Sunday, October 17, 2010

Maldives and more...

Happy Dusshera, Blogdosts! Jai Durga!!
I am keying this in from the airport at Male, in the Maldives. It is a surrealistic setting , to say the least! I am rushing back to be with the family.... I was missing everybody a bit too much, and couldn't surrender to the charm of these islands ( over 1,200 0f them at last count). Of course, the resort ( Soneva Gili) is eco -friendly and breath taking, and of course I was exceedingly well looked after ( pampered!). The Hay Lit Fest ( the first one in the region) was perfectly organised, the sessions well attended etc. But Dusshera is special - very special. And I was lonely! Thanks to the good offices of our erudite High Commissioner, Dnyaneshwar Mulay ( from Kolhapur), I managed to get a ticket on Sri Lankan Airways. It involves a nine hour stopover in Colombo, but do you hear me complaining? I am going to rush into one of my favourite cities, eat, pray and love - ha ha!
More on the Festival and Maldives in my next post. The fresh tuna is the best in the world. The people, friendly. But there isn't a dog in sight!!!! Why? I asked my well- informed guide Yaseer, as we zipped around Male on a motorbike, and he said , " We have never allowed dogs on our islands! We are an Islamic nation, and dogs are banned. But you can keep cats." Go figure!
Am I wrong in guessing you want pictures??? They are gorgeous ... and designed to make you seriously jealous! Say " Oui" !

17 comments:

Revati Upadhya said...

PICTURES PLEASE!

pupurupus said...

good to have such a wonderful person in our country ... & thank you for loving our nation ... am glad to have a signed copy of your last book.

anamika said...

Hope to see other pics of yours from Maldives..by the way i hope u know about Arnaaz khan tweeting about you? Do you ?

Kush said...

wotta life flying here to there...this day bangalore that day maldives!

Kadam007 said...

Love you!!! Happy Dusshera to you too!!

चंद्रमौलेश्वर प्रसाद said...

`of course I was exceedingly well looked after ( pampered!). '

Of course, every celebrity is...
Happy dasera to you and family :)

seriously kidding said...

happy dusshera to u ma'am..
hace a great time

priyanka said...

its nice to read about ur experiences

priyanka said...

happy dusshera to you ma'am

आशु said...

Hello Shobhaa Ji,

I just started reading your blog recently. Your writing has a unique expression that takes the readers into confidence and they feel like they are a partner in your journey or exploration. It is very refreshing. Being in US, I feel at time disconnected with India, reading you bring me back old memories how it used to be.

Congratulations and good wishes for a long life for your recent birth day..and of course a very happy Dusshera to you and entire family..

sonal said...

Hi Ms De, your fan as always! just wanted u to know that was watching a recenmt programme on Star world 0on which the american singer Cher, made an appearance. I must say that i found in her an uncanny resemblance to you. Cheers!!!

gmanka said...

This is cool!

Neha said...

Hope you reached safely! Waiting for the pictures

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SUFFIX said...

Maldives is one of my favorite destination, you will really enjoy the trip:)

Pooja Rathore said...

"oui"!
dogs are banned not done ! I love dogs. long back i had done a quiz in that they asked views(what comes to your mind) about Dog and Cat -i put my views (not aware of the trick)later i got to know that views on dog are your views about your self and views about cat are your views about your spouse ( dog stands for self , cat stands for spouse..)it was fun but true!
I have started acting on tips given by you in your new book( food, hotwater, green tea!)let see how it works will let u know when the results start showing...chou!

Alwin Vallayil said...

Had a nice time at Hay Festival listening to your fast paced talk. Wonder how you keep your pace even after sixty. Being an Indian teaching English in Maldives, I have a request: please write a piece of fiction based on Maldives or a non-fiction on Maldives so that the people here will read at least one South Asian author. Now the people here look down upon Indian English and they have no idea about any Indian writer.