The Love You Need.

For the longest time, I was not a great fan of dogs. I’d look at them fondly from afar but my canine knowledge was limited to “Hey, look at you!” and “Buh-bye!”. Mostly because I didn’t know what to do around them. Through the lockdown, I happened to have made friends (or that’s what I’ve

Turkey! (8)

Day 8: “I have 60 camels. You have two very beautiful daughters. Would you like to exchange?” asked a man addressing my father. While my sister wanted to use the choicest of words for this Turk we came across at 8 am in Sultanahmet, I couldn’t take my eyes off his ear, which seemed surgically

Turkey! (7)

Day 7 : We’d chalked out this day for the smaller pleasures of life, for a mid-afternoon siesta, for a walk in the village. And for the royally famous, mixed origin (Roman and Turkish), communal bathing ritual of the hamam. Waking up to the view of the Pamukkale mountain, knowing that you were in no

Turkey! (6)

Day 6. We woke up to the view of the Pammukale mountain, though it’s only a 200m high cliff and the translation of Pamukkale is cotton castle. Our guide for the day, Mehmet, who was taking us on a private tour assured that we’d have long stretches to walk through so we’d better gear up!

Turkey! (5)

Day 5. The rains came and went just in time for our 6 am hot air balloon ride! And guess who were the other passengers in the basket with us? A lot of Chinese (again!) and a Turk couple from Istanbul. Barring the struggle to not photobomb anyone while they kept the shutters going at

Turkey! (4)

Day 4. Did I not tell you about undulating landscapes and fairy chimneys? Add some, actually a lot of, hot air balloons in the foreground. Well, as it happens, with the craze of Instagram, travel bloggers and better-than-ever-before cameras, most hotels in Goreme set up “Instagram worthy shot spots” on their terraces with rugs, mattresses,

Turkey! (1)

Day 1. Three months of persuasion, three months of planning and touchdown into Turkey a week after Prez Erdogan declared support for Pakistan was putting me through the jitters because to assume Indian passports would be unaffected would be naivety! A six-hour Indigo flight while revising our itinerary, recalling all the phrases in Turkish that

Peering In.

Weekend getaways are a solace I look forward to. I find myself in the middle of nowhere, no networks to connect to, innocent, city-oblivious eyes peering out from house windows, lush green or azure seas or b both inviting me to lose myself in the peaceful insanity of it all. These short trips don’t happen

Setting Sun.

I looked up from my Kindle and out the window. The air turbulence was distracting. I wanted to stretch my legs that were getting cramped in the narrow leg space provided these days by airlines. Just a few minutes ago, the view from the window had been drab – blues of the lightest kind with

Rains and roads (2)

Contd from… Raincoats, contrary to popular belief, can serve dual purposes – it shields you from the rains when you’re outside the car, and from the air conditioner or the winds from the rolled down windows when you are inside the car. Maybe that is what led to the invention of the windcheater. And here