In April of this year I was invited as an international media participant from India to attend the Australia Tourism Exchange in Brisbane. Preceding the ATE I was part of a media team that visited the beautiful South coast of New South Wales. We flew down from Sydney in a Saab 340B turboprop operated by…
Unable to sleep because of jet lag, I threw open the green wooden shutters of our upstairs bedroom to watch the unseen sun burning a line just above the horizon. Just below our window, shadowy clumps of olive groves and sage bush still slumbered peacefully. Further away, lines of tall cypress trees marched towards the…
March is my birthday month, and it is usually the month that I go to Goa. At this time of the year, the crowds have thinned, the room rates have come down, and the heat is beginning to build up, but not so much as to become unbearable. It is still very pleasant in the mornings…
I first met Sanjeev Bhargava during our college days at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, in 1978. Even then, his creative spark was undeniable, whether it was through his sharp perspectives in class discussions or his passion for the arts. Over the years, that spark has grown into a full-fledged flame, making him a torchbearer for…
The great thing about Goa is that it is always changing. It is an amazing hub of creativity and innovation, attracting people from all over India – and the world – who want to try something new. For various reasons, I couldn’t return to Goa, which I consider my second home, in 2023 and so…
Spain is a fascinating country to explore, but undoubtedly the most enthralling and exciting region is the southernmost province of Andalucía. Almost all international visitors to Andalucía land at Málaga airport and most invariably and inevitably head straight to sun themselves on the beaches of the Costa Del Sol. This is a pity because Málaga,…
In February 2022, my wife, Saroj, and I took a driving tour of the Coromandel coast to explore the lost empire of the Cholas. The word Coromandel is an anglicization of cholamandalam; in Tamil this means the realm of the Chola kings. Along the way, we discovered many unexpected treasures and came to appreciate a…
The most famous personality to come out of the small country of Georgia in the Caucasus was Joseph Stalin who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for thirty years from the death of his predecessor Vladimir Lenin as General Secretary in 1924 to his own death in 1953. As first-time visitors to Georgia,…
All images courtesy of Sundeep Kumar. When I first visited Sri Lanka at the invitation of Jetwing Hotels in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit and turned the world upside down, my wife and I stayed at the iconic Lighthouse Hotel in Galle. It is one of those places that sticks in one’s memory,…
In the rich and varied history of the Indian subcontinent stretching back millennia, few of the empires, kingdoms, and ruling classes that populated its pages ventured overseas. Perhaps it was because of the vast size of the subcontinent, which offered immense opportunities domestically for exploration, conquest, and commerce, without the need to venture very far.…
