Dehradun, March 8 -- Australian Govt warning even before the recent Iran conflict

Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian

I have been to every country in West Asia except Iraq and Azerbaijan (but the latter is not really West Asia). I am changing that soon with a visit to Azerbaijan in early April but Iraq can now wait given the volatile situation at present, something not new to the region. But over the past two decades of the 21st century, two separate West Asias have formed - The progressive and the regressive.

A century ago, what used to be called the Middle East used to be the last non-polar region left to explore for westerners and it used to be considered an exotic and lost desert land (think Wilfred Thesiger, TE Lawrenc...