Embarcadero, S.F., Fourth of July, in an ill-fated attempt to see fireworks long since cancelled at that spot:

Bandstand, Bandra, Feb. ‘07, in the general direction of Shah Rukh’s house:

Rushing through some of the other pics. One of the highlights of our stay was the climb up the 600-foot Sigiriya rock fortress, at the summit of which was the palace of King Kasyapa in the 5th century AD. There’s a long-shot view of the Sigiriya rock i…

I first became acquainted with the phenomenon of tourism overkill during a coach tour of Britain years ago, when our guides were ludicrously dramatic about every sight and anecdote, often getting hyperbolic about mundane things. (Remember, this is alre…

We began the elephant leg of the tour at the Pinnewala elephant orphanage just off the Kandy road – a key tourist attraction for anyone visiting non-coastal Lanka.There are shops here that sell products made of elephant dung. On average you get 4 kg …

Am putting the pics up in random order over a few posts, along with some commentary. (Click photos to enlarge.)Nearly everywhere we travel, we manage to do some impromptu “cat tourism” and the pattern continued in Lanka; our guide was befuddled by …

…for a week. Or Ceylon, as my dadi persists in calling it. Much-needed break after all the family illnesses/troubles of the last few months (don’t even want to think about how many enticing travel assignments I’ve had to turn down in the past yea…

Tea strainer at the local, friendly, lesbian-run megacafé:

The base for Tibetan prayer wheels in Central Square, Cambridge, say ‘dream’ in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Gujarati. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s not Berkeley:

I’m sorry, Mr. Vassanji. I adore your short stories, but your novels move so slowly, they drive me batty. I gave up on your latest a hundred pages in. A refined reader like Jabberwock is what you deserve.
But I did spy one intriguing passage, the reason why I picked up The Assassin’s Song. And it […]

I was sitting in a Davis Square café the other night when a tall, shambling desi dude wearing a corduroy jacket with arm patches massacred the Shins on open mike night. He called himself Azeem, and he was pretty good with the guitar, but he brought a song with almost every note out of his […]

The Punjabi-owned grocery in Davis Square takes its ethnic grocery responsibilities seriously. It’s tailor-made for those times when you’re dying for some dum aloo, corned beef and Guinness.
Previously: Brownspotting in Davis Maidan

The short-lived Bhoja Café

I’ve lived in plenty of interesting hoods: Williamsburg with its blend of Latino and Polish. The Nuyoricans and Dominicans of Loisaida (Lower East Side). A corner of Harlem with African immigrants, upscale art cafés and a smattering of Caribbean desis, the devout coming bleary-eyed into the mosque at four in the morning […]

Dado Tea in Harvard Square and Tea Zone in Somerville are two of the innumerable specialty tea shops which dot the Boston area. From fancy shops on Newbury Street to the humble Tea Zone, I’ve never seen a place so obsessed with tea, or with such a density of Indian restaurants. It’s almost as if […]

Parag reppin’ D.C. on a glorious summer morning at Lands End in the Second World

My buddy Parag Khanna launched his book The Second World at a clutch of readings around Harvard last Friday and had a chi-chi launch party at Sparks House, the residence of Harvard’s official chaplain.
When I was living in Bandra, my pad […]

The moon is burnt sienna out my window, but it’s far too gelid to stay and watch. My last eclipse, I stood atop a Bombay apartment building in the slumbering hour between midnight and two, threading my way between a cat’s cradle of cables, trying not to wake a worker sleeping on the roof. […]