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...

Imagine you are over 6,000 km away from India setting your foot on an Island in the Baltic Sea where the chill in the weather has almost reached your bones. You encounter barely 12 people during your first few hours on the Island. And the first person you talk to refuse to let go of your hand and keep blabbering about Bollywood, when he comes to know that you are from India. Well this happened to me as I was traveling with a farrago (always wanted to use it after Mr. Shashi Tharoor enlightened us ) of mixed nationalities - one from China, one German, one half Canadian, one half German and of course myself an Indian. We reached Kuressare in Saaremaa island of Estonia in the afternoon, but did not see a single soul. As we took a stroll and zeroed in on a nice restaurant for our early dinner, an old man walked in and intrigued by our diversity struck a conversation and then it veered towards Bollywood. This was not the first time that the goodwill towards...