Samuel Pepys wrote: ‘Indeed it was past imagination, both the greatness and the suddenness of it’ as he walked through London with ‘all the bells in all the churches’ a-ringing as the rump parliament was dissolved. An entry I remember from the last time it came through my feedreader. I have been reading Pepys’ diary […]
Aftershocks
A previously unfamiliar pink alert on my phone, an earthquake in southeastern Turkey. I have an app which monitors earthquakes. It was nerve-wracking when it was set to Indonesia, and of course it reported the earthquake outside Jakarta while I was at lunch, which ended the lives of many, but also at least 2-3 earthquakes […]
How many hands
During my long break from this blog I had a birthday and since I was in Bangkok at the time I took the opportunity to buy myself (on behalf of another) a birthday present I had long wanted, a nice though not extravagant watch but simple and clean in design. The downside, or perhaps its […]
Under water
I dreamt last night that I went underwater. It was in the Bosphorus, off Uskudar. I had heard this and found it was true, that there was a silent landscape of lush yellow coral there, extending as far as one could see. I stayed there for a long time, looking around in wonder, and realised […]
Stroll
How to walk from Karachi to Mumbai using Google Maps. Karachi Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Walk south-west on Siddiq Wahab Rd towards Napier Rd 3 m Turn left at SHAMEER RAJA onto Napier Rd Pass by Thata Bus Stand (on the left) 1.1 km Turn left at DEERLOGISTICS onto Frere Rd/Shahrah-e-Liaquat Pass by Frontier Autos […]
Centenary
My father reminded me today that this year marks the centenary of my great-grandfather’s death. He was in the British Indian Army, fought in Burma, and once killed a lion with his sword. He died when my grandfather was two years old and there were no photographs of him, so all my grandfather had of […]
People
I met a rather curious person, not very likable. A shut in who sees no one and never leaves home, but very insistent about how cosmopolitan they are, and how well travelled and widely experienced and knew what was what about the world. All that travelling was while study abroad during their A’levels, over two […]
Grumbling
The Guardian has a moderately interesting/useful article about sports bras but titled it ‘Secret support: did prescription bras help Lionesses to Euro 2022 glory?’. Made me very irritated indeed. Now shall we talk about how the men’s teams owe their success to scientific jock straps? No I suppose not.
Bits of history
Every now and then I get told a surprising little bit of family history, often fairly inglorious. On my last visit it was about a great-grandfather who was active in the doomed Khilafat movement and one of the founders of what, over a century later, became a radical right Islamist movement. This time around it […]
Small improvements
In my conversation with the activist – she mentioned a small improvement which was both a relief and made me want to punch myself in the face. She was talking about how her collective arranges to provide sanitary pads to people affected by disasters, like floods etc and that these are also now a part […]