Posts

Are Russians Unfriendly? - A Traveler's Perspective

Image
Most travel blogs and articles on the internet seem to paint almost all destinations with the same brush. That, in fact, all travel is beautiful, food everywhere is great and people everywhere possess a ready smile. But the fact is like many things in life, travel experiences are also subjective. If you ask me, “are people everywhere unfriendly?”, my answer would be an emphatic ‘no’. But if you ask me the opposite, I would not waste a second to give the same answer. And it is these kind of perspectives that I would like to share on this platform, and hopefully also start a conversation. Let’s start with the international country I most recently visited, Russia(if you do not consider my trip to Sri Lanka which was purely for work). I traveled through Mother Russia, incidentally with my Mother and it was a trip like no other. Even if it wasn’t the easiest trip, it definitely was the most enriching one. Now, getting to the point, let me explain how Russians are when it comes to f...

Soul Sojourns: How To Be Productive, Explore Mysore & Learn Yoga Under 500 USD?

Image
Entrance gate to the famous Mysore palace Most of you must have heard of Mysore in India. If you haven’t allow me to introduce you to the charming city. It is a famous city in South India in the state of Karnataka, not very far from the IT capital of Bangalore. The city is made famous by the Wodeyars, the family that ruled the city, its palaces, temples, great weather and its nice people. R K Narayan, a writer who created a fictitious town called Malgudi that many like me fell in love with during their childhood also spent most of his life in the city. The fact is that if you look closely, there are brushes of Mysore(or Mysuru) in the stories of Malgudi. How cool would it be to visit this city, right? But what if I said that there is a lot more on offer in the city beyond the plethora of tourist sights. To start off with, it is the Yoga capital of South India(and of the entire country, in my personal opinion). It is known for its great Yoga tradition and world famous tea...

From snoring to spiritual awakening: My days in Mysore

Image
Well, I cannot remember where it all started. Yoga had no part to play in my life, even after NaMo(cute way to address a Prime Minister with authoritarian tendencies, innit?) proclaimed in the UN, “Mitrooonnn, 21st June will be International Day of Yogaaaaa.” The only thing amiss was he did not make this announcement while doing an asana himself. But I am guessing he is always doing Pranayama to control his anger towards skull-cap-sporting, terrorists-in-making that he bumps into on a daily basis. But neither is this post about our benevolent(lol) dictator nor is it about the international day of stretching your body and tormenting yourself. Like every great piece of writing, this one too, is about the writer himself. Though I will make every attempt to mask the self indulgence with totally useless information. So yes, I do not know where it started. But I thought learning Yoga might be a good idea as my body and mind had started to grow thick. And though I may blame...

The Unsung Foodie Destination of India

Image
For most part of my life when someone asked me about the best city for food in India, I would say, "it must be Delhi or Kolkata". Now, of course I understand that this is subjective and in a country with a diverse culinary culture like India, it is impractical to call any particular place 'best for food'. Despite that I have been guilty of bestowing this label to the capital of India or the erstwhile capital i.e Kolkata. I realise I have been wrong, not because I labelled a city as best; but because I did not know that there is another city which is the shining star on India's culinary horizon. And if you are a meat lover then probably it will be difficult to find another place that offers as much variety of meat, chicken, fish and egg dishes as this one does. Ladies and gents, I am talking about the South of South India, a city in Tamil Nadu that even people in Chennai think is too far south to visit. Have you guessed yet? Nope? Historically, the capital o...

Things To Do In Udupi

Image
Welcome, welcome - if everything goes as planned this is going to be my new personal blog. Don't worry it won't be so personal that you won't want to read it. This is where I will narrate my travel experiences, share travel tips & tricks, and also share challenges that I intend to take. This will be the place where I take you through my lifestyle design experiments, and hopefully, motivate many more of you to walk a different path. Why? Because this is my blog, and I can write WHATEVER I feel like! Okay??? Just like my role model Ali G . So in the spirit of true jourmalism(geddit?), this blog will bring a whole lot of important issues to the fore - like, where can you get the best anda bhurji ? Or which is the best airline to travel if you want to get a good spanking? (United, of course). It was fitting that the my first post on this blog would be about the town that my ancestors come from. This is also the town where I intend to settle down so I can e...