Landscape

Little Rajasthan, Bengaluru

My father was a veteran of the old market (pete; pronounced PAY-tay) area of Bengaluru. Every evening, he used to walk from the Accountant General’s office (near the Vidhana Saudha) back home to where we lived at the time, on the shores of the emerald lake! It was actually…

Proscription and Prescription — Taboo and Compulsory Geographies (Part 1)

In this four-part series, I invite you to explore geographies (yes, plural) in a different way. Such exploration has certainly changed my life and educated me a lot. I hope you, too, will find the same.

The stories we write

All together now, loudly: “Geo means Earth, graphy means study of; Geography means study of Earth.” I, too, grew up on that diet. It’s a very poor diet indeed!

Fortunately, my gurus soon disabused me of that and showed me how much more Geography is.

Recollected landscapes

A settlement. A river. Agriculture. Travel and transportation. Kinship. Childhood journeys and memories. All come together to form a ‘recollected landscape’, a re-opening of a ‘remembered mental map.’ Geography is also about places inside us.