Postcards From J

Among my co-travellers, one was flying in from Bombay with me and the other was coming in from Bangalore. The three of us were joining more friends - some already in Goa and some on their way by road. Sneha and I walked out of Goa Airport, and were received by Sharon whose flight had arrived a couple of hours earlier. One look at us lugging our trolley bags, and a fit of laughter ensued. Why? Well, the three of us had identical trolley bags - right down to the size, colour and make. That moment jogged our collective memories to four years ago when we embarked on our first trip as a trio to Thailand. Those bags were purchased from a shop in Pratunam Centre in bustling Bangkok to accommodate all the shopping we had done there. I had left Bombay with a regular bag for my personal things and a small sling bag for money and travel documents. The return journey, however, saw us bring back those now-famous-black-suitcases-on-wheels bursting at the seams with bags, shoes, souvenirs and...

After a string of emails and a few phone calls, about half the original group from the Travel Writing Workshop decided to meet. A Facebook group was floated too, but it got a bit lost after the initial excitement. The actual enthusiasm of the people involved, however, was still very much alive. When we were told that the Mcubed Library was unavailable for our meet-up on Sunday (18th March 2012), one of the participants - PD - offered her home in Thane for the same. @culturelites , @gauravraikar and I made the necessary phone calls to check the final number. Turns out about 14 of us would make it. Super!  I had decided to take the train from Kurla, along with @AnOddYellow and @loneladysherpa . These two ladies met me at the station's booking counter. Long queue as usual. Worse, the megablock was also on, so there were fewer trains that Sunday. We got into a Titwala* Slow and were subjected to a full body massage in the ladies compartment, all the while being pushed from one...

"Don't come back till you know the name of the dog."  If you went 'huh?' reading that, I wouldn't blame you. That quote was one of many lessons learnt at a two-day workshop on Travel Writing at the annual Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF) held last month. Dilip D'Souza - noted writer, journalist, activist, mouth organist (any more -ists?) - was conducting the same. I had briefly interacted with him on Twitter and always found his tweets and a few of his articles (hadn't read much of his work earlier, I must confess) insightful. The fact that he's also a Rahul Dravid admirer like me was one of the main reasons I started following him. After deliberating for a while, I decided to enroll into the workshop, and was promptly told it was already full and that I should try attending something else. Disappointed, and slightly relieved at not having to wake up early to make the trek to town on my weekly offs, I tweeted to Dilip that I won't be...

In less than 12 hours from now, the heart will break. 13288 times. Today, a BCCI press release brought with it a tinge of sorrow.  While there's no official confirmation of the news, my favourite Rahul Dravid is expected to hang up his boots in Test cricket on Friday, 9th March 2012. And if that's true (deep inside, I'm still in denial), I don't know what my reaction will be. All I want to do is to wish him the very best. With life and all the new dreams he plans to chase. Also, my sincere gratitude to one of the finest cricketers to have graced the game. Cricket will be poorer with Rahul's departure. :(

Friday. That's when most corporate rats rejoice at the prospect of the end of a work week, or rather at the lure of a two-day weekend. Sadly though, that was not even on my mind. I was upset about something at work that's just refusing to come together. And then all of a sudden I happened to glance at a retweet (i.e., a tweet that's been 'forwarded' to you. You may or may not follow the original tweeter in this case.) by @manimeow which caught my attention. It said "14. And yes, don't forget to giggle ;) #MyNotesOnWorldSaving". Intrigued by the hashtagged phrase, I clicked on it, and it turned out to be 14 points by @NilimDutta with his thoughts on how to save the world. Some very pertinent notes. They made me think, made me smile, and more importantly, made me want to focus. Here they are... 1. When you have this unstoppable urge one fine day, just begin. #MyNotesOnWorldSaving — NILIM DUTTA (@NilimDutta) March 2, 2012 2. Soon enough, ...