A thriving, underwater world, white sands, dark tropical forests and visions of the erstwhile kala pani made this vacation more than just memorable.

A fantastic workshop followed by a meteor shower and a trek to Shikhar thrown in for good measure was quite an unexpected treat. The icy winds, sparkling sunshine and pretty solar powered villages made this trip one of the most memorable among my many sojourns.

Abandoned by 1900 BCE with the drying up of Sarasvati, excavations at Banavali show the classical chessboard pattern of the Harappan era.

Narkanda in summer offers a spectacular view of the snow capped Himalayas, apart from offering a delectable spread of fruits. The apple boughs in Thanedar, laden with green apples, adorn every hedge interspersed with cherry trees bearing a bountiful ripe red harvest.

Chennai has been a frequent haunt ever since priya, our daughter, chose to study bharatanatyam at kalakshetra. But we did not expect such surprises this time round.

The annual festival of classical music and dance held in Chennai has come to be known as the ‘December Season’, with exquisite renditions arranged from December through to January. It is the Tamil month of ‘margazhi’, devotion, the basis of South Indian classical music, bhakthi.

Anticipating the customary fog would play havoc with the flight schedules this winter we cleverly booked our travel to Chennai by the Tamil Nadu Express of the fourth of January to discover that we did not fare any better. The train took a beating soon after Delhi - woke up to a chilly morning at Gwalior, six hours late and reached Chennai on the sixth at 1.30 pm.

An invitation to accompany friends on a tour of Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh found us booking ourselves on the Intercity Express to Indore this January 20, 2009.

The cemented path to the temple has been laid through rhododendron forests and after about 300 metres of a sunny afternoon climb we rested at a tea stall to garrulously gulp fresh rhododendron juice.

Responding to the advertisement seeking doctors for the 28th Scientific Expedition to Antarctica I found myself flying through menacing cumulonimbus to land safely in rain swept Dabholim Airport, Vasco da Gama, Goa for an interview at NCAOR.