Things to know before reading While it is possible to enjoy the book without having any background of the Israel–Palestine conflict—just the way I had read through the book when I bought my copy years ago—the understanding of this piece of work gets elevated once the reader is exposed to the context in which the … [Read more…]
On June 2017, Alex Honnold made history by climbing El Capitan without ropes or harness—a discipline of climbing known as free soloing. This in itself is a tremendous feat of athletic achievement. Such acts of athleticism walks a thin line between probable victory and certain death. Such acts always push the boundaries of human achievement. … [Read more…]
Nowadays I enjoy some bit of hiking and backpacking. It wasn’t like this. Allow me tell a story that started it all. It is also a story that involves failures of spectacular proportions. I hope that would be mildly entertaining. In April 2008, I was about to complete my second semester as a doctoral candidate. … [Read more…]
I saved the best for the last. I had to vacate the hostel room by 10 AM. I freshened up, took a bath, repacked by big rucksack for one last time and headed off to the reception. The free luggage storage facility was super handy. My bus was at 10:20 PM and I had the entire … [Read more…]
My bus landed in Brussels at 9 AM. I consider myself fortunate that I am not troubled when it comes to sleeping in any mode of transport. Although I must admit that I often develop a stiff neck from sleeping in awkward postures. The prices for hostels in Brussels was quite high. I booked one that … [Read more…]
Me and Partho had already reserved our respective departures from Berlin late tonight. Our booking at the hostel was supposed to expire at 10 in the morning. So we packed up, deposited our big rucksacks in the luggage room (2 Euro for a medium locker and 5 for a large one), and made our way … [Read more…]
The cost of the night at our hostel (A&O) had skyrocketed to more than the double of nominal price. I wasn’t sure if we should stay there. I was able to get better prices on places in prime locations. Our current hostel had luggage facilities. We packed our bags, checked-out, left our big rucksacks in … [Read more…]
Partho was supposed to meet me in Berlin the day before yesterday. He wasn’t able to finish his work the day before and was stuck at Frankfurt because of some strike. He reached Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 9:30 AM and waited for me. We had some hot chocolate and cookies for breakfast following which, he checked-in. … [Read more…]
Berlin Wall Berlin Wall is no more. There are a few fragments of the wall remaining at the memorial site that spans a few blocks of Bernauer Straße. There is also a reconstruction of how the restricted zone was during the last days of the wall. The elements of this zone was never constant. SED always evolved the … [Read more…]
On days that involve travel, there isn’t much to be done. There isn’t much to write either. I had some Czech Korunas that would be of no use once I was back in Germany. I wasn’t worried much about the exchange rates as the amount was not much. My bus arrived at 10:40 AM and … [Read more…]
