Gypsy at Large

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...

So kids’ summer vacation is commencing soon and all you have are clichéd holiday destinations to go to? How about living through the fairy tales and legends of your childhood with your children? Germany, the country which people generally associate with cars and world history, has a 'Maerchenstrasse' or a Fairy Tale Route that can regale kids and adults alike during the summer months. The world famous Grimm brothers had gathered the plot lines for their fairy tales from these mofussil towns of Germany.  Who is who!!! The rat bread! The notorious rats everywhere! The Pied Piper in action- the musical show at Hameln. Remember Pied Piper - the musician who led the hypnotised children of village far away after elders of the village refused to pay him remuneration for getting rid of the rats becoming a menace in the town?  I used to think it was the figment of imagination of some author unless I visited Hameln. This...

The two cities speak the same language and have had a shared history. But fate threw them on different sides of the border. For Narva and Ivangorod – small towns in Estonia and Russia respectively- the history has been strongly tied to each other as both were part of the erstwhile Soviet Empire. But after Soviet disintegration in 1991 they have been going through different narratives spawned by their respective governments and still maintain sanity in their approach towards each other. The river Narva dividing the two towns. Another view of the border It was for the first time that I crossed a border by foot. Crossing the bridge between Ivangorod and Narva immediately brought the analogy of the border between India and Pakistan (which I have never been able to cross over) in my mind; or if we narrow it down further – that of Indian Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Having cross border ties between families, the two cities have not cut down th...