• Places

    Cottages by the Sea. Seeing Is Disbelieving!

    We reached Malvan on the third day of a Konkan trip. Being a popular tourist destination, we didn’t bother to book accommodation. Armed with a list of ‘home-stays’ and their telephone numbers, given to us by our home-stay owner at Kunkeshwar, we started calling up these places soon after we reached Malvan at noon. We were all damn hungry, but decided that it would be safer to find a place to stay before anything else. This later proved right. AD, the only person conversant in Marathi in our team, called up the first number. The person attended the call asked…

  • People - Places

    One Night in Guhagar – Tasting Local Hospitality

    Guhagar, being 320 odd km away from Mumbai means fewer crowds. Or so we thought. We forgot that Pune was probably only 200 km away. We reached Guhagar a little late in the evening, around 7.30. We were a bit overconfident that in these little not so known places, hotels, lodges or home stays would be easily available. But as always Murphy has the last laugh. All (two or three) known hotels were full. People indeed are traveling. We drove a few times up and down through the main street knocking the doors of a few hotels and a few…

  • Places

    Smallest Wildlife Sanctuary

    Where is the world’s smallest wildlife sanctuary? It is right here in India, in Maharashtra. At 5.15 sq km, Mayureshwar sanctuary is the smallest WLS (that we know of). Once while returning from a road trip to Ajanta-Ellora, somewhere between the Pune – Ahmednagar road, we took to the country roads. With a vague idea of its location, we kept searching for Mayureshwar, unsuccessfully checking the map and asking almost anyone and everyone on the road. Finally, at a place that one would never imagine as a wild life sanctuary, we asked a few more villagers. Not a chance! Since…

  • Places

    A Date With Eva

    Eva is beautiful. Has naughty eyes. Very warm and friendly. But make no mistake. She is a 7-year old baby elephant. Malayalees’ love story with elephants is centuries old. No temple festivals are complete without a procession with an elephant. And it is not just temples. Even churches and some mosque festivals have elephants that add glamour and pride to the festivities. Kerala has a few elephant camps, where elephants used to be domesticated and trained by mahouts and other elephants. Since capturing elephants is banned in Kerala, these camps now cater to the injured or orphaned elephants rescued from…

  • People

    Lonar: A Local Boy’s NASA Connection

    Anand Mishra is not the kind of guide we often meet at the historical sites of our country. Conversant in English, knowledgeable about his job, punctual, and eager to learn from whatever sources, Anand perhaps reflects the spirit of the much-talked about new, small-town India. To top it all, he has a fellowship from NASA. More than what you expect in a sleepy, dusty, village-town of Lonar in central Maharashtra.   But then Lonar is not just a historical place. Far removed from the typical tourist circuits and itineraries, Lonar is a place where history, geology, astronomy, ecology, and mythology…