In the leafy suburbs of Chicago is Ernest Hemingway’s home
It’s a sultry summer day when I disembark at Oak Park from the Green Line train rumbling in from Chicago. The main street is lined with posters of a familiar face tacked on lampposts — a black-and-white portrait of a young, handsome man with piercing eyes. In this leafy suburb, in an elegant Queen Anne-style home, writer Ernest Hemingway was born.

Explore Ernest Hemingway’s home in Chicago
I arrive at the Hemingway Birthplace Museum, along with a handful of other tourists. They’ve been part of my entourage, tramping through the neighbourhood to see the wondrous architecture of Oak Park’s other illustrious denizen, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Hemingway’s tiny home is just one of the few mausoleums which are speckled around the world, even as far as Cuba, that are dedicated to the writer.

These memorials have sprouted up wherever he laid his head and built his hearth, except that the Oak Park residence is special. It is the home where Hemingway fell in love with words.

Explore Ernest Hemingway’s home in Chicago
A green signboard at the tip of the manicured garden announces that it’s Ernest Hemingway’s birth place, dated 1899. The sepia-toned home with a grand slate-grey turret and a lovely wraparound porch belonged to his maternal grandparents. Built in the style of the time, it was designed by architect Wesley Arnold in 1890 for Ernest Hall, Hemingway’s grandfather.

The second of six children of the multi-faceted physician Clarence and a talented opera singer and music teacher Grace, Ernest spent six years of his life here. With grandfather Hall’s death, the family moved to a prairie-styled home close by, a private residence now. After the Hemingways left , its ownership passed to six different families over the decades, becoming unrecognisable. In 1992, nearly a century after his birth, The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park stepped in. A few years and a million dollars later, the house was carefully restored to its 20th-Century glory, a pilgrimage for bibliophiles.

Explore Ernest Hemingway’s home in Chicago
From the tiny reception, I step into the living room, the beating heart of the Hemingway House. It has the palpable cosiness of a Victorian boudoir, replete with a bright red carpeted floor, striped and floral wallpaper, his mother’s piano and grandfather’s writing desk. At the end of the room is a tiny square dining table, set for supper with porcelain crockery and silverware. Over here, the widowed grandfather Hall, who loved his grandchildren, regaled the wide-eyed tots with great yarns. This storytelling stirred the love for words in the young boy, says Pam, our guide. Ernest’s boyhood flights of fancy were stoked further by Grace’s uncle, Tyley, a travelling salesman who entertained the caboodle with colourful tales of his trips across the length and breadth of America.

The Hemingway household was a smorgasbord of interests. An affluent household, the larder was amply stocked, the kitchen was fitted with a luxurious Charm Crawford kitchen stove, and it was the first household in Oak Park to get electricity. The library’s shelves wobbled under the weight of books and Clarence’s oddball wildlife taxidermy specimens. Quite the performer, Ernest would act out the poems and stories he read from the books stacked in the room.

Explore Ernest Hemingway’s home in Chicago
Up a narrow staircase, is the bedroom Hemingway was born in — a study in white and lace. There is a tiny cot and a floppy-eared crocheted bear napping on it. The passage outside the room is filled with family photographs one of which has a mop-haired Ernest with his grandfather. These are images of an idyllic childhood, unbeknownst to the tragedies that would later bear down on them.Clarence, suffering from ill health and losses in business, would take his own life. This tragedy was to be repeated down the family line, including by Ernest himself. But in the Oak Park home, watching the dappled sunlight filter through the gossamer curtains, you remember the hopes and dreams of a loving family with heart and a great deal of soul.

Snapshots from the mountain kingdom that has enjoyed a special relationship with India over these past 50 years
At first glance, Thimphu, the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, has an air of sincerity about it. It is an earnest place, with law-abiding, good-natured, unhurried, smiling souls. The cynicism of old-turned-modern cities is absent here. But, the streets of Thimphu are like the streets of any modern city in the world. The roads are clean, and pedestrian-friendly. The pavements are lined with droopy Bhutan cypress trees and upright sunflowers. There is traffic signage everywhere, and zebra crossings occur frequently. No traffic lights, only vigilant policemen. Rumour has it that they installed a traffic light on one of their busiest junctions some years ago. It lasted for about 24 hours, and was soon replaced by a now-famous traffic policeman in white gloves. Apparently, the Bhutanese prefer some things to stay old-school. There are so many traditional buildings here with multi-coloured wood frontages, small arched windows, and sloping roofs, all with motifs and paintings.

In a happy State It is easy to feel good in this Himalayan Kingdom with its monks, prayer flags, bursts of colour and spectacular scenery
In a happy State It is easy to feel good in this Himalayan Kingdom with its monks, prayer flags, bursts of colour and spectacular scenery | Photo Credit: Getty Images
I visit the Voluntary Artists’ Studio, Thimphu (VAST), an innocuous little structure close to the handicrafts market on the banks of Thimphu river. It is an important non-profit institution set up in 1998, where budding Bhutanese artists get together, collaborate, create and display their work. It is buzzing with activity. The garden area outside the studio is littered with plastic bottles and wires, waiting to be transformed into something artistic no doubt. An installation made entirely with bottle caps is already on display. A couple of artists are immersed in making a life-sized turtle from used copper wires. Inside the studio, a young photographer documents paintings created for Bhutan Week in New Delhi.

I cross the ‘busiest junction of Thimphu’, turn the corner and reach Junction Bookstore. It is a cosy, sepia-toned space on two levels. There is a wall devoted to polaroid shots of famous writers. A string of portrait sketches hangs in front of a bookshelf, framed by fairy lights. Origami pieces made from yellowed pages of old books are stuck on walls. Parts of the ceiling and doors are covered with pages torn from old books. Every corner of this space feels like a labour of love. It is gloriously messy. “My father owned this space and gave it to me. I run it purely on passion,” says Mui, founder-manager of the store, and an avid reader herself.

How to get there Places to stay
Drukair and Bhutan Airlines have regular flights from Delhi, Gaya, and Kolkata to Paro. Cabs run regularly from Paro to Thimphu.
One can get a cab from Bagdogra, West Bengal, to the border town of Phuntsholing, and then on to Thimphu.
Thimphu has a number of hotels and guest houses. Depending on your budget, it is best to stay near the Clock Tower, as it has easy access to transport and markets in the city.
It is so easy to spend hours in this little piece of heaven and I do so and then head to Mojo Park, a popular dive bar open till the wee hours. It is a place where people unwind and where the growing tribe of musicians perform. Among those making waves are young rappers Mayina Dubee OG and Kezang Dorji, whose music talks about social issues, Kinley Phyntso, a rock musician, and Dawa Drakpa, who started a band called The Baby Boomers, inspired by The Beatles.

Iron hanging bridge across a fast streaming river in Thimpu
Iron hanging bridge across a fast streaming river in Thimpu | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
As I walk around, I notice how many stray dogs there are on the streets. They lie about, lazing and sleeping during the day and I am cautioned that they do not like you patting them. But they come alive in the evenings when they get active and set up a chorus of barking that can sometimes last all night. Several hotels in Thimphu actually provide earplugs to their guests. “What can we do, they love to bark!” shrugs one hotel manager.

Kunzang Choden, author of the transcendental Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan, best described the relationship between the Bhutanese folk and stray dogs. She says, “The Bhutanese have a complex relationship with dogs. We have a great many stray and sick dogs here, and yet if there is a programme to neutralise them, we protect them by hiding and feeding them.”

Group of dancers in traditional Bhutanese clothing and masks at the Dechenphodrang Lhakhang monestary
Group of dancers in traditional Bhutanese clothing and masks at the Dechenphodrang Lhakhang monestary | Photo Credit: Getty Images
“We live in a country that is struggling like any other,” says a young Bhutanese when asked about the famous happiness quotient of Bhutan. Journalist Madeline Drexler, in her book A Splendid Isolation: Lessons on Happiness from the Kingdom of Bhutan, remarks, “The Bhutanese have not necessarily found the answers, but they are asking original questions.”

When looking for hotels or a homestay, the first thought that probably crosses your mind these days is, “How many reviews does this place have?” And if you don’t post that picture of you chilling by the pool on your mid-week getaway, complete with location tags, what’s the point of travelling?

With social media updates becoming one of the first things people do while travelling, it is no surprise that wi-fi and a large social media presence feature in the top five requirements of Indian vacationers according to a recent survey.

According to the travel trends survey conducted by the online rentals platform Airbnb to mark World Tourism Day on September 27, wi-fi is the most requested indoor amenity for Indian travellers. The survey, conducted using the online survey platform Pollfish covered 10,000 respondents across nearly 15 Indian States and the National Capital Region, according to Airbnb.

A whopping 94% of the respondents said social media played a key role during the planning of a vacation – whether it was for traveller reviews, recommendations or just pictures of the place. Out of the respondents in the survey, 47% said wi-fi was the most preferred indoor amenity, while access to a pool turned out to be the most requested outdoor amenity, with 48% giving it a nod.

A significant portion of the respondents also wanted sustainable and eco-friendly options.

Family friendly

Beyond the smartphone-toting millennial, overall Indian travelling habits are changing too. According to a 2018 Bloomberg report, the World Travel & Tourism Council expects India to become the fourth-largest travel and tourism economy behind China, the U.S., and Germany. This means honeymoons and couples-only holidays are no longer the norm; your next-door family-of-four, and the group of retirees who just want to chill are also on the move.

The Airbnb survey noted that nearly 51% of Indian travellers opted for family-friendly amenities such as playsets, garden areas, activity zones, TV, and access to books as the most important amenities while choosing accommodations. And among travellers in the age group of 45-54 years, this number spiked to 66%.