Dog Blogs Travel Trips

Now, moving on from my pitch to be 'goanese', the wish-I-were-Goan breed peppered across the state, I’m not really claiming to be deeply knowledgeable about Goa. I’m only falling back on certain experiences to make this childish claim for citizenship. A few years in the same villages here has earned a morning ‘hi’ from many households I pass on the way to work. I’ve developed a deep respect for the local lifestyle, with a few years with Rose & Peter, at their Addams Family-esq estate in North Goa. Meet Morticia Addams: Rose. Rose is an enigma, smooth faced and soft spoken. She rules her male dominated empire with a sweet smile and gentle grace...I've known Rose a few years now, and really enjoy being her neighbour/tenant. Peter is her perfect Gomez, he refers to her as the ‘Boss’. I see him every evening, banging a thick bamboo cane along as he walks barefoot across the estate. Once he promised he wouldn’t ‘hurt’ the scorpion we found, and proceeded to break it into...

Who am I? What am I doing on the planet? Am I living the life I came here to live …? I’m thinking about psytrance & psycho-puppies as I amble along, entranced in my Sillie Millie world. We walk a long path at least once a day, an enhanced insight into the world we live in. Every day is a new experience, as we explore the bushes and listen for the birds together, equally curious about the scuffling in the bushes, equally wary to go explore… she sniffs & I sigh at the fresh neon leaves blinging our brains in the bright morning sunlight, and keep an watchful eye out for the inevitable fresh dollops of multi-creature poop she always discovers just the second I turn my back! From our earliest memories, we’ve been marinating in the mantra…. It’s the pursuit of happiness! A few months ago, I found myself marinating in my mind…lost in my thoughts, always a million miles away from here & now, struggling to overcome horrific writer’s block, and g...

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,...

Apologies. I got sidelined for a few days because of deadlines I had to meet. Yes, I'm trying to get back into the 'normal' work life. (Note: Normal is supremely over rated.) Also I got distracted by Calvin & Hobbes, who as usual, tickled my imagination far too much to not share! Before I get distracted again, I'll finish what I started with .  I wish the world would understand what we look like the way the stars see us. A blimp in the blackness of the universe. A sole blazing sun supporting this delicately balanced eco-system. Perhaps we would then stop rampaging through this world & her resources without a care. We as a race completely fail to see the significance of anything beyond ourselves. What if we stopped buying love, as sold to us by these community wrecking companies which seek to train our minds in to thinking the way they want us to - to be singular individuals with the sole purpose of owning far too many commodities.What if we inst...

Another day, I feel the weight of the atmosphere's pressure And I can't escape I try to run, I try to find my feet, My soul is sticking to the street I was editing my 'Couchsurfing' profile a few days ago, and in the section 'Teach, Learn & Share'section describing what I could offer couchsurfers as part of the experience of chilling with me, I had written "culture, egg curry the Indian way (that's all i can cook!!) and how to enjoy life even when it's hellbent on giving you a hard time!". 'Contemplating' this statement (Deepu-style), I find Mom's exasperated expression in mind. The one she gets whenever I give her one of my languid, 'Chill Ma's. It's usually said as I'm sprawled across whatever available surface while gently bullying one of the dogs and in response to Mom rushing up to me with the next urgent thing she needs done N-O-W.  And yes, I'm very conveniently disregarding the fact that I...