Indian Sub-Continent Encounters

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,… Read More »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… Read More »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… Read More »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… Read More »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… Read More »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… Read More »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… Read More »THE ROADS LESS TRAVELLED: PART 2 (2000)

I had reached Madras, and travels in the sub-Continent had so far been largely by bus and by boat. I was determined to change that,… Read More »5 MILES SHORT: INDIAN RAILWAYS (1981)