Freekick: Let Sleeping Wives Lie

“Ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho…..entamme…. Rameswaram! You mean, the temple Rameswaram! This is the joke of the century. Ha ha ha ha…my god, can’t believe it. Your husband took you to Rameswaram for honeymoon!!!… ha ha ha… ayyo…haha ha…ayyayyo…” The walls  shook with my guffaws; my sides split, the chair I sat threatened to topple as it couldn’t take any more of my convulsions, here I would die any minute choked with laughter. For all the places … Continue reading

Maoist Tourism at the Great Hornbill

Mine was not love at first sight. And I don’t remember when exactly that titration point arrived, when a drop fell with a plop and transformed my care for a cousin overnight to a longing to have a soul mate out of that relation. I decided to propose to her. Still I am sure: my love was not sudden, it could have happened by degrees in my life. I never believed in love at first sight. Until, I came across … Continue reading

Culture Tours: A Fire in the Pacific

A story inspired by a myth. It was night. A pall of silence shrouded a hamlet that clung to the rim of the Pacific. It was a sort of silence you could listen to only if you have lived long enough near a sea and let the waves relentlessly breaking on the shore shrink into a murmur and then into stillness. The villagers had woken up with a startle. For a moment they did not understand anything.  They were sleeping … Continue reading

Lonely Journeys: A trip with my teenage daughter

Can a travel writer appreciate a place objectively? Come, let us see. The room sucks! One can hardly spit through the window without hurting the dull green tea buds down below. I paid 3000/- for a room in Gruenberg resort in Chithirapuram. And see what I got! Spacious I admit. But… What do you call a room which has more windows than walls for its borders? The whole building – you must see it – lean and tall like a … Continue reading