Thursday, August 13, 2009
Grapes in Parwan province
Grapes in Charikar market, Parwan, Afghansitan Last Sunday, Shuja - who was assisting Ragini and me in the documentary production - and I got into his car and drove north to Parwan province, which straddles Kabul province. As the Kabul traffic and urban activity dwindled, the drive became...
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Issey Miyake: History behind the man
Two days ago, as I was browsing through my electronic New York Times, I came across an opinion piece by Issey Miyake. I first came across him in a duty free section of an airport, I can’t remember where. It must have been in the early 1980s. I was walking by the perfume section and my eye caught an...
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
HELP! Does anyone know what this plant is called?
Blogit friends: When I was up in the mountains a few weeks ago, a fieind has this growing in his home. He got the plant from a local nursery. No one seems to know what it is called. Can anyone here help out? Many thanks. ' />
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Nostalgia in the Hills
Last Saturday, we set out to visit Manju and Siddarth Kak, who have a 150 year old house in Ranikhet, about 50 kms from Bhowali, called Hawa Ghar (the house of wind). The first time I visited their home was in 1992, when Mahesh, Kabir, Kanchi (the trusted cook and Kabir minder) and I drove form...
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Under the Fig Tree
Among the many new developments in the mountain home is the fig tree. My brother in law, Jasbir, says it’s the fifth tree he’s planted and it’s the first one that has bloomed. The rest just died. I love figs. My first exposure to fresh figs was when I lived in Italy. Around April every year, the...
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Friday, June 26, 2009
Bees in the Mountains
It’s here – the first box of bees. Here in their mountain home, my sister Saroj and brother in law, Jasbir, have got their first box of bees. This is the result of a discussion we have here over many years. They start with “we could also.....”. But, this is how it is. Being on holiday, in the...
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
A Day in the Mountains
So, what do we do all day in the mountains? We hang out, as the current vocabulary goes. The sun comes up around 5.30 AM. We keep the curtains open, especially the part that covers the screens to keep out the insects. This lets the cool air through. The temperature is about 20 degrees at night, so...
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Road Trip
It’s a trip I have been waiting for – for months - to my sister and brother in laws home in Bhowali, in the state of Uttarakhand, about 10 kilometres from well known hill station of Nainital. Circumstances led to it being cancelled many times. This time I was determined. My deadlines were done, the...
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Monday, June 15, 2009
Less is More
On June 7, there was an Opinion piece in the New York Times by Pico Iyer called Happy Days: The Joy of Less, which struck a chord with me. Iyer writes about the life he chose – in a small place in Japan - over living in Manhattan. It’s true he gets to travel – for his writing – but also remains...
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Monday, June 8, 2009
Break a leg, get shot at
Ten years ago, on November 29, 1999, I broke my leg in Chiang Mai, Thailand, while attending a meeting. It was mid-day, I was in search of the Internet cafe (this was before the days of wireless) I had been at the night before. In short, I wasn’t looking where I was going. There was a cut in the...
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