Rakhee Ghelani

Tag: Migration

  • Life in a Refugee Camp: Thailand

    Life in a Refugee Camp: Thailand

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    I was fortunate enough to spend New Year’s Eve and Day visiting two refugee camps on the Thai / Burma border (Burma is officially known as Myanmar now). A friend that I have been visiting in Thailand works on the border and offered me the opportunity to visit the camps and experience Karen New Year.…

  • The Day India Nearly Broke My Spirit

    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…

  • Returning Home: Melbourne

    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…

  • Melbourne: The Things I Have Missed

    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…

  • Why I Choose to Stay in India?

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    I get asked all the time, “Why do you choose to stay in India?”.  I am asked this by my Indian friends, by friends overseas, travellers I meet and most recently by my parents who are here visiting me for a few months. It is not an easy question to answer, but whilst reflecting on…

  • Sometimes A Girl Just Need Some Girlfriends

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    Last week I made 5 new friends. I can’t remember the last time I made that many new friends in a week.  As I have got older, meeting new people that I click with has become harder, and to be honest it has never worried me,  I much prefer quality over quantity anyway. But when…

  • Finding Home

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    I recently went through the rather stressful experience of trying to find somewhere to live in Mumbai. The options are overwhelming and also very varied in their quality and price.  Coming from a country where you look up some places on the internet, view them and sign up… I discovered its all a very different…

  • Class or crass: India’s Middle Class

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    One of the biggest culture shocks I am now experiencing relates to what is considered to be “class” or behaviour that represents economic and social status.  It isn’t something I saw much of when I was backpacking, but now that I am settled into a rather middle class life in Mumbai, I am really struggling…

  • The Joy and Curse of Solo-Travel

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    I love traveling on my own, I have been a solo-traveler for about 14 years now and thrive on the freedom and exhilaration of it.  I guess you could say I have a strong independent streak and am comfortable in my own company, after all I have lived alone for 13 years. I have now…

  • Is the real India Invisible? – Andhra Pradesh

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    As I made my way down the east coast of the country, I decided to stop in a few places in Andhra Pradesh along the way, which gave me quite a “real” Indian experience.  First stop was Visakhapatnam, otherwise known as Vizag.  This is a beachside city that is touted as the best beach on…

  • Cultural Misfits: Where do I fit in?

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    I am learning Hindi and have found the experience particularly challenging given the rather diverse cultural history I come from ( something I have discussed a bit previously here). My grandparents were born in India, my parents in East Africa and myself in Australia. Growing up, a mixture of four languages were spoken in my…

  • Guruvayur and Thrissur: How do you prove you are Hindu?

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    How do you prove what religion you were raised to someone you just met? A Christian can wear a cross, although anyone could do this relatively easily. A Muslim woman can wear a Hijab, but not all do. A Jewish woman can shave her head and wear a long skirt, although only the orthodox do.…

  • The Differences Between North and South India

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    I have only been in South India for a couple of weeks, but I immediately felt that there was a huge cultural shift between North and South. It’s not just the food and climate though that makes South India like a different country to me, it is the people and the environment. I appreciate I…

  • Riding the Buses in India

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    The mere thought of taking a long bus journey in India now brings a shiver up my spine. It has taken only three bus journeys to bring me to this point. As I now sit here and plan out the next few weeks of my travels, I am deliberately choosing routes that allow for train…

  • Pictorial Post: The Golden Temple of Amritsar

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    I have seen many temples and monuments in my life from various religious denominations, but none come anywhere near the ethereal beauty of Amritsar’s Golden Temple. This temple hosts upwards of 60,000 people a day, yet still remains a place of calm and peace. With the religious chanting and songs piped through the entire complex,…

  • Pictorial Post: Dharamsala

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    Dharamsala is the home place of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet in Exile. It’s a town of contradiction. On one hand it is peaceful and calm.  It must be the only place in India where people apologise if they accidentally bump into you, and don’t try to swindle you out of too much…

  • Foodie Post: Bhel

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    Bhel is one of those dishes that my mother makes very rarely, usually when we have some family around for a casual Sunday lunch. My cousin here in Delhi refers to it as “junk food”. I will just refer to it as Bhel. It’s from the family of Chaat, which is basically snack food. I…

  • Pictorial Post: Shimla

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    One of my regular readers has suggested that I put more pictures in my posts to give readers a feel for the places and things I am writing about.  As I now have a brand new camera that works, I can finally do this.  So here is the first of my Pictorial Posts, on Shimla,…

  • Is #Shimla leading the way for #India?

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    Today I arrived in Shimla. Shimla is in Himachal Pradesh.  It is an old British hill station, and is now a bustling town. I didn’t quite know what to expect when I landed here.  I was hoping for hills, greenery and a cooler temperature.  I definitely got all of those.  What I hadn’t expected was…