Urdu poetry is the most beautiful there is for me; strange, given that I am much more at home in English, read much more in English, yet Urdu goes to the heart like nothing else. I remember the pang of pride I felt at my Ivy League university when I was introduced to an extremely […]
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Unforced error
I went for my first class yesterday. I have to admit, I have my doubts about it. It is run by an American woman who is fluent in Spanish, but her style of teaching is very much of a unversity class, heavily dependent upon grammar terms and memorising conditions when one form is used or […]
Lost places
A profoundly sad article about the mandirs of Lahore. When travelling through Punjab I often look around and try to imagine, on the sides of the roads and in the fields the sites that are now gone. My grandfather, who grew up in Chakwal, used to tell of the Hindu pilgrim caravans going off, laughing […]
Turning tide
British politics offered a brief moment of hope today as the ethical Tories finally rebelled again no-deal Brexit. They’ve been chucked out, and some, at least, should be given medals for the courage of their convictions. Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve, David Gauke, maybe a few others. On the other hand, Boris and Rees-Mogg both showed […]
To the sea
Early in the morning a van collected us and took us off to Puero Viejo, where we’ll be for the next month. The journey was long but fine enough. I listened to three podcasts on Hinduism: one on kingship in low-Himalayan kingdoms during the colonial era, one on small religious sites in Mumbai, and one […]
Waterfall
We decided not to go for the long drive to a national park to stroll through the jungle to some colourful pools, instead choosing to make it a more relaxing day with work in the morning, a leisurely lunch and then off to La Fortuna waterfall. This required walking down (and later, up) several hundred […]
Slothwatch
In the morning the washing was still damp but there was a bit of hot muggy sun so I hung it up on the rickety terrace, which brought it part of the way. But I’m afraid it’ll smell of damp. Then, once the Gentleman Friend had woken, done his morning yoga and eaten some fruit, […]
To the volcano
At some point I should become all blase about volcanoes and volcanic activity since I’ve been fortunate to see so many, but not yet. This morning we left Monteverde. A van collected us, collected three other people (I’m afraid my luggage and the Gentleman Friend’s was very bulky indeed) and took us off through some […]
Staying in
I woke up in a slight fluster having had two dreams. The first was of a story to write: an academic article about how, when photography came, we stopped seeing the other world. The second was that I was looking on Facebook and saw an item whose font had changed and realised it was describing […]
On horseback
It was cold and wet and rainy this morning, enough that we nearly turned tail. Instead we gingerly mounted our horses and set off. I hadn’t been on a horse since I was about 13 and that time I fell off. Before that, I rode a few times aged around 9 and fell off. I […]