Tourists don’t know where they have been, travellers don’t know where they are going; art shows have been a reason to rewrite many an itinerary. While Paul Theroux actually said the first part, the second bit I made up. Then come to think of it, is there any traveller worth his curious salt who can resist art? Mythical or megalographic, metonymic or metaphoric, art as the collective conscience of a culture, the true mirror of social evolution, a phantasmagoria of countless interpretations? A typical tourist is shutter-happy, breezes by with

“’Ind-j-a’ tastes better on your tongue… try it,” Sanjay Malhotra told me. I did and it did. I mean, I wasn’t too sure about how it tasted, but it definitely sounded different. Well, may be better too. In a whacked-out sort of way. Sanjay Malhotra, the much-awarded fashion designer is also the director of ‘Indja’, a gay travel boutique. I had asked Sanjay whether the ‘j’ in his ‘Indja’ was a gimmick. Besides the taste thing, “adding a ‘pink’ to the company name would have been a cliché,” feels Sanjay.

The frizzling aloo tikkis lay like golden islands in a shallow sea of applauding oil. Gol gappas were stacked in a brocade of delectable disarray, pomegranate seeds lazed about in the savoury water that would be filling them up soon. The diced tomatoes lent a fiery red to the simmering paav bhaji gravy made of mashed potatoes and fringed by molten butter cubes and chickpeas. Freshly fried jalebis were a sugary orange, dripping syrup, waiting to be bedecked by powdered pistachio and almond. I have always been partial to potatoes.

Each one has more intricacy, information and culture, beauty and potential making you wonder at the iconic status of Barbie. Each one speaks volumes about a nation – the prevalent social conditions, religious sentiments, traditions, even the economy of the period. The costumes are perfect renditions of the fashion of the times. Some are laid out as elaborate sets – Japanese tea ritual and voodoo, a construction site replete with brick-laden pushcarts, a bullfight gone awry with a bolero in gored agony. And there are over 6,000 of them. An

Side zip or flip flop boots, fitting trousers, button or tie waist cardigans and tee shirts with no serious cuss will all breeze us through the airport security. Blanket scarves, shades and the tech-case cum travel wallet were designed to make travel cushy and hassle-free. Then, what about the other side? How do you keep looking good and comfy once you reach your destination? As you go about taking in the sights and the histories, the culture and the culinary? At the same time, adding a dash of your own

December 29, 2012, New Delhi. ‘When the body and the brain give up, the heart takes over.’ I was pondering over this status update on Facebook when Damini died. She gave in to the diabolic assaults and rapes she sustained a fortnight earlier. ‘An abominable upbringing is no excuse for a monstrous adulthood.’ I vented my rage with my hopes for getting the noose for the ugliest set of criminals ever to inhabit the darker media. Then, writing about something you feel strongly about – or imagine vividly – makes

In a land of 330 million deities, the risk lies more in running out of devotees than running short on festivals. Staking a righteous claim to the title ‘land of festivals’ is almost every second state of the republic – starting in the south from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan to West Bengal and further on to Nagaland. Birth of deities, death of saints, change of seasons, arrival of rains and harvest, a festival for selling camels, another for buying cattle…the reasons are as recherché

My kitty of some 30 odd pugmarks counted at least a dozen. There was also the unending one which striped my boat’s wake for some distance or so I thought looking back on life till then but was actually headed for the herd of deer grazing on the banks across. Who counted it or whether anyone did at all, I was not sure. But when I saw it in midflight, I was sure glad that I didn’t see it anywhere during the last seven days – black and yellow stripes

Come December and an almost-traditional lull in violence draws a comforting, silencing blanket over Kashmir. I was always fascinated by this phenomenon – why and how was this possible? Why would militants and separatists chose to stay indoors, stoking their butt-reddened palms by the fire? Do ideologies have Christmas offs? Or after an active year, was it a simple case of organisation fatigue setting in? When we were courting, me and my wife Minu went to Kashmir, part work part holiday. Okay, mostly holiday with a spot of work thrown

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, describes Sri Lanka as a ‘small universe with as many variations of colour, scenery and climate as some countries a dozen times its size.’ The futurist and author should know as he settled here in 1956 and lived here till his death in 2008. Snapshots from a road trip that zigzagged over 1,000 kilometres, covering some very exotic locations of this island steeped in history. COLOMBO The sea, on a platter On the west coast of the island is the capital