October first turns the page, 8 am, my body salutes the sun next to hundreds of other western, middle-eastern ramblers. Nestled in the Himalayan foothills, each of us stands alone in our zen, yogi minds, but the collective consciousness awakens. This wave flows from the mountains, down the Ganga, across the continent in all directions, […]
Pio Log: Overseas Column
I had already written this article, before a black-out swept the city and knocked our wifi out with it. This happens every now and again; there have been thunder and lightning storms ever since we arrived in Chennai two weeks back. Surely, the lights jump back on, and you realize that no black-out could […]
Things to pack and not pack for India
Now that I’ve been traveling in India for a month, I’ve thought of things I really have needed, and not needed, in my luggage. Here are my thoughts (hopefully other participants on the program will make similar posts about packing): Generally, bring the least amount of stuff you can. Although we spend long periods of […]
So Many Animals
There is a stereotype of India, reinforced by works like the Jungle Book, that India is one big jungle with some villages and deserts. This is obviously untrue, but being in Delhi, a city with a population of eight figures, I had no idea I would observe so much biodiversity. There are a variety of […]
A Lifetime of Jury-Rigs
I have begun looking at articles on “jugaad” as the basis of my India abroad research paper. Jugaad is not a mere word; it is a mode of action, a philosophy of out-of-the-box thinking (or sometimes out-of-the-law thinking), and a generally creative and perpetually adaptive and unfinished form of problem solving. It is easy to […]