Explorer of Experiences

In February 2019, I visited Bahrain , a country that had never featured on my travel bucket list. And thank God I decided to, for it was a lovely quaint city, home to less than 200,000 local and expat residents. Bahrain was the region's recreational hotspot two-three decades ago before Dubai came along. Home to one of the world's oldest civilizations 'Dilmun' and a former British Protectorate, Bahrain became independent in 1971, and continues to be ruled by the Al Khalifa dynasty. Today, the Kingdom aims to be the leading FinTech hub in the region.  I booked a full day guided tour by Visit Bahrain  which included an airport pick up. Accompanied by an Indian female guide, a long time expat residing in Bahrain, and a fellow tourist, a Venezuelan-Polish graduate, the three of us spent a lovely day together exploring. Stop 1: Al Fateh Mosque  The only mosque opened to non-Muslim tourists is a sight to behold. The highlights of the mosque interiors included Italian...

Image courtesy:  https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/12/us/priyanka-chopra-confrontation-beautycon-trnd/index.html Miss World, award-winning Bollywood actress, breakthrough Hollywood star, a champion of women empowerment, UNICEF Goodwill Brand Ambassador. The list of Priyanka Chopra's achievements go on and on. Impressive, very impressive, and by no means were any of these milestones small feats to achieve - especially for a woman of color. She voiced her personal experiences and opinions on racism, diversity and gender quality at every relevant forum she was invited to speak on. But recently, at Beautycon in Los Angeles , Priyanka Chopra's response to Ayesha Malik , an audience member, was dangerously problematic, and displayed her lack of maturity in dealing with a confrontational situation.  But before you proceed, please  read this CNN article for a recap of the entire exchange between Malik and Chopra, and more importantly, for context on Malik's statement re...

My grandmother was a refugee. A teenage girl all of 16 years of age, one night in mid 1947, she and her family faced a situation where they had to abandon their ancestral home in the Sindh province (now in Pakistan) and flee overnight to the Indian side a month before Partition of India was officially announced by the British. Layered with as many clothes she possibly could wear, with some jewelry in tow, she and her family members fled at night, avoiding the consequential brutality and rioting that ensued as a result of Partition in the months that followed. Property, wealth, friends and businesses, all had to be left behind. She recounted her time spent at a refugee camp where she learnt how to read and write in Hindi. Remember, this was a language foreign and unknown to Sindhis. Amidst everything else that they had to adapt to in their new environment, they also had to learn a new language where even the script was different and written from right to left. Sindhi families had...

Velvet Revolution at Yerevan's Republic Square I had the opportunity to visit Armenia in April 2018 (long overdue blog post, I know). But it's not a country I knew much about. Think Armenia and chances are, you've read about the Armenian Genocide  where 3/4th of its population perished - the controversy behind countries and world leaders acknowledging this as a 'genocide' ensues. One of the fascinating things I learnt was that today in Armenia, the population stands at just under 3 million (to put this in perspective, Mumbai city in India has a population of 18 million). But check out this stat; around 11 million Armenians live outside the country as migrants (most of them in the U.S.)! Right from the late 19th century, there have been three waves of massive migration from Armenia. But barring its troubled history, surely there's more to this landlocked tiny country? I was in for a surprise. In the very days we visited Armenia, the country made global wav...

In the past two years, I have met some famous and very interesting people in Dubai. It is not everyday after all that you can say you've met the world's happiest man or one of the world's most creative person. So I decided to jot down my brief yet treasured interactions with them, so you can read about it, and I can reminisce a few years down the line. SHASHI THAROOR  [Former Under-Secretary General, UN, Author and Politician] I met Tharoor shortly after I finished a heavy read of his book Inglorious Empire (read my thoughts on it here ) at the Emirates Literature Festival in February 2018. I patiently made my way towards him in a snaking long queue but it was worth it because I even got snapped with him. Tharoor is highly educated, articulate and has an impressive body of social work. But he also has a long list of things he has been criticized for and accused of. Yet, in his numerous TV interviews, I have never seen him frazzled but always patient and calm in ...

Belfast  is the best place to visit in 2018 - Lonely Planet said it, not me.  But why?  Belfast, it was never a city on my must-visit radar, until I met a colleague from there. In the months leading up to my trip, I started researching about the city and learnt that for three decades, Belfast was ground zero of  The Troubles,  a violent territorial conflict over national identity and belonging. The city was fraught with rioting and bombings and was not considered safe. But it's 2018 and on the surface, people in Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) seem to be going about life as usual. Outside of its political and religious issues, Belfast is a beautiful little city, a rising star on the traveler's bucket list, especially in the summer (quick trivia: Belfast usually sees 157 days of rain). My Hosts, The Duncans So there I was landing in Belfast one June morning as a guest of my wonderful colleague (let's call her Ms. Duncan). She is the daughte...