I arrived at Manikarnika as the sun was preparing to leave the sky. The evening light had begun to soften the hard outlines of Varanasi. As I walked through the city’s labyrinthine lanes, Kashi displayed all its familiar contradictions at once—pilgrims and shopkeepers, temple bells and motorcycle horns, saffron-clad ascetics and foreign visitors, all sharingContinue reading “Manikarnika: Where Fire Becomes Eternity”
Tag Archives: travel
Leaving Bengaluru
I shall be leaving Bengaluru in a day or two, after having lived here during two distinct periods: first between September 2024 and July 2025, and then again during these recent months from March to May 2026. Between them, I have seen the city through almost all its seasons—under monsoon skies, amid flowering summers, in koel-filled mornings,Continue reading “Leaving Bengaluru”
Bengaluru Is Changing Its Mood
Some weeks ago, after an evening shower briefly interrupted the tyranny of April heat, I had written a piece titled “Rain, Briefly!” The rain that evening had felt less like a seasonal turning and more like a passing gesture—welcome, restorative, but uncertain of itself. By the next morning, the roads had dried, the heat hadContinue reading “Bengaluru Is Changing Its Mood”
Bengaluru in April
I have come back to Bengaluru for a while—long enough, hopefully, to continue understanding something of its temperament. It is a city that both fascinates and unsettles me: in the feel and fragrance of its air, in the interplay of its sounds and silences, and above all, in the restless energy of its people. ToContinue reading “Bengaluru in April”
A Star on The plate-Part IV
Beyond the Star — India, a Culinary Continent, and the Limits of Measuring Taste If the Michelin star began as an act of classification, and matured into a global language of culinary excellence, its encounter with India feels less like an arrival and more like a reckoning. India is often described as a country, sometimesContinue reading “A Star on The plate-Part IV”
A Star on The Plate-Part III
The Star Arrives in India: Presence, Practice, and the Limits of Adoption If the Michelin star’s journey across continents demonstrated its ability to travel, adapt, and recalibrate, its encounter with India introduces a different order of complexity. Here, the question is not simply whether excellence exists—few would doubt that—but whether a system designed to recogniseContinue reading “A Star on The Plate-Part III”
A Star on the Plate-Part II
The Star Travels — Globalisation, Translation, and Cultural Friction When the Michelin star left France, it did not merely cross borders; it crossed cultural grammars. Within France and much of Western Europe, Michelin’s judgments unfolded inside a shared culinary imagination. The idea of a restaurant as a distinct public institution, the figure of the chef asContinue reading “A Star on the Plate-Part II”
A Star on the Plate-Part I
From Tyres to Tables A Question That Refused to Be Small It began, as many serious inquiries do, with a child’s excitement. My nine-year-old grandson had gone out to dinner with his parents in Manhattan. The meal, by all accounts, was memorable. But what animated him afterwards was not merely the food. It was theContinue reading “A Star on the Plate-Part I”
Between Flights, Between Glasses
Airports are curious theatres of waiting. They are not quite places yet not entirely passages either—thresholds where the world pauses briefly before moving on. When I was in Helsinki, stopping over for a few hours on my way from New York to Delhi, that sense of suspension was heightened by the snow. It fell incessantly,Continue reading “Between Flights, Between Glasses”
India’s Aviation Paradox: Growth Amid Fragility-Part II
Profitability, Policy, and the Road Ahead If Part 1 traced the dramatic growth and fragility of Indian aviation, Part 2 examines why profitability remains elusive, the structural and regulatory bottlenecks that reinforce fragility, and what can realistically be done to secure the sector’s future. Despite soaring passenger numbers, airlines struggle to convert traffic into profits.Continue reading “India’s Aviation Paradox: Growth Amid Fragility-Part II”
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