This coming week is Tihar, what the Nepalis call Diwali. Our hostess will be leaving for her village to get a tika from her mother. Even more embarrassingly than yesterday’s faux pas, I learned today that I have been calling her by her daughter’s name all this time. I had thought I was so clever; […]
The end of this world
I keep thinking that these are the end times. This does not really distinguish them from other times, since I don’t really have any kind of progressive vision of the world. But I think we are moving, inexorably, towards the end of a phase, the deterioration of global lipservice, at least, to a rules-based world […]
Eid
Eid was its usual understated to the point of non-existence self. I spoke to my father who was in a cheerful mood, but couldn’t face speaking to my grandmother which I shall no doubt regret. I did send her a message. My schoolfriends’ whatsapp group, which is normally an annoyance full of stupid forwarded memes […]
Tasla
Does this word even exist? I have used it all my life to mean a low, flat basin, the sort that one might use for handwashing clothes. Probably plastic. But no one other than myself seems to know it. It doesn’t appear in Urdu so far as I can tell. I put my recently acquired […]
The other side
After the night’s unrest a quieter day passed though I still worried all day, since the Gentleman Friend’s way of expressing illness is different enough from my own that it is difficult for me to assess how ill he is, and whether something needs to be done. I made daal and rice for dinner – […]
All night long
After returning to the flat from our superb meal, I did a spot of work and then pushed up the old sleeves and began cleaning. I scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen on my hands and knees, cleaning off stains that looked like they had been there for years. The kitchen sink is really terrible, with […]
Time traveller 2
And here’s the photo, for posterity, now that I am in a cafe without throttled outgoing. And a very nice cafe it is too, and I’m sipping a tasty cold brew. Source of the image: a screenshot of the Guardian website.
Time traveller
Wednesday was a lull between projects (late at night the next bit of work came in) so I did some accounting and refamiliarising myself with the memory room story. This is a longer novella, and I have been chewing over it for a very long time indeed. I think it’s promising, but let us see […]
Around a dark corner
We went first to Badaro, an up and coming neighbourhood in eastern Beirut, but south of where we are in Gemmayze. Most things, including galleries etc were closed but we had a tasty if overpriced breakfast and then strolled through Badaro towards the national museum. This latter was very impressive in its display, though less […]
A sign
There is a bird feeder hanging from the ceiling of the small veranda outside the living room, overlooking the garden. It’s a pretty little veranda, filld with plants, including some from my time in London which are doing far, far better now that they are no longer subject to my care. There are always birds […]