It’s 8 pm. I’m sitting in office and it’s pouring outside. I’m supposed to be filing a story, but I’m so distracted by the thought that I have to leave tomorrow and I still don’t know whether I have enough warm clothes that I haven’t been able to write a single straight sentence about the evolution of the Curriculum Vitae. Read more

If men ever found out how much time and energy women spend mulling about loos when they travel, they’d be flabbergasted. But the fact is, that in a place like India, where public loos are few and far in between, and uniformly filthy, this is an important concern. Read more

“After the hectic trek to Interview Island, we decided to take things easy. In Andaman and Nicobar, taking things easy means spending a day at a beach that is a long crescent of white sand, trimmed by jungle that rushes almost to the edge of the water. The water was gentle and warm, except for sudden pockets that were chillingly cold. Read more

The other day, I read in the paper that an American law firm had offered its associates an year of paid leave, at one third their basic salary. This was their way of coping with the recession, one that allows them to retain talent at lesser cost while their employees get a year to study or travel, and are happy too.

For many in the west, this period of recession has become a time to take a year off or take advantage of being laid off to travel. Andrei, a German I met in the Andamans, was at the beginning of a year-long trip around the world. Read more

One afternoon in the Andamans, as we all sat around a table, enjoying a quiet moment, my friend told a story he’d heard from an acquaintance. The said acquaintance had gone to meet some government high-up in Port Blair and had walked into the man’s office just as he was finishing a discussion on the things that should be on the schedule of protected items that cannot be carried by passengers leaving the airport. Figuring prominently in that list, between the shells and the coral, was the dugong, a sea cow. Read more

I’m partial to curd. On a hot summer day, there’s nothing quite like a bowlful of cold, homemade curd to lift a meal and my spirits. But for the eighteen days that I was in Andaman and Nicobar, while there were plenty of hot days and scorching sunlight, there was nary a bowl of curd to be found. Read more

There is a god and he’s heard my prayers, or rants, you pick. Last week, I told you my being the travel editor who sits in office and never steps out, reading about other people going to exotic places and doing fun things. Read more