Category Archives: Travel

Cote D’Ivoire, A Tiny Country With a Big Heart

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Archana

In Cote D’Ivoire, a tiny country in West Africa, there is a lot of love to go around. I experienced it firsthand, when I traveled to Abidjan, the biggest city, and Assinie, a sleepy beach resort, to be with my … Continue reading →

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Munnar’s Magical River

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Archana

Across from my hotel, a small river flows by. It is a river, insists the hotel manager, although it looks more like a stream to me. I believe him and feel saddened by the visibly depleting ravages of climate change. … Continue reading →

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Summer Dusk

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Archana

When was the last time you sat still and let the sinking, evening sun kiss your cheek goodbye? I mean, simply sat, doing nothing, unmoving, so that the fleeting rays could sneak one last peck before the night arrived? It … Continue reading →

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Travel Tales: Odisha

Posted on November 24, 2018 by Archana

Odisha is perhaps India’s best kept secret. I visited this gentle state recently and felt like I had entered one of Satyajit Ray’s films from the 1950s. Fields of paddy cover the land as far as the eye can see. … Continue reading →

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Kerala Needs Us

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Archana

Kerala, God’s own country, is getting lashed by Nature’s watery fury. The rains have been descending, wrathfully, unrelentingly, mercilessly until the whole state has been submerged under water. My tears add to the levels even as my heart breaks for … Continue reading →

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A reflection about this blog

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Archana

A few months ago, I committed to myself that I would write at least one post every week for my blog community. After all, we had found each other, spread out geographically, across all differences on the basis of a … Continue reading →

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How to see Kyoto

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Archana

This week, I had the good fortune to visit Kyoto. Readers of this blog will know that I visited Kyoto barely 6 months ago and fell absolutely in love with the historic, spiritual heart of Japan. It was sheer delight … Continue reading →

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Why Indians don’t say “sorry”

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Archana

Indians, generally speaking, don’t say “sorry”. If we’re late, we are nonchalant and breezy about it. If we don’t do something we were supposed to do, we talk about unrelated things that we have done, as irrelevant as they may … Continue reading →

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With love from Japan: Five things you didn’t know you needed

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Archana

After my visit to Japan, I have been spoiled. There, I discovered things that I did not know I needed. Here’s the top 5: Heated toilet seats. I had heard about the toilets in Japan before, especially about the heated … Continue reading →

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Reality, through a pinhole

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Archana

That’s what my zen meditation teacher, Reverend Takafumi Kawakami, said today. “We think we know reality, but the fact is, we know our reality, which is very limited. We think we are seeing everything, but our view is all that … Continue reading →

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