To new beginnings. And happy endings.

I've been a bad boy.

Last year, instead of finishing the book, I quit my day job and spent a lot of time traveling in the Middle & Far East. And while I saw some amazing people and met some unbelievable places, I made an important discovery - that the cup of wanderlust will never be full to the brim. So instead of hurriedly backpacking to every corner of the world before I'm 30, I've decided that it is better to take places as they come.

In the middle of this realisation (during my travels to Thailand, Indonesia & China), I also came across the wonderful world of spas - since I was mostly on my own, a foot massage at the end of a day spent walking became a necessity in a matter of days. And as I explored this mysterious, rejuvenating world, I had an epiphany on 12th November, 2009 which finally led to this:

http://www.indulgespas.in

Stories from Oblivion: Chapter Six: Alexandria

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Originally founded by the Greek Macedonian king 'Alexander The Great', this 2339-year-old city was the capital of Egypt for nearly a thousand years until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 A.D.

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Click on the photographs to enlarge

4

i know this old woman
who
talks loudly about
the benefits of yoga
and
her hatred for class four

and that lady
who
can talk endlessly about
the enchantress of florence
and
quotes milton a little too effortlessly

and a daughter
who
spent endless years worrying about
the legacy of her father
and
if she could immortalise it somehow

and the mother
who
is always complaining about
her elder son who is no good
and
how he will leave her one day

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but when im lucky i meet this girl
who
talks about
life with a giggle in her smile
and
why she prefers beedis to cigarettes
---

Happy Birthday, Mom.

I may be far away, but I've got a glass of champagne in my hand and a smile on my face.

Stories from Oblivion: Chapter Five: Cairo

What began on an early afternoon as a stroll in a colourless suburb of Cairo, known to the world as Giza, eventually turned into a trip downtown where we got drenched in the city's mystic madness.












































Click on the photographs to enlarge.

Two

I remember a lazy Tuesday in the first week of June in 2006. P and I were curled up in bed, with her legs on my thigh, and her face inches away from mine. The conversation was fairly insignificant and I was cribbing as usual, whining about how work was repetitive and life was slow. And how I desperately needed to prevent myself from slipping into the mental coma which had been heading my way for a while now.

And as is also usual, she was bored to death with my unending saga of self pity. But she was nice enough to pretend and listen. After a while though, she looked away and began staring at the ceiling. And at some point, without her realizing, I stopped talking.

After a couple of minutes though, by when my attention had drifted to the Leonard Cohen song playing in the background, she squeezed my arm and exclaimed with a look that accompanies an epiphany,"TS! You should start a blog!"

I responded with an expression so blank that the next half an hour was spent in her explaining the meaning of the word 'blog' to me in great detail. And once P thought she had gotten through to me and of course convinced me to start a blog of my own, she took me by the hand and led me to the computer where with the click of a few buttons, we conceived The Wander Years .

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That was then.

But over a period of time, The Wander Years has transformed into an idea that defines my life, and possibly the the lives of many 20-somethings ever-so-aptly.

Maybe that's why &. magazine's June issue of 2008 is also themed 'The Wander Years', in continuation to an article in the May issue, which talks about how the youth today are running away from the all things conventional and attempting to redefine their idea of life in general.

And today, as this little corner of the blogosphere completes two years in existence, I hope there is reason to rejoice. Not because it has sparked any intellectual revolution or uncontrollable laughter or worthy debates on social issues, but because while The Wander Years was catalyzing my redefinitions, it may have also given all of you a few reasons to smile in agreement with a post or a comment and whisper to yourselves, "I so know that feeling".