Travel, Read, Conserve

Iceland had been on our minds for over a decade - ever since we watched Bollywood stars Kajol and Shahrukh prancing around on the stunning black sand beaches of Vik, under the sharp and craggy peaks of Vestrahorn, and behind the Seljalandsfoss waterfalls - in the famous ‘Gerua’ song. After settling the debate on whether Kajol looks better in the yellow saree or the red one, the real question came up - when can we plan a trip to Iceland? Well, it took 10 years, but it did happen this September! Few things that really made our jaws drop or were a first timer for us : Gender neutral bathrooms - This was such a natural thing and we saw it even in so many small coastal towns/ roadside rest areas. After the shock and resistance the first couple of times, we got used to it 🙂 Rainbow streets - Iceland celebrates diversity and has a famous pride parade every year in Reykjavik. It is striking that most of the rainbow streets lead up to churches, in Reykjavik but also in smaller cities like...

When I take stock of a normal year in December, I tend to think in terms of the vacations we went on, the warm moments spent with family (this year was made extra special by the rambunctious and adorable Iggy), and oddly enough, the highlights of what  transpired at work. I also divide the year in terms of the books I read, when I read them, where I was while reading a specific book, and the characters that have lived on and evolved in my heart - long after I have finished the book. The last book I read this year was Orhan Pamuk's 'Istanbul'. It is about the city and the Bosphorus strait, but it is more about the essence of Hüzün - melancholy - the permanent state of the city. He describes how Hüzün sets in on Istanbul, as the sun sets early in the evenings, in the teahouses packed with unemployed men, or the discolored and dusty apartment buildings looking over the Bosphorus. A city that has embraced its ruins but longs for the old glory of the Ottoman empire. People of...

  Rick Steve's book on Scottish Highlands had already prepared me with the interesting fact that while only 3% of Scots speak  Gaelic , 30% of the Gaelic speakers live in the Isle of Skye. So, entering the grocery store at Broadford, a cute-ish town in the Skye, and seeing all signs in Gaelic, delighted me! Ah ha.. the mental translation started, so Maesan=Fruits and Glasraich =Vegetables.  Given that all our Bengali hearts were already singing at the prospect of  "dimer jhol/bhat, chicken curry/bhat" dinners over the next 3 days in our Airbnb located at he heart of Isle of Skye , in beautiful Sligachan :)   Isle of Skye was our second stop in Scotland - filled with surprises, misadventures, and thrills that we  weren't exactly ready for.  After spending three busy days in vibrant, soulful, historical Edinburgh, we had boarded the train to Inverness - considered the gateway to Isle of Skye - on a sunny Tuesday morning. We got comfortable in the train, ...

A few days after we booked our Big Island trip, Mauna Loa (the largest active volcano in the world, located in Big Island) started erupting. My social media feed was flooded with incredible video footage of the lava spewing from Mauna Loa, and getting closer to Saddle Road, the main connecting highway between the western and eastern sides of the Big Island. We were a little nervous, and indecisive whether we should cancel the trip, but decided to take a risk with the hope of experiencing live volcano sightings, a once in a lifetime opportunity. It did not really turn out as exciting, honestly was an anticlimax - Mauna Loa stopped erupting just a few days before we left 🙁. While we were able to see the fissures and lava/ash trail of the latest eruption, explored the steam vents and cinder cones on Saddle Road, compared and read up on pāhoehoe and ʻaʻā lava patterns and textures, shocked by the devastation of the 2018 Kilauea volcano eruption taking out whole neighborhoods, and marvele...

  M  Fall morning- weekday. Squeezing in a walk between meetings with half an eye on my phone for work messages.  On my way back, met this elderly lady walking her three dogs - I have seen her before, always with her dogs. Stopped to pet her dogs, two sisters and a brother. Dogs wanted more attention, and we started talking. About the weather, her ten-year-old dogs coming from the same litter, her walking times.  The conversation geared from love for her dogs, to some owners mistreating their pets and the general unkindness and cruelty in the larger world. A moment of empathy between two women. Floodgates opened. Her thoughts went back - to the early years of her marriage and her verbally abusive, narcissistic husband. Forced pregnancies. His attempts to manipulate her, the children. Years after their divorce,  him continuing to threaten her and disrupt her life. Showing up wherever she moved.  Shared our common fear of the upcoming elec...

2021 was a strange year, different from a normal year, but also very different from 2020. It was a year that started with fatigue. Fatigue from nine months of isolation, anxiety, hyper awareness and gloom. Covid, US elections, climate disasters, uprising of the BLM movement - emotional exhaustion while navigating the cycles of hope and despair. But we are eternally hopeful as a species. In December 2020, we still tried to list our 2021 resolutions, looked back at the positives and lessons learnt, confident that the end of the pandemic will soon be in sight. Vaccines and a new Presidential chapter were on the horizon, making us optimistic, a little relieved, along with some skepticism. In general, we are able to separate the happenings in the larger world from our personal lives. The last two years have been an anomaly - the two worlds have crossed, and how! The global pandemic entered our bedrooms. It ruled every decision from last minute travel cancellations with regulations changing...