Sep 3, 2010

Even before it rains, water hangs in the air. The wind starts to blow, warm and persuasive. Palms are flattered: they dip and lower their heads. Long grass blushes and looks the other way. Women scramble to manage their fluttering dupattas. As the sky darkens and the air thickens, they tuck their mobiles into their purses and slip their purses into plastic bags.

Aug 21, 2010

In a hard-to-find school in the Dharavi slum, I never expect to find toddlers doing arts and crafts: but they are. I’m inside a warm room with a whirring fan, where children’s feet stand on coloured circles painted on the gray ground. Oiled hair on each head is neatly parted. The kids have just finished with greeting time, and have now moved on to

Aug 21, 2010

“What is that awful smell?” I wondered to myself as I sat on a low wall, taking a brief rest from the hectic chaos of Shilin night market situated in the heart of Taipei. The answer was right beside me, where a young woman was sitting. No, she wasn’t the source of the pungent odour. It was coming from the food she was eating. This was my first

Aug 2, 2010

Here is space, a calming silence without clutter, where senses feel sharper and the mind can soar. The air is cold and sharp. The light, golden and silver, presides over a sea of undulating and ever changing grassland. Maybe this is what it feels like to be an eagle or a wolf — to feel truly free is to feel you can reach out and touch the horizon, and that

Which place has 15 schools and several hospitals, imports plastics from all over the world for recycling, and is home to more than a million people in just over one square kilometer? That place is called Dharavi: a well-know slum that is the largest in Asia. A visit to Dharavi, however, may challenge any understanding of a slum. Dharavi spreads over Mahim,

Jul 28, 2010

Visiting Mumbai’s Haji Ali Masjid and Darga during the rainy season is nearly magic. The mosque was built in 1431 in the memory of Islamic merchant Sayyed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari (who is buried within the mosque) and has become a pilgrimage site for seekers from every faith. The beautiful structure sits on a tiny island almost a kilometre from South