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An evening in Mumbai

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Pic Credit: The Square Times “We ache to belong to places. It is always people who make us belong. When they are gone, the place does not recognise us any more…” I read these words somewhere and since then they have been resonating in my mind. It is true that if you want to see a place differently an interesting company does help. My latest trip to Mumbai, the Bollywood’s bastion, was revelation in this sense. After finishing work at 10 pm on my last day in Mumbai, I could not have left without seeing the Sea. So I forgo the food at the high end hotel in Bandra and guided by an outsider-becoming Mumbaikar, I headed to Bandstand. The long 1.2 km long walking promenade along the Arabian Sea boasts to house the Czars of Indian Film Industry – Shahrukh and Salman. As darkness descended to embrace the city of glittering dreams we sat dressed in our fineries, eating roasted corn cobs and tea as the lovers of the Mumbai city went near the receding shoreline to evade pryi
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Bikerni in Mountains!

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View from my stay on the first day in Leh I had been Leh’d for three times already and knew Ladakh like the back of my hand. So I approached the fourth trip that came after a gap of nearly seven years with a bit of trepidation sparked by reports of tourism boom spoiling the pristine cold desert. Moments after landing in the “Land of Passes”, I realised the misgivings about the callous tourism were not unfounded. I was staying at a place just short of Nimu. So next day after 15 minutes of mild Yoga I headed to Indus-Zanskar confluence. That was the first spot that made me fall in love with Ladakh when I came here back in 2008. Now trash marks the spots along these two mighty rivers – one of them gave India its name. The bevy of ‘selfie-tourists’ have reached this place too. Also present was an edifice selling eatables and promises of adrenaline rush through river rafting. The next pit stop was Magnetic hill, where revving of All Terrain Vehicles reverberated through th
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From Jatland to Germany- Tale of a lost cow!

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I was born in Panipat (Haryana), the place has been famous for three epic battles that have been fought on its soil. And the state of Haryana is the leading state in the cow belt – I refer to it so as the people here love their cows more than their daughters, after all cows give milk! The state has been in news for the past few years for its people’s superhuman feats of removing railway tracks or burning petrol pumps either for reservation or to show solidarity with a rapist Godman masquerading as everyone’s ‘father’. But that is a story for another time. So my journey of life began on a fine evening when my mother bogged down by household chores sought to ignore her labour pain until she could not any more. She asked her mother-in-law – my grandmother - to take her to hospital. Even before the cycle rickshaw could take my mother to a hospital, the impatient me forced myself out in the world. The rickshaw ride marked my first travel journey! Since then I have been traveling acros
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