Brindarica Bose

This sketchbook is my travelogue from May 15-26, 2025, to Japan-a country I have always wanted to visit with pen and paper. This travel sketchbook is divided into two parts: contemporary sketches from Tokyo and classical sketches from Kyoto. In Tokyo, I witnessed an annual festival at the Senso-ji temple in Tokyo, crossed the famously crowded Shibuya pedestrian crossing, saw a 360-degree panoramic view from dusk to night from Tokyo Tower, travelled with the Tokyo subway with a Swica card, ate with chopsticks, the secret to longevity'-Natto beans with local Japanese men. In Kyoto, I travelled on the hop-on-hop-off bus for almost ten hours each day, trying to soak in the history. And then on a bright day in May, I saw Mount Fuji, smoking white clouds from its crater, with its lips apart. I have tried to place these experiences in this book, like in a bento box. A bento box offers a variety of Japanese food, arranged in a packed box, ready for fresh consumption. This book is similar, with fresh sketches and anecdotes packed together; it is ready for you to read and experience Japan. I hope you will enjoy reading this book. The sketches are not my best work, as they were created on the go, but they do convey the time and temperament of an urban sketch. Perhaps one day this book will inspire you to jot down your travelogue or pick up the long-forgotten wooden pencil to sketch or write, or inspire someone else to do the same. Thank you for joining me in this journey.

SWISS MASALA is a compilation of 15 short stories book (fiction), based on the lives of expat Indians living in Switzerland and Europe. Stories reflect upon relationships in general. How families, couples adapt and live abroad. Protagonists range from a housewife who has been branded as a 'drama queen' to a talented pianist who enjoys her trips abroad in search of love; two friends with different ideals who meet once again in Switzerland, a mother visiting her daughter to take care of her newborn, a son trying to adjust with his mother who has come to live with him after several years, a nanny whose life changes drastically, to many more stories with characters picked up from our daily lives. From euphoria to melancholia these stories are grouped under different spices with different flavours.