To quote Ruskin Bond from ‘Strange men strange places’ – History is best experienced by visiting the actual place of the events and allowing one’s imagination to roam backwards and forward in time. Ever since I saw a Natgeo documentary on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy couple of years back, I …
Only a corporate slave knows the importance of extended holidays. Leaves are a rare gift, so we pin the yearly holiday list somewhere on our desk and carefully plan our trips around them. Over a family event, my cousin asked if I would like to join him on a trip …
There’s an interesting quote by Nick Miller I read on the internet which I am going to use as the basis for this post… …Travel is extraordinary conversations with ordinary people. It’s waiters, gas station attendants, and housekeepers becoming the most interesting people in the world… Travel is a smile that leads …
A friend once told me, “Banaras ek ehsaas hai”. I’m going to agree with him there. I was in Jaunpur in November 2016 to attend a friend’s wedding. As a side trip, I visited Varanasi (or Banaras) over a day since it was just 60km away. The trip absolutely did …
When I told my friends I am travelling to Varanasi, two of them gave me a list of #musttry food (and one asked me to try the local weed). I skipped the weed recommendation (I swear), but was excited to pursue the food recommendation list. For five days, I was …
This is my 100th post on Wannabemaven. Three years and 100 posts, that’s the longest I have stuck to any hobby. Many persistent efforts later, the blog is getting noticed. Occasionally travel brands reach out and if it interests me, I am always willing to collaborate. Earlier this year, on …
Sunsets be like… “That’s it! I can’t walk anymore. I’m going to give up?” I thought several times while trekking in the Satpura Tiger Reserve. I was doing the Panchmarhi trail under the Satpura Under Canvas programme, a unique walking safari by Reni Pani Jungle Lodge. Satpura is the only …
I had read enough stories about backpacking in Himachal Pradesh. More than half of them endorsed the Himalayas, the weed, the solitude and how people ended up finding themselves in the mountains. The idea of backpacking in Himachal was sold to me. So when a friend suggested that we backpack in the …
I was reading Mark Tully’s No Full Stops in India on an evening in Kalga village while bacpacking in the Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh for 8 days. The weather was pleasant and the fresh mountain air was intoxicating. I sat on an old wooden bench with a table outside …
A small coastal town in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra is home to the annual Velas Turtle Festival. The endangered Olive Ridley Turtles thrive in warm tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Ocean and India is a hotspot breeding ground for them. If you want to see hordes of these …
When my plan to play paintball at Della Adventures didn’t work out, I drove down to Pune from Lonavla. Looking for things to do in Pune, I came across the Darshan Museum. What would a Darshan Museum exhibit, I thought? At the back of my mind, I was skeptical if the …
I was randomly surfing the web one evening when I saw a picture of a temple in Jejuri covered in carpets of yellow. A quick search told me that the spectacle is called the “Bhandara Festival”. Bhandara is turmeric and the festival is related to a local God named Khandoba. …
Hyderabad had always fascinated me. While the city of Nawabs is rich in culture and history, there was also the thrill of driving down from Mumbai to another Indian state. In October 2015, prior to switching my job to boost my ‘so called’ corporate career, I took a two week …
I visited Goa thrice last year. This year I visited Goa twice in a month. I keep getting asked ‘Why do you always go to Goa?’ The simplest answer would be because I’m a Goan. But honestly there are many reasons. Goa’s laidback lifestyle, delicious non-vegetarian food, friendly locals and …
