Photo Credit Canadastock on Shutterstock Venice has been my dream destination since childhood. But my primary purpose for visiting Italy in the year 2003 was to attend an academic conference in Modena, and not tourism. The trip to Modena was possible because I got sponsorship from the University of Modena, Italy and Indian Council of…
Third Time Lucky (Warning! This is a Long Post)
I walk into the examination hall and the students pay no attention. They keep on shouting at the top of their voices. I somehow manage to get heard, and ask for order. They reluctantly lower their voices. I ask them to remove all the reading materials so that I can give them the question and…
An Ode to my Departed Ladakh Pictures
I had 400 plus pictures from my recent trip (June, 2005) to Ladakh. Like a fool I saved them in ‘my pictures’ folder on C drive. Like a fool I did not write a CD and like a fool again I did not transfer them to the other system at my home from my laptop….
Writing for Gonomad
When I started working in the higher education sector in India, it turned out to be a real eye opener for me. When I was studying, I either went to better places or our generation was a bit more tractable. When I started teaching, I found the first two places completely impossible. This period of…
Auli: Beautiful Hillstation in Uttaranchal, India
Auli is a picture postcard kind of a place situated in Uttarakhand, India. I went there in the August of 2002, just after submitting my Ph.D. thesis and just before starting my first job that turned out to be an absolute horror. Rainy season, that is July and August are the worst time to visit…
A Most Unusual Walk through Amsterdam’s Red Light District
I traveled to Amsterdam from New Delhi in the summer of 2002. Almost all my foreign trips have been in relation to some academic work. This particular visit was sponsored by the Department of Economics, University of Groningen, as I was appearing in an interview there. Amsterdam, actually, was less of a travel destination and…
Malls Malls Everywhere Not a Library to be Seen!
The Mall Culture is comparatively new in India. When I was in college there were no malls in most of the cities. Today, the big cities boast of one too many. On a 2 km stretch of a road in Gurgaon (quite close to New Delhi) you can count four malls. There is the Metropolitan…
Manali, Himanchal Pradesh: Beautiful but Crowd and Litter Everywhere!
Manali is a picturesque small town in the Kullu Valley, in the Indian state of Himanchal Pradesh. It attracts a lot of Indian and foreign tourists, particularly in the summer months. I visited Manali in June 2005 because it is on the way to Ladakh. When rest of the India is buckling under heat wave,…
Rajaji National Park: An Excellent Weekend Getaway from New Delhi
Rajaji National Park is a wild life reserve in Uttaranchal, India. It falls in the lower Shivalik regions of the Himalayas. It is a peaceful and a quick getaway from the capital of India, New Delhi. We traveled from Delhi to Haridwar in February this year . The name Haridwar will translate roughly as ‘the…
Renuka Lake, Himanchal Pradesh, is a Beauty
Image Credit Fred Hsu Flickr under CCBY I would say that Himanchal Pradesh (HP) is one of the best-kept secrets of India. Parts of it are so beautiful and yet not visited by many. Renuka Lake is situated in HP and is one of such places. Tourism has developed around a natural lake called Renuka…