In Which We Decide to Go On a Six-Month Honeymoon Backpacking Adventure Through India In 2004, Sona and Navdeep met. In 2005, we got married. For the first time. In a secret wedding in Vegas, just the two of us….
Insider Tips for International Pillow Fight Day From UFC Pillow Warriors in NYC
We went to the tenth annual International Pillow Fight Day last Saturday, armed with pillows, and putting to use our expert pillow fighting skills. It was a lot of fun! You would think that in a place like New York City, where…
Workshop on Cultural Supremacy in Travel Media at The New York Travel Festival!
The New York Travel Festival is happening next weekend (April 18 and 19)! I am pleased to be one of three people facilitating a workshop discussing Cultural Supremacy in Travel Media hosted by Outbounding. The conversation will essentially be a more focused, expansion of…
The Importance of Diverse Voices in Travel Writing
On my first solo backpacking trip through Asia in the days before digital cameras, iphones, Facebook, or twitter, every traveler I met carried around a writing journal and at least one book. Wherever I went, I would buy up journals in case…
Travel Notes from Our Flight to Puerto Rico: We Have Arrived!
It’s evening. Kavya’s packing list has been made: swimming costume, salsa dancing clothes, water bottles, chocolate, and you can’t go to Puerto Rico without packing party shoes. No idea what the hell #2 is. The Punjabi she wrote says Dadi and…
The White Travel Blogger Darlings and the Organizers Who Love Them
At the end of 2014, the Holy Grail of travel blogging events took place in December, the White House’s first ever Travel Blogger Summit, where 100 “influential travel bloggers” were invited to take part, some flying in all the way…
Hot Lava! A Doorless Helicopter Tour of Kilauea Volcano, Big Island, Hawaii
This morning I wake up to the news that Kīlauea Volcano on Big Island is erupting. Towns are being evacuated, videos show bright red lava spilling onto highways, grassy areas, and the governor is requesting national emergency status. My immediate…
Papa and Kavya Fly to California. Hell Does Not Break Loose
We are a family of elbows, feet, and arms. We lean across each other, pressing our bodies in, just so we can all look out the window at fog, blackness, clouds, blue skies, starry nights, bright sunlight, cityscapes, sunsets and sunrises. It doesn’t really matter what’s outside. As long as it’s something we can all see together. This summer, the house is divided. It’s just the two of us. Me and Kavya, our first ever Papa-Daughter flight from Newark to San Jose via Atlanta. All in all slightly under 8 hours.
Denying Disney: Why I Resisted Our Turkey Day Trip
I don’t mean to be Scrooge. Really, I don’t. But the timing was never right for me on Disney. Not then. Not now. When Meena, Tarun and I were young, we’d beg to go. Dopey the Dwarf was my favorite…
Date Night in Union Square, Where We Discover the Lost Art of Sitting Down and Doing Nothing
Whenever we’ve had the occasional date night, it’s usually been for some specific event in the City, and it’s always family we trust who has watched Kavya: her Massi in Manhattan. Sona’s parents in New Jersey. So when Sona bought…
Foto Friday: Lucy, the Elephant’s Bum Everyone!
Over the summer, we were driving up to Atlantic City one weekend to go hang out at the beach and eat some epic Pho when Kavya started talking about bottoms. I don’t know what they’re teaching her at this daycare…
The Joy Of Eating Sugarcane!
An integral part of my childhood involved sugar cane. In Nigeria, it was the highlight of summer, and when we’d visit India, it was equally the rule of law for us to eat it wherever it was offered. On roadside stands,…
