2023-12-31 10:21
Another year goes by and yet again, like the past couple of years, gone in the blink of an eye. As I reflect upon the year 2023, it feels like an unusual year for me. Unusual, because this y… Read More
Blog Directory > Travel Blogs > Reflections - Travel and Life travel Blog >
Reflections - Travel And Life Blog
neelstoria.wordpress.com
Writing and blogging happened to me and I did not quite plan it. Now that I am here, I realized that writing about my experiences is energetic and therapeutic. Mostly I write about my travel experiences but sometimes about other experiences too.
2023-12-28 15:38
It was the time of Christmas. I was just whiling away time at home, literally doing nothing at all. Not like I had no work to do but it was Christmas and my laundry list of pending tasks was… Read More
2023-06-26 17:31
“I really wanted to visit Kamakhya Temple at this time, but it didn’t work out,” said my cousin, quite nonchalantly, as she turned the steering wheel to cover the sharp ben… Read More
2023-05-27 10:23
The river island of Majuli left us spellbound in so many ways. I have already written an elaborate post on the scenic natural beauty of Majuli. My description of Majuli remains utterly incom… Read More
2023-05-14 18:11
This was the first time I was going to be in Guwahati for a few days on my way home to Shillong. Over the years Guwahati has been reduced to being just a transit point for me, enroute home… Read More
2022-12-30 18:52
As I sit to write my year end blog post I can’t help but quote Charles Dickens – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The latter seemingly more prom… Read More
2022-11-30 17:28
The weekend was here, and we did not have any specific plans. There’s nothing much to do in Bangalore, anyway! We didn’t want another day of mindless wandering around Jayanagar a… Read More
2022-10-30 18:29
“Rabindranath lived in this bungalow”, I commented as we passed by the iconic heritage home located about a kilometer from my house. We paused at the large iron gate to read the… Read More
2022-10-08 17:39
Our auto took a turn and quite unexpectedly we found ourselves on a narrow but perfectly tarred road that was lined with coconut trees on one side and the vast Arabian Sea on the other. Peep… Read More
2022-08-23 14:16
Staycation – nah! Not my kind of thing! Why would I spend so much money on a fancy resort or hotel in my own city! Not something I’ll ever do. Or so, I thought.
It must be a y… Read More
2022-08-11 17:15
I’ve been away from the world of blogging for two whole months and that’s a significantly long time. It wasn’t a planned getaway as such, no intentions of taking a break fr… Read More
2022-05-25 08:06
We woke up to a relatively bright Saturday morning. It had been raining with almost no respite for the past few weeks. Hence, a morning that wasn’t cloudy or rainy was a celebration by… Read More
2022-05-20 17:32
The car moved at a slow pace and it literally felt like we were riding through the clouds. The mist was so thick that we could barely see even 10m. ahead of us. “I hope you’ve sw… Read More
2022-04-29 12:30
Yoga is a way of life. I enjoyed (most of the times) practicing my Yoga Asanas and have been regular for three days a week for the past 5 years. The novice in me thought Yoga and Yoga Asanas… Read More
2022-04-17 11:25
Yoga is a holistic way to health and well-being – a phrase that we keep hearing and using randomly but do we really comprehend its true meaning? I didn’t. Yet I never shied away… Read More
2022-02-28 10:08
“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”Hans Christian Anderson
I had been noticing the plant for a… Read More
2022-02-09 17:28
We didn’t realise how hungry we were until we sat down for lunch that afternoon. It was well past lunch hours by all standards, and we were famished but nobody was complaining. The ext… Read More
2022-01-23 10:55
This is nature’s special prize of encouragement for waking up this early on a cold foggy morning. That’s what I told my friend who was reluctant to get out of bed and whose eyes… Read More
2022-01-14 15:19
It was nearly 9.00 PM when we arrived. After asking a passerby for direction, the driver of our car took a turn, and we entered a narrow lane. I felt an instant sense of calm. Thinking that… Read More
2022-01-04 14:44
“Are you planning Girivalam on the first day of 2022?”, enquired my friend when I told him that my sister and I were considering a visit to Tiruvannamalai on the New Year weekend… Read More
2021-12-31 07:41
It’s difficult to believe that we are at the last day of 2021 and here I am writing my usual year end post. It feels like we blinked, and all the 365 days of this year got over. Though… Read More
2021-12-28 17:57
I used to hear people rave about the marvelous architecture of the Hoysala Temples of Somnathpur, Belur, and Halebidu. The nature-lover in me didn’t pay much heed to all that until I v… Read More
2021-11-26 10:30
I quite enjoy cycle rickshaw rides as opposed to my friend and travel companion, who thinks it’s not right to let a frail man (most of the rickshaw pullers are frail) lug our combined… Read More
2021-11-11 13:56
Life is unpredictable. Don’t we all know that! Yet we land up spending a lot of energy seeking permanence and familiarity. Consciously aware of the fleeting impermanence of everything… Read More
2021-10-17 15:44
“You guys carry on, I’ll wait here.” I was certain I would slip on the mammoth rock that appeared as smooth as butter and seemed quite steeply inclined too. My shoes didn&r&hell…Read More
2021-09-17 17:58
It was nearly two months that S was here, but we were yet to meet up. Both of us were occupied with something or the other and we could never make it. This weekend we were determined to make… Read More
2021-09-06 16:11
“Look at all the people here!”, I directed my comment to R as A chuckled away. The place wasn’t crowded but we encountered several groups of people all through the way. Two… Read More
2021-08-24 15:09
Back in December last year, my cousin came over and stayed with me for little over a month, making the most of the work from home situation. On the very first weekend of her visit, we planne… Read More
2021-08-15 10:12
Last year this day, my dad had suddenly left us. A year has gone by and just too soon. It’s unbelievable where all the time goes. His absence doesn’t seem to be real even for a s… Read More
2021-07-31 17:54
Revenge Tourism! What the hell is this? I exclaimed as I heard this term for the first-time last evening. Apparently, it’s been doing rounds of social media. Having stayed away f… Read More
2021-07-14 11:57
Ever been in a situation where your travel was sabotaged by fellow travelers or others? If yes, I feel your pain. After navigating such situations a couple of times, I made some simple trave… Read More
2021-06-27 13:12
I stood there staring at the gushing cascading waters, aggressively bouncing off the craggy moss-covered rock cliff. It always feels happy to be near a waterfall and this was no different. T… Read More
2021-06-10 07:35
I was on the usual everyday call with my Mom. But something was different today. The awkwardness in our conversation was just too obvious. Both of us were consciously staying away from &lsqu&hell…Read More
2021-05-24 09:49
The pandemic has spared me so far, none of my family members or close friends and relatives have been affected. The virus did catch a few acquaintances, but they got away with hardly any tro… Read More
2021-05-18 16:45
“Nandi is looking towards the Nagalinga”, my sister stated standing right behind me, while I was busy staring at the colossal structure. Thinking that she was trying to be funny… Read More
2021-05-10 18:12
There it was – the hanging pillar – our main reason of visiting this ancient temple that dates back to the 16th century. We stood there for a while along with other bystanders wa… Read More
2021-04-24 17:18
Nandi Hills is perhaps the most visited place in and around Bangalore. Bangaloreans literally flock to Nandi Hills, especially to view the amazing sunrise from the hilltop. Also known as Nan… Read More
2021-04-11 17:24
It took us a while to get into the temple premises. The temple is a protected monument and maintained by Archeological Survey of India (ASI). Tickets for entry to such places now require sca… Read More
2021-04-04 14:38
“Didi, for heaven’s sake be careful…..that sari may just slip from your hands!”, she pleaded. My wavering attention was immediately back to the precarious situation… Read More
2021-03-24 15:12
It was Day-1 of my new job.
The year 2020 was just ending and we were exactly in the middle of December. People all over the world were eagerly waiting for the ominous year to end. The ge… Read More
2021-03-20 14:03
I have to admit that I was slightly anxious as R sped through the narrow empty road that morning. The sun wasn’t up yet, and the air was chilly. The early morning breeze inundated my e… Read More
2021-03-11 15:31
I opened my eyes, stared at the ceiling, and wondered what I was doing there. Wasn’t I supposed to be laying on bed? Why am I laying on the bathroom floor? It took me less than a minut… Read More
2021-02-28 16:30
WHATEVER I AM TODAY IS BECAUSE OF YOU.THEN THAT TIME ARRIVED, AND YOU HAD TO GO.NOW, I MUST LIVE WITH THAT GAPING HOLE IN MY HEART FOREVER.
Six months have passed since that fateful day… Read More
2021-02-18 16:06
“Seems like some kind of natural air-conditioning in here!”, exclaimed my sister. It indeed felt cool inside. Surely, it’s got something to do with the way this place was c… Read More
2021-02-13 17:29
It was Christmas time of the special year of 2020 when a whimsical decision took us to Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian mainland. We were all set to explore the coastal part o… Read More
2021-01-28 18:06
The evening sky broke into an intense assortment of red, pink, orange, and yellow as we watched the mellowed sun gradually recede into the glittering waters below. Standing on that elevated… Read More
2021-01-22 13:53
Craving for a break from the monotony of being confined to your home? Working from home comes with its associated challenges and we often find ourselves struggling to find the right work-lif… Read More
2021-01-08 15:38
It was the first day of 2021. We didn’t have any definite plan unlike every other year when this day would effortlessly sequence into our elaborate year-end travel or trek. Times are n… Read More
2020-12-30 15:13
It’s that time of the year – time to write my usual year end post. As I sit here reflecting on the year that’s gone by, I am finding it difficult to fathom all the things t… Read More
2020-12-09 14:09
“The word, Privilege, has to be the most over-used word of 2020,” a friend remarked the other day. And I quite agreed with her. We were in the middle of a routine ranting session… Read More
2020-12-04 15:57
It was the month of February. The pandemic was already in the air, just that we didn’t know much about it. The world at large wasn’t much affected till then. I received a c… Read More
2020-11-24 15:14
You’ve wanted to be out of this place for a while now. There’s nothing to hold you here anymore. You’ve been longing for someplace else. The time has arrived and you are on… Read More
2020-11-22 17:20
Calm, poised, and unperturbed
Alone but not lonely, it rides the tides
Greenish yellow with serrated edges
Light and weightless, it bounces along
Savours everything that comes its w… Read More
2020-11-12 16:08
Shrouded in a mist of white, we stood there staring at nothing. There was nobody other than the five of us. The gushing sound of water, arising out of nowhere, echoed in the background as if… Read More
2020-10-30 15:07
The red benarasi sari was quite heavy because of the zari embellishments and I had to wrap my arms around it to make sure I had a tight grip. Kola-bou was just dismantled and someone had han… Read More
2020-10-21 09:28
Meghalaya is home to monoliths and megaliths that are spread across the state. They are quite literally scattered everywhere. And, if you take a drive in the countryside, you can’t mis… Read More
2020-10-11 10:17
I had heard about this place a million times but never had the opportunity to be here. While my cousin parked the car, I walked ahead and found myself standing right before the red-white una… Read More
2020-10-07 17:59
Remember the pumpkin coach built by Cinderella’s fairy godmother so that she could attend the ball? And, which had turned back into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight, to be trampled… Read More
2020-09-28 10:46
Awakened from deep sleep, I lay on bed for a couple of seconds trying to figure out what the commotion was all about. The rest of the family was already up, and their buzzing voices came flo… Read More
2020-09-21 12:30
Nature’s such that you can visit the same place a hundred times but each time it looks new and completely different. The best part of being in Shillong has always been the impromptu dr… Read More
2020-09-15 08:59
At the back of my mind, I always feared this day. I knew I would have to face it someday. Yet, I didn’t see it coming. I wasn’t prepared, I guess one can never be prepared for th… Read More
2020-08-07 17:37
Why is it that we almost always mistrust our fellow human beings? Isn’t trust supposed to be central to human relations of all kinds?
Here’s what happened last week.
I received a… Read More
2020-07-30 14:43
“Going to my native…….,” is a phrase that I often hear in my office. The word “native” is commonly used in Bangalore, which simply refers to one’s… Read More
2020-07-24 14:57
The apartment I live in shares one of its boundary wall with a well-known school. As a result, my balcony opens to the school field. With the ongoing pandemic and schools being indefinitely… Read More
2020-07-18 13:56
My previous post was on my hometown, Shillong, described in the context of Hindu Sylheti Bengalis – the community that has been left homeless since the partition of the state of Assam… Read More
2020-07-13 09:39
Shillong is my home. No other place, I can ever call home. Though I live in Bangalore now and have been here for the past 10 years, after having spent a couple of years in Kolkata and Hydera… Read More
2020-07-13 09:39
Shillong is my home. No other place, I can ever call home. Though I live in Bangalore now and have been here for the past 10 years, after having spent a couple of years in Kolkata and Hydera… Read More
2020-07-01 16:07
It was morning, not very early though. I was still in bed, neither fully asleep nor fully awake. I could sense my sister was up and was at my bedside jabbering something rather frantically… Read More
2020-06-21 16:51
108 Surya Namaskars sounded enticing, but I wondered if I should go for it. I do practice Yoga regularly – three days a week, to be precise but the last time I participated in such mar… Read More
2020-06-09 10:48
At the entry, a security guard approached me probing the purpose of my visit. Besides gloves and masks, he sported a special kind of head gear that covered his entire face and neck with a tr… Read More
2020-06-05 15:51
It was somewhere towards the end of February. Covid-19 had already arrived in India and by then three cases were reported, all of which were from South India. Oblivious about the implication… Read More
2020-05-28 18:00
WordPress says I complete three years of blogging. So, I’ve been writing for three long years. Not bad at all. Feels pretty good, I must say! A quick scan and I have written 109 posts… Read More
2020-05-27 04:50
The noisy bunch of over-enthusiastic friends from Poland that we kept bumping into at every tea house, quite a botheration they were! The huge group of nearly 50 people we crossed twice on t… Read More
2020-05-17 15:04
Needle work and embroidery, stitching and knitting, tatting and crochet, fabric painting and spray painting are some things that grip me in nostalgia. There was a time when I was crazy about… Read More
2020-05-17 15:04
Needle work and embroidery, stitching and knitting, tatting and crochet, fabric painting and spray painting are some things that grip me in nostalgia. There was a time when I was crazy about… Read More
2020-05-08 18:12
The morning sun mildly breaks through the cracks and lights up the dirt path. Dry Pine needles scattered on the ground crackle under our feet. We don’t feel any wind but the tall Pines… Read More
2020-04-30 17:50
There’s immense satisfaction and happiness in small little things of life, and that’s no secret! The small little things that I could have always done but never did.
Evening Cupp… Read More
2020-04-25 14:55
As Covid-19 tightened its grip around us, the initial few days felt surreal, as though we were living a sci-fi Hollywood movie. Anxiety and gloom took over as we were forced into a lockdown… Read More
2020-04-20 17:23
It was nearly dinner time and we were all set to hit the streets once again. We couldn’t wait to explore all the restaurants and cafes that we had seen earlier. If you have been to Pok… Read More
2020-04-07 16:32
Busy as busy can be, I still have no time – like it always has been!
We are on the 14th day of a nation-wide lockdown in India in our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown… Read More
2020-03-07 16:27
Everything happens to somebody else, until it happens to you.
We can never truly apprehend the gravity of a situation till we are in it. This is true for every situation in life. And is mor… Read More
2020-02-28 11:18
“Hey, I’ve been here before!” I exclaimed excitedly as my friend slowed down the car and then pulled over. The still blue pool of water glistened in the afternoon sun like… Read More
2020-02-10 01:30
There are these office meetings where you have nothing much to do, many of you would surely know what I am talking about. You suppress your yawns that invariably appear as your eyes water, y… Read More
2020-02-06 10:31
“Myself Pradeep Sharma, no wife, no children, no mummy, no papa…”, he effusively stated while extending his hand for a quick handshake. “Chaye pee ke jaiye”, h… Read More
2020-01-29 16:50
Traditions, customs, and cultural practices are fast disappearing, happily sacrificed at the altar of metro living.
A thought that gets triggered off every now and then. Our technological an… Read More
2020-01-27 14:16
Benaras had us engulfed in its quaint and historical charm despite all the negativities and oddities – the chaos, the crowd, the touts. The energy of the Spiritual Capital of India is… Read More
2020-01-23 09:16
Mornings
It was still dark in the wee hours of that December morning as we stepped onto Daseshwamedh Ghat. The thought of sunrise over River Ganges was enough to get us out of bed and brave… Read More
2020-01-11 12:37
No, this isn’t my kind of a place! Overcrowded, untidy and utterly chaotic – I should be feeling disquiet, anxious, edgy, and uncomfortable. None of that was happening. Instead c… Read More
2019-12-26 04:30
Emotions took the better of me when I had started writing my year-end post (read more about that here). Those emotions kept aside, 2019 has been one of the most beautiful years for me and in… Read More
2019-12-22 16:50
It’s already the end of December!
This year too has passed off in the blink of an eye and as always I really can’t fathom where all the time went.
There’s something signifi… Read More
2019-12-11 05:54
Dark clouds spread across the sky
All romantic and gay, you’d think
Gloom and grey was all that was there
The mind strides into a world of its own
Spiraling thoughts jumble up… Read More
2019-12-03 13:52
Life was peaceful
Running at its own pace
Riding the waves of the good
And the not so good
Drawing comfort from the equilibrium
I had found my own happy home
With checks and balances in plac… Read More
2019-11-17 18:29
Contd. from Annapurna – The Journey Begins
There had been no more rains since last evening and clear blue skies greeted us in the morning. The Sun was shining up in the mountain tops b… Read More
2019-11-03 09:43
The Magic of Annapurna
The grandeur of Annapurna Massif makes Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) trek one of the most sought after Himalayan treks. This moderate level trek entails a stunning journey… Read More
2019-10-20 16:52
Just two more days to go and the discomfort in my body with the fever and its associated symptoms was still going strong. The frantic visits to the doctor, the dengue scare, concerns from fr… Read More
2019-09-27 12:17
Today I was scanning my mailbox, looking for a specific email, when I came across an email I had written to a dear friend. It made me nostalgic and took me back to that rainy morning at my h… Read More
2019-09-11 17:26
The small basket with green and red roundish-oval fruits on my desk was everybody’s object of curiosity that day at office. My colleagues were intrigued as they had never seen fruits l… Read More
2019-09-05 10:50
The world of Social Media is flooded with cool travel pictures from across the world. Pictures that make you want to want to pack your bags right away and get into that gorgeous beach to wat… Read More
2019-08-27 11:52
He was running up along the narrow-tarred road strewn with fallen brown leaves. Nobody is supposed to take that path, which runs uphill flanked by forests on both sides. A locked gate at the… Read More
2019-08-16 16:49
When I was planning my Gujarat itinerary last year, the most important consideration was my parents as this trip was for them. I had to plan an itinerary with enough and more breaks so that… Read More
Subscribe to Reflections - Travel And Life
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!