Let me tell you a story. A travel story. In 2003, I was teaching Spoken English in a tiny city called Lianyungang, China. It was the first time I was in a foreign country. Living by myself. Teaching a language I wasn’t confident speaking. And had narrowly escaped the confines of a Chinese prison. (A story […]
Today marks a confluence of New Years. I love celebrating New Year’s. There was a time in my life when I made it a point to celebrate the New Year in a different country every year. I have seen the New Year ushered in Wadi Rum, Jordan, with a singing bedouin who proposed marriage to […]
The last few days have been trying for me as I watched the light of my life – my mother – hospitalized yet again. It scares me to see her like this, and my heart is restless. As always, I turn to what gives me the most succor: words and, through them, memories. And this […]
I have been away from this blog for a while. A combination of extra-heavy-duty writing at work, a malfunctioning laptop, and an inability to form words resulted in a bare blog. I came several times intending to write something, and went back thinking I have nothing to say. If you are in India, you would […]
Yesterday, while I was on the Namma Metro, I was trying to read. The book was a crime novel and I was immersed in the details of a decapitated head when the train stopped at a station. Now, I have been on many trains in different parts of the world. But the Bengaluru Metro is […]
I can’t believe it’s the Year of the Monkey again. That it has been more than a decade since the last Year of the Monkey. Gone through 12 Zodiac signs. All the other animals before reaching the monkey again. It was in 2004 that I first met the monkey. Back then, I was in Lianyungang, […]
Many years ago, now more than a decade, I spent a few months in the most obscure town you can imagine in China. Shuyang. Deep in Jiangsu Province in the northern part of China, it was my first stay abroad. Shuyang was a nondescript town. A village really. It was drab, colorless, and would […]
Infinite thoughts. Infinitesimal moments.And when they converge, the result is a perfect memory. To be framed and hung, no matter how crowded the walls of our minds, space enough for these mind paintings that smile over our lives. Away from India. Away from the familiar. Here is where I am. In this country called China. […]
Having spent around 3 years in China, the first question that people ask me, a vegetarian for life, is “How did you manage/survive?” Not how the land was. Its wonderful people. The spectacular temples. The beautiful juxtaposition of tradition and culture. Just this question. You then shrug and say, “Oh, it was fine.” “But I […]