“Learning is always rebellion… Every bit of new truth discovered is revolutionary to what was believed before.” — Margaret Lee Runbeck On a rainy Saturday morning outside Chennai, Tamil Nadu–India’s southernmost state–huge groups of students were arriving at DakshinaChitra. But one bus brought nine young women there for a different reason than a simple school … Read More
Diwali was supposed to be quiet. Well, obviously not that quiet given the extraordinary amount of fireworks that are set off, but quiet enough. “It’s a family holiday,” my friend Nambi told me as I headed towards the southern city of Chennai to spend the festival with his family. “Most of the celebrations take place … Read More
“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can never learn how to paint.” — Pablo Picasso If Picasso’s right, and two colors can sing, then the spectrum of shops, stalls, and saris in the Lad Bazar of Hyderabad can be called nothing … Read More
“But, as the years passed, I began to mourn the loss of something I had known in the drawing-room of Marchmain House and once or twice since, the intensity and singleness and the belief that it was not all done by hand–in a word, the inspiration.” — Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited There was a lot … Read More
Sonia isn’t impressed with my style. “You not having fun?” she asks. “Not comfortable in the water?” I look around me at the long sandy stretches of Orissa’s Puri beach and wonder what impression I’m giving. I assure both her and her cousin Pooja that I’m comfortable. More than comfortable. Having grown up near Virginia … Read More
Rickshaw Runners like to put on a hardened front. We’re adventurous, tough as nails, and capable of withstanding whatever the Indian roads throw our way…literally. But maybe, just occasionally, we slipped up. I can’t say for certain, but rumor has it… 1. There may have been air freshener… When we stumbled on this convenience store … Read More
“The language of friendship is not words but meanings.” — Henry David Thoreau Anu greets me at the door with a hug and a kiss on each cheek. Before I can even take my shoes off or set my bag down, there’s a cool glass of fresh lemon soda in my hand–and the sugar-to-soda ratio … Read More
“Many travelers find themselves saying of an experience in a new country that it wasn’t what they expected, meaning that it wasn’t what a book said it would be.” — Edward Said, ‘Crisis [in Orientalism]’ India, so it seems, is a popular place. Whether visiting the three points of the Golden Triangle [what the cities … Read More
“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” — Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright Before leaving for India, a friend who did the Rickshaw Run last year sent me a few emails with advice, tips and … Read More
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust Normally, I’d be inclined to agree with Proust. But after passing 3,000km through India in a rickshaw, I find myself disagreeing…our own voyage of discovery through the subcontinent brought with it so many new landscapes that … Read More