Archive
| Title | Description | Posted Date |
|---|---|---|
| Lanka lore: Highway tales | January 20, 2015 The Colombo-Jaffna highway is a joy to be on. It’s smooth, all concrete and runs along a picturesque country, well-off neighbourhoods, shops, super markets, banks, schools, bus stands and groceries. Beyond Anuradhapura, further up north, Vavuniya onwards, the feel changes. | 29-Jan-2015 |
| Lanka lore: Tiger trail Jaffna | January 13, 2015 Who would say Jaffna was the epicenter of a violent ethnic conflict that bled the Sri Lankan nation white for decades? To the unaware, it’s a north Sri Lankan town, quaint, picturesque and unhurried with bungalows – many of them painted freshly in dignified shades – with green patches and coconut palms swaying lazily in the mild morning breeze. | 29-Jan-2015 |
| Lanka lore: Dateline elephant pass | January 17, 2015 It’s a windy January evening and I am at Elephant Pass — the causeway connecting the Sri Lankan mainland to the Jaffna Peninsula. This strip of road, that rises from an expanse of still water and stretches till the distant horizon, has witnessed some trying years in the country’s history. Some years ago, Lankan soldiers smashed entrenched LTTE positions here, and won it back in a major offensive. | 29-Jan-2015 |
| Lanka Lore: Plain beats glitz | January 14, 2015 Guess how much Maithripala Sirisena’s no-frills swearing-in cost the government, a journalist colleague from Sri Lanka asked after the new president was sworn into office on the evening of January 9. “A princely Rs 6,000,” he informed. And, he had the break-up too. They spent Rs 1,000 on a garland and the rest on electricity.” | 29-Jan-2015 |
| Life by the Ganga: Gangotri | November 28, 2014 More than 100 km from Uttarkashi is Gangotri, where the great river is said to have originated once upon a time before the glacier, from which it sprang, receded to Gomukh. The road to Gangotri is rough and broken in many places. | 12-Jan-2015 |
| Life by the Ganga: Rishikesh | November 15, 2014 Rishikesh is a mini kibbutz. In this ashram town, barbers’ signboards are in Russian or Hebrew, eateries serve Italian and French breakfast. Thousands from foreign shores come here, some to experience the ascetic way of life, others in search of pure ecstasy. | 12-Jan-2015 |
| Life by the Ganga: Uttarkashi | November 26, 2014 Uttarkashi is a six-hour drive from Rishikesh up a road strung like a thread looped around a garland of hills. As it coils up the slopes, the Tehri reservoir is an awesome sight. You catch a glimpse of it from a height, a bird’s eye view of a blue bowl in a deep valley. | 12-Jan-2015 |
| Life By The Ganga: Haridwar | November 14, 2014 The Ganga gushes ashen, venerated and violated at Haridwar. Every morning the town worships her, each evening pays homage to her. The river is a way of life for the townsfolk. Millions from all over come to take a dip in the river and sample its magical power to wash away sins. | 12-Jan-2015 |