As the year counts its final minutes in the Western hemisphere, I pause and look back at 2018 to see how far I have left my shoes on this journey across the sea. (2) The year began on a disastrous note when I lost my uncle – read grandfather – while he waited for months [...]
As I walk back home, suddenly the ground shakes up. The building in front of me collapses like a house of cards and everyone around me is running in chaos. Despite using all the force, I can barely walk. Scared, in tears, fighting my way out of stampede, I reach my home with a bleeding [...]
Middle Cove Beach. Newfoundland. When last time I was here, I was sleeping under an overcast sky during Big Birthday Bash at break of dawn. I was destroyed, sleep deprived for the previous two nights, in tears, exhausted, and throwing up. But, right now I am smiling recalling those memories. For the past two hours, [...]
I tell stories. Whenever I can. Wherever I can. But, there is something one must know. I'm not a storyteller. Not a writer either. In fact, the first story I ever listened to was by John Cotrocois during Confabulation last year in May - an hour before I told my first story. I was petrified [...]
Running an ultramarathon is pointless, and ultrarunning is fatuity. 99% of your time you spend alone, away from family and friends, alienated on long lonely dark hours, castigating your body to extreme limits of pain, then transcend over crazy terrain and weather conditions to earn that 1% of the time where you are either not [...]
Canadians are the most polite people on this planet. That's the statement I was introduced to when I'd tell anyone - I'm moving to Canada for my Graduate School. And that's a fact. Anyone who has ever visited the country or has met a Canadian would vouch for that. At the time of writing, it's [...]
Blinded by rain and strong winds, I'm sitting under a tree as I shuffle the food in my bag in search of an energy bar. Bugs and mosquitoes are buzzing around me. Every other minute, they get behind my neck and die getting stuck into my sweat. Others continue to bite on my legs, face [...]
I don't know how to ride a bike. I never learnt it, and I don't know why. But, I will learn it soon. Having said this, it doesn't mean I didn't do anything. I love trains. I was born and brought up in a suburban section of New Delhi. Shakur Basti. I lived half a [...]
REJECTION "Gaurav, do it. Go ahead and jump. This is the best solution and it will be over" "No, I can't." "You can. Don't be a coward! Throw your bag over the fence first. Then you get across and just jump. It's raging water, falling 200 ft down, on the rocks. In this loud noise [...]
It's beautiful clear midnight sky, close to freezing temperature with snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas on my right and young river Yamuna flowing on my left as I stand alone in the middle of this road in dark. I haven't seen a human for past many hours and the last ones I met, warned me of [...]
