Sunday morning came bright early and at 8:59 am I was at Everest Travels. <Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 here to get that background> Less than 5 minutes later I was sitting in the private office of the manager. "S... Tobacco picked it up. Your ticket is with them.",…
<The story so far: Our hero, tempted by the prospects of bagging bushels of bullion, has bribed and begged his way into Nepal, without any photo id at all and no passport. He stands now inside the arrivals terminal at Tribhuvan International Airport with wuthering wit and seething senses. Part 1 : Part…
<Read Part I and Part 2> As I walked across the tarmac to the terminal building, I clutched my briefcase a little tighter. Visions of Nepali jails flashed before my eyes in a strange collection of images from various Hollywood movies. All too soon, I was facing a customs officer. Pleading no knowledge…
When I left you hanging in Part 1, I was approaching the departure gate at Calcutta airport. I was headed out on the flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. I had no passport or any other form of photo id. In short nothing to prove I was who I said I was. The gate…
So there we were, barely successful business owners. Tea had given us a hefty start up push <read about it here>, Dettol and Cherry Blossom had given us wings, so when the cigarette company called we were reasonably assured we knew what the hell we were doing. Within a couple of years, a…
<This is Part Three of the Punjabi in Paris series. Read the first two, too! Part 1 and Part 2 may be found, you guessed it right, congratulations!, by clicking on the words Part 1 and Part 2. Not these ones, the ones earlier in the sentence, the ones that are in blue,…
<Read earlier post here> Somewhere in the last week, The Beloved Bangalan, realized that we hadn't figured out the cost-benefit ratio of internal travel. Local transport within the city. Renting a car for intra-city travel made as much sense as driving your own car in New Delhi or Calcutta. I suspect a slight…
Well, there you are, my dear folks. I've been there and "done" Paris, but did not get a t-shirt. Most of them had glittering fronts that said "I {heart symbol} Paris" in small rhinestones and, as you already know by now (or should), rhinestones are not right for my idiom. The trip was…
Well, there you are, my dear folks. I've been there and "done" Paris, but did not get a t-shirt. Most of them had glittering fronts that said "I {heart symbol} Paris" in small rhinestones and, as you already know by now (or should), rhinestones are not right for my idiom. The trip was…
Introduction This is the story of a peeper, a peeping tom who chose us as a subject of study. Read on! A small ground floor flat (apartment, if American) is what we loved in and lived in. As a newly married couple in our mid-twenties, we both worked for "computer companies" where we…