Explorer of Experiences

"Solo travel is overrated" I once said, even tweeted No, I was never a fan Until one day, I landed in Italy Alone, no friend, no man So what if travel plans with friends get derailed Do you mope over why they failed? Or consider the travel opportunity too good to pass by... You pick up your bags, and solitary, you fly What was the charm in spending the holidays at home alone? None, so I landed in Rome alone Around Italy, I lost and found my way Relying on myself, exploring night and day Traveling alone turned out to be sacred The self-absorbed conveniences I found new, alluring No, there was none of that cinematic soul-searching Just one lifetime experience worth cherishing Here's from me to you...beat the blues the isolation may bring Embrace the 'you', take her under your wing This travel was no romantic quest for self-discovery It was just me enjoying my own company! -------- I am thrilled to share this...

Mussoorie International School “Hanisha, you’re going to boarding school! Are you excited?” To my eleven year old mind, this one sentence coming to me from my mum was just too much to process; I probably did not completely comprehend the entirety of the situation and the journey I was going to embark on. One minute, it is life as usual with my sisters and I returning from day school in Nigeria lugging a 3kg bag with books – and the next minute, there was going to be a disruption in this cyclical routine of eight years in the form of being sent to a boarding school in Mussoorie. I did not even know where Mussoorie was! Was I prepared to leave behind my oyster and be swung atop mountains unknown? I was fresh out of fifth standard and watched as my mum and dad gathered the contents of my cupboard and neatly placed them into a suitcase. We were departing for Delhi the next day from where we would hail a cab and head towards my mum’s maternal home in Jaipur. I remember it all so w...

It's not everyday you get a complimentary stay at a room atop a tea plantation. So when I got the chance to stay at Tea Nest Annexe in Coonoor, I grabbed it. Even though I just returned from a two week trip in Ladakh, I was roaring to explore Coonoor - it's not much heard of, visited or spoken of. When we landed at Coimbatore, a humid yet cool weather greeted us. There were hordes of taxi drivers offering us their service, and we asked one to take us to Mettupalayam bus stand from where we could catch the local bus to Coonoor. The ticket for this 3 hour road trip by bus cost us Rs.40 versus a door-to-door cab ride that was Rs.1600 (post haggling). While driving us to Mettupulayam, our taxi driver tried relentlessly to convince us to take up his Rs. 1500 offer seeing that we had settled in so comfortably in the back seat. But we rejected. We hopped into the local bus - it wasn't promising by any standard, the usual rickety exterior and a houseful interior. The bus con...