The village we camped in was a tiny place called Buttermere, close to the lake by the same name. We took a bus—oops, sorry, coach, as they call it—down from London to Keswick, a town towards the north of the Lake District. It was a 10 hour long ride, and we passed through Birmingham, Wigan, […]
Author: Payal
Mad dogs, Englishmen and I!
At the moment, my life is divided clearly into two parts: before and after England! Yes, yes, I know everyone is tired of hearing what a great time I had and how delightful the English are. But I can never tire of telling! Fortunately, this account is backed up with photographs (I had to remove […]
‘Oh sweet England…’
Or so the song goes. England is not all sweet, but it can grow on you. It’s hard not to like it, though. As for me, I’m back from my fortnight-long trip, and enjoying my jet lag as it is the only thing that makes the trip feel real. Otherwise, it was like I was […]
One lake wonder!
How many lakes are there in the Lake District? Five? Ten? A few dozen? Believe it or not, just one—Bassenthwaite Lake! Well, actually, it might be nitpicking of a high order. The truth is, there a number of ‘water bodies’, but only one officially named ‘Lake’. The others are all ‘meres’ or ‘waters’, like Windermere, […]
The flight of the dal-carrying desis
For some reason, the West is having a scarcity of some sort of dal (pulses). Hence, both Alpana and I find ourselves laden with the stuff as we attempt to fly off on our respective holidays! I don’t know about the dal (well, it’s technically not mine, but my friend Sumaira’s), but I’m off to […]
A knight to remember
For everyone who watched the World Cup final between France and Italy, there was an aura of unreality about the proceedings. Yes, it was supposed to be a sporting spectacle; but more importantly, it was the last bow of a soft-spoken French magician, widely acknowledged as the greatest footballer of his time. Yet the sporting […]
Speechless…
There comes a point when you run out of words. Yet another terror attack, yet another phase when we are scared of stepping out of our houses. Well, I don’t know what to say, so I’m using other people’s words: Very scary to think that the trains will be boarded again—or rather they already have— […]
Happy birthday!
How time flies :). One year old already! I registered the domain Writeside.net on 3 July 2005, but the site was up the next day. The first Writer’s Log post was also up that day. It’s been an eventful year in many ways, and Writeside.net as well as Writer’s Log have seen many design changes, […]
- Books
- ...
Maiden fanfiction!
My first fanfiction! It is a momentous enough occasion to merit a new post, so here it is. And for it I must thank Laura. It is slightly spooky to read of my own characters being written about by someone else, but it isn’t a wholly unpleasing experience. The “author” has done a good job, […]
Wanted: A short story
How difficult can writing a short story be? Well, either it is very hard or I am just useless at it! It was over three months ago that I was asked to write one for an anthology of short stories for children, with the theme “technology”. Today, two discarded half-attempts later, why is my screen […]