Hills
A Himalayan pass opens when the snow is cleared, not when spring arrives
Season dates on a high road are set by machinery, avalanche risk and the depth of the drifts, which is why…
· 4 min read
Radhika Iyer
Reporter, Traveology
Radhika has written about states, hills, coast & islands for most of the last decade and is happiest when a piece answers the question completely.
19 articles
Hills
On a hill road, kilometres are a poor unit and hours are the honest one
Gradient, curvature and the vehicle in front set an average speed that has almost nothing to do with the…
· 4 min read
Coast & Islands
Goa’s beaches are rebuilt every year and the shacks tell you which season it is
Temporary structures come down before the monsoon because the sea takes the sand away and brings it back…
· 4 min read
Coast & Islands
The flat patch between the waves is the current that pulls people out
Rip currents form where water pushed onshore finds a channel back to sea, and they look like the calmest…
· 4 min read
Trains & Permits
Indian train classes are a ladder built from two variables
Every class on the network is a combination of how many people share the space and whether the air is…
· 4 min read
Trains & Permits
Winter fog rewrites the northern timetable for weeks at a time
A stable, cold, moist layer over the Indo-Gangetic plain slows trains, grounds aircraft and produces delays…
· 4 min read
Festivals
Indian festival dates move because the calendar counts moons and years at once
A lunar month does not divide neatly into a solar year, and the corrections applied to reconcile them are…
· 4 min read
Festivals
Durga Puja turns Kolkata into a walking city for several nights
Neighbourhood pavilions, closed roads and crowds that move on foot until dawn make the festival week a…
· 4 min read
Coast & Islands
India’s coastal lagoons fill with migratory birds in the cold months
Brackish shallow water behind a sand bar produces exactly the feeding conditions that waterbirds need in…
· 3 min read
Trains & Permits
The bus network reaches everywhere the train does not, in two separate systems
State-run corporations and private operators cover the same country with different rules, different booking…
· 4 min read
Trains & Permits
A large Indian station holds facilities most travellers never find
Cloakrooms, retiring rooms, waiting halls tied to your ticket and a working enquiry system exist at major…
· 3 min read
Festivals
A mela is a market before it is a spectacle
The great Indian fairs began as trade gatherings tied to a religious date, and the livestock, commerce and…
· 3 min read
Hills
A hill town’s season ends before the weather does
Staff leave, kitchens close and buses thin out weeks before the cold arrives, which is why the shoulder can…
· 4 min read
Coast & Islands
Turtles nest on Indian beaches in the dark, which is what makes lights a problem
Sea turtles come ashore on particular stretches of coast in the cooler months, and the hatchlings navigate…
· 3 min read
Festivals
A Kerala temple festival is a percussion event before it is anything else
The great poorams are built around drum ensembles performing for hours in the open air, and the elephants…
· 3 min read
Festivals
An urs is a death anniversary observed as a wedding
The annual commemorations at Sufi shrines mark the saint’s union with the divine rather than a bereavement…
· 3 min read
States
A river confluence in India is a crossing, a boundary and a shrine at once
Two rivers meeting produces a defensible triangle of land, a natural place to ford and a site that Indian…
· 4 min read
Coast & Islands
India has four coral regions and each one is reached differently
Reef-building coral grows only where the water is warm, clear and shallow enough, which restricts it to a…
· 3 min read
Trains & Permits
Photography in India is decided site by site, and the sign at the gate is the rule
There is no single national permission covering cameras, so what is allowed depends on who manages the…
· 4 min read