Destiny levels with you in ways neither strange nor unpredictable. Strange and unpredictable are the ways Fate tempts you. Living is what is caught in the line of these sparring two. And travel is the referee, drawing a line between the clash of the mind craving for head-on collisions with rare experiences and the body set to an assuring routine. The cruelties you come across will harden you, the wonders will humble you, the hardships will embolden you; nothing will leave you…

The Surajkund Mela is an eye-opener for the city slicker to the best skills from rural India as Thommen Jose found out. Photographs by Raushni Abraham

You reach Surajkund even before you can say ‘Surajkund Mela’. You are there even before you realise that you are in the outskirts of Delhi. For Delhi-ites used to getting…

Here, heritage lives. It is revered and celebrated. It embodies not just the culture and the traditions of the land, but epitomises a way of life. It is a source of pride and forms the crux of many conversations. The grandeur takes you by surprise, the intricacy holds you in awe and the legends leave you spellbound. This is heritage country, Nepal.

Nepal, with more than 60 linguistic groups, has always nurtured the reputation of being a country of contrasts, where gods and…

Petering out crowd is a challenge to any festival. Keeping the audience interest alive is a comment on the organisers’ ingenuity and imagination. Day three of the Hornbill in Nagaland in December was therefore a test; the teasers had done their job, the flitters had left and the real festival junkies slouched around to check whether the varnish…

In a region where you wouldn’t find even a stray camel, naming a road after the ungulated dromedary should have been the work of some intrepid imagination. Or a distinct lack of it. During the British Raj both were in abundance. But whatever the Camel’s Back road lacks in nomenclature aptness, it makes up with sheer panorama. The four kilometres of clean air,…

The veneer is peeling off and heritage is fighting a losing battle here. But all need not be lost if Kathakali can find new patrons and the Chinese fishing nets came up with some more fish

You see the palm fronds swaying an eager welcome even as you come in to land. Reach by rail or road and the greenery doesn’t wait for you to cross the…

(From the first of the daily updates from the Hornbill Festival of Nagaland... Read more on www.wanderink.com) 

The bull and the bolero became one. Colour charged the air. You could touch the permeating pride. The fine film of dust that hung about added to the surrealism…