There is a child carrying a baby. The child cannot be more than five years old; the baby in her arms is not yet two. She asks me for money. Then she is running after me with the baby heavy and awkward in her arms, shouting:...
Category - India
They Sell Sanctuary – Record Shopping in Delhi I have flicked with all the rhythmical fluency of a well-oiled machine through records right across the world. My fingers have shunted back and forth, part flick, part pull...
Drawn to the flap and free-fall of brightly coloured diamonds, I have wandered to the heart of the Old City on the day of the annual Jaipur Kite Festival. I have escaped a rooftop of drunken men who tugged violently at string...
I can smell the bootleg liquor on his breath, feel its effect on his hand that holds mine firmly but with fingers that push between my knuckles and dance up towards my wrist. He is dragging me across a sandy courtyard, surrounded...
Forget cheeky, monkeys in India are utter bastards. Plain and simple. On the Indian subcontinent, a constant battle wages between man and monkey. Neither man nor monkey appears particularly unhappy about the situation. It is...
In India cricket is a religion and children are its devout, slightly deranged, disciples. There is no space too small, no obstacle too big, no setting too inappropriate, no equipment too rudimentary – the game, as...
I love shirts. They are not just clothes to me. They are far more than a covering for my tin-ribs and sporadic chest hair. They exist way beyond the limits of cotton, buttons, and stitching in the very fabric of my soul. There...
Varanasi’s Ghats are a labyrinth of alleyways and narrow corridors leading down to the Ganges. They are dirty, chaotic, and utterly wonderful. Holy cows nose and nibble at garlands of flowers strewn amongst piles of litter...
It starts with the tolling of the bells, plump yet sharp soundwaves wading through the yellowing fog. The prayers, incantations, and wailings follow shortly, winding around the dawn light, sliding down only to clamber up again...