Blue moon, a broken toe and some moon musings!

Originally posted on House Sparrow:
Blue Moon, as once in a blue moon! That was a long wait for the rare celestial event called Blue Moon…Even though I knew that there’s nothing blue about it, the element of excitement was no less. This cosmic phenomenon took place on the 31st of July, but to my…

Lanterns and Magic!

The ancient town of Hoi An turns into a kaleidoscope as the sun sets. The streets shimmer and sparkle with myriad silk lanterns of different sizes and colours hanging all over. As Toru Dutt says “One might swoon drunken with beauty then, or gaze and gaze in amaze”. The variety of the vibrant lanterns is

The iconic Non La, the conical hat of Vietnam

Áo dài (the long silk dress), the conical hat nón lá, and don ganh tre/quang ganh (the bamboo shoulder pole with baskets on either side) are the symbols of quintessential Vietnam. Non la is an integral part of the daily life of Vietnamese people, especially the hard working women. It is most commonly used by farmers,vendors,

Hope springs eternal…

“Hope springs eternal…”~Pope And so be it! (Jelly fungi (Dacryopinax spathularia) is an orange coloured edible fungi; it is an ingredient of a dish called Buddha’s Delight.)

A lane of yellow led the eye…

While clicking away the papaya tree outside, its beautiful leaves and the different birds that visit the tree, little did I know that the papaya leaves are going to play a major role in the coming days! Soon after my Kerala visit I was down with a bad dengue fever attack and to help to