Flour, salt, sugar, butter and milk. The basics of a million different dishes all over the world. Every country, every culture has its share of the same few ingredients that…
Durga Puja in Paris (or the absence of it)
As a kid, one of my fondest memories of Durga Puja in Kolkata has always been checking the countdown to Puja at Grand Bata every time I went to Esplanade…
Durga Puja notes from Boston in the year of great adjustments
Time: A bright afternoon in early October. Place: Kolkata in the mid-2000s. Upon her return from school on the last day before Durga Puja holidays, a teenaged girl flings her…
La nuit tombe — the night is falling
Summer is officially over in this part of the world. The rains have started, the mercury is falling, the Paris supermarkets have stopped stocking ice cubes, the leaves are nearly…
A brush with history at Göttingen
It must have been more than a decade ago that I read “Biswasghatok” (The Traitor) by Narayan Sanyal, based on Operation Manhattan. My mastery of the Bengali language is questionable,…
Antarctica: The Wild Wild South
It was far away… a rather small and indistinct structure. But spotting your first iceberg is special. And it was the first of many firsts for me that happened on…
How to plan a tour to the Grand Canyon?
There are several sites on the must-see list if you are traveling to the United States of America. You cannot miss any of them and struggle to make time for…
How to get the benefits of travel without physically going anywhere
Travelling is one of the most worthwhile things we can do. Whether it's to the city next door or to a country on the other side of the world, we…
Make a conscious effort to be a pleasant co-passenger
View from my Gangtok guest house. Indians are not known as the best co-passengers. They tend to be loud, have little or no sense of personal space and generally don't…
5 things to know about New Zealand’s casinos
Picture from @SkyCityAKL on Facebook When you travel to New Zealand, your primary focus is probably going to be on the outdoors. Most of the country’s most popular attractions consist…
I enjoyed passing through the tiny Andal airport
I love tiny airports. I'd totally forgotten that there existed a tiny airport serving Durgapur. I had a family wedding to attend in Durgapur, which is a three hour drive…
Your knowledge of English could make your trip to Vietnam way cheaper
Me at a cultural exchange meet in Saigon, Vietnam. Vietnam is currently one of the world's most up-and-coming travel destinations and not without reason. The place is incredibly beautiful, the…