Xin chào tù Việt Nam, We’ve decided to postpone the trip to Yunnan in China due to lots of flooding there. Instead, we are taking the chance to see more of Việt Nam; first to Hà Nội in the north; Đà Nẵng and Hội An beach in the centre; finishing at Phú Quốc in …Read More
Namaste from India, There are some places whose experience is adequately captured on film. But some places are clearly not in that category. In a photograph – no matter how clever the photographer or how modern the camera, one cannot see the true splendour of the place. You simply can’t appreciate the true context. In the …Read More
Kuzu Sangpola from Bhutan, When the king of Bhutan decreed in 1972 that the country would measure Gross National Happiness as well as Gross National Product, he gave his country a unique selling point. The very concept has interested others sufficiently to put Bhutan on their bucket list (people like us, of course). …Read More
Kuzu Sangpola from Bhutan, Religion and superstition are horses from the same stable, I would contend. Here in Bhutan, almost everyone is Buddhist, following a fairly strict adherence to the teachings and content to play a communal role in protecting the culture from disturbance and unwanted incursions. In any religion, some irrational belief …Read More
Kuzu Sangpola from Bhutan, A week of quietude can do wonders for the soul. It may have been a bloke called Buddha who first promoted the idea. We are here in Bhutan, where they famously measure happiness, and where Buddha left an indelible impression on succeeding generations. Linda’s happiness index has reached a new …Read More
Shuvo shokal from Dhaka, Today is a public holiday in Bangladesh; a commemoration of the birthday of Bangabandhu, the father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I hope my dear readers are amenable to a short history lesson on this great man, especially since there are international ramifications of his life and actions. partition …Read More
Shuvo shokal from Dhaka, When you’re living amongst another culture, it’s a truism that the cultural rituals and practices stand out as obvious. And, it’s just as obvious that these manifestations of belief and attitude are rooted in a way of thinking. Some of these are self-evident. But some are not and become crystallised only …Read More
Namaste from Kerala, During the early 1980s a chap called Kris Srikkanth opened the batting for India. Like a lot of Indian openers, Srikkanth was a hard-hitting risk-taker who showed scant interest in records or averages and savage disdain for the hapless Australian spinners of the era. Srikkanth was from Cochin which …Read More
Namaste from Kerala, To borrow a laughable phrase from “The Castle”, this India place is “so full of culture”. And India is experiencing some culture wars right at the moment. You may have heard something of the culture wars, centring around the incarceration of a university student leader, accused of being anti-nationalist. …Read More
Namaste from Kerala in India, India today is experiencing ructions and protests which are probably the biggest since Partition. Trouble is brewing. The big heading in The Deccan Chronicle one day last week was “India’s Culture Wars”. This is no isolated cry in the wilderness. To put it mildly, it’s the talk of the town. eroded …Read More