My World of Food and Travel

It was hot and humid at home in Guwahati when I visited my parents this September. I had almost forgotten how it felt to be in my hometown at this time of the year. The past few years I had been visiting Guwahati only during the winters – the months of December and January. Besides, I don’t remember September being so muggy earlier. It would be one of the ‘pleasant’ months of the year – neither too hot, nor too cold. My birth month, after all, which reflects my own temperament, as I would like to believe. As I cooled myself in the only AC room we had in our house, I longed for some natural coolness. The coolness of the hills. Shillong ! The idea popped into my mind and I immediately relayed it to my parents. “Shillong is not exactly the same, you know,” Ma said with some trepidation. “The weather there has changed drastically and at some points it is no worse than Guwahati.” I knew about that. My sister had travelled to Shillong a year back and returned a bit disappointed. ...

There have been times when I made assumptions based on my own limited knowledge about a particular place. Like the time I assumed Oman to be an arid country – its landscape a never ending stretch of sand dunes with nothing much to break the monotony. How unwise I had been, for nothing could be further from the truth. As I delved deeper into Oman’s places of interest, I was surprised, or even shocked, to see the variety of scenery present in the country. It caters to the whims and fancies of almost everyone who would want to visit this beautiful region. Take me, for instance, a die-hard lover of old ruins, mountains and water bodies. I would have no reason to despair in this ‘desert country’.  So, if you thought Oman was all about sand dunes, Bedouins and date palm trees, you are sadly mistaken, my friend. (Though I doubt anybody would be that stupid like me.) There is more to the country – secrets that are waiting to be uncovered among the mountains and relished. Let me take ...

The first time I went to Nandi Hills in 2011 I almost swore not to go back again. We had lost our way horribly and reached the top at around 11.30 am. A terrible time to be in Nandi Hills, as we realized later. Picnic parties were in full swing with the area choc-a-bloc with cars parked bumper to bumper. There were monkeys swinging down from every branch and twig, snatching and begging for food. Chaos reigned supreme. Nandi Hills definitely was not my type of place, I surmised.  Imagine my surprise when I read article after article on the thriving bird life there. And not just your usual birds but birds that were found in the Niligiri biosphere. We had gone searching for those birds in far flung places like Coorg and apparently they were there in Nandi Hills itself. Really? Amongst the madding crowd? The pictures on blogs said so. Maybe it was time for us to look at Nandi Hills with different glasses.Or binoculars. That decided, we landed there one morning at 7.30 am with the ...

I remember taking road trips since my childhood. Perhaps that’s how I got bitten by the travel bug. My earliest memories of a proper road trip are of the 7-day long journey to the hills of Assam and the other North-Eastern (NE) states.  It all started one fine October morning in 1989 when Uncle G and Aunty L from Bombay Natural History Society visited us at our Guwahati home. They were planning to a take a tour of a few hill towns of NE for research purpose and wanted Deta’s (my father’s) inputs. Our Durga Puja vacation was on and we kept on flitting in and out of the living room where the elders were having their discussions. I could hear snippets of the conversation.  “.....in fact, why don’t you all come along with us?” I heard Aunty saying. Deta threw a worried glance at us, and then looked towards Ma.  That evening saw the parents conferring earnestly among themselves. Finally, Ma approached us. “We will be going on a long journey,” she said. “And you m...