Uncleji sells me fruit and vegetables in the market. He genuflects and raises his praying hands to his forehead every time he sees me know, and I always smile and namaste in return.

Today he is freshly shaven and has had a haircut. His bard-like do is cropped and neat, likely the… Read full post »

You can smell the sand in the air before you reach the ground. It's a silent sign that your descent is about finished and you'll be landing soon, so you'd best put away your books and headphones and get ready to disembark.

 Take a look around and notice the menagerie of… Read full post »

Once in a while it's important to leave the city for more remote climes to remind yourself that not everyone is a slicker like yourself.

This weekend Meaghan and I did just that.

We piled into two cars with five of our friends and headed out past the city into the Uttar… Read full post »

Well.

Great.

I think it's my destiny to spend my days complicating the lives of straight women.

Last week I noticed something funny was going on with a friend of mine. I had a feeling I knew what was coming, but I so hoped I was wrong. The last time I'd seen her before… Read full post »

Cricket in India is a religion.

Regardless of caste, occupation, faith, or colour, if you're Indian, chances are you're obsessed.

I, being of white bread Canadian stock, have had little exposure to this illustrious game. Perhaps I've been indoctrinated by my own national obsession and see any sport tha… Read full post »

About a month ago some friends from Victoria, the city where I studied, dropped in on the embassy where I was working to pay a visit.

They weren't there to visit me, of course--it was more of an official stop-over, a business meeting between administrators from the school I attended and the… Read full post »

It's something I've wanted to do for years. Maybe since I became aware of the fact that a craze was even taking place in North America. Before stretchy pants were fashionable and it was okay to spend most of your life in spandex, I wanted to study yoga. I particularly wanted… Read full post »

Many people have asked me over the course of the past week what it's been like to be a Westerner in India in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. Honestly it's a difficult question to answer.

First I think it's important to contextualize my experience as a Westerner… Read full post »

When did this become normal?

Reports every six to eight weeks that a small group of "terrorists" had wreaked havoc on another city/locality in what's become my backyard.

Oh right, I forgot: it hasn't.

Despite India's sixty years of violent history as… Read full post »

Fireworks, however noisy, wasteful, and polluting, have become an integral part of Diwali celebrations.

And despite all my misgivings, I really like them.

For the few weeks leading up to Diwali, small roadside shops appear almost out of nowhere selling "crackers" as people call them… Read full post »

"I'm so glad we're having this talk… here.

Meaghan and I are having a brief discussion on sexual relations with previous partners in our landlord's living room surrounded by his friends and family. We'd been invited downstairs earlier in the evening, but it's now… Read full post »

Sometimes I really hate Delhi.

I loathe it to the depths of my soul.

Like when I'm stuck in the back of an auto that's negotiating the day's seemingly unending and inevitable traffic jam, inhaling god knows what toxins being spewed from the tail… Read full post »

On Wednesday night I got sick.

Riotously, noisily, extravagantly ill.

The queasy feeling started in the afternoon, a low rumble somewhere in the lower regions of my gut that generally signals the beginnings of something bad. Meaghan and I were in Sarojini, our favourite market,… Read full post »

Last night I started to fret. I thought I'd run out of things to write about.

Can you believe that? I'm living in one of the most vibrant, sense-assaulting, morphing countries in the world and I thought I'd run out of things to write about.

Fear and writer's block can play funny… Read full post »

There you have it, folks.

The snap election called by the right vulnerable Stephen Harper has come and gone.

You know, the election he sort of promised he wouldn't call.

And all he managed to squeeze out of it was another minority government.

Throughout the whole election campaign Harper maintained… Read full post »

Despite earlier determinations to learn Hindi entirely on my own, I've chosen instead to hasten the process and take lessons. From now on, on Monday and Friday afternoons, Meaghan and I will get to hang out with Kapil for an hour or… Read full post »

Thankfully, my back seems to be on the mend.

I had x-rays taken at the Aggarwal clinic near CP last weekend. The clinic was a stark contrast to Dr. Sethi's quiet office; where Dr. Sethi's was tidy and serene, the clinic was crowded and filthy.

 … Read full post »

I hurt myself playing soccer last weekend. My buddy Tony, a smallish British kid of Asian descent, decided at the same instant I did to make a dash for the ball, bringing my right shoulder and his left shoulder into the kind of union that makes onlookers cringe.

My spine between… Read full post »

Moving from Canada to India means acknowledging an increased likelihood that your neighbourhood will be bombed.

The day my parents landed, bombs exploded in  Mumbai's busy rail system. I sat at my computer in Victoria, BC, a full 12.5 hours behind them, absorbing any update I could find to assur… Read full post »

Dear Delhi,

I'm in no mood to deal with you today.

Did you hear that? No mood.

I have no patience for your heat. Don't tell me that today wasn't actually as hot as other days, nor was it as humid. My patience is thin regardless.

The men pissing against trees and walls and bushes… Read full post »

There we stood, my sister and me (clearly not pictured here), laughing outside a Delhi nightclub. We'd spent the night dancing with a few friends—some Germans, a few Americans, Indians, a French woman—but a day of shopping in hot, sticky markets had gotten the better of us and we… Read full post »

Sometimes Sarojini is a place to waste an afternoon. Other times it's the source of the evening's perfect outfit or that last gift for your new friend's housewarming party. Like your average super mall, it has everything, only right now it's hotter, dirtier, and mostly outdoors.

Sarojini was… Read full post »

I could see the light from car headlamps reflecting colours onto the street but I couldn't figure out where the colours were coming from. When I looked up from the sms ad my mobile phone was broadcasting they caught my eye: a boy of about five or six was standing in… Read full post »

Four or five years ago I posed a question of my sister.

I asked her, "Meaghan, how would you feel if I brought a girlfriend home for Christmas dinner?"

At the time she said it would be very weird. I remember being disappointed but not entirely surprised; most of my… Read full post »

I'm excited. Really excited. And a little scared.

In twenty-four hours, quite possibly the funniest person I know will descend on Delhi and the two of us will embark on what could be the adventure of a lifetime.

Her name is Meaghan, and she's my baby… Read full post »