Category Archives: India

Rishikesh is a magical city of fairy tale ashrams and colourful gods. The city sits at an auspicious place, where the Ganges – one of the most sacred rivers to Hindus – flows out of the Himalaya and towards the plains. For me, the city’s name alone is evocative of sitar music, pastel-coloured Hindu temples, meditation, […]

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It was my last day in Rishikesh: that magical city of yogis and mystics on the Ganges at the foothills of the Himalaya. I’d been there for a week-long yoga ‘retreat’ – a retreat that turned out to be more of a test of patience than a practice of yoga (more on that some other […]

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This was my first sojourn into Southern India – and I was finding everything as different as it could be! I was travelling as part of a small-group tour. We had just spent a few days in Puducherry (see: Weekly Wanders Pondicherry) and had set out early one morning in our bus for the city […]

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Rishikesh. Heat enveloping like a wet blanket, the smell of incense and mud, and memories of the late sixties … Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the White Album … (Click for: Within You Without You from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) Rishikesh is a city of yoga, meditation, and religious philosophy. It […]

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In the ancient Hindu holy city of Haridwar, on the banks of the sacred river Ganga, there is a ghat (set of steps down to the river) that is said to to have been built in the first century BC by the legendary King Vikramaditya. Called Har Ki Pauri, which means the feet of Lord […]

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