A break from the daily grind was long overdue. A 300-kilometre drive from Bangalore brought me to Chikmagalur, the birthplace of Indian coffee. Two well-spent days later, it was time to head back. The holiday had been blissfully unhurried—walking through coffee plantations and gazing up at Mullayanagiri, the highest peak in Karnataka. But before returning […]
Off the Kochi National Highway in the heartland of Kerala, just before the bypass to the industrial town of Aluva, a road quietly forks south. It’s easy to miss—lined with the usual clutter of shops, unhurried and unmarked—but follow it long enough and it leads to Ulliyanoor, a small island cradled by the bends of […]
There are monuments and then there is the Kailasa temple. Imagine standing before a mountain of solid basalt in the eighth century and deciding not to build a temple on it, but to carve the entire mountain into one. Not from the ground upward, but from the top down. It sounds impossible. Yet that impossible […]
Faith in the mountains High in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, not far from the India–China frontier, stands a Sikh shrine that few travellers expect to find. According to tradition, Guru Nanak paused here during his third great journey more…
The trip to Arunachal Pradesh has just begun. Tawang the first destination. We have crossed the Saraighat Bridge over the ocean-like Brahmaputra and are heading further northeast. As we move toward the mountains, we veer away from the river. The…
Dev Bhoomi: A Morning in Kumaon There are temples that announce themselves with towering gateways and restless crowds. Jageshwar does the opposite. Hidden beneath a carpet of ancient deodars, it waits in silence. Timeless and eternally waiting. We are in…
Two Eagles and their search for Salvation. It would sound like a story from the world of magical realism. But this is not one out of a fertile imagination; it is an event witnessed and recorded by many. Now, before I start with the story, I need you, the reader, to understand and be suitably […]
Chasing the Monsoon Through Shimoga The monsoon had arrived. It was still not the angry storm it can be, but an early, apologetic drizzle of early June. The hillside and the roads waited to be drenched. It was that time of year again. The annual drive through the ghats. Part ritual, part escape. The best […]
Deep within the river-sculpted heart of Tamil Nadu, where the Cauvery and Kollidam embrace to form the sacred island of Srirangam, the air is thick with more than just incense—it is heavy with the echoes of ancient rivalries and divine destinies. While the sprawling majesty of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple often commands the world’s gaze, […]
Had to take a break. The long cherished plan to drive around the Konkan coast finally clicked. The unpretentious western coast, where nature is at its serene best beckons and such an invitation can’t be ignored. Leaving the dust and the frenzy of the Mumbai Bangalore Highway near Belgaum, the route veers off westward. The […]