Empty Cups
byThese photos were taken by Debasish yesterday, during his visit to a garden which has experienced more starvation deaths in the last two months…
Round-the-World Honeymoon
Map: India’s Tea Belt, North Bengal, and Birpara
bySome will find a hint of the exotic exuding from the place-names and mountain ranges in this latest cartographic creation. Others will see the…
Leopard Rehabilitation Center
byHaving not experienced anything resembling a traditional tourist activity for over a month (since our yoga yatra in Rishikesh), there was more than a…
Sittable Feast: What We Eat
byAnd why not follow beverage with food? Why not place a steaming, yellow plate of egg curry on the floor in front of your…
Cha: Pouring the Perfect Cup
byThe suffering of the Dooars tea workers notwithstanding, tea remains a perfectly tranquilo topic. I’ve been focusing on its production (or, in the closed…
Tea Time 3: Sick Gardens and Short Shorts
byEnough of this mappery, readers, let us get back to beverages-or rather, to the picking of green leaves that will end up in the…
Map: A Month in Pakistan
byOur route (late June to late July, 2005): Rawalpindi-Islamabad –> Hunza Valley and Karimabad (via flight to Gilgit) –> Trek to Rash Lake –>…
Map: Across the Subcontinent
byHere’s an overdue shot of our route. The writing is small, I know, so I’ll spell it out: after landing in Islamabad two months…
Tea Time Part 2: Why We are in Birpara
byThe simplest answer to the question of what my wife and I are doing in Jalpaiguri District, several hundred kilometers off the tourist trail…
The Bengal Bunch: Meet the Cast
byCall it “Four’s Company†or “Leave it to Birpara,†but there’s no doubt: not since the Managua Pimp Tower have I found myself in…