Chand Baori in Abhaneri: A Thousand-Year-Old Stepwell and an Easy Detour from Delhi
If you’ve driven between Delhi and Jaipur more than once, there’s a fair chance you’ve…
If you’ve driven between Delhi and Jaipur more than once, there’s a fair chance you’ve passed within fifteen kilometres of Chand Baori without having any idea it was there. Most people do. The turning isn’t anything special, the village road after it is narrow and a bit bumpy, and the stepwell itself sits behind a…
Standing at 14,140 feet above sea level is an amazing feeling. You can feel the cold Himalayan winds wrapping around you while you look right at the border between India and China. Many travel guides try to make the trip to East Sikkim sound perfect. They often describe it as an easy and beautiful drive….
The La Niña effect in India is a big reason why some years bring heavy rain and cold, foggy winters, while others bring drought and mild winters. La Niña is a natural cooling of the Pacific Ocean. It changes the monsoon, the winter, our holiday plans, our festivals and even the price of vegetables. In…
Everything you need to plan a Panna National Park safari – zones, timings, entry fees, wildlife, best time to visit, and how to reach this remarkable tiger reserve near Khajuraho. In 2009, Panna lost every single tiger to poaching. Today, it has over 80. That comeback alone makes Panna National Park one of India’s most…
There are some places in India where the scale of what you see in front of you is difficult to understand until you actually stand there. Bhakra is one of them. High in the Sutlej valley, the massive concrete wall of Bhakra Dam rises more than 225 metres above its deepest foundation, holding back the…
Every golden sandstone wall of Jaisalmer Fort traces back to one man – a 12th-century Rajput king named Rawal Jaisal. If you’ve ever walked through Jaisalmer’s narrow fort lanes and wondered who actually built this “living fort” rising out of the Thar Desert, this is his story – the real, documented history, not the simplified…
This isn’t a copy-paste travel guide. This is the actual trip my two friends and I took last Diwali – every place, every rupee, every mistake we made, written exactly the way it happened. Last Diwali, three of us – Soumya (that’s me), Swoyomsidh, and Akash – packed our bags in Chandigarh and set off…
Long before “campus,” “syllabus,” or “degree” existed as ideas, there was a city on the Indus where students walked for weeks just to sit at a teacher’s feet. Was Takshashila really the world’s first university? This piece looks through the eyes of its ancient chroniclers, its teachers, and the modern historians who’ve argued about it…
Raja Man Singh of Amber: Complete Life Story, Vansawali and Battles Few names in medieval Indian history carry as much weight, and as much controversy, as Raja Man Singh I of Amber. Born a Kachhwaha Rajput prince in a small hill kingdom, he rose to become the most powerful general in Emperor Akbar’s empire, a…
Some treks are planned for months. Mine happened because of a birthday, a frustrating 9-to-6 job, and a WhatsApp group that finally said “let’s just go.” This is my honest, on-ground Kareri Lake trek story – not a copy-paste itinerary, but what actually happened over 3 days near the Dhauladhar range, including the cost, the…