After three years of good old paperback sales, we now have an e-book! For all those who said you did not buy the hard copy, here’s your chance!
Backpacking through Europe
That year, we went from Salzburg to Munich. We spent a few hours at Munich and then went to Berlin. And from Berlin, northward to Amsterdam. Our night in Amsterdam was another night out, but after so many journeys and so many crazy backpacking experiences, we’d figured out a few things. We had Eurail passes that […]
Backpacking through Europe: Still in Salzburg
However comfortable a waiting-room may be, it is not a comfortable place to spend the whole night. With hard steel chairs with immovable handles as beds and backpacks as pillows, the night seemed endless. We waited forever for the sun to rise, growing colder and colder as the night went by. At 5:30 in the morning, […]
Being Billy
When I started reading Being Billy, I felt uncomfortable, but I did not know why. I just could not lay my finger on what made me draw into myself and step back from the book. After a few pages, I realised I was supposed to feel uncomfortable. The book wanted to reach within me and squeeze something that […]
Backpacking through Europe: Salzburg
We hopped onto the 12:34 from Vienna to Salzburg, delighted as usual with our Eurail passes. At Salzburg station, though, we spent the most depressing time of all. I was 17; my sister was 19. We had spent a long time away from home already. We had little money and less experience. We had been […]
Backpacking through Europe: Vienna
I’ve already written so much about Vienna. The lady in the train, who warmed our hearts by taking us to the dining car and giving us tickets as if we were doing her a favour. Our crazy attempt to find the Burggarten. The Schmetterling Haus. Mozart and crisp apple strudel. Vienna was much more, though. […]
Clover Twig and the Incredible Flying Cottage
Clover Twig is a very tidy girl with very neat hair. She is very particular about things being clean and proper. She won’t do anything she is told not to do. In other words, she has a little bit of an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. When Clover begins to work for the witch Mrs Eckles, she welcomes […]
Backpacking through Europe: Goodbye, Italy!
We tried to feel sentimental about leaving Italy, but could not find it in ourselves to do so. Italy was beautiful, but we were going to Austria – the land of Mozart and “The Sound of Music”! (Both came later, though, because we went to Vienna before Salzburg.) With our Eurail passes, we did not […]
Backpacking through Europe: Venice
Venice was the place where we relaxed. When we got there, we were told at the information booth at the station that there was no way we would find cheap accommodation in Venice at the weekend. The best we would get was a place that cost €65 a night for three people. Okay, we said, okay. We’ll be […]
Witch Fire
I always judge a book by its cover, and this one said: Ancient witchcraft. Modern world. And then the title Witch Fire. It intrigued me immediately, and it did not let me down. I did not do any research before I started reading. I did not find out whether Witch Fire was part of a series. As I read […]
Backpacking through Europe: Still in Florence
We had nowhere except the station to spend the night, so we wanted to get there as late as we possibly could. We had dinner at a fancy Italian place instead of on the street: it took longer. After dinner, we walked slowly towards the bus stop and discovered that the next bus (which was […]
Backpacking through Europe: Florence
We spent just a few hours in Florence, but they were truly splendid. As with every place we visited, it took us about 45 minutes to figure out where to go from the station and how. Finally, we bought tickets to Piazza Pitti, which had the most interesting-looking museums according to our map. The bus-ride gave […]
Backpacking through Europe: Pisa
Tempers were frayed on that journey to Pisa. What was the point of going to Pisa at all? Pisa was just a tourist gimmick, like the Brindavan Gardens in Mysore. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was the only thing to see; it could not be worth it. We would spend just a few hours there. I […]
Backpacking through Europe: Rome
We didn’t visit the Colosseum. I get that confession out of the way right in the beginning. We saw the Colosseum from the outside, all lit up and magnificent at night, but we did not go there at all to visit the inside as tourists. And today, when I look back I don’t know why. […]
Apache
It’s been a while since I wrote about what I was reading for some reason. I did read quite a bit, though. Some of the books were worth sharing, but I was too lazy to talk about them. Some were important for me to read – like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The Perks of Being a […]
Imagine and Innovate: A Workshop on Books for Children
It’s just three days away! Date: Saturday, 28th February, 2015. Time: 11 am – 1 pm Fee: Rs 500 per child Age-group: 8-13 Venue: The Cultural Centre, Pune To register: Send an email to tcc@prelocate.com with your name and contact number. [Email subject: Imagine and Innovate Workshop] Visit the Facebook event page for more details.
Cedar Reading Club
I was part of the lovely Cedar Reading Club this evening, sharing the magic of stories with seven children in the age-group 6-8. The children meet each week, read a story, talk about it, act it out … More reading clubs for children around the city would be welcome!
Bhigwan
My European travelogue has to wait; I went to Bhigwan yesterday. A journey of two hours brought us to Bhigwan, which has a lake that is roughly east-south-east of Pune. Flamingos, they say, come to Bhigwan, and stay there till the end of February. We left home at 5 in the morning, but by the […]
Backpacking through Europe: Rome
People say that Italy is like India, and there are many similarities I see: honking on the road, noise, people talking everywhere … Rome’s metros are full to bursting point. The only difference between Mumbai locals and the Rome metro is that there are doors that slam shut in the latter, so you cannot hang out. […]
Map-Reading: The Crazy Travelogue Continues
I invite you to examine the map above. Notice where the ‘Ostello’ is. It’s right between the QT8 metro station and the Lotto metro station. When we got to the youth hostel the first time, it was simple enough. Sign-boards guided us from the metro-station QT8 to the hostel. On day two in Milan, we […]