Posts Tagged ‘Israel’
Back in Bangalore, Back to Bedlam
I'm sitting comfortably in the living room of my new apartment in JP Nagar phase 2 in Bangalore as I type this blog post. It is raining and the diffused light makes it look like twilight outside, instead of in the middle of the afternoon. I had lived in Bangalore until 31st March 2009, following which, I had lived in Hyderabad and in Gurgaon. [...]
Yad Vashem Memories
I was supposed to blog about Christmas in Bethlehem and that post is still work in progress. However, I had another train of thought that ran in my head and I wanted to pen it down before it was relegated to oblivion. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem is one of the most moving places I have been to and I spent an entire day there [...]
Last Christmas – Touchdown in Jerusalem
No, despite the famous song that shares its name with the title of this post, there's no sappy tales of heartbreak and loss here. On the contrary, Christmas 2010 was among the happiest times of my life and here's why. After reaching Tel Aviv on 20th December as part of a three week long solo winter trip, I hung out in the city for four days and [...]
The W-file Version of Fun Times with Airport Security
My claim to fame over the past few months has been about how my slovenly appearance led to me being considered as a potential flight threat. Madman Aadisht had his own take on what I went through and circulated it as part of a bigger email that contains interesting tidbits and snippets of life in general. Here's what he had to say. ----- [...]
2010: The Year That Was – Part 2
A self-imposed limit on the size of blog-posts has led to me breaking down extremely lengthy posts into two or more parts, as the occasion demands it. The story so far documents the highlights of my life and times in the first half of 2010 with the rest to follow here onwards. July 2010: June 2010 made me realize that the feeling of [...]
An Encounter with the Shin Bet: Part 2 – The Interrogation
Continued from Part 1 “Sir, you seem nervous and you are sweating. This is quite unusual. Is there a problem?” “No Ma’am, it’s just that I sometimes have trouble talking to pretty women.” Textbooks in the future will use this example in order to illustrate the true meaning of the word Chutzpah. They will also have an asterisk [...]
An Encounter with the Shin Bet: Part 1 – The “Run” Up
“Good morning, Sir. I’m an officer with airport security. I’d like you to step aside so that we can ask you a few questions, please”, the smartly dressed, pretty officer holding my passport said to me, as I stood in line for security check at the Ben Gurion International airport at the end of my fabulous holiday in Israel. “Uh-oh, [...]
Checking in from Tel Aviv
My bucket list just lost one item off it. I am blogging from this quaint little hostel in Tel Aviv near the beach front and am finally in the one country that I wanted to visit for a really long time now. The others that I will visit after this include Iceland and Japan, but those are for later days. The past few weeks have been insanely hectic [...]