India Archives - Page 2 of 8

Happy Anniversary to Me : 2 Years Living in Bombay

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This week I celebrated two years of living in Bombay. To be honest, I never really believed that I would stay here that long, but now Bombay does feel like home. I have close friends here, established networks and am eking out an existence here. In many ways I am comfortable here in Mumbai, but…

Exploring Gujarat : Champaner

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I’ve been to Baroda (or Vadodara) more times then I can remember as it is where some of my family lives, but I’m embarassed to say I’ve never visited the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site of Champaner until now. I did a fly by visit of Baroda last weekend and thanks to my own stupidity…

The Big Fat Indian Wedding : Shaadi Time

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This is the fourth and final part of The Big Fat Wedding, you can find the rest here: Introduction Pre-Wedding Rituals The Engagement It was a rather rude alarm that woke me up early in the morning to have my saree draped the morning after the Sangeet. It was a little hard to believe that…

The Big Fat Indian Wedding : The Engagement

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This is the third part of The Big Fat Wedding, you can find the rest here: Introduction Pre-Wedding Rituals Shaadi Time Bright and early on a Tuesday morning the Engagement ceremonies began. The timing of these are generally dictated by astrology, which explains the 7.30am start. The first ceremony is Vratham. This is where Carl…

Big Fat Indian Wedding : Pre-Wedding Rituals

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This is the second part of The Big Fat Wedding, you can find the rest here: Introduction The Engagement Shaadi Time Like every wedding there are pre-wedding rituals that must be adhered to before the real business of joining two families starts, and this grand wedding was no different. In a more western tradition, this…

The Big Fat Indian Wedding

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It had to happen, I just can’t believe it took me so long. Before you get too excited, no I didn’t get married. This is so much better! I dressed up in sarees, wore plenty of bling and partied away without the inevitable stress that comes with being a member of the wedding party. I had…

Dubai the City of Glamour: United Arab Emirates

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After a little hiatus, I am getting back into writing about a different location a week I have visited. This week it’s the United Arab Emirates, and more specifically Dubai. Dubai has a special place in my heart, I spent about 6 months there on a rotating fly in fly out arrangement about ten years…

Slum Tourism: Dharavi

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Slum tourism drums up all sorts of bad connotations. For this reason I avoided doing the tour of Dharavi, the biggest slum in Mumbai for a long time. Finally, after a little convincing by a friend I decided to see it for myself. I now think everyone, Mumbaikars born and bred and tourists alike should…

Review: Chinese New Year at San Qi

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Chinese New Year has always been one of my favourite times of year. For many years I worked closely with the Chinese community, and spent many an evening enjoying some fantastic Chinese delicacies both in Australia and in China. So when I was asked to try out the CNY menu at San Qi restaurant (at…

Literature Festivals and Havelis: Jaipur

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I finally made it to the Jaipur Literature Festival this year. It is apparently the largest free outdoor Lit Fest in the world, and certainly the largest one in India. I wasn’t sure what to expect, some people told me that it was an elitist event that wasn’t really for the average person. So was…

Farewell 2013

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Another year comes to an end, so here is a quick post about my highlights of 2013 and what my plans are for next year. Highlight of 2013: Visiting Australia and spending time with my family and friends. Saying goodbye to my 30’s was also a highlight, the decade has been a mixed bag of the…

I Have Been a Bad Bad Blogger

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I have been a bad bad blogger! Yes I am well aware, that it has been over a month since I last posted, and my goal of posting a new location a week has gone out the window recently. I can explain though. Quite simply I had to earn some money! I have a couple…

Review: Copa Bar in Juhu

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I don’t often do reviews, although I do eat out a lot (anyone who has seen my Instagram feed knows that), but I was invited to try out a new bar in Juhu this week. I don’t often visit Juhu, not because I don’t like it, but because I am a little bit lazy to…

The Day India Nearly Broke My Spirit

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I finally had that day where India nearly broke my spirit. It’s the end of monsoon, which means the air is thick with moisture and oh so very hot. Not the kind of weather where you want to be shuffled around from one government department to another, made to wait around cramped offices or having…

Back to Reality

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It has now been about a month since I returned to India, after a rather long visit to Australia. When I got on the flight to Mumbai I was feeling really excited about coming back home. It even surprised me when I started calling Mumbai home, but for now, that is exactly what it is…

Returning Home: Melbourne

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The day I landed in Melbourne was only 3 weeks shy of the two year anniversary of me leaving. I was really looking forward to my visit home, it had been a long time. There was a bit of nervous anticipation as I prepared to go back, I felt like so much about me had…

Would You Marry Your Rapist?

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One of the most disturbing things I have read lately in the Indian papers is about this concept of marrying a survivor of sexual assault to her perpetrator. Yes you read that correctly, a man forces himself on a women and she is then forced to marry him. WTF? The rationale for this seems to…

Melbourne: The Things I Have Missed

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I have been visiting Melbourne, which is home, for the past few weeks. I still have a couple of weeks to go before returning to Mumbai, but as I sit here on a cold, rainy day I am thinking of all the things that I have really missed here. Some that I knew I was…

Climate Change: From Mumbai to Melbourne

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Through Mumbai’s sweltering, suffocating Summer, I have spent many a day fantasising about rolling around in ice cold snow or being rugged up in layers of winter woolies. I have literally had dreams about it. So I was very excited about the prospect of escaping the sauna that is a Mumbai monsoon and spending some…

How to Blend in With The Locals: The Czech Republic

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Blending in with the locals is something that I strive to achieve when I travel, but I think I generally do a pretty bad job of it. So why do I want to blend in? Well, I can only speak for myself, but I like to think that I experience somewhere differently if I don’t…

Tag: India