I love Hapus mango, the king of fruits. I was determined that I would eat the first Hapus of the season at Mumbai, where I lived before shifting to Ahmedabad for pursuing higher studies.  I am an ardent lover of the fruit so when I got the weekend free without lectures, I reached Mumbai. Dad had kept a full box ready for me and I binged into it. As I ate it, I saw a pamphlet lying on the table. A full MTDC tour guide on how to go to Ajanta Caves. I asked Dad if we could make it. Dad always gets...

“You will have to be in Guwahati for this month and you have to complete the project on Environmental Hazards” my boss told me peering through his silver rimmed spectacles. My heart leapt with joy at the thought of staying away from the air conditioned cubicle that I sit in for more than 10 hours a day. So Guwahati it was and in the midst of dense forests. Wow! I had always wanted to visit North Eastern India for most of my batch mates in the Engineering College were from this region. I booked...

I go back normally for my long weekends back home to my parents. They love to spend those precious hours with me. My mother pampers me with the lovely delicacies and my father ensures I get some new gadget or the other. This time however we had a site visit to Ladakh. We had to reach Ladakh by the end of the month. But the problem was that we had a week’s halt at Delhi as we had to wait for the accommodation at Ladakh to be cleaned. It had been struck by a snowstorm, thus the delay. “So, Shantanu,...

I was typing away to fury in a bid to finish the presentation I was supposed to give the next morning. Abbas, my guide had told me that it should be the best presentation in the University. Pursuing my Masters in Environmental Planning, I was well into my last semester and had just this one review to pull through. Prosenjit and Dattaprasad barged into the room and said, “Chal Lothal ja rahe hain.” In Hindi, it meant “Come let’s go we are going to Lothal.” “Lothal?” I asked. They nodded...

My hand touched the water and I could feel the cold water calming all my frayed nerves. The mountains seemed to beckon me and ask me to go running into its arms. The birds were twittering and I was trying to locate a rare species amongst the ones flying. The countryside with its mesmerizing small cottages and huts and the lovely path leading us into the land of Eden. I recollected how the night before we suddenly planned to go for a night out for the weekend. We couldn’t decide where and then one...

“Trring” the alarm bell rang. It was pitch dark outside and I just peered through the light of my cell phone. 4 AM ! 4 AM? I asked myself why I had set an alarm so early. I switched it off and went into my deep slumber. “Ting tong” went my cell phone again. Aditya? Why is Aditya calling me at this time of the morning? Suddenly I jumped out of my reverie. Oh Yes! I told myself . We were going to the best green expanse in Mumbai – The Sanjay Gandhi National Park. I disconnected Aditya’s...

As the train chugged into the station, I pushed up the strand of hair that fell on my face and smelt the air once again, the air of nostalgia, the air of my childhood days. Brought up in Kolkata, I still remember the day I had to leave the city when I came to Mumbai to get married. I have been in Mumbai ever since the last 22 years and have considered going to Kolkata and binging on its food as my favorite dream come true. Well my dream was coming true in the form of the small weekend outing I could...

Jai Mata Di – Glory be to Mata Di. This is a very common greeting up the northern states of the Indian subcontinent. My mother Martha and my dad Steve have always been settled in Mussoorie, the land of paradise. I, Ross, have grown up in the hills of Mussoorie in the background of the Himalayan ranges. My friends are always still amused to see and hear me speak the local language. Hindi is very much my own language though I am a mixed product of an English mother and a Scottish father. Today 60...