Carrying me through each step was the gift that Book Passage gave me, and others: assurance that we are on the right path. That every page written, every risk taken, and every dream believed are actually leading somewhere.
photography
In praise of small moments: A love affair with India in pictures
As far as I have found, a love for India isn’t wrapped up in any one city or any one experience. Instead, it’s a thousand little things that have slowly folded into each other, into one overwhelming love for this fascinating country.
A place to hang my beach towel: At home in Goa
“Let’s take you home,” Hannah said, and I swear to you, I could’ve cried. And after an hour of unpacking and setting out knick-knacks, I did cry, just a little, and they were all tears of big, huge, inexpressible joy.
Bombay in bloom: Inside Mumbai’s Dadar flower market.
It’s in the covered portion of the market that it hits me, what exactly I find so intoxicating about this place. Yes, the fragrance of jasmine and rose blossoms no doubt has something to do with it, but it’s this, too: These are the colors of India.
Consider the pigeon: Notes on taking flight
Pigeons aren’t supposed to be beautiful, I tell myself. And yet I see it everywhere I look – in the outline of their wings, in their iridescent neck feathers, in the wind brushing my face which isn’t wind at all but the result of a hundred birds moving the air at the same time.
Operation Christmas Child in action: A full-circle moment in India.
At the end of our visit, my mind still swimming with the smiles of Vijay and Amir, Manisha and Madhu, I am left in awe of this full-circle moment – helping deliver boxes from Operation Christmas Child which I myself once packed.
Made’s “secret beach”: On Nusa Penida, travel, and the delight of discovery.
While I exult in the natural beauty of Pandant Beach, I exult furthermore in the gift Made has given me – the gift of solitude. The gift of space. The gift of an illusion – of being able to imagine I’m the first one here.
Forty hours on the Brahmaputra Mail: On a train through India.
On a recent trip, I realized train travel is about slipping into a world that could only happen here – not on a plane – where strangers buy each other tea and hold their children and by the end of the journey, can call themselves friends.
“Everything is its own reward”: Chasing ghosts in North Beach, San Francisco.
It’s still hard to say what exactly made our day so cool. Maybe it was that “everything is its own reward,” and I couldn’t help thinking about all the little moments that had led us to North Beach, and where all of our paths would lead us after.
Photographing fireworks: A very bokeh Independence Day.
The fireworks prove tricky to photograph – especially getting certain things like exposure and focus right. That’s when I decide to turn off my camera’s auto-focus, twist the lens and blur the suckers to a point beyond recognition.










