Posts

Again South - With A New Perspective

Image
[ Should i or should i not write this?  This was the mental debate i had for quite a few days. 'Against ' was that it will be a boring subject for many. Not many would like to read someone else's trip to temples and it would be consigned to digital garbage dump. On the other hand, i had plenty of time and i did enjoy the trip. And i do enjoy writing.  So, here goes.] It just happened that this trip was also to the Southern part of the country.  Initial discussions were on visiting some of the prominent temples in Tamil Nadu that are steeped in history and art. It was a difficult task to short list them as the whole southern part of the Indian peninsula is replete with structures that are centuries old, some of them with history from BCE.  We (my wife and i) thought we will base ourselves in Madurai, a temple town, and explore the temples around, starting from the resplendent Meenakshi Sudereshwarar temple (dedicated to Parvati and Shiva, built in the 17th Cenury) and...
2 comments
Read more

South India Trip with a difference

Image
As i was writing this, Vijay Sarvagnam, a dear friend from school days passed away. It brought down the mood of the trip but also reminded me to cherish and appreciate the times we had together.  I would like to dedicate this piece, however insignificant, to his memory.                                                When i started writing this piece, i didn't have a clue on what title to give. I just started rambling along, hoping it will dawn on me miraculously.  I also promised to myself that i will keep it short. It did not and i did not. Result, a poor title and a longer-than-should-be narrative. It was August, the monsoon retreating, having shown its might, and it was time for another trip - the last one more than a year ago.  But this trip was different from all the others.  This time, it was  a bunch of us, all 65+, who h...
10 comments
Read more

Japan - The Land of Courtesy

Image
In July 2017, my wife and i made a 2-week trip to Japan. Breaking our practice of taking packaged tours,  we decided to make it a-la-carte. From a travel perspective, a managed tour is more comfortable, predictable and takes away a lot of hassles.  But it also takes away the chances of seeing things that are unique and the chance of interacting with local people and understand a bit of local customs at your own pace. We had the advantage of having some friends in Japan who helped us in identifying the places to visit as also accompanied us to some of them.  Without them, i do not think we would have been so satisfied with the trip.   We decided on the following destinations: Tokyo Hokkaido (For the flower fields) Kyoto / Osaka (on the way to Hiroshima and being spitting distance from each other) Hiroshima (It was a toss up between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We chose Hiroshima as it was not far from Kyoto) As before, i will not spend too much time on describin...
5 comments
Read more