Letter from India

By Greenfields - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Journal

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Don't Honk if you Are Serious

I love to drive. I always have. I enjoy the way the steering wheel of the car moves under my hands; how the indicator light begins to blink at a mere push of the handle; how the wipers remove the rain from the wind shield; and how the world goes by. I especially love driving in the country and in... Sign in to see full entry.

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Monday, October 2, 2006

Celebration in the Mountains

Last week my two sisters, their spouses, my husband and I, and one dog got into two cars and headed for the mountains. It was my older sister and her husbands fortieth wedding anniversary. And we had decided we would celebrate it in their mountain home, an 8-hour drive from Delhi, up to the state of... Sign in to see full entry.

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Sunday, October 1, 2006

The Notion of Home

Last week I was in the Indian state of West Bengal, the district of Burdwan, where I was born and raised. I was traveling to look at reproductive health projects I was writing about. When I was approached by the organization that asked to me visit the areas and projects, I was very excited - to be... Sign in to see full entry.

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Gandhi, today

Today, October 2, is the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a freedom fighter and leader of the nonviolence movement in India. If he had lived, he would have been 137 years old. He died in 1947, violently, shot to death by a right wing Hindu activist. Yesterday night, we saw a popular Bollywood... Sign in to see full entry.

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Friday, September 15, 2006

Earl Grey - A Level of Comfort

I just made a cup of Earl Grey tea. I put on the tea kettle, and while it was getting ready to boil, I took the tea bag out of its pouch and placed it in the bone china mug. Then, I took out the milk from the refrigerator and poured a little into the mug. As the kettle turned itself off, I put the... Sign in to see full entry.

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Friday, September 8, 2006

A Walk in Lodhi Garden

In the middle of the city of Delhi, is one of my more favourite places - Lodhi Gardens - a garden which was once a village, with surrounding monuments from the Sayyid and Lodhi dynasties. The villagers were relocated in 1936 to create the gardens. Besides the monuments it has a certain wildness - in... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Greenfields at 10:02 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

A three-wheel ride

Yesterday I took a ride in a vehicle that is called by several names - an auto rickshaw, a three-wheeler or just simply an auto sometimes. It is a simple structure wrapped around a small engine, with one wheel in front and two wheel at the back. They are green and yellow in colour (green below and... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Greenfields at 8:51 PM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, September 2, 2006

48 hours of romance

Since the last two nights, the weather has been very romantic. There has been a breeze in the air which is quite delicious. It's fast, feels good on the skin, and moves the clouds across the sky. I welcomed it, as I missed most of the monsoon this year -being away from India for several months.... Sign in to see full entry.

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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Reflections on body size and lifestyle

About 10 years ago I began to put on weight. Five years before that I started a new relationship, had a child, turned 40, and moved back to India after being away for 20 years. I came back to a culture in which my lifestyle was increasingly sedentary. Urban India has little room for pedestrians,... Sign in to see full entry.

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Sunday, August 27, 2006

Travel isn't what it used to be

After traveling for almost three weeks in North America and Europe, I think back to 1973, when I took my first transatlantic flight to the US. There were no major security checks, no threatening announcements about keeping your bags with you, and nobody cared about unattended bags. Now, I have to... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Greenfields at 7:34 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

About this Blog

I started this blog in mid-March 2006 when I moved to Kabul, Afghanistan, for a four-month assignment. In mid-July I moved back to India, and am continuing the blog.

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