High tea with hints of the empire at Kochi's Brunton Boatyard
Fort Kochi has always been a mix of cultures. The Dutch, British, Portuguese, and Jews. Their influence extends to everything, most notably architecture and food. And nowhere is this amalgamation more profound than at Brunton Boatyard, a CGH Earth heritage hotel perched on Calvathy Road.
Indeed, at their History restaurant, one is serenaded by way of a scrumptious fine dining experience that very thing: the history of Fort Kochi, through 32 cuisines from all the communities that make up the place.
However, at their Armoury Restobar, this emphasis on the local quietens down to bring to the fore the old-world English charm. And what better way to do it than with the traditional high Tea? This is precisely what the hotel leans into.
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Mint
4 hours ago
- Mint
Views of heritage architecture all tangled up in Darjeeling
Gift this article "Did you know that the older name for Darjeeling was Dorje-ling, or the land of thunder? When the British arrived, they couldn't pronounce the original name and called it Darjeeling—a name that stuck on," says our tour guide, Rahul Thapa, as we travel from the pristine tea estates of Kurseong to the main town of Darjeeling. Locals such as Thapa are worried that the picturesque hill station nestled in north Bengal may soon acquire another name, 'Taarjeeling", due to the proliferation of entangled wires dangling across the main town. In fact, this quip has become a popular joke with which guides and taxi drivers greet tourists. "Did you know that the older name for Darjeeling was Dorje-ling, or the land of thunder? When the British arrived, they couldn't pronounce the original name and called it Darjeeling—a name that stuck on," says our tour guide, Rahul Thapa, as we travel from the pristine tea estates of Kurseong to the main town of Darjeeling. Locals such as Thapa are worried that the picturesque hill station nestled in north Bengal may soon acquire another name, 'Taarjeeling", due to the proliferation of entangled wires dangling across the main town. In fact, this quip has become a popular joke with which guides and taxi drivers greet tourists. As someone who has visited Darjeeling earlier—my last visit being nearly 14 years ago—the statement seems like hyperbole. That is until I reach Darjeeling's Mall Road. Landmarks such as the Planter's Club (now renovated) and the Darjeeling Clock Tower, which had once stood tall, framed by mountains all around, today seem to be peeking out from behind a veil of tangled wires. Views of exquisite neocolonial and Gothic architecture, with a smattering of beautiful Art Deco elements here and there, are impeded by shops and restaurants under construction. During my last trip, I remember sitting on the deck of the famous Keventers cafe, enjoying unimpeded views of the mountains and of the Gothic churches. Today, the wire is as much part of the landscape. This observation is shared by many travellers to Darjeeling such as Sibendu Das, a Kolkata-based corporate content writer and culinary explorer, who has been visiting the hill station since his childhood. 'The buildings here are so rich in heritage value. But you can't view even the most obvious ones in their glory as there are wires going through the town. Try photographing one of them— you will find political posters, meshes of wires and under-construction buildings everywhere," says Das, who visited Darjeeling just last month to traverse the entire Unesco World Heritage toy train route from New Jalpaiguri Station to the main town. Darjeeling is not alone in being a victim of rampant haphazard urbanisation. Most of the hill stations across India have witnessed a drastic alteration in their landscapes—from charming havens with heritage architecture to dense urban sprawls packed with build ings of all shapes and sizes, incongruous to the laidback pristine beauty of these towns. Darjeeling has always held a lot of charm for history buffs and Satyajit Ray fans—the director based a story from his famous Feluda series here and shot some of his films in this town. This has attracted both domestic and foreign tourists. The Darjeeling Clock Tower That the town is turning into a concrete jungle saddens Sailesh Sarda, the fourth generation of his family to run Nathmulls Tea and a premium tea room in Darjeeling. 'Tourism is the backbone of our economy. But today, if you open a window expecting to see the mountains, you are greeted by incomplete construction," he says. Sarda moved out of Darjeeling to an adjoining village, located 40 minutes away, to escape this urban chaos. Also read: Planner: 5 events that make this weekend musical For those, who want to experience the old world charm of Darjeeling, there are still some stellar heritage structures, which often fall under the radar. Take, for instance, the house of pioneering industrialist Butto Kristo Paul—a mansion, with ornate wooden framed windows and traditional entrance, built between 1900 and 1910. A visit to the house of Chittaranjan Das, a freedom fighter and political activist popularly known as Deshbandhu, is also recommended. His home was witness to several historical events and the backdrop to films such as Sanyasi Raja featuring Uttam Kumar.'The film was based on a real incident from colonial times, when a zamindar was believed to have died. Several years later, he returned and there was a long legal battle to determine if the man who had come back was real or fake. The event that started it all—the zamindar dying on an evening marked by rough weather, his body disappearing—took place in Chittaranjan Das's house in Darjeeling," adds Das. Darjeeling has so much to offer for those interested in colonial and post-colonial history. It remains to be seen how the hill station will take the route of mindful development and manage to keep the wires away from its heritage structures and natural beauty. Topics You May Be Interested In
Time of India
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This might be the last Caveman on earth: Travel vlogger's viral video shows a man in Yemen living away from modernity
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel On a rocky shore in Yemen , one man lives a life far from the internet, screens. He lives a raw life. A travel vlogger named Colin recently posted a video of him meeting Aliah, a 62-year-old man living on the rocky shores of Socotra, a remote island in new viral video introduces the man who lives electricity, phones, or modern comforts. He fishes by hand, sleeps in a cave, and lives by the rhythm of the and the internet called him 'The Last Caveman on Earth.' In the caption, the vlogger writes, "Meet Aliah, the 62-year-old caveman of Yemen. He lives on the rocky shores of Socotra, surviving off the sea with nothing but what nature gives him. He speaks broken English, taught by years of curious visitors because really, who wouldn't want to meet a caveman in 2025? He sleeps in a cave, fishes by hand, and walks barefoot over jagged rock like it's sand. His days are measured by the tides and not time. No phone. No electricity. Just the rhythm of wind and water. And still, he smiles like he knows something the rest of us forgot."Aliah only wears a loincloth and handpicked seashell for accessories. He speaks openly about his life in the video. The man claims to have 15 children, nine of whom are dead. He also shows the vlogger his way of life, walking around the landscape with him and even sharing moments of laughter and many people were fascinated by Aliah's lifestyle, others pointed out something important: Aliah is not a 'caveman'. He is likely an from an indigenous tribe trying to live traditionally. Some social media users say calling him a caveman can be misleading or even disrespectful. Another user pointed out how "there are literally millions of people who live in caves. In China, Mexico, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkiye etc."Whether he's called a caveman or not, Aliah's way of living surely made many people pause and think.
Time of India
6 hours ago
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‘From spaceflights to ‘doom tourism', travel poses questions of philosophy — and power'
Emily Thomas Emily Thomas is Professor of Philosophy at Durham University . She tells Srijana Mitra Das at TE about the nature of travel: Emily Thomas is sitting in her living room, its windows giving a glimpse into the afternoon sunshine which, in an English summer, can't decide if, slipping between leafy filigree, it wants to sparkle like a diamond or gleam like green-tinted gold. Yet, as TE spoke with her, the philosopher's discussion was not about homelands but places far away. Could she describe her work on the philosophy of travel? She replies, 'At the core was a question — has philosophy ever had anything to do with travel? As I began research, I found philosophy and travel have had lots to do with each other. They have interacted in all kinds of ways throughout history.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Perdagangkan CFD Emas dengan Broker Tepercaya IC Markets Mendaftar Undo Maps, the knowledge of where to go and why, are key to this interaction. How can we understand them philosophically? Thomas laughs, ' Maps are the most fascinating objects. They seem deceptively simple, a map of a city or part of a country might look like it's just telling you where the roads, buildings or hills are. But actually,' And here, her voice drops confidentially, 'So much decision-making went into what to represent on a map and how it is shown. Maps are not simple representations of the world, they are very complex depictions of what the map-maker desires to highlight. Often, the map-maker emphasises a society's power structures, that's why you see palaces, churches or temples on maps, not houses of individual people.' Is technology, with its ability to scope out every corner of Earth, altering old ways of map-making? 'Yes. Google Maps is probably the most popular online mapping service now. Again, what it does and doesn't flag says a lot about what its map-makers think is important or what they believe we consider important. So, they highlight tourist sites but not the houses of individual people. Also, unlike paper maps, online maps represent different parts of the world in exactly the same way, you can look up the United States, the United Kingdom or India and an online map will use the same colour schemes to represent all these diverse places. That gives the illusion that all these places are much more similar than they are, they put a kind of film over our perception of the world's complexity.' Some parts of the world are clearly different from others, though, marked by nature's most spectacular aspects. Has travel had links, both in philosophy and history, with ecology? Thomas nods emphatically. 'Yes. A lot of travel is about humans going into nature and experiencing unfamiliarity, bad weather or difficult terrain. How they navigate this embodies human approaches to nature. Throughout history, you can see how people's attitudes towards nature changed by reading their travel writing — for example, before the 17th century, many writers described mountains in negative terms like 'boils and warts upon Earth'. Then, in the late 17th century, poets, novelists and painters became enthralled by Isaac Newton's philosophy of space, where Newton expounded on space being connected to God. Suddenly, there grew this new conception of space as divine — travel writers began seeing mountains differently and started describing them as 'cathedrals to God'.' This also changed how many humans felt they could impact nature. As Thomas explains, 'In Western philosophy, people often saw nature as something they could do what they liked with, thinking God had created it for humans, around the 18th century, those attitudes began to change, partly due to the American transcendentalists. People like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Theroux began conceiving of nature as divine in itself, perhaps even the embodiment of God, and not just something God made. So, many began thinking, 'Well, nature isn't something that's just useful — we must protect it as it's inherently beautiful.' That began what is today's ecology movement, where people see themselves as caretakers of nature, rather than its rulers.' What exactly is the rather disturbingly termed 'doom tourism', linked to nature, though? Thomas replies, 'It's the idea that many beautiful places on our planet, like the Arctic, Antarctic or coral reefs, are 'doomed', largely due to climate change. The thought is, 'Well, as they're perishing, we should rush to see them as quickly as we can.' The problem is people going to these places, taking planes and leaving large carbon footprints, contribute to environmental problems. This produces an ethical dilemma — is it alright to visit these 'doomed' places when the very act of going there will hasten their demise? Some philosophers think we should protect these places rather than hurry their end along.' Meanwhile, why is the interest in 'space tourism' rising — are people just bored of planet Earth? Thomas says, 'That could be one part — but what space tourism offers above many other forms of travel is exclusivity. Several people can claim to have visited the Arctic or Antarctica now — very few can say they've been to space.' Thomas pauses, thinks and then continues, 'I think another part is that we now have so much fiction, movies, documentaries and novels about what it's like to go into space. That's powered a very real human curiosity about this. Some people have also recounted how going into space can be transformative — when you're an astronaut looking down on Earth, it gives a very new perspective. It helps us realise how our planet is deeply beautiful, unique and actually unified and it should be protected. I personally would be quite curious about obtaining a perspective that seems very hard to get in any other way except literally leaving the planet and looking back on it.' The view of the traveller is thus central, but has the idea of modern travel been shaped largely by a white male gaze? Thomas smiles ironically and says, 'Oh, yes, certainly within the West. If you look at who wrote the most historical travel books, it's almost always white men. In Europe and North America , very few women wrote about travel and even fewer people of colour did so. That's not true of other places — China and Japan have an enormous history of travel writing, also by men but not white men. That viewpoint is important to remember. Travel is about unfamiliarity and otherness. But what is unfamiliar to one may not be so to another. That defines travel — and a lot of what happens at home.'
