five nominees in the Best Travelogue category.Public voting opens today, and will count towards 50% in the judging,

A Shrine On The Streetside, Faith On The Inside

2009-02-21T12:11:00.000-08:00

It is a warm feeling and it does not come from the early morning sunshine alone.In a narrow Bombay lane an old lady makes her way across the road from her hut at the break of dawn. Clutching a matchbox, some oil for a lamp, water in a steel utensil to wash the stone slab with, and a damp piece of cloth, she walks uncertainly across the narrow road to the footpath opposite. There, affixed to the

Second Chance

2009-02-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

A Second Chance in Bombay. 2009.

Lonely Planet Travel Blog Awards 2009

2009-02-16T23:37:00.000-08:00

Lonely Planet is closing nominations for its first ever Travel Blog Awards tomorrow, February 18, midday Melbourne time.For quite sometime now travel blogs have come to inhabit the Social Media space in a niche of their own, bringing stories and images from around the world, and opening up trails less known, and connecting with their readers.Here’s an opportunity to nominate your favourite travel

Saffron Memories

2009-02-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

There must be a reason why sadhus prefer to squat if they don’t have to be on their feet. It may be that they’re rarely in a hurry to get anywhere and it does not make sense to stand waiting for a train. The other reason could be that few or no eyebrows are raised on seeing them squat in public places, something that must have to do with their dress, the saffron robes that set them apart from

Indian Copy

2009-01-31T10:53:00.000-08:00

I thought it strange that the bookseller would prefer to sit by a drinking-water tap on the railway platform rather than be on his feet selling books now that the Nagercoil Express had come to a halt at the railway station. It was a few minutes past four in the afternoon when it pulled into Pune on its way to Tirupati and beyond, to Nagercoil in Tamilnadu.The train leaves Mumbai at ten past

Laburnum Road

2009-01-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

After emerging from Mani Bhavan I paused for a moment and looked down the quiet road again. This time around I tried imagining Mahatma Gandhi leaning over the balcony in the year 1917 when it was time for the Carder to pass that way each day. It was the year Mahatma Gandhi first came to live in Mani Bhavan on Laburnum Road in Gamdevi, among the older neighbourhoods in Bombay.Gandhiji was looking

Fishing for Some Morning Luck

2009-01-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

One early morning recently as I hurried to board a suburban local train I stumbled upon an unlikely scene.For a place that’s usually abuzz with tea stall owners making brisk business from rickshaw drivers warming to their early morning shifts with a glass of steaming tea, occasionally joined by office goers heading into the railway station for a ride to their destinations around Bombay, the

Granthayan, A Mobile Book Store

2008-12-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Stepping out of a bookstore recently I came upon a bright glow in the street as we made our way out of the shopping complex. On a closer look it turned out to be Granthayan, a mobile book store on wheels that launched in Bombay this August. Parked to the side of the road, three fans running, it was a winter welcome I couldn’t resist.Unlike last year there is little chill this time around. Last

Black, Yellow, and Shades of White

2008-12-20T11:02:00.001-08:00

Passing me the change he owed me, the taxi driver smiled as he said, “Janglala aag laglyavar sukhya barobar oley pan jaltey.” Hearing him use the Marathi proverb I broke into a smile as I prepared to open the door to step out of his taxi. Translated from the Marathi it reads, “Once the jungle catches fire, even the wet burns away with the dry.”I opened the rear door, thanked him and got out

Riverside in Panjim

2008-11-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

Spanning time as much with their longevity as they do the road between the Secretariat and Miramar with their lush canopy, the Rain trees that line the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg make traveling along the riverfront one of the highlights on entering the city of Panaji on the West Coast of India. Panaji is the capital of Goa. I have walked the promenade along the Mandovi often, taking in river ferries

A Day Out in Divar

2008-11-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

Each time I take the ferry from Piedade to Divar and disembark on the island I stay close to the Mandovi, hearing her waffle lazily beyond the thick wall of mangroves that hides a narrow bund hewn from the earth and baked hard by an unrelenting Sun.The bund keeps the river at bay, separating the paddy fields inland from the estuary where the Mandovi empties into the Arabian Sea. Were the river to

Goddess Durga Rides Tiger on Dussehra

2008-10-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

The rickshaw paused for a moment to let a jeep pass before taking the turn and accelerating down the slope. To our right, set back from the road lay residential housing societies, their gates opening into short driveways that led to squat buildings arranged around a central space where children played in the evenings. At each of the gates a lone security guard or two sat on makeshift stools by

The Colour of Glass

2008-10-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

A Bangle Seller.Jodhpur. India. 2007.

Welcoming Navratri

2008-10-05T04:36:00.000-07:00

I stopped to one side of the railway footbridge and squatting in front of the empty plastic bag that once held ‘Watana’ (lentil) flour and which the old lady had now laid out on the floor I pointed to one of the seven small piles of grains she had arranged in two neat rows on the plastic before asking her, “How much is this for?”She looked at me before answering, “Five rupees,” smiling and