Archive for October, 2007

I notice the old man approaching out of the corner of my eye. I’ve been sitting against a wall, reading a book while waiting for the next in an endless series of trains that has carried me dutifully around this country. I glance up and have to squint into the sun as I take the [...]

This entry is an audio piece that talks about the last week or so I spent alone in Delhi. You should see the player displayed below. It’s about 16 minutes long, so enjoy! Download Quicktime Live in Bloomington, Indiana? Catch this piece on WIUX 99.1 FM Tuesday, October 23rd at 7:30 p.m. during WIUX Talk. Or … [...]

The police officer wore khaki on khaki and toted a World War Two era automatic rifle. He had the fat cheeks of a child and a continuously unaware smile to match. He approached me, uninvited as always, as I sat on a bench outside the Taj Mahal."Which place you from," he asked with that goofy [...]

Music Credit: "Weary Memory" by Iron & Wine

A few days ago I saw a fully grown man get beaten on a public street. He was a grizzly looking guy, the kind you could tell had been sleeping on the street for a while with long, matted hair and a black two week beard speckled with spots of grey. He was walking down [...]

When you make the turn from the main road onto the street that leads up to the temple, things start to change. The goods in the shops go from the average burlap bags of rice, bottles of coke and packs of cigarettes to goods like stringed flowers, miniature statues and framed photographs of the holy [...]

In 1934, a book was written that interwove the stories of a French priest, a rickshaw driver and an American doctor, all living in one of Calcutta’s most devastating slums that was known, ironically, as Anand Nagar, or "The City of Joy." This nickname has since been appended to the city as a whole, a [...]