I really love the summer. Hey, hold on…don’t look so surprised. I know most of us who live in India have come to hate these hot, sultry months. Sweating it out through the long power cuts and hoping to take at least one bath a day if that dry tap starts flowing again. But I still love the summer. Weird...did you say? Let me explain.

You see, this is also the time when I pack my bags and set off every year. For a new destination—somewhere in India. This has been my annual ritual for the past 50 years. Would you believe that I have not yet been able to cover even half of this vast country of ours? So each year I discover a new place, and a fresh com-munity of people. Its far more exciting than unwrapping a birthday gift! Really…

So this time I have decided to share my thrills with you. In this issue of Gobar Times I will let you into my secret set of rules for the road that I have put together as I travelled. Its pretty simple really. Just remember to keep your eyes open, and look beyond what the fancy tourist brochure tells you. And talk. Not with the tour guide, but with the local people.

Then watch a whole new world unfold. New sites, new sounds and new smells. They may not all be very pleasant, I must warn you. May be quite, quite different from the pretty, touristy things you expected. But things you will remember. Forever.

So go pack. And don’t forget to write to us about your trip when you get back.

– Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail: panditji@cseindia.org