Tag Archives: travel
Video: Sona and Navdeep Jump Out of a Plane in Hawaii
We got a bit bored of hanging out by the shops in Waikiki, and it was Tarun’s birthday (my brother-in-law), so we all thought the best option was for all three of us to jump out of a plane. No, that is not a metaphor.
Going Local: An Insider’s Guide to Pakistan and India’s Film Industry
The Woods, they are a confusing place. Bollywood is just a player in India’s massive cinema scene. Get the low down on Bollywood, Mollywood, Tollywood, and yes, even Kollywood. I am also including Lollywood (you heard me right) even though it is based in Pakistan, because there is nothing that can beat the old school Punjabi classics coming out of there.
LOLLYWOOD
Lollywood is arguably the most underrated film industry in this part of the world. There has never been the sleekness, sex-appeal, string of “super-hits,” or the budget that Bollywood has had over the decades. But then again, it wasn’t funded by the Indian mafia either. During the 1960s, Indian entertainment in almost all forms were heavily censored, and in many cases, banned. This inevitably gave rise to blackmarket dvds, and radio programs playing bollywood dance numbers based out of Sri Lanka. These days, most Pakistanis (and Indians), as well as Desis the world over, get their hit of movies from Bollywood. But in its heyday, Lollywood made a string of the most awesome Punjabi films. Now Punjabi films are relegated to Sikhs from outside India, so you have a handful of Punjabi films with the same weepy storyline and the hero is a Punjabi singer with zero acting ability who is funding the production.
CHECK OUT:
Maula Jatt, which launched the careers of Sultan Rahi (the hero) and Mustafa Qureshi who plays the villain, Noori Natt. The storyline is simple. Maula Jatt is the hero. Noori Natt is the villain. He steals his woman. Maula Jatt kicks ass while wearing a loongi, carrying a gandasa, and gets his woman back with a lot of dishoon-dishoon, and some of the most awesome zingers in the world. There is also a lot of mustache tweaking. Here is the best fight scene you have ever seen:
Travel Tips: Five Travel Tips To Get The Best Prices on Airline Tickets
One of the most annoying things about travel is exactly that: traveling. I’ll admit that taking rickshaws in India, or riding on sleeper buses in China is bloody good fun. Flying, however, is the most boring form of transportation, but in most cases it has to be done before the fun travel begins. Even more boring than flying is looking up plane tickets to so you can fly to your destination. Flying is an efficient form of travel, but it’s also the most boring, and the most expensive part of the trip. And waiting at the airport is just plane boring. No, that wasn’t a typo. It was a deliberate attempt at being clever.
Before we had Kavya, the initial flights were the only things we would book. Everything else, we winged. We didn’t pre-book hotel rooms, or train tickets. We just showed up and hoped for the best. In most cases everything worked out. The one place we had a spot of trouble was in the city of Bhubaneshwar, where every room had been booked because of some conference. So, we picked up our Lonely Planet and headed off to the coastal town of Puri, a few miles down the road, and got a lovely room right on the beach.
Flights really are the one thing we labor over though because the money we save simply by booking a day or two ahead or behind is pretty significant, particularly when you go to a country where street food costs under $1.
Our upcoming trip to Hawaii this winter is going to be an interesting one because we’re in charge of planning a family trip involving my parents, Sona’s parents and sister, and of course our 1 year old, Kavya. Winter in Hawaii is the high season, a period we usually go out of our way to avoid because it involves much more planning. And in a place like Hawaii, not only do hotels get booked up, so do rental cars. Even inter-island flights. And unfortunately, while me and Sona are down with vagabonding in Hawaii, everyone else has responsibilities, so a lot of it has to be pre-booked.
Anyway, here some travel tips we’ve learned over the years for getting good deals on air fare. Some of it is common sense, while some of it is just knowing how to play the game!
Tip #1:
Video: The Karni Mata “Rat” Temple in Deshnoke, Rajasthan
Check out the video of our visit to the Karni Mata “Rat” Temple, home to 20,000 rats in Deshnoke, near Bikaner, Rajasthan in India. The rats are believed to be incarnations of tribesmen of the aesthetic Karni Mata (an incarnation of the Goddess Durga). People come to pay their respects from all over the world. We were one of them!
Musings: Independent Travel . . . With Children?
I finally got my computer in good enough shape to edit this video and the last bit made me smile. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. We were staying at this coffee plantation in Madikeri, Karnataka, and took a side trip to see the Dubare Elephant Camp. On the ride there, we met Paul and Kirsten Thompson, a couple from New Zealand, who we instantly took a liking to because we thought they were absolutely bonkers in the best way possible.
They were on a 10 week holiday in India with not one kid, not two, but three. And the names of the children were just brilliant: Merlin, Felix, and Rumi. Merlin, the youngest, was 2, and looked like I’d imagine Merlin the magician to look like at that age, complete with long, wavy blonde hair. Rumi, the eldest was 7, with Felix smack in the middle at about 4! And I remember thinking that this is really encouraging. The spirit of independent travel need not be crushed just because you have children.
Rumi and Navdeep
I got on famously with the eldest kid, Rumi, who we got on camera hosting this video. He did a bang up job too in his cape! What I was really impressed by was how adaptable these kids were, and as cliched as it sounds, how worldly and intelligent Rumi and Felix were. Felix had this really funny way of asking questions. His mum and dad had told him to stop interrupting people and to say “Excuse me,” before speaking. So, armed with “excuse me,” he would interrupt every conversation by repeatedly saying, “Excuse me, ” followed by, “I have a question.” Some of the questions were really interesting, some were entertaining, but most went absolutely nowhere. Rumi was much more reserved and poignant in his observations, and asked really incisive questions. Merlin enjoyed just traipsing about in shoes much too big for him.
Sona was particularly fascinated with what the kids ate and we were both duly impressed that they ate plenty of Indian food, from dosas to dhokla, but stayed away from the usuals: street food using potentially unsanitary water. Although eating unsanitary street food is the most delicious part of India (or any country really), I can’t imagine traveling for a limited amount of time, with three kids who have dodgy tummies or worse! The reason Sona found it so interesting is a) unbeknownst to me, she was thinking about this baby business in “at least a year.” Notice my nervous laughter at the end of the video and the abrupt blank look on my face when Paul mentioned the word, “quantity.” That expression should be right next to a visual dictionary definition for the word “gobsmacked.” And b) Sona’s travels to India never involved street food. This rule about no street food, inflicted by her parents, extended from infancy all the way till past her twenties! Sona’s mother used to pack food like Macaroni and Cheese and cereal for Sona’s brother because he refused to eat Indian food in India. He was nine years old!
I, on the other hand, didn’t know any better. I didn’t know there was another option. I was 2 weeks old when we left England to go to Tanzania, and from there Nigeria, the U.A.E., and of course America. Having been raised in several different countries from such a young age, I thrive in being put into a situation I might not be familliar with. This made traveling in China and communicating with people for things like toilet paper, or cold water using dodgy sign language, not such a big deal. I am very adapatable to different food and customs. My sister, who was much more cognizant of how different the places were from “home,” likes to use the word “adventurous.”
Before travelling with Sona, it was something I’d taken for granted. I don’t get cravings for comfort food and I don’t get nostalgic for that sense of home.But these days, a sense of home is much easier to come by than it was even a few years ago. You’re constantly connected to some version of the familliar. There are bars in Tibet, discos in Nepal, Pizza Hut in China, upscale dining in India, and internet cafes (not to mention wireless cards) all over the world.
Sona and Navdeep Have a Baby!
As a father to a one-year-old, I often think of Paul and Kirsten, and about our next big adventure. Our six month backpacking adventure was a lot of fun, but it was much different to my solo travels. My solo travels were a lot more dangerous, although we did take a really sketchy 15 hour local bus ride in the middle of the night to Srinagar. Travelling with Sona, constantly being together day in and day out, really deepened our understanding of India, of each other, and much later we realized, of ourselves.
I always thought of getting married and having kids as an end to independent travel, exchanging that backpack for a nice carry-on, and being one of those geeky tourists that think they’ve travelled to a country because they booked a ten day tour to the “best” sites. But getting married certainly didn’t have that effect, and thanks to Paul and Kirsten and their trio of swashbucklers, neither will having kids. So, as to the question of quantity? Three sounds like a nice number.
Weekend Honeymoon: Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Looking for a quick, romantic getaway? With its sparkling lights, posh dining and worthy sites galore, Las Vegas is a sure bet for romance – especially if you want to tie the knot or renew your vows. In fact, Navdeep and I got married there (before the big, fat Desi wedding), so for us, it’s a super-special weekend honeymoon destination.
Friday 1 p.m. Settling In
Considering that United did not bother feeding us on the eight-hour trip west, we were famished when we got to Sin City’s McCarran airport. However, we restrained ourselves from diving into the nearest Burger King.
Instead, we checked into our lovely room ($110 per night, plus tax) at the Egyptian-themed Luxor, complete with a view of the Sphinx’s bum. The room was in the grand pyramid of the Luxor, which sits primly on the North end of the iconic Vegas Strip. Not as posh as some of the grander hotels – the Bellagio and the Venetian will set you back $250 or more – it was a comfortable, if slightly outdated space.
2 p.m. Fueling Up
After settling in, we were famished. We decided to grab a snack while hitting some of the Sin City sites, so we nabbed bargain-priced 24-hour pass ($10 for two) for the Deuce bus, a double-decker monster that runs up and down the Strip every ten minutes or so. We hopped on and rode over to Caesar’s Palace, where we plopped ourselves down for a leisurely coffee break at Bobby Flay’s understated-yet-colorful Mesa Grill. Sipping (skim!) cappuccino, we devoured a divine chocolate espresso layer cake complemented by crunchy pieces of toffee and a rich caramel sauce ($22.50). The caffeine and chocolate were just what we need to get us through the afternoon – especially because shopping was on the agenda!
3 p.m. Forum Fun (Or Not)
Post-snack, we strolled through the Caesar’s Forum Shops, stopping to watch the talking statues, which were reminiscent of those rockin’ animals at Chuck-E-Cheese that always scare the little kids. Creepy!
After hitting the Houdini store (uber-creepy!), we made brief pit stops at Juicy Couture, Anthropologie and Intermix before Navdeep got really bored, so we decided to head out for a long walk up to the South Strip.
4 p.m. Sky High
We stopped briefly to admire the Stratosphere, which floats above the strip skyline like a spaceship paused to ponder before making its landing.
Across from the Strat is the Hollywood Wedding Chapel, where Navdeep and I tied the knot three years ago. We didn’t go inside, but instead admired it from afar as we recalled our first big adventure in Vegas.
6 p.m. Ultra-Lux
For dinner, we skipped the Cheesecake Factory and instead headed to the Venetian, on a mission to find Cheesecake’s slightly more upscale cousin, The Grand Lux Café, which my sister Meena had been raving about for months.
Once there, we ravaged the warm sourdough and pumpernickel bread, then settled in for hearty (read: bigger-than-our-heads!) portions of chicken marsala and chicken pot pie. Dessert was a light, flaky strawberry shortcake topped with a dollop of pillowy whipped cream ($60 for two).
8 p.m. Getting Into the Spirit
After polishing off that meal, we could hardly move. Lucky for us, we didn’t have far to go. We scored prime seats – row D! – at the Venetian’s rendition of the Phantom of the Opera ($180 for two – search online for discount deals), complete with giant falling chandelier. This is definitely a date musical – there’s all the jumpy cuddliness caused by the horrifying theatrics, but it’s also quite a weeper. The play’s anti-hero, the aforementioned Phantom, is truly a tragic character, and his sorrow leaves you reeling just a bit at the end.
On the walk back, we strolled hand-in-hand through St. Mark’s Square at the Venetian, where it was still a balmy, blue-skied Italian afternoon, despite being way past midnight PST.
Saturday 8 a.m. Love and (Hot) Chocolate
The next morning, we arose bright and early and went on an early morning walk down the strip to the Venetian, where we fueled up on coffee cake and hot cocoa ($10) at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – one of only two I’ve ever seen outside of California. The other, which we also visited, is at the Miracle Mile Mall, which is nestled into the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. Coffee Bean, FYI, kicks Starbucks’ ass.
9 a.m. Charge!
We hopped the Deuce again to head to the Premium Outlet Mall, located 20 minutes off the Strip. Save cab cash (the more to shop with!) and transfer from the Deuce to the108 bus (you can use your Deuce pass), which stops right in front of the outlets! The Must List: Juicy Couture, Dooney & Bourke, and D&G, where we nearly scored some couture trousers for Navdeep for $30. Alas, they were too big. But I picked up a lovely pink Juicy bowler bag for 70 percent off. We also got Navdeep some wool fancy pants for $40 at the Banana Republic outlet.
1 p.m. Fat Saturday
After a killer morning of browsing and shopping – Navdeep enjoyed the Bose store and free samples at Godiva – it was time to get our buffet on! We decided to hit the ravishing Rio ($26 each), which has long been heralded as the best in Vegas. And it lives up to its rep, with an expansive selection of freshly prepped, piping hot pizza, burgers, seafood and a dessert case out of my dreams, complete with miniature crème brulee and chocolate mousse.
3 p.m. A Romantic Stroll
Stuffed, we waddled back to our hotel, strolling on the way through the colorful botanical gardens at the Bellagio, where we also caught the hourly dancing fountains show. We also hit MGM, where we watched caregivers massage the caged lions, and as the sunset, paused to ponder the lovely half-scale Eiffel Tower at Paris, Paris.
6 p.m. Italian Rendezvous
Back at the Luxor, we plunked down a few dollars at the slots, then got gussied up to go check out a few Vegas hotspots. First up, dinner at Canaletto’s, refined Italian set on the canals of the Venetian – and uber-romantic. We watched couples float by in their gondolas as we shared the bruschetta calda, followed by Fegato alla Venetzia (calf’s liver!) for Navdeep and a tamer risotto con secoe e funghi for me. ($65 for two, no wine.)
9 p.m. Drinking and Dancing
We stopped for a quick jello shot – with whipped cream – at Fat Tuesday’s. Then we headed to Mandalay Bay’s Minus Five, the only ice chamber club in the United States – where the eerie blue-lit room is set a literal minus-five degrees, prime vodka-consuming weather. But as we sipped our vodka cranberries and martinis, we were decked out in club-provided thermal coats and gloves, which made balancing our spirits quite precarious.
Post-drinks, we headed to the posh-but-squishy, ultra-exclusive Bank, a club at the Bellagio that is frequented by celeb-types, although we didn’t see any that evening. We danced for a few hours, but the music is not up to par here – we’d probably have had a better time at good ole’ Polyester’s on the other side of the strip.
Sunday 1 a.m. Cheap Date
Hungry again post-clubbing, we found a 24-hour Mickey D’s at our hotel and celebrated our last night in Vegas with some chicken nuggets, fries and a Big Mac. Dessert was Swensen’s ice cream – Rocky Road for Navdeep, and chocolate chip with sprinkles for me.
5:30 a.m. Egyptian Sunrise
Bright and early the next morning, Navdeep and I watched the sunrise from the picture window in our room, then played a few more slots for good luck. And we used the $12 bucks we won to pay for the cab ride back to McCarran airport. All in all, Vegas is a sure bet for romance.
Getting There
Bargains abound when you’re headed to Sin City. Non-stop flights from New York start at $300 and most major airlines can get you gambling in about five hours.
Where to Stay
Weekdays in Sin City mean hotel steals, with even smack-dab-on-the-Strip properties available under $60 a night – try Bally’s or Planet Hollywood, which is home to the expansive Spice Market Buffet, for mid-level comfort. Feeling flush? Aim high at the Venetian (starting at $150) or the Bellagio ($200 and up). Note that weekend stays will mean higher prices all around.
Our Gear: India 2007
HARDCORE BACKPACKS
I’m carrying a One Polar 80 backpack I bought in China for $10. It’s been loyal to me so I’ll be loyal to it. Until it falls apart. Then I’ll get a new one. We got a great deal from Rei Outlet store on a pretty robust Victorinox backpack with removable daypack made by Swiss Army. Hopefully Sona doesn’t topple over with this one on!
It seemed like a good idea at the time. We ordered the Kelty Corona Double Capacity Sleeping Bag to keep us clean and warm in dodgy hotel rooms. As you can see, if we brought this along, there’d be nothing else for us to carry. We’re still keeping it though. We’ll bring it along next time we go on a camping trip, even if it is in the backgarden! We randomly stopped at a Big 5 in Fresno after doing a grocery run at Foodmaxx and found our replacement sleeping bags. While not as spacious and cushiony as our Kelty, these are also not as humongous. Two of these fleece Texsport sleeping bags can be zipped together and voila: double sleeping bag.
CANON 20D
I’ve had my Canon 20D for a couple years now and am thrilled with it. After our India trip, I upgraded to the full-frame Canon 5D which I am also thrilled with. As a professional wedding photographer (www.nsdphotography.com) the lenses I own are a reflection of my shooting style. I don’t do heavy lenses because that means I have to lug those mofos around. I have two flashes –the Canon 580EX and the 420EX along with the following lenses:
10-22 f/4 – Wide Angle (only works with the 20D)
50/f4 – Portrait Lens
35-135 f/4 Normal Lens
70-200 f/4 Telephoto
CANON ELPH
Sona’s nerdo brother and sister, both have the Canon ELPH. And now we do too! It’s reliable, looks sleek and takes crisp images. We have the 7.1 megapixel version and a 2GB memory card. The main draw is we can take self-portraits of the two of us without risking my fancy pants camera crashing to the ground.
SONY HDV-A1U KIT
While on the road, we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves with a bulky video camera but we did want the image quality that a bulky video camera brings. So after lots and lots of research and deliberation, we decided to go with the super-tiny Sony HDV-A1U kit from B&H online (save the sales tax by shipping it outside of NYC). It’s perfect because its small size lets us pretend to be tourists or professionals when we feel like it. It has the gumption to mimic film by shooting HDV in 24p. The best bit is that you don’t need really expensive or hard to find tapes to shoot it on. It uses standard MiniDV! We’re using several standard ones and two Sony MiniDV tapes “designed for HDV.” We won’t get into everything brilliant about our kit here, but the lavalier mic is pretty spiffy and will come in handy for any interviews we wind up doing.
OLYMPUS DS-2300 DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER
Even though this stupidass device records in DSS format, it’s still a really handy gadget. It fits into Sona’s pocket and records pretty clearly. We use this for on the fly interviews when we don’t feel like hauling our lavalier mic with us.
MANFROTTO
For the most part, I like to run around with a camera in my hands, but every so often I’ll need a tripod for steady shots in low light or when I do family and bridal portraits. Manfrotto is the shiznit and it is for this reason we have so many of their products. The 3021 tripod and ball head are fantastic for steady shots. Sona bought a video head and monopod to attach her video-camera to so our footage doesn’t look like a crisp and professional shaky home video!
STORAGE
COMPUTER GEAR
We have two camera specific backpacks. Sona has the LowePro CompuTrekker and I have the Tamrac Cyberpack 8. Both of them can fit
our laptops too which works out well. We had to upgrade to a bigger sized bag to handle Navdeep’s super-sized 17-inch Dell, but Sona’s petite 12-inch PowerBook is very portable. Both computers are equipped with photo and video editing software, along with Final Draft in case Sona gets the urge to write. We also lug along a 500 GB hard drive for photo and video storage.
SECURITY
MONEYBELT/PASSPORT HOLDER
This is what we’re using to carry our valuables. No fannypacks or expensive leather made products for us. The orange one I bought in Nepal and the yellow one from Tibet.
MAGNA CART
Instead of paying $200 some bucks for a rolling backpack, we decided to just get a set of wheels. This can allegedly hold 150 lbs so this should do the trick to carry our camera bags at least.
LOCKS
We did look at one of those mesh net things offered by PacSafe but while it does look intimidating to the average crook, it also looks very enticing. A pair of pliers or a strong set of teeth and someone has an all access pass to our goods. Instead, we opted for a more subtle approach and are using a simple lock that came with the backpack.
INSURANCE
Initially we wanted to just add our equipment to my parents’ existing homeowners insurance but that didn’t give us a very secure feeling. They would cover it, but there were a lot of limitations. We felt like if anything did go wrong, there would be that fine print telling us that we weren’t covered. After scouring the internet, Sona and I finally decided on Safeware to insure our laptops and camera equipment. They cover everything from power surges to plain ole clumsiness, and you can decide if you want short term insurance or long term. We opted to get it for the year.
SOFTWARE
After briefly considering using template based content management systems like WordPress and Joomla, we decided to make our lives a lot more complicated by creating Ishqinabackpack.com from scratch, using Dreamweaver.
Travelogue India: It’s Almost that Time!
Sona’s list of places she’d like to see in three months, in addition to seeing her family and my family, is getting more erratic and more in lala land. And her reasons for wanting to go to places is getting more amusing. Last night, she decided she wanted to go to Dareeling because it had tea plantations and a toy train, but wanted to skip Calcutta. The spot directly before reaching this hill station is Amritsar, all the way in the North, a good 80 hour train journey. And then there’s the slight transportation issue of getting to Darjeeling directly from Amristar! Then from Darjeeling, we’re shooting off like a bullet to a houseboat in Kashmir. My hair is standing on end just thinking about it.
I’m looking forward to the trip. Three months is really not very much time to be on a trip like this, but it will be a nice way to get vagabonding into Sona’s bloodstream. There are loads of things to think about. The first and foremost is certainly where we go, and the second is how we end up traveling. I’m a true believer in the spirit of independent travel, where the mere act of being in a place does not constitute having been there. To truly experience a place involves chilling out and taking walks that can’t be included in any itinerary. But I also realize that we do have to make some form of an itinerary, or we’ll really frighten all of our family. “We’re off then. We don’t know where exactly, but we’re going to catch a train somewhere.” That would instill a lot of confidence in my qualifications as a husband!
I think we’ll end up carving out regions that we’d like to see, rather than specific places so that the trip won’t be so controlled with no margin for fun. Unless that’s also scheduled!
The one thing I am actually worried about though is this website. Time is very quickly running out, and the website sounds like a fun idea, but being on the road and having to update things using dreamweaver, editing photos, and videos while in India, also doesn’t sound fun. So hopefully, something magical will fix all of these problems in one swoop.
Many people might not want to take a year off to go backpacking and stay in hostels of varying degrees of comfort, but people like the idea of traveling. I’m excited at the prospect of travelling again, but it is taking me some time to realize it will be a very different experience. I can’t haggle down a room to 40 rupees because the bathroom is outside in a field. Or randomly decide to hop on a train because the ticket was cheap, or I liked the sound of the name “Chittangong.” When I’d get bored with the conversation or the person I was traveling with, I’d hop onto a different train or bus. I’m pretty sure Sona would not be pleased if I did that this time around! We’ve gone on short travels together. Never anything close to three months, so it’ll be an adventure seeing how we travel together as a couple, handle being grumpy on the road, manage our money, and how the different places we see and the people we meet change us.
Travelogue India: Deciding to Go (Sona)
Just a little over three years ago, I was chained to my desk at People magazine, working sixty-plus hour weeks. Yeah, I got to interview celebs and blah blah blah, but to me it was all just a day job. I was too wimpy to quit to pursue my real dream, filmmaking. And then I met Navdeep. A hardcore traveler who’d lived in China and backpacked overland through Tibet into India. An adventurer who scoffed at the idea of staying in one of the fancy pant palaces converted into hotels in Rajasthan (as my sister and I did on our trip there). He thought nothing of sleeping alone in a tent in the middle of God-knows-where in Mongolia. I didn’t know it then, but his free spirit (and indie travel bug) were about to rub off on me, big time. Now, at 30, I’m a fulltime freelance writer with all the instability that implies. Journalism, unfinished novels, screenplays gathering dust in a pile on my bookshelf.
I’m not sure exactly when the idea of a three-month long honeymoon jaunt in India started to percolate between us, but for the longest time I didn’t take it seriously. We both had strong roots in the country, but for me, a trip to India simply meant being shuffled from one relative’s house to the next in Delhi. Besides, who really quits their dayjob to pursue something as amorphous and unstable as writing fulltime—let alone pursuing the fantasy of filmmaking? Even with the clips from those glossy magazines everyone picks up at the newsstand, the decision was impractical at best. Besides, shouldn’t we be thinking about serious married-people things like health insurance and 401Ks?
But the idea just wouldn’t die. As we fell into the typical Gen-X/Y (which are we, anyway?) angst of low-paying permalance gigs without benefits (Navdeep as an adjunct English instructor and photographer, myself as a freelance writer), we asked ourselves why we couldn’t just drop everything and jet off for three months? What, really, were we leaving behind? As I went from one freelance gig to another, Navdeep brought up the idea again. Why not? He could take a semester off, lining up work for the spring in advance, and we could pitch travel stories along wave. After all, what’s the point of being a freelance writer if you can’t be—well, free?
Soon enough, we were researching itineraries and contemplating equipment. Backpacks. Travel guides. The tickets were booked. Navdeep had his camera, and he saw this trip as just the right opportunity for me to finally pick up mine. I’d long written screenplays, but was always too scared to just go ahead and shoot something. So we thought we’d start small, shooting short pieces on the road for our website, which would keep us sharp, writing-wise. Here on IshqInABackpack.com, you see the results of our labors.
We’re still in the midst of gearing up, and with the trip now just a month away, the tickets are booked, the website is launched, and we’re set to shoot (and eat) our way through India. After 30 years of waiting, my big adventure is finally about to begin. And though he may be my opposite in many ways, I’m glad I’ll get to share it with Navdeep. He’s sure to lead me into corners of this world that I’d never see otherwise. And I can’t wait to get started.
Neither of us are strangers to travel, but we are very different travelers. Navdeep can brush aside a cockroach from his food and continue eating. Sona flies into hysterics at any creepy-crawlies (real or imagined) within a ten mile radius. 
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