Distinctiveness - Travel and Lifestyle Blog

This Sunday afternoon, while the rest of the neighborhood relished the cozy charms of the quill, I decided to follow an unusual routine that I had started a week earlier. Last weekend, thanks to the Internet Shutdown, I had churned out a less than perfect sponge cake . Since then, though, the internet had returned and life had taken a turn towards normalcy. However, that was not enough to refrain me from the enticing possibilities of an empty kitchen this weekend. You see, I must admit that my love for cooking can be discriminatory at times but I am extremely fond of baking a cake. So this Sunday afternoon, I took the flour and the eggs and the powdered sugar and worked up a creamy batter. By the time little Messi woke up, the room was filled up with the sweet aroma of a freshly baked cake. “Umm, Happy to you!” Messi uttered, with a smile. To the little fellow, cake meant birthday and birthday meant cake and on a birthday one has to say “Happy to you”. The “Birthday” aft...

Of the many experiences that I have gathered in this lifetime, perhaps the most humbling one happened just a couple of days back. It all started with the agitation over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the latest bouncer inflicted on us Indians. The protest grew from strength to strength with each passing day but it was at its strongest at Assam, where people took to the streets to express their dissent. One thing led to another and soon life came to a standstill. While the agitation continued outside, we stayed careful, avoiding the National Highways and rationing our supplies prudently. Shops remained closed, markets were deserted and people did not venture outside unless absolutely necessary. Thankfully, there were no violent incidents in and around the small municipal town I currently reside in, with residents maintaining peace and religious harmony despite the many provocations. However, the protests continue to rise and threatened to gather pace. The authorities struggled...

Image courtesy - ISRO The world as we know right now is built on success. We are programmed to embrace victories and ignore defeats. We are programmed to believe that the society only needs the winners and the losers can go back home. But what actually happens to people who fail? And are the most successful people always successful? Have they never tasted defeat in their lives? It was a question that bothered me all of a sudden today. The reason was simple: Chandrayaan-2

The Picture that horrified India. Photo Credits - PTI 44 lives lost in an instant, so that the rest of us could live in peace. It could have been you and me, but we sit in the comforts of our homes, mostly oblivious to the perils of our brothers and sisters who have chosen the harder way of life. The Day the Country will never forget A small town in the state of Jammu and Kashmir became a household name overnight for a very tragic reason. On the day specially dedicated to celebrating Love and the matters of the heart, the town of Pulwama was drenched in the colour of blood. On a day dedicated to the purest of emotions, a deafening blast rocked the Valley of Kashmir, as a Suicide Bomber ran a vehicle full of explosives into a CRPF bus. Valentine's Day in India would never be the same again. The inital reports said that at least 44 lives were lost in an instant. 44 men traveling in a bus, people of flesh and blood. People with families and dreams and aspirations. It co...