What could be more mundane than milk, you ask. What could be more basic to all of creation than a mother’s milk? And what could be more available at any street corner anywhere in the world (okay, except Asian countries) besides bread but cow’s milk? In India, you’re almost sure to get it fresh from … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Jubilee
I turned 50 under a Dhaka sun and played hostage to a city din that hurled rickshaw bells, a cawing of Bangla jingles, and early morning drills in intervals at my 4th floor haven. These reminders of place reined me in to my retreat away from the bulging mass of life at my door. But … Continue reading »
The First Rain
The First Rain Majestic, gray clouds wheel past dark peaks. Wind rushes in. The flutter of banana leaves grows tremulous. Droplets of rain pelt down on age-old canopies. Cues to a drama about to unfold. Like wind-up clocks, ox-drawn carts, schoolboys on bikes, and barefoot peasants hauling in the harvest criss-cross the horizon … Continue reading »
Sanaa
One of the most magical cities I have ever been to, Sanaa, the capital city of Yemen, is like stepping into a dream and turning the clock back 2000 years. I never would imagined how many times I would fall in love with the places I have been called to and this one stole my … Continue reading »
Wadi Rum
“A cloud gathers, the rain falls, men live; the cloud disperses without rain, and men and animals die. In the deserts of southern Arabia there is no rhythm of the seasons, no rise and fall of sap, but empty wastes where only the changing temperature marks the passage of the year. It is a bitter, … Continue reading »
In the Clouds
Captive, I am no one netted by the clouds Floating wispy and lucent in boundless space Wafting through the trees Slumberous soundless vapor aloft in endless heights Ghosts in an aimless drift agelessly metamorphosing Free, I will sleep tonight in a bed of clouds. Continue reading »
The Pearlish Moon
A strange and surreptitious moon steals a kiss of my brow with its thin brush of light in the still of a timeless night. I awake to a crystal ball beaming radiant white, creeping towards the center of my sight from out of the veil that clasps the fathomless universe. A lone watery pearl hangs … Continue reading »
Rain on the Mountain
Atop my cold mountain, Mother Nature turned sky to sea and tipped it earthwards With a mischievous eye, She winks at me, calls me as a witness to her untamed fantasy. Oceanic waves cascade over window and roof, boulder and wood, valleys and knolls, reverberating its drumbeat breath through day and night into every infinitesimal … Continue reading »
Aim High Aim Big Go Slow
I am like most people – I like to see my tax money used effectively. I like having an impact on other people’s lives, whether it is in my own community or somewhere else in the world. I care about what happens in Afghanistan or the Ukraine. But I am also a development practitioner and … Continue reading »
The Birds Over Kosovo
They storm the sky announcing the sunset and sharpen their wings on the sky’s blushing hues. They beckon me out onto the balcony of another Pristina dawn. Possessed by their haunting caws, into the twilight I am all at once drawn. Black as tar, countless as the stars, these odd birds rearrange the sky – … Continue reading »