It is different when you feel it for real in Thrissur. It is not trying too hard. The city is steeped in history and culture, food but also a modern lifestyle that develops. Everything sits together. Sometimes smoothly. Sometimes with a little chaos. The visitor might arrive at three in the afternoon and get a hotel room, having no real plan other than to go outside. The ideal place to begin is...

Budhwar Peth continues to operate into the evening hours while Pune winds down. Shop lights illuminate streets, food stalls spritz hungry customers and pedestrians keep walking on. There is some kind of energy here. Busy, local and vastly different from the gentrified nightlife areas found in twenty first century entertainment districts. One takes a pit stop for dinner near, before taking an...