What Mauritius Needs

Taj Mahal means "Crown Palace" and is in fact the most well preserved and architecturally beautiful tomb in the world. The English poet, Sir Edwin Arnold has described The Taj as "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones." It is a romance celebrated in marble and glorified with precious and semi-precious stones and that’s the way to appreciate it! W ho could ever think that an eternal love leading to the saga of infinite bondage can evolve out of a desert like land and would blossom to be the reason to gift our world a poem-in-marble, The Taj! No image of The Taj, neither on canvass nor on celluloid, can adequately express its conceptual imaginary nor convey the legend, the poetry and the romance that shrouds what Rabindranath Tagore calls "a teardrop on the cheek of time". India’s Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, referred to the Taj Mahal as a “tear dr...

Modi always made sense to me. But it's only after I came to India that I understood his full vision. #Swach Bharat Mission honestly deserves anybody's full fledge support. There's no shame in cleaning one's own dirt up. Littering in India is tempting. This is coming from the girl who can get a person throwing waste in the bus to at least feel bad about his act. This is coming from the girl who can stop talking to her Dad because he threw a piece of paper through the car window. And still she says that littering in India is definitely tempting. Mostly because India is not only a vast stretch of green fields but can also be this vista of ignoble wastes! Since everyone seems to be dumping, why can't I just follow the crowd and participate in this 'culture' of theirs? I remember this brief encounter my mom had with a guy in Shimla. He was entertaining us with some native Himachal jewellery and when mom had a piece of plastic to throw away, s...

You might probably be wondering why I'm writing about something that should have ended 5 months back. But well, I had a made myself a mental promise to write about my trip to India as much as I could. Although I had initially decided to put off the plan till December this year, here I am today; about to unravel one of my days spent in Jaipur! :) Today, I'm going to introduce you to a fort. Amber Fort. Located high on a hill, it is the principal tourist attractions in the Jaipur area. It was once ruled by Raja Man Singh. Ticks a bell? To Bollywood lovers, yes this is the fort where parts of the movie Jodha Akbar was shot!  And to the Indian TV addicts, this is where some episodes of Mahabharat (Star Plus, 2014)  was shot! With its large ramparts and series of gates and cobbled paths. The aesthetic ambiance of the palace is seen within its walls. Constructed of red sandstone and marble, the attractive, opulent palace is laid out on four level...

Aamir Khan has started a new campaign called 'Atithi Devo Bhava' in the wake of the promulgation of a new law by the Modi government in favour of protecting foreigners visiting the country. As a foreigner myself in this land I do second the truth in the swelling number of cheaters among taxi drivers, rickshaw wales, vendors, coolies and guides. They can all so nonchalantly fool you. I remember how this morning itself, among the perpetual flow of rickshaws brushing against you whilst you walk, some tuck their heads out to wish you good morning and them try to initiate a conversation with you in varied languages in a bid to woo you to drive with them. Some even go to the point of over hearing your conversations and then screaming out that we are going in the wrong direction or the place we are headed to is closed, when it's not true. They clearly want to take you in the opposite direction to places where they are going to get commission from.

Delhi, India, is a giant city that contains an overwhelming amount of history, culture, life, food, temples, and everything else you could possibly imagine. In Delhi I was shorthanded change after paying for a number of different attractions. I know officials occasionally do this on purpose, because at Qutub Minar I counted my change, was 100 Rupees short, so I turned back to the counter, and he immediately gave me 100 Rupees without saying anything… he knew all along, but was hoping I didn’t count. Count your change, and demand that you are given the correct amount. Being shorthanded in change is very exaggerated in India and that too with the vendors claiming having no change whilst its clearly the contrary. As a means to apparently compensate for the 25 to 70 rupaiyaa they can't return you, they give you 3 or 4 sweets ( not mithaii but literally tiny little sugar candies! ) Moreover, they can clearly steal away your money when you ask them to return your money b...