The journey begins. I am at the gates now, waiting for the rest of my group. They are not as eager as I am – the sun has quite dulled their spirits, but it doesn’t matter. My sister sips water from her endless supply of bottles and I roll my eyes. A long, winding road […]

‘A thousand years of silence in a goblet of calcareous blue, of distance and moon, fashioned of the bare geography of night.’ I remembered the words of Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet as I stood in the desert, watching the wind mould the sands of Thar. The morning sun cast a golden glow over […]

The lake shimmered in the afternoon sun. As the water lapped against the boat, I sat back and closed my eyes, enjoying the brief respite from the heat in the middle of Lake Pichola. I was in Udaipur, which has often been called the Venice of the east, and not without reason. Udaipur is a […]

“You’re going alone to India?” “Umm, yeah.” “Alone?” “Yes.” (Actually no, I am going to stuff an entire army of Ninjas in my tote and let them loose at the first hint of trouble.) You may have had a lot of conversations like this. Each time, you try to come up with new and creative […]

The red and green enamel whispered against my skin as I fastened the necklace around my throat. In the mirror, the diamonds, the size of small pebbles, shone brightly. Though it looked like a necklace composed solely of diamonds and gold, on the back was a brilliant design of flowers and leaves. As per traditional […]