Collection
A curated path through the Of Places and People archive.
21 stories
For years, Udupi has been the base for our trips to the temples of South Canara. Uncluttered and peaceful, this little town has always wrapped us in a comforting blanket of hot food after jostling temple cro…
This is where it all began. I am standing in Carmel Valley, outside the picturesque cottage in which Hank and Alice Ketcham’s son Dennis was supposed to be asleep but was taking his bedroom apart, making it…
Published in Deccan Herald on 11th July 2024 For years, Udupi has been the base for our trips to the temples of South Canara. Uncluttered and peaceful, this little town has always wrapped us in a comforting…
Publication link: https://www.deccanherald.com/sunday-herald/sunday-herald-melange/bal-mithai-a-taste-of-the-hills-1087420.html "Taste karo! Bal Mithai! This is the pride of Garhwal!" he said pointing to a r…
Publication link : https://intrepidtimes.com/2020/04/the-land-of-high-passes/ Dangerous weather on India’s highest plateau forces a traveler to choose between safety and adventure. I gave up telling people m…
The Hong Kong Diaries There are some nice things about Hong Kong that get lost in the rhetoric of the tourist brochures. Like the landing at Hong Kong airport on Chek Lap Kok Island that was reclaimed from t…
It hit me as we drove to the hill station, and even harder when we saw the lake, that we should have set aside two more days for Nainital. Tucked away in the foothills of the Himalayas at a height of 6,358 f…
Why Jaipur? It’s hot, crowded and repetitive. Everybody has been to Jaipur and Jaipur has been to every city with its bed sheets, handlooms, puppets and mirror-embroidered bags. We were in Jaipur to confirm…
Where Waters Run Deep - The Hindu, 20th November, 2016 It all began with an in-flight magazine. As I idly flipped through its pages, I was struck by a photo of a dramatic multi-tiered stone structure spirall…
ONE OF THE THREE districts of India’s way-up-north state of Jammu & Kashmir (pop. 12.5 million) and administered by the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council, Ladakh is one of India’s most unlikely tourism hotspots…
Off the Beaten Track in Tamil Nadu The only state in India to host the Western and Eastern Ghats culminating in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu boasts five Unesco World Heritage sites and a southern tip plunging in…
Feel of The Country in Yercaud It is very difficult to believe that a mere twenty two kilometres from chaotic, noisy and lively Salem, at a height of 4970 feet, lies Yercaud , a quaint hill station in the mi…
In love with Ladakh - Published in metro editions of The Hindu from 23rd May 2013 Neither altitude sickness nor snow-storms can keep us away It’s taken me two years and five Chinese tents inside the LaC to w…
Queenstown – A Town Fit for a Queen! It was windy, rainy and cold as we stepped on to the tarmac at Queenstown airport – quite a dampener, literally and figuratively! Queenstown is positioned as the adventur…
At the Panchabhuta Sthalas, Shiva is worshipped as fire, water, space, wind and earth to remind us that we should live in harmony with nature, says BHAGYALAKSHMI KRISHNAMURTHY Every time I visit a Shiva temp…
Rotorua - Inside New Zealand’s Geothermal World “Roto what”? This was the common response when people heard that Rotorua figured majorly in our New Zealand itinerary. What also added spice to Rotorua was the…
Travel Where God is in the details Bhagyalakshmi Krishnamurthy Bhagyalakshmi Krishnamurthy visits heritage spots Belur and Halebid, and is smitten by the beautiful temples and the intricate carvings inside t…
To devotees, particularly Vaishnavites, the Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam near Trichy in Tamil Nadu is their sacred gateway to heaven. Among the 108 temples in south India that are of utmost importance…
Rameswaram - Looking Beyond The Ramayana The 106 year Pamban Bridge connecting Rameswaram to the rest of India Rameswaram –Looking Beyond the Ramayana The cry was for an unusual weekend getaway from Bangalor…
Mumbai. Quite Simply, Mumbai. Voila, here’s a city that needs no introduction. Call it by any name, Bombay, Mumbai, Bambai; its essence remains just the same, a city that compels a response. You can either h…