COUNTER 22 (1989) The early morning sun was beginning to burn off the dawn mist. The dew had disappeared from the ground. On the street, men cycling by, wore dull brown woollen scarves tied from… COUNTER 22 (1989)

At the corner of the street, an indigo blue enamel name plate, announced the Rue Romain Rollard. Its well-swept pavement was punctuated by poodle-tail, pollarded trees. The handsome buildings, paint-washed in Naples yellow and rose… THE WHITE DOT (2012)

I was anxious to be travelling east that evening. A state bus had taken me from Chandigarh, across the Punjab, to the railway station at Ambala Cantonment Junction. This place would become one that I… NIRMAL’S WATER POT (1981)

The morning town bustled, jostled and hassled. Amidst the hullabaloo I spotted a sign advertising ‘Jolly walks in landscaping garden’. It was noted, and later in the day, searching for some respite from the intensity… CHEEK BY JOWL (1989)

It was a gloomy January day in Old Delhi, and the mood on the street was unusually flat. People were just getting on with their business as I wondered what the day might have in… THE PINK LADY (1981)

‘Madras is hot for 10 months of the year, and hotter for two.’ RK Narayan.  During one of the ten hot months, I floated in a mini bus, along the coastal road that hugged the… THE SILENT COW (2012)

I put little to no planning into these rural bus journeys. You got on if you could, hung on if you could, and fell off in a new place. Passengers’ skills to accommodate, got you… THE ROADS LESS TRAVELLED: PART 2 (2000)