May 23rd 2021 Dear Anand, I never thought it’d be possible back then that a single day would pass without you in it. But lately you’ve been fading even from the fine crevices you still used to lingered in. The smell of you on pillows next to mine is faint almost gone. The way you arranged my 20 pairs of shoes near the doorway is … Continue reading 23rd May 2021 | Dear Anand
6th September 2020 Dear Anand, Has it really been almost 7 months since the world went into a shutdown? Some days I wonder had we both known then whether you and I would have chosen any different. I have spent many a long hours in the past 6 months dreaming of alternate scenarios to roads I didn’t take. I suppose pretty much everyone else around … Continue reading 6th September 2020 | Dear Anand
On the southern tip of India sits a temple with a blue door on it’s eastern wall always locked. Green murky waters of the 3 seas crashing ferociously outside; as if trying to touch the feet of Devi Kanyakumari. Years ago I sat outside that door at the end of an exhausting journey thinking how unjust. Shouldn’t doors of temples always be open? … Continue reading 10/24
I am sitting in a rooftop terrace garden sipping coffee. The morning breeze cool, gentle. In a distance I can see the St. Sebastian Chapel amid the swaying palms trees. Strains of Alyssa Mendonsa’s soothing Khwabon Ke Parindey fill the air followed by an Enya track. I’m sitting here drinking coffee just how I like it, listening to music I would’ve generally put on my ipod … Continue reading 5 Reasons Why A Fijian Should Go To Goa
It was either Technical Drawing or Home Economics. I chose Technical Drawing and like most things in high school, I sucked at it. My lines were wobbly, my text never straight and my circles despite the sharp Staedtler compass set never perfect. When we were past drawing squares and circles, we came to a unit called Perspective Drawings. And for the life of me then, … Continue reading Perspective
You know that feeling in the morning after a big night out? Your head is going doosh, doosh, doosh…your stomach is like you’ve been on the ferries wheel a ride too long, your legs hurt in places you didn’t know you had muscles and you just want to die. And in your agony, you promise to the Gods above that you will never ever let … Continue reading India to Nepal: A 2-Day Journey
A cup of tea sometimes is all that you need. I firmly standby that no matter how bad the situation, things always look up after a good cuppa. And Guwahati the capital of Assam state was my cup of tea after Nagaland. Assam shares it’s borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh. While Assam has its own tribal roots, its more influenced by Hinduism compared to Nagaland. Guwahati … Continue reading A Cup of Assam Tea
I’ve been hogging the same spot in this cafe every afternoon for the past three days. Overlooking the dark waters of Borsola Beel with the afternoon sun streaming in, sipping some very passable cappuccinos and Assam tea. I absently watch the hip and urban of Guwahati stream in and out to the beat of some really good Bollywood indie tunes. Breathing in the familiar scenario, I think … Continue reading What I Forgot About Traveling
They wouldn’t let me take a photo of the Angh. He wasn’t feeling too well. Actually the headman of Longwa was very poorly but nobody seemed to really care in that room because everyone was too busy getting high. Sitting in the Angh’s long house on the Burmese side, I thought back of the week when I was at the India-Myanmar border waiting for my … Continue reading Once Lived Nagas in Longwa
It’s not everyday that you find yourself being offered tea and fire-popped corn by a Naga Angh (headman) in his opium den. And when that happens, do you? – a) Say no thanks (and risk offending the chief of a once-were-headhunters tribe)? b) Take the tea and say thanks. (and hope that the tea is not laced with something)? c) Ask if you could try some … Continue reading The Tranced Villages of Nagaland
Where is Shyamni? 