Blog

Bhutan

abstract: Puff the magic dragon! Even the country’s official name is magically evocative: The Kingdom of the Peaceful Thunder Dragon. Barely a half-million “people from

Read More »

Promising Future

abstract: To understand India you have to see its villages! This dictum is often repeated to signify the hold of tradition on Indian society. Surprisingly,

Read More »

From Feudalism to Capitalism

abstract: Tourists are beckoned by the colors of Rajasthan. Splashed over gelatin or equivalents, these colors draw the magic of their aesthetics from contrasts. The

Read More »

The Maharajas’ Jaipur

abstract: Tourists are beckoned by the colors of Rajasthan. Splashed over gelatin or equivalents, these colors draw the magic of their aesthetics from contrasts. The

Read More »

Tale of many cities

abstrct: India calls its capital New Delhi. The “new” part is in fact only a 1930s addition to the 17th century Mughal metropolis of Shahjahanabad.

Read More »

Persian Delhi

From the fairyland airport of Faro, in the pristine Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, I flew over the lofty white peak of Mount Everest and landed

Read More »

The City of Joy and Protest

asbtract: On the flight from Mumbai to Kolkata the CEO of the airline, Kingfisher, personally welcomed us to the cabin. He looked positively swashbuckling on

Read More »

Kolkata

In the evening that I arrived in Kolkata, the musician A.R. Rahman was giving a concert in the city’s Salt Lake Stadium. “He is our

Read More »

Emerging Power

The taxi ride to my hotel gave me my first look at the dense crowds that Mumbai is famous for. The sky was very dark.

Read More »

Bulgarian Paradox

abstract: The narrative of victimhood as a legacy of “colonialism” might feel proprietary to non-Europeans. Bulgarians offer a contrast. The “yoke” Bulgaria complains about is

Read More »

A different colonial yoke

abstract: The narrative of victimhood as a legacy of “colonialism” might feel proprietary to non-Europeans. Bulgarians offer a contrast. The “yoke” Bulgaria complains about is

Read More »

In search of an identity

abstract: When the Romanian-born Herta Muller won the 2009 Noble prize for literature, her novel The Land of Green Plums shot up to No. 7

Read More »

In search of an identity

When the Romanian-born Herta Muller won the 2009 Noble prize for literature, her novel The Land of Green Plums shot up to No. 7 on

Read More »

Moving on

“The runway that you just landed on was the world’s busiest in the late 1960s because many of the American soldiers and much of the

Read More »

The perils of popularism

Museums Our guide at the National Museum of Cambodia began her introduction by saying that “the Khmer civilization is the oldest in South East Asia,

Read More »

Following the leader

Our guide at the National Museum of Cambodia began her introduction by saying that “the Khmer civilization is the oldest in South East Asia, as

Read More »

Life is still simple

The air outside smelled of farmland. The two-lane paved road to our hotel meandered through farms and ended a few miles before we reached it.

Read More »

Bangkok

In March of 1978 at Bangkok’s Oriental Hotel I declined the receptionist’s offer of a room at the swank newly opened tower [photo essay]. I

Read More »

Stockholm’s summer

abstract: More than one city in Europe fancies itself being Venice of the North. About two decades ago, I was in Belgium’s Bruges, a famous

Read More »

Northern light

More than one city in Europe fancies itself being Venice of the North. About two decades ago, I was in Belgium’s Bruges, a famous contender.

Read More »