travel ⁽⁴⁾

People ask, sooner or later, why I do these climbs on a bicycle when there is a perfectly good motorcycle in the shed and a jeep road that covers the same distance in a third of the time. I used to answer with the honest…

Beyond Chowari Jot, where the deodars climbed toward the sky and the Pir Panjals carried snow like memory, we walked through meadows so wide they made silence feel endless. The afternoon unfolded slowly — your hand in mine, wildflowers gathered carelessly between us, sunlight moving…

The roads near Corbett curved like they had nowhere urgent to be, slipping quietly through sal forests older than memory and taller than thought. Mornings arrived in silver fog. The trees stood half-hidden, their branches dissolving into mist while the world slowly remembered its shape.

I arrived in Orchha without doing anything in particular, which seemed to be the correct way to arrive there. The road ended gently, as if unsure whether it ought to continue, and the town took over without announcement. I stood for a while under an…