Seglvik. What I Had Forgotten to Plan For.
I had prepared everything for this trip, except the one thing that was really going to matter. The idea was simple: to go and observe orcas and humpback whales in…
Puffin
In Scotland, it was affectionately known as Tammie Norie, a nickname that was also given, in the 19th century, to a rather simple-minded man. I spent hours with them, sitting…
Lathmar Holi, the Festival of Sticks
Krishna grew up in Nandgaon. Radha, the one he loved, lived in Barsana. Legend has it that one day, he came to tease her with his friends, splashing her with…
Holi, the Festival of Colors
Holi marks the end of winter and the return of spring. It is one of the oldest festivals in the Hindu calendar—some texts trace it back several centuries before the…
Kambala: Story of a Race
The word itself carries mud at its heart. Kambala would come from kampa-kala, where kampa designates a waterlogged, marshy field—an ancient Dravidian etymology, though local linguists don't entirely agree on…
Hijras, the third-gender community
Hijras, the third-gender community It was William Dalrymple, yet again, who put me on the trail – not in *Nine Lives* this time, but in *City of Djinns*, his book…
Kambala
The Theyyam had gripped me through its slowness: the turmeric spreading across a face, the headdress fitted piece by piece, hours before the man gave way. As for the Kambala,…
Lathmar Holi
Robert Capa used to say that if your photos aren’t good enough, you weren’t close enough. I have never thought about that line as much as I did that day…
Theyyam
It was a book that set me on my way. William Dalrymple, Nine Lives, the second chapter—a low-caste barber who becomes a god for one night on the Malabar coast.…
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