Leave home, baby.

Why must we travel and see the earth well beyond our needs? what good comes from pain endured, hard-earned money spent on fleeting moments we cannot take back? Who else other than the traveller remembers or cares about moments on expeditions and pointless walks through a forest? When will the wanderer be at peace? Where is that spot of calm that we set out for, with that organised backpack? what satisfaction exactly is derived from a visual captured on a device to take back as memories? For all the W questions we ask in retrospect, the answer is another set of Ws- We would Wishfully Wander where whereabouts whisk to world's wonders.

So set forth my neighbour, you, of this beautiful planet of a fragile, perishable ecosystem, and explore pointlessly with no agenda. You will find the answers to a lot of things that bother sometimes. How important were they, really? I take inspiration from a Satyajit Ray piece called Pather Panchali. One translated dialogue meant 'Staying in one place too long makes you mean.'

So leave behind those irrelevant little nothings that mean so little, especially when you see a picture of this planet from outer space. Why do we hang on to things in this life of .16 seconds? Thank you- Carl Sagan, for putting things in perspective.

Dwell not further on pointless posts such as this- concocted in a state of restlessness, itching feet for the next trip to a landscape unseen. Explore, and inspire me.

Leave home, baby.

Why must we travel and see the earth well beyond our needs? what good comes from pain endured, hard-earned money spent on fleeting moments we cannot take back? Who else other than the traveller remembers or cares about moments on expeditions and pointless walks through a forest? When will the wanderer be at peace? Where is that spot of calm that we set out for, with that organised backpack? what satisfaction exactly is derived from a visual captured on a device to take back as memories? For all the W questions we ask in retrospect, the answer is another set of Ws- We would Wishfully Wander where whereabouts whisk to world's wonders.

So set forth my neighbour, you, of this beautiful planet of a fragile, perishable ecosystem, and explore pointlessly with no agenda. You will find the answers to a lot of things that bother sometimes. How important were they, really? I take inspiration from a Satyajit Ray piece called Pather Panchali. One translated dialogue meant 'Staying in one place too long makes you mean.'

So leave behind those irrelevant little nothings that mean so little, especially when you see a picture of this planet from outer space. Why do we hang on to things in this life of .16 seconds? Thank you- Carl Sagan, for putting things in perspective.

Dwell not further on pointless posts such as this- concocted in a state of restlessness, itching feet for the next trip to a landscape unseen. Explore, and inspire me.

Kerala 2010

For all the crib of a lack of Industry in Kerala, if there were, would it be God's own then? A naturally rich state is on the brink of losing its treasure- the flora and fauna we take for granted. From Thekkady to my back yard- this is the heaven that has become a memory in other, so called 'developed' areas. A glimpse at the Pandora that still is.

Kerala 2010

Kerala 2010

For all the crib of a lack of Industry in Kerala, if there were, would it be God's own then? A naturally rich state is on the brink of losing its treasure- the flora and fauna we take for granted. From Thekkady to my back yard- this is the heaven that has become a memory in other, so called 'developed' areas. A glimpse at the Pandora that still is.

Kerala 2010

Bharatpur

Although this wasn't really the best time of the year for Bharatpur, it had to be done. This one one of the plans you make with friends but fizzles for sundry reasons. ''Wha... Were we serious?'' Make and break one plan and the rest also go this way. So we had to drive out.

No thanks to weekend work that needed wrapping up, we left Delhi at 5pm in two cars. Reached Bharatpur at 11pm. Now the quality of roads were way better than what I had imagined, so hats off to Rajasthan administration. We stayed at sunbird hotel, 100 metres before the sanctuary entrance. Woke up early in the morning at 6 am and loaded up our cameras with the required lenses. We didn't really get to see the flock of migrating birds we thought we would, like painted storks. So the 'micro life' took focus. Came back in the afternoon. Here's another unplanned trip in pictures.

Bharatpur

Bharatpur

Although this wasn't really the best time of the year for Bharatpur, it had to be done. This one one of the plans you make with friends but fizzles for sundry reasons. ''Wha... Were we serious?'' Make and break one plan and the rest also go this way. So we had to drive out.

No thanks to weekend work that needed wrapping up, we left Delhi at 5pm in two cars. Reached Bharatpur at 11pm. Now the quality of roads were way better than what I had imagined, so hats off to Rajasthan administration. We stayed at sunbird hotel, 100 metres before the sanctuary entrance. Woke up early in the morning at 6 am and loaded up our cameras with the required lenses. We didn't really get to see the flock of migrating birds we thought we would, like painted storks. So the 'micro life' took focus. Came back in the afternoon. Here's another unplanned trip in pictures.

Bharatpur

Kolkata 2010

Never having been to Kolkata was an ever-nagging, poking blurb I lived with since art school days. Native classmates or colleagues would dissappear around puja (Dushehra) and would return unwillingly, with a thing or two to say about the city that egged me on to plan a trip. Fifteen years of postponing went by. So when a work related opportunity knocked on my procrastinating skull, I reached for it, with an eye on a weekend spent galavanting on the streets of a heritage city, polishing off quintessential street food I had heard so much about. There was so much more. I was amidst sprawling bookstores reflecting an intellectual people's priorities, passion for football in a crowded maidaan opposite Victoria Memorial, an agitated narrator in Birla Planetarium reprimanding cell users during the show, zealous taxi drivers wanting to guide me through the city across both the iconic bridges, mobile time capsules like the trams, foot-driven rickshaws and the undying, ever-available yellow taxis. I could have well spent a week here and still not scratched the surface of what heritage city can offer a first-timer. High strung colleagues invited me with outstretched arms and swore by the city. Lunch time at Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose road has a plethora of dishes made right there on the pavements, ranging from Dosas to Fish and eggs with rice. After a gluttonous session at K.C. Das, a waltzed down the flea market from Esplanade, along Jawahar Lal Nehru road. Victoria Memorial reminded me of sections of the British Museum and the national gallery on trafalgar square. The exhibits here, 18th century paintings of Indian landscapes by European historians, surely deserved better lighting though. Despite the people thronging, the compound was clean, unlike the unmanagable Taj. I tweeted my walks starting from my hotel on Elgin road to Park street, to Esplanade back to my hotel. After work hours on Monday, a colleague took me home for dinner to South City, on Prince Anwar shah road. We checked out South City mall, shaped like a boat. Our first course started with some unmissable street food called churmura on Camac street. We binged on at a local sweet shop. The evening whizzed past and I found myself waking up at 4 am to catch the morning flight. A trip cut short with so much more to see, I returned with a spearing thought of doing this again. College street, Kalighat... I'll be back. There's surely a reason for the happiness index to be on the higher side here.

One serious plea to the administrators of Kolkata- Please bring CNG to the city. Kolkata is a treasure on its own and it deserves clean air. Once this rolls in, other incremental improvements will follow. Nevertheless, still looking forward to getting in here again. Enough said, time for the pics. This is an open folder for more, on another trip some day.

Kolkata