Dud Sea Scrawls The Writing, clearly, is not on the wall!

-Gandhi’s Ghosts-
Dateline: Delhi

Thanks to my incredible lack of foresight, I have only a minute on the laptop battery this time, but that’s enough to tell about a very overlooked, and centrally located, Delhi historical site.

Most guidebooks mention Raj Ghat, the location where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. (This site was in the news in 2006 when George W. Bush paid a visit. Some people complained about the hypocrisy. I think, if anyone ever needed to get Gandhi’s vibes, it would be Dubya.)

Shelter and shade

Kathmandu, Nepal

I finally found an umbrella man, on my way to CIWEC clinic. He sits by the roadside under a tiny blue-tarp lean-to. He’s little more than a child, and speaks almost no English. But his slender, tiny fingers work delicate miracles on broken parasols.

I was always taught that umbrellas were disposable. If an umbrella breaks in America, you just buy a new one. There is no one who would even think of repairing it, much less know how to do so. Here, just about anything can be and is repaired - people simply can’t afford to toss things aside. The cobbler will even painstakingly sew plastic flip-flops back together. I’m a bit attached to my green folding umbrella. It’s nothing special, but I bought it in Kandy, Sri Lanka in March last year, where the alternating rain showers and blazing sun make it an absolute necessity. In Sri Lanka, there are entire umbrella stores (In Tamil an umbrella is called "kooday").