The idea of leaving this place fills with such sadness. I cannot
imagine trading the sounds of chirping birds for the honking and dust of Dehra Dun. Being here has been such an amazing experience, and in many ways what my idealized version of India was before arriving.

It is easier to guard your tongue where there is no one to talk to. On a daily basis I will have a handful of conversations which I more or less will not understand. Language barriers suck, but they also force you to re-evaluate everything you say, and if it’s not necessarily important, you most likely won’t bother.

Something about this man really broke my heart. He just looked so defeated, and started crying silently in the office. He clearly didn’t have much money, and just sat there for the longest time, tracing his thumb along the desk in front of him, shoulders slumped, lines around his eyes. I eventually had to move my arm from around his shoulders and turn away from because I was close to crying myself.

Being in India and sometimes existing under relatively harsh conditions has made me appreciate the silliest things. Here is an ongoing list of small pleasures to embrace whenever they make themselves present in India, in list form…

Welcome to Beirut, Lebanon where you can be everything you want to be - among the glitterati in sky high clubs with polished heels, discussing politics among the expatriot intelligentsia in bohemian backdoors, or setting up an evening Nargileh (water pipe) outpost in your car on the Corniche. Even as an observer of Beirut’s many worlds - the contradictions, the contrasts, the tragedies - I feel the unmistakable heartbeat, the pulsing arteries filled with suffocating cigarette fumes and a persistent, intense desperation to stay alive.

Street signs can give us insight into a character of a place– reflecting the instructions of local authorities or indicators of commercial interests or something else altogether.
Sometimes informative, sometimes downright strange.

Share the street signs from where you dwell or roam.

Street signs can give us insight into a character of a place– reflecting the instructions of local authorities or indicators of commercial interests or something else altogether.
Sometimes informative, sometimes downright strange.

Share the street signs from where you dwell or roam.

These are my people, and yet there is an unreality about being here that occupies most moments. I feel as though time and place are suspended. I never know what time it is, either here or at home, and my head spins from the difference in time – day feels like night, and my stomach growls while I sleep.

Bored by the main street, I wandered off into a labyrinth of back lanes housing street side food stalls and tiny children running around on the dusty paths…Landmarks that I thought I were markings in my head disappeared, and the sun’s rays started to beat down hotter and hotter. I realized there were no street names, and precious few women around.

Street signs can give us insight into a character of a place– reflecting the instructions of local authorities or indicators of commercial interests or something else altogether.
Sometimes informative, sometimes downright strange.
Share the street signs from where you dwell or roam.