I would vet the photo album for this one before allowing the kids to see it, although you'd be amazed how many families with kids of all ages were being shown the temples by guides who described everything in graphic detail. In case you haven't guessed yet, this is the town where the Kama Sutra was born, in the sandstone temple carvings left by the worshippers of the god Chandra about 1000 years ago. It's a nice little town, and the old town is particularly inte...

So, from wild people to wild animals, I have come to Bandhavgarh National Park, which has the greatest concentration of tigers in the world. Up to 65 Indian (Bengal) tigers visit here. I use the word visit since they come and go. And unfortunately for me, they usually do the latter in winter months when they leave the watering holes in favour of the plains where they hunt buffalo. Some get a taste for the new meat and don't come back. But three females with cubs ...

There are more than 40 individual tribes living in South Orissa, and more still in neighbouring Chhatisgarh. Some of the tribal people can be seen at Jeypore haat (local market), but to see the more elusive tribes, you have to get well off the beaten track and travel to where the live, and to their own haats in the surrounding hills and countryside. I was lucky to meet Sarat, a local guide with expert knowledge on the tribes of this area. I hired him and a drive...

This fishing-village-cum-beach-resort hasn't left me with a lasting impression, but perhaps that's a bit unfair because the weather has turned, and I've only seen it amidst the storms that seem to be hitting the Bay of Bengal this week. And my luck has turned in other ways too, so that I'm now finding myself a day late for everything - the music festival at Konark's Sun Temple, the market days coming up in south Orissa, and future train connections no long...

I don't generally look forward to spending time in big cities, and I had been forewarned that I shouldn't spend much time in Kolkata. But I'm not sure those people were really throwing themselves into this country. My ten-hour train journey pulled into Sealdah station at 7-0AM, and from the minute I stepped onto the platform and found myself in a sea of criss-crossing porters carrying suitcases and baskets piled high on their heads with their wares bathed in the ...