Bengal Floricans & A Zen Moment | Excerpt from No Half Measures
Read an exclusive excerpt from Jennifer Nandi’s dazzling new book, No Half Measures Continue reading Bengal Floricans & A Zen Moment | Excerpt from No Half Measures
Author: Jennifer Nandi
Jennifer Nandi thrives as a guide, turning her passion for travel and natural history into a career filled with excitement and the embrace of uncertainty. She enriches her tours with knowledge and the courage to explore, transforming each journey into an adventure of beauty and mystery. She is the author of No Half Measures, a travelogue set in Northeast India.
On hobbled knee across the Nandakini
In the final episode of her Bedni Bugyal travelogue, Jennifer Nandi crosses a bridge and a river into another consciousness, one that holds the tranquility of the Himalaya and perturbation over its future in delicate balance The snow-clad flanks of the hills … Continue reading On hobbled knee across the Nandakini
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Shelter from the Storm
In the penultimate episode of her Bedni Bugyal travelogue, Jennifer Nandi revisits the Himalayan hamlet of Kanol, tucked into a fold in the vast district of Chamoli and haunted by the ghosts of ancient forests long lost to the logger’s … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Shelter from the Storm
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – A night in Wan
In Wan, Jennifer Nandi marvels at the great Himalayan night that has no trouble falling, and laments how so many city-dwellers look skyward and never see the stars The guest house at Wan adjoins a grove of some of the tallest … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – A night in Wan
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal: The trail to Wan
Distances in the Himalaya can be tricky, especially when pointed out desultorily by a guide deprived of his liquor. Thus captained, we descended the bleak slopes of Bedni toward the village of Wan. Jennifer Nandi’s spellbinding Bedni Bugyal travelogue continues… … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal: The trail to Wan
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – In another world
In the charming alpine meadow of Bedni Bugyal life goes on as if on another planet, though Jennifer Nandi notes that our inexorable worldliness has preceded our arrival here Life’s symmetry, reflected in Bedni Kund Trishul peeks fleetingly behind scudding … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – In another world
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Slow Deterioration
We arrive at Bedni Bugyal, but only barely. Food, shelter and rest are in pitifully short supply. Add to that the prospect of two long, cold, terrifying nights at 11,000 feet. An hour later, Bijoy comes up to us to … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Slow Deterioration
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Didana to Ali Bugyal
Pressed to ascend an indefinite distance to the alpine meadow of Ali Bugyal, Jennifer Nandi’s mind fastens to thoughts of self-preservation and meditations on the Zen of climbing Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we set off from Didana the next day on … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Didana to Ali Bugyal
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – A Day at Didana
To derive joy from the simple act of birdwatching, all you need to do is wait, watch and listen. Jennifer Nandi reveals the Birding 101 in the third episode of her travelogue on Bedni Bugyal A Blue Whistling Thrush, ever the skulker, trails us as we walk its wooded paths Lots of little surprises greet us the next morning. The Pied Thrush and his companion are in full view; so are the rock thrushes, the blackbirds and the Mistle Thrushes. A new visitor to the campsite is the Variegated Laughing Thrush. A very secretive bird; keeping close to the shrubbery, … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – A Day at Didana
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Loharjung to Didana
Walking in the Himalaya offers the pleasure of a constant flirtation with epiphany, learns Jennifer Nandi A stream en route to Didana from Loharjung A morning of magic greets us. Arrogant blue skies goad us onwards. The rugged hill road from the village leads us past an anarchy of rampant secondary growth that stretches into the valley below. This riot of plant and animal life owes its fecundity to hillsides that once supported lush forests of oak and rhododendron. Sandstone country with its covering of alluvium and glacial clays evidently suited oaks and rhododendron allowing them to grow to glorious … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Loharjung to Didana
Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Part 1
Traipsing in Lord Curzon’s footsteps, we embarked for Bedni Bugyal knowing little of what to expect, and least expecting what was in store for us… Editor’s Note: In April-May 2007, six of us made a trek to the Garhwal Himalaya. Sahastrarashmi, Sunita, Jennifer, Satish, Rajeev and Bijoy walked from Loharjung to Bedni Bugyal, then descended to Wan from where we walked to Kunol and then journeyed onward to Nandprayag. For many of us it was the most intimate encounter with the beauty and power, the fury and the sagacity of the elements in the Himalayan microclimate. Jennifer Nandi wrote a … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Part 1
Chhattisgarh Diary: The Palace at Kawardha
Italian, British and Mughal architectural styles are all represented in this regal palace of some 56 rooms with a splendid domed and filigreed Durbar Hall. Much of the ground floor of this palace at Kawardha has been converted into a heritage hotel run by the erstwhile royal family. Secularism throbs in Kawardha’s historic heart and its pulsing beat invites us to be one with it. Continue reading Chhattisgarh Diary: The Palace at Kawardha
Chhattisgarh Diary: Afoot in Bastar and Kanker
The forests of central India shelter deep secrets but they have been mined cheaply or defaced. Still, there is reason to rejoice at the simplicity of life here. Continue reading Chhattisgarh Diary: Afoot in Bastar and Kanker
Odisha Diary – Birds and rewards in Jeypore
Birds and spirited village women invite Jennifer Nandi’s careless attention as she enjoys Odisha’s pastoral countryside in Jeypore Continue reading Odisha Diary – Birds and rewards in Jeypore
Odisha Diary – Meeting our Kondha and Paraja countrymen
The younger women are lithe and beautiful with tattoo markings and jewellery and a piece of cloth wound around the waist and then carelessly thrown over the shoulders. I am amazed at such natural beauty worn so easily. They sit in the warm sunlight, looking at us take pictures, talking to their babies, bathing their little ones, pounding rice, just carrying on despite our nosiness, our inelegant clothes and ungainliness with our shiny cameras. The group embodies an intelligence that seems to be fundamentally social. Continue reading Odisha Diary – Meeting our Kondha and Paraja countrymen