Dud Sea Scrawls The Writing, clearly, is not on the wall!

Nobody read Mid-Day for news-stories. For most people (like me) Mid-Day was a paper which served your daily dose of soft porn. Just turn to page 3, and you were greeted by a fresh & sultry “Mid-Day Mate” - a hot young female in various stages of undress. There was once a phase when the mates got even hotter & went topless for couple of months. Before you wonder what the big fuss is about, let me remind you, we are talking about the 1980s & early 90s here. Topless was huge thing back then, plus I was about 15/16 years old.

Read more here : http://parikrama.blogspot.com/

-Gandhi’s Ghosts-
Dateline: Delhi

Thanks to my incredible lack of foresight, I have only a minute on the laptop battery this time, but that’s enough to tell about a very overlooked, and centrally located, Delhi historical site.

Most guidebooks mention Raj Ghat, the location where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. (This site was in the news in 2006 when George W. Bush paid a visit. Some people complained about the hypocrisy. I think, if anyone ever needed to get Gandhi’s vibes, it would be Dubya.)

Read Part I here, and part II here

Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyaar Badha, Ki Main Ik Badal Aawara

What do u say to some one who tells you that?
A some one to whom you can confess your darkest secrets and not be judged.
A some one you can tell your worst fears to?
Some one who asks a few yrs down the line if those fears have vanished
Some one, who over the years has gotten to know you better than yourself
Some one, who can make his own confessions to you.

here is one more of the himalayan blog (yet another long sitting (standing) draft). so my hijack of the site is on…

http://zweiundvierzig.blogspot.com/2006/12/closer-to-kedar.html

Here is a
link to a blog that was in a draft form for a long time.

(Do not click “Read More”)

Haven’t been blogging for a while now. Blame it on my arm that just won’t quit. But I’ve still been taking pics. Also , I have had a few opportunities to relax a bit and take a break .
Spent the last wk of Novemember in a really beautiful place, with a relaxed pace.

spilled here.

Shelter and shade

Kathmandu, Nepal

I finally found an umbrella man, on my way to CIWEC clinic. He sits by the roadside under a tiny blue-tarp lean-to. He’s little more than a child, and speaks almost no English. But his slender, tiny fingers work delicate miracles on broken parasols.

I was always taught that umbrellas were disposable. If an umbrella breaks in America, you just buy a new one. There is no one who would even think of repairing it, much less know how to do so. Here, just about anything can be and is repaired - people simply can’t afford to toss things aside. The cobbler will even painstakingly sew plastic flip-flops back together. I’m a bit attached to my green folding umbrella. It’s nothing special, but I bought it in Kandy, Sri Lanka in March last year, where the alternating rain showers and blazing sun make it an absolute necessity. In Sri Lanka, there are entire umbrella stores (In Tamil an umbrella is called "kooday").

Any of you guys dig dakota fanning?

Now, I am not a guy who is into becoming a fan of stars or celebrities, but yeah, I am forced to admit, I am her fan, as tacky as that sounds.

I tried to see Mt fuji … again

Here is the next part of the travel story…
http://zweiundvierzig.blogspot.com/2006/07/up-hills.html

When my friend called early January to ask us if we would like to join them for a holiday in the himalayas, both of us said yes at once. I was sure I would be able to make it but we were not sure if K (my wife) could join us for the entire trip.

http://zweiundvierzig.blogspot.com/2006/06/himalayan-misadventure.html

the first half of my vacation

Hello folks. I finally got around to maintaining a log the last time I went on a road trip – 6 days in Thailand and Cambodia. Have been meaning to convert that into a blog for a while now (I made the trip in Nov. ’05. Pliss to do the math accordingly), and here it finally is. For the uninitiated, I live in Singapore – a place that, for all its faults, serves as a really nice base camp for wanderlust in Asia, if you have the necessary resources that is. Starting with this entry, I plan to make this an on-going series on my travels in Asia, the first of these being the afore-mentioned one. You’ll have to indulge me in long-winded descriptions, detours to reflect on things etc. though, as I intend to make it a 6 or 7-part series, 1 for each day of the trip (hopefully less). Here’s the first…

Had a really nice time last wkend, so I thought I’d share.

disclaimer(s) : a really long read, grab a cup of coffee before clicking here.

If a tour operator delivers what he promises, tours will be a success. Doesn’t matter if the tour belongs to the champagne-after-a-tiresome-balooning category or peel-your-own-potato category, tell them what they’d expect in the tour and give them that, the participants will be happy.

The rest of the blog is here

A rose by any other name , is still a rose

I told Pranav that we will explore the forest the very next morning. As I did not know what time we would be leaving, I decide to set the alarm to 5:45 AM. Sheru was confused at the new place of sleep. We arranged a nice bed for him but he just wouldn’t sleep. So I had to keep our bedroom door open so he could see me continuously. Pranav and I talked a little and I was telling him stories about Mumbai and riots. I never realized when I slept when I woke up listening to Pranav’s shout in the night. Just a bad dream. I got up at 5:30 AM without the alarm.

blooms

and the kumbh quotient

This blog will mostly contain pictures and little text. Also, the little text has to do to the fact that nothing much happened at this place other than the group having their first fill of fish. They said, it tasted divine but then the portions were too tiny. Each person could only get a small piece. Unlike other resorts, this one touts itself as an ayurvedic one, and hence stipulates food orders to be made atleast 4 hours in advance. So RJ had to apologise and promised that the next meal will have more fish! And they did. For those wanting to know about the dishes, they were Fish Masala and Fish Fry.

Here is the link to the post

Here is the link to the next part of the trip: the welcome meal.

Here is the next part of the tour …

(caution a long post and no food as yet… )

let’s go

Some of you know that I recently guided a group of Dutch people across S.India on a food tour. Here is how the concept started and how the actual tour began…

http://zweiundvierzig.blogspot.com/2006/03/food-tour-beginning.html