I started learning yoga at a very young age. My first exposure was in the third or fourth standard/grade in school. At that time, I was not very keen and was more inclined to observe the martial art class of Kalari that took place in the next room. I was keen to join the Kalari class and the teacher was kind enough to teach me a few lessons. I think he knew I would drop the idea after a few lessons. How right he was. Anyway time progressed and I think I was eleven or twelve, my brother and I were sent to Sivananda Yoga Ashram near Neyyar Dam, Thiruvananthapuram for a month. My parents thought it would be a good way to spend our summer holidays and yoga would help in our development. The first few days at the ashram I was miserable. I missed my parents and my home. By the end of the first week, I was home sick and just wanted to get back home.  I remember there were two teachers who helped me through - one was a swami and the other was a sanyasini who was content to live...

The Government has allowed hotels and resorts to open and receive guests. As you can see from videos posted on social media as well as conventional news channels, many Hospitality groups have been busy during the lock down working on safety and hygiene measures in order to create a safe environment for all guests.  For your benefit, I have included some these video links on safety and hygiene at the end of the post, so be sure to read on. I am sure many of us are looking forward to travelling again; a break from the mundane routine that we have come to accept as part of the lock down. It has not been easy; for many it has been frustrating. Safe to say, we all have at some point or the other wished the corona virus away.  But, sadly, if wishes were horses, then life would be so much easier. We must accept that the new normal is here to stay and what we were used to, what we had taken for granted is in the past.  So, without further ado, lets start planning our travel. It i...

The year 1990. The movie - Total Recall released worldwide and I saw the first glimpse of Virtual world. Imagine, get your travel memories uploaded and that was it, you didn't have to actually travel. I must admit, I did not like the idea. I love travelling and the concept of Virtual Travel was too fictional for me. Around 2014, a few hospitality firms released limited videos showcasing Virtual Travel Experiences (VTE). The idea - introduce a totally immersive 4D virtual reality experience allowing you to feel you have traveled to all corners of the world. The experience replicated sensory inputs to the entire body. This created a buzz and quite a few other firms dwell on the idea of VTE. In close to 25 years, a fictional idea inched closer to reality. But after the initial buzz, there has not been much news on virtual travel experiences. Today a google search will offer options of virtual tours including on google arts & culture (Check it out:  https://artsandculture.google.co...