Tequisquiapan Sunrise

Surprise! My mom was looking at me with exactly the mix of shock and excitement that I had expected. I had startled her awake at 3 am that morning and told her to put on some warm clothes and comfortable footwear and be ready to leave the house in half an hour. She was a […]

Finding Pawradise

I have a thing for sunrises. Whenever I am in a new place, with beautiful views of water bodies or mountains and if I am very lucky, both, I always try to wake up to see the sunrise. There’s something calming and magical about seeing a panorama come to life, bit by bit, as the […]

‘Gorge’ous Gandikota

It was worth it. The calls back and forth for the last few weeks, making arrangements, the delayed flight where I never got coffee, the unimaginably bumpy, five-hour-long ride cab ride, waking up at 6 am…all of it was worth it for this view. No, this is not the Grand Canyon. This is Gandikota, a […]

Margaritas & Marietas

Here I was, sipping a margarita, looking out at a perfect azure sea, with the wind in my hair as the yacht sped towards Islas Marietas, looming in the distance, leaving the shores of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico behind and suddenly I heard… ‘Tune maari entriyaan re Dil mein baji ghantiyaan re Tang tang tang…’ Given […]

Heart of Fire

1165 Fahrenheit = 629.4 Celsius That’s the temperature at the center of a volcano. The volcano we were standing on. A couple of hours ago, when we had driven into the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, with the air becoming increasingly cold and misty, we were startled by jets of steam shooting out of vents on […]

California’s Danish Fairy Tale

What does a Scandinavian country, known for rustic windmills, buttery cookies, and Viking history have in common with Hollywood, Los Angeles, Sea World, Silicon Valley, Yosemite and Disneyland? Apparently, California. We had driven up a beautiful coastal road early that morning, along a surreal blue ocean towards Southern California’s Santa Ynez Valley. Here, at just […]

Yours Royally, Udaipur

I gratefully sipped my hot tea, sitting on the roof terrace of the hotel, watching the fog lift and reveal a lake so still, it looked like a mirror. Not a bad way to start the day or the year. Certainly a fitting welcome in Rajasthan’s ‘city of lakes’, Udaipur. I have a fascination with […]

In the Shallow

As a child, I had dreamed of this day. I could hardly believe we were really, truly, actually here. That ultimate fantasy of any kid who loves the ocean and its many wonders- SeaWorld. Playful dolphins, majestic orcas, adorable sea lions…I could barely contain my excitement as we parked and made our way across the […]

An Oasis of Gold

As my friends and I sipped on cocktails, in an Irish bar overlooking a river with a world-famous skyscraper in the background, it was hard to imagine that just about 200 years ago, this was a little desert backwater, invisible on the world map. Today, Dubai is the fourth most visited city in the world- […]

Tibet Trails

For a moment, I thought I was hallucinating. Or maybe I managed to teleport somehow? How else could I make sense of the fact that on our way to Coorg we were…in Tibet? We had left Bengaluru about 4 hours ago, headed to Coorg for a weekend in the misty hills. An hour away from […]