Gypsy at Large

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...

Siachen Glacier is far beyond what a common person’s imagination can conjure up. Even though the Indian forces have been braving against the formidable foe of weather and other extremities to hold on to the lofty mountains, when I told my mother that I would be heading to Siachen for a month long expedition being conducted by the Indian Army, her question was if it was in China? The question left me amused. The Indian Army personnel have been imposing the national will in those frigid heights and not many civilians are aware what it means to be at that height where chocolate bars freezes so hard that it has to be used as stepping stones. I was one of very few civilians, who were to get a chance to experience first-hand how Indian armed forces personnel are overcoming limits to human body at the world’s highest battlefield, even if for a short period of time. I undertook the journey in 2008 and after nearly a decade I am revisiting the journey that changed me. Pa...