Travel Issue 2025

The Cultural Traveller

Madhavankutty Pillai

The world is a series of connections available to those who go looking for it. In doing so, they discover something of themselves

Elemental Beauty

Arti Das

It took Arti Das 10 years to visit Andretta, a picturesque village in the Himalayas that became a global centre for pottery. But it was worth the wait

Singing by the Rain

V Shoba

Sacred groves, spring festivals and villages that weave art from baskets— V Shoba finds the monsoon in Meghalaya to be a season of the soul

Vietnam celebrates 50 years of its reunification this year. In Ho Chi Minh City, amidst overflowing cafés, restaurants, boutiques, souvenir shops, and museums, Anjum Hasan finds the ultimate triumph has been of consumerism

A Moveable Feast

Suvir Saran

Suvir Saran discovers the world on his tongue, every dish an identity and connection, from Manhattan’s eclectic chaos to Tokyo’s measured precision

Trombones and Tabasco

Rishad Saam Mehta

Rishad Saam Mehta learns that the New Orleans Jazz Festival is the perfect end to a road trip through Louisiana, exploring Cajun towns, swamps and plantations

Far from the Venetian Crowd

Carlo Pizzati

Carlo Pizzati takes a day’s drive through a hidden corner of Veneto, the land of Asiago cheese and Hemingway’s North Italian novels

Roman Holiday

Debashree Majumdar

Summer in the Italian capital offers Debashree Majumdar moments of unexpected grace under its immortal architecture

Mystic Mountain

Priyanka Dalal

With more than 800 Jain temples, the Shatrunjaya hill in Palitana is considered the world’s largest such complex at its height. Priyanka Dalal goes on an ascent of faith

Panorama of the Past

Tishani Doshi

New Mexico was the closest DH Lawrence came to a religious experience. Tishani Doshi says it is still there for the taking in Taos Valley where language and landscape reflect each other