Dog Blogs Travel Trips

A coal blackened board welcomes us as we drive through "Desh ki Koyla Rajdhani - Dhanbad". Coal and Capital. Our country's current obsession. Just a few people shy of complete coverage of human rights issues in all of Jharkhand's 24 districts, a colleague (at the time snoozing on the back seat) and I were Travel-Tripping across the state, reconnecting with the many friends and associates we have acquired in our many years of IndiaUnheard in Jharkhand. The road from Ranchi took us through Hazaribag, onto the broken roads of Bengal, past the "prestigious" Maithon dam (which by the way, displaced thousands of the native people, most of whom are still homeless migrants), right on through the steady, stoic hills of the Santhal Pargana, into Dumka. Dumka is one of many Coal Cities across Jharkhand, complete with its unique kind of inadequate infrastructure suffering from wave after wave of migrants. Every chai tapri at the main bus stop has filthy,...

'In the end of the day...the world has changed' We got pulled over by a young Kannadiga couple yesterday on the way to office. Obviously distressed, they mumbled in broken English that they'd come to Goa on vacation, lost their wallet, family can't send money, they were from a small village, could we lend them something? They promised names, addresses, phone numbers & to pay us back at the soonest. Broke after a series of misfortunes with disobedient ATMs & thefts in our homes, we offered to help them call family at the most. They asked the way to the nearest police station, and before we could get to the bike to escort them, they'd fled. 'we desire our fate, we sit and pray' I've been contemplating meditation, to escape inconvenient realities. To distance myself from wickedness. Long swims in the sea, long conversations in the moonlight, nothing seems to change the harsh reality that people are simply ignorant and nothing you do can cha...