DilliMeriJaan

Irrawady Dolphins have been calling me since Ghosh wrote ‘Hungry Tide’. I finally managed to visit Sundarbans, many months after the almost-sequel ‘Gun Island’. I did not see any dolphins but saw many other fascinating beings, including our boat man. Every day, we set out on a steamer ride and watched the water go down, exposing the roots of the mangroves in a very spectacular, and sometimes eerie, manner. By the time we came back the roots would go under water – the short trees standing out of the river, as though they’d gone in for a quick dip.  Boat man lived in a neighbouring village, had studied till class 10 before joining this resort and was an Amitav Ghosh fan. He didn’t speak English or Hindi so I tried translating his stories to the rest of our gang, real time. Bon-bibi and Shah Junglee, Collared Kingfisher and Estuarine Crocodile, Bee keepers, how the tiger survives the salty water. He knew it all and after some time I stopped translating. I realised the gang was just st...

Armed with Anjum Hassan’s ‘Lunatic in my head’ and my significant other’s memories of growing up in Shillong, I went into the city, expecting Pink Floyd on everyone’s lips and rolling hills in quick succession. In our house, all good things are benchmarked against those in Shillong. This was my first visit to Shillong and these are my list of it's good things -    Umgot Lake – the National Geographic photos of the clear waters, and the boat appearing to be suspended in mid-air, have made this lake very popular. Heaps of tourists, a lot of them Bengalis, arrive here every day, exclaiming loudly about the water and its clarity. And heaps of Bengalis from the other side of the border, stand in a silent row, watching them with amazement and amusement. The India-Bangladesh border is menacingly divided by a stone on the beach saying ‘Do not cross Border’.   None of the Bangladeshis seem interested to. They have way too much fun watching the squawking tourists from their...

Recently we had student council interviews in my school, which I had to miss thanks to the high levels of pollution. I am especially upset since I finally had the answer to the question ‘Why should we select you’. Perhaps you would like to hear the answer. ‘Ma’am, Sir. I believe you should select me because I am not afraid of being unpopular. I say and do what I know for a fact, rather than following a herd doing wrong things. Don’t get me wrong – I am not stubborn or egoistic. I welcome opinions and am happy to be corrected. But mostly, I do whatever I understand to be right. The interesting thing is that doing the ‘right’ thing is always logical – based on common sense. Throwing rubbish out of the school bus instead of waiting for 10 minutes and putting it in a dustbin, makes no sense. Buying plastic bottles of water and drinking ‘nano plastic’ is illogical as it’s dangerous for our health, not just the planet’s. [ I recently learnt this on the WWF website – whi...

Living in a big city can be confounding as the race to get ‘more’ disorients you into believing that ‘things’ give you happiness. We want more CC in our car, sheen on our walls, colour in our hair, designer in our jeans and microplastic in our facewash.  We escaped the big city for a bit and here are some lessons from four days in Kannur. Less is so much More. We stayed in Kannur Beach House which didn’t announce itself with loud banners. Instead we were met by the smiling host, Rosi, many coconut trees and the resident kingfisher. The rooms had the sea, backwaters, delicious breeze and the song of a koel, who sat on the almond tree outside the balcony. It had beds with clean, local handloom linen which kept us cool at night. It had one pillow per person not eleven like in the typical hotels, which instantly sprain your neck. The doors and windows were 200 year old, re-purposed from old houses being demolished. No random pieces of ‘art’ furniture nor TV nor any oth...

Istanbul is a great place for holiday, for neurotic travellers like me. Nine years back, I was normal and interested in the history of one of the most influential cities in the world and the culture of Orhan Pamuk’s city. This time I was only interested in not dying – which, as you can see, I have achieved. 9 years back Now. Same shirt.  The reason why the city works for me, are many. I stay in Delhi so showing me a monument which is a 1000 years old, is not going to impress me much -my metro station is next to a 14 th century madrasa. It’s the crazy, mildly flirtatious, trusting and trustworthy people of Istanbul, who fill my heart with joy, rather than palpitations. While everyone on the streets of Istanbul, is absolutely mad, in the nicest way, and helpful and funny, these are my favourite people from the trip – 1.        Engin – the hotel manager who was more involved in our day plans than we w...

When the blues come calling, and they do quite a bit, there’s nothing like a walk in the park to get that serotonin boost. I have always walked in the evening, when the park is full of serious, young people, in running gear and rippling muscles. Each round is done with unsmiling determination. Makes you want to go home and immediately eat six egg whites and aggressively take over a company. One day, I walked in the morning and have stopped going in the evenings, since then. Everyone wishes me ‘Good morning, young lady’, so that should give you an idea of their age. The park reverberates with loud shouts of greetings and bellowing laughter. And not just from the laughter club, which sends out waves of infectious cheer into the world, at a designated time, in a very systematic manner. Just walking around them brings a smile to my face. The pace is slow and most often, completely absent, as the walkers just hang around and chill. As the group of very handsome men belo...

Elections are over and we can discuss it till the cows come home. We won’t be able to influence its results now. We can also not influence the results of the World Cup. It’s World Environment Day and this year’s theme is Air Pollution. And girl, do we influence that in every action we take. As established in earlier parts of the ‘Get Unpopular’ Series    https://dillimeriijaan.blogspot.com/2018/06/getting-unpopular-part-2.html , readers of this page are already very green. It’s the others we struggle with. It’s Delhi. And we LOVE big, diesel guzzling, smog creating cars. I have known CEOs, to have parked their Jags at home, and take the Mighty and Fantastic Delhi Metro. While, I could be a school-dropout, white-goods smuggler and drive a really big car. Also, we love shopping. Unmindful of the energy waste during production and pollution, when carelessly discarded. Here are my very unpopular ways, to out-show-off the Big Car riders and Shopaholics. 1. ...