I am a student, a traveler, a listener- hopefully forever. I shifted from India to USA two years back for graduate school and have been soaking in new cultures like a sponge ever since. My graduate cohort at UVA has people from 25 different countries and our gatherings are incomplete without one another- from eclectic, multilingual dance parties to amazingly diverse potlucks, to endless conversations effortlessly flowing continents- I have enjoyed it all.

I love hiking, traveling, cooking, going out to dance bars- and above all- reading- the one thing that helps me to travel through time, history and brilliant minds.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love connecting with people, understanding new cultures and exchanging ideas.
"An idea. Resilient, highly contagious."(Inception)
I think we can all live in a happier and richer (much beyond material) world if we exchange our highly "contagious" ideas and learn from each other .
Couchsurfing can help me to see not just new and beautiful places, but intriguing people .

Interests

I also love writing, although in recent years graduate school has been extremely in-conducive to my creativity. I was a regular writer in Statesman, an Indian newspaper and used to write short stories, one of which got published -http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no63388/stories-peace ("Clouds" is mine).

I plan to update my recent travel blog and shortly post a link :)

• cooking
• reading
• traveling
• eating out
• hiking
• round-the-world travel
• outdoors

Music, Movies, and Books

Book:
Novels: Little Prince, Mother, Animal Farm, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Book Thief, Gone With the Wind..
Plays: Importance of Being Ernest, The Glass Menagerie, Ghost (Ibsen),
Economics : The New Economic Geography of Jobs (Enricco Moretti), End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs)...
Movie: Life is beautiful, Modern Life, Mr and Mrs. Iyer, Blood Diamond, Schindler's List, Doctor Zhivago, My Blueberry Nights, Children of Heaven (Majid Majidi), Color of Paradise, Throne of Blood, Wild Strawberries....
Music: Rock , Classical, Sitar..
Specifics: Pink Floyd, RHPC, Porcupine tree, Cold play, Imagine Dragons, The Verve, Jose Gonzales, Janis Joplin, The Beach Boys, Gogol Bordello, Queen, Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova,

Bengali and Hindi: Chandrabindoo, Shilajit, Arijin Singh, AR Rahman, Lata Mangeshkar....many more..

This is a highly incomplete list and I encourage you to start a conversation with me about books and movies to know more :). It is just too tiresome to write bullet points of interests!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Last year, we went on a road trip to Leh Ladakh on motorbikes. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mf9aGKskD4
For those who are not familiar, this crosses the world's highest motorable road Khardung La 5,359 m (17,582 ft). Our adventure soon turned into misadventure when the area was hit by flood and we remained stranded without food (not completely, we had some stock) for 3 days. It taught me survival but above all- human kindness and endeavor in the face of calamity.

Teach, Learn, Share

I carry my little box of Indian spices everywhere so I can teach you some amazing Indian curry recipes and sweets , straight from home, passed down through generations. I can teach Bengali and English too. I know Hindi and Sanskrit, but not so good as to teach.

I am also good with group games- if we have a group of 5 or more people, i can come up with some amazing group games.

I would enjoy going out, hiking and doing other outdoor activities with my host and guests.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Indian meals, sweets, drinks. Teach language. If anybody needs any help with data analysis, that too - as geeky as it may sound :). I also have my own movie collection with many English, Bengali and Bollywood movies which we can enjoy together . Amazing Indian classical music (not me playing though :)).

I can share my travel experiences and pictures.

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, England, Germany, India, Switzerland, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States