UDAIPUR>DELHI

TEMPLE AT PAHARGANJ, DELHI

MUMBAI>UDAIPUR

JAGNIWAS LAKE PALACE, UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN

GOA>MUMBAI

THE GATEWAY OF INDIA, MUMBAI

From almost the moment I arrived at Goa it seemed like a mistake. Certainly I was aimless; it was hot, humid, and one could see the place was emptying out. I had left a climate in Kashmir that defined pleasant, done so without an itinerary, mainly from an obligation to visit some other place in India, to upend the comforts of the status quo. Within three days I was plotting lamely to leave Goa, but it took ten days to make it happen.

At Anjuna the staff were pleasant but settled, since the tourists were few, and slow to rise for any reason at all. The tourist season in southern India was drying up, and soon these people would be home, happy with the friends and family that now occupied their thoughts. Property-owners and landlords in the state mainly rent their lands on a temporary basis to concessionaires who operate seasonal guest houses and restaurants to serve Goa's many visitors. Most of the structures have to be dismantled and removed when the lease ends, and some come down earlier, if business has been slow.

It had not been a banner year, and Anjuna wore it on the face. I spent two days in north Goa on a rented scooter exploring a string of beach new to me: Candolim, Baga, Vagator, Arambol. It didn't look its best, no place does at the end of the dry season, but it was the many cliff bands separating the beaches which put me off, so I went to south Goa, returning to Palolem after two years.

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DEL>GOI

THE BEACH AT PALOLEM, GOA It was easy going in Srinagar but a familiar hammer was going off: The infinite compulsion to venture someplace new or otherwise, if only to change the scenery. I stifled this sensation for two weeks easily, but for one ennuitic week I mulled and dithered over my next move. Then, one drizzly day I bought a ticket, and flew south to Delhi the following morning, with no onward destination. It certainly could not be in that city for long though, for it was getting hotter and grittier daily, as both summer and the Commonwealth Games were quickly approaching, and the whole city was a mess of construction. Connaught Place was a dusty, impassible ruin, and all the traffic was a bore. From Delhi I could travel anywhere. Many friends from winter at Gulmarg had flown cheaply to Sri Lanka, and a strong temptation was pulling me that way as well. The fundamental problem facing me, causing my indecision was flying in the face of logic. All the world of India in motion seemed to be going north in search of cooler weather, and the move I had just made, flying south from Kashmir, in the opposite direction, was against the grain.

SXR>DEL>?

HUMAYUN'S TOMB, NIZAMUDDIN, DELHI Three weeks passed in Srinagar while city residents, the area gardens, and myself, all emerged from winter's chill to revel in the greener, longer, sunny days of spring. Preparedness for the approaching summer tourist season became the order of each day, stirring somnambulant houseboat staffs to scrubbing planks and lathering the decorative work with fresh coats of paint. My daily routine of talking walks and photographs completely overtook my ambition to wander India; it was an opportunity to watch spring come alive in Srinagar, as I had wanted since first leaving Kashmir in 2008. To this I added a sturdy Indian bicycle, and constantly traversed Srinagar, spending also many days going around the city lakes and to the many Mughal gardens, just then coming into bloom.