the delhi life

the last few days have been busier than usual with the events surrounding the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, BOLLYWOOD DANCE LESSONS with solenne and mathieu {soo fun, videos later if they're not too embarrassing}, art fairs {at least attempts to make it to them}, other events, and the creeping realization that i've only got a few more weeks to make a good PhD proposal...  i've got some pictures from the friedrich naumann event {german institute with regional offices in india} where wolfgang and several other germans spoke, and some insights on education in the slums from an event i went to this evening.

ALSO, a short anecdote: last night after leaving the berlin wall event, i was standing along the side of the road when my indian friend parth shouted, "watch out you're going to get run over!".  since it was dark and we are in india, meaning there were no street lamps, i tried to locate the vehicle in order to get out of its way, all the while failing to see the herd of cows that was running toward me!  it was a close encounter and a near trampling, but something i found hilarious in the end" :) 

so, that's my update friends!

{photo from baga beach goa}

my wall memorial

 my photos from berlin of the remains of the berlin wall {2007/08}

east side gallery, east berlin

berlin wall memorial, bernauer straße

"peace" graffiti on the wall

artistic wall commemoration by the brandenberger tor

this signifies my opposition!!

this signifies my sadness for the victims of communism...

+ two short videos {auf deutsch}
mauer movie one
mauer movie two

snail mail

one of the reasons it's really tragic to move around all the time, is that i never get mail!  i am very jealous of people who can pop down to the mailbox and collect their daily paper and letters :)   it's also quite sad not to have a writing {correspondence} desk with all of my stationery and stamps! in the past i've tried to stick to a letter-writing regimen & have found, to my dismay, that it's difficult enough keeping in touch with people via email.  nevertheless, i'm going to keep trying to revive the use of the written letter & hope technology doesn't wipe it out completely.

along these lines, remember when i wrote this column about how london doesn't work, which included a rant about the royal mail?  well, the economist has the solution: read this article about privatizing postal services in the UK.  now if only someone would propose a quick remedy for separate water taps... {there's even a facebook group about this issue!)

luxury tents

i suppose they were "luxury" for tents and maybe "tenting" is just not my thing.  that said, i wasn't very enthused to leave the resort and head for a nearly deserted stretch of beach in northern goa where the accommodation is very simply (ie. straw huts or tents).  i had a fun time nevertheless, and it was infinitely better to wake up to the sound of the crashing tide and the slowly rising sun instead of the hum of central air conditioning and the shock of opening dark curtains to broad daylight.

outside our cute little tent

my bed & the requisite mosquito net

the tent opened in back to a tent bathroom

this is the little sink contraption

and yes, this is the shower :)

only cold water........

it was equipped with electricity!

and visited by cows in the early morning

{herds of them were heading to the beach}

this was the view from my window

pretty, quiet, lovely morjim beach

in her shoes

apolline, the youngest daughter of the french family i'm staying with is such a doll {with a bit of a temper}!  she speaks french and hindi, and has, of late, been following me around the house imitating my english.  i'm sure she will be trilingual in no time!  she also likes wearing my shoes and carrying around my handbags & i think these photos are so adorable...

examining...

testing

wrong feet?

imitating {photo taking}

this is water!

i saw this post in drafts this morning... apparently i forgot to post it when i read it a couple months ago.  it's a great article, have a read:

"There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys, how's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

If you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise old fish explaining what water is, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish. The immediate point of the fish story is that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude - but the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance...."

{read the whole article here}

a sari fitting

i went with solenne to Nagar market looking for fancy indian children's clothes.  she found some ready-to-wear saris for children {aka no wrapping and tucking necessary}, and since they weren't very expensive, i decided i wanted to try one on.  despite my size, which has, at times, allowed me to wear large children's clothing :) they didn't fit, and thus I had to be fitted for an adult sari.  the pictures below show the process...

 fitting the elastic waistband

the sari material is tucked under it in front

front tucked in, on to the draping

{either the man or the shop smelled funny...}

demonstrating arm draping lengths

{now i look like a scary mannequin}

finished product

it was fun in the shop {despite the scary mannequins} but the problem is, one must repeat the above process at every wear since a sari is actually just a long piece of cloth wrapped around the body in a peculiar way.  i suppose it isn't a demanding task with practice, and i can see why some indian women choose to wear them since i'm sure they can be quite comfortable once you're used to moving in them.  i'm going to stick to jeans and t-shirts for now, but if i see a sari that really catches my eye, i may bring it home for a souvenir :)

cidade de goa

what one does at a goan seaside resort...

take beach walks

discuss international politics with explorers

swim in figure eight pool

play giant chess

get lots of sun

watch gorgeous sunsets

the end.

beach finds

my happy feet on the beach

there was something alive in there!

ewww i hate jellyfishes

sand-covered starfish

he was still alive & i saved him :)

twisty shells!

to jaclyn,

here is a photo *just for you* of a fabulous indian dinner in new delhi

love, jx

cultural libertarians

i came across this article this morning as part of a debate at reason magazine which asks:"are property rights enough?" -- i absolutely agree with kerry howley's opinion, in fact, it details my own frustrations with libertarianism of late.  see excerpts below, but read the whole article, it's definitely worth it!

I call myself a classical liberal in part because I believe that negative liberties... are the best means to acquire positive liberties... I also value the kind of culture that economic freedom produces and within which it thrives: tolerance for human variation, aversion to authoritarianism, and what the libertarian economist F.A. Hayek called “a preparedness to let change run its course even if we cannot predict where it will lead.”

But I am disturbed by an inverse form of state worship {my emphasis} I encounter among my fellow skeptics of government power. This is the belief that the only liberty worth caring about is liberty reclaimed from the state; that social pathologies such as patriarchy and nationalism are not the proper concerns of the individualist; that the fight for freedom stops where the reach of government ends. It was tradition, not merely government, that threatens... {the limits of} possible lives...

As former Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs can tell you, it’s possible to be an anti-government zealot with no interest whatsoever in individual liberty. If authoritarian fundamentalist compounds are your bag, the words personal agency will hold no magic for you... But libertarians for whom individualism is important cannot avoid discussions of culture, conformism, and social structure. Not every threat to liberty is backed by a government gun. 

Convention creates boundaries as thick as any border wall and ubiquitous as any surveillance state... A door is as good as a wall if we cannot imagine walking through it.

{read more of her article & the debate here}

delhi & dengue

back in delhi... the giant metropolis full of dusty, dirty, intermittently smelly air, mobs of people, and honking cars.  i love it, remember?  i have sooo many photos from goa which turned out to be such a nice, relaxing place to visit & will post some of them this week.  for the time being i'm in the process of mosquito-proofing my room in delhi with giant mosquito nets and other various mosquito repellents... apparently dengue fever is running rampant through delhi at the moment & it doesn't sound very nice...

sooo while adjusting once again to city life without giant waves and sea air every morning, i keep this in mind:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in it!
{Tempest Vi}

{photo taken at cidade de goa}

morjim beach

such a beautiful beach & hardly anyone on it!  we all stayed in "luxury tents" right on the beach, watched the sunset, woke up to the sunrise... smelled the herds of cows that regularly passed by... ate goan food and photographed fishermen...

go go goa!

i'm off to india's west coast to get some sun on the beaches in goa!  the weather in delhi has been pleasant, but i've spent hardly any time outside because of the dust levels, the dirty streets, and the incessant honking... thus i've been very much looking forward to a beach side resort since arriving in india.

goa was originally a portuguese settlement, and therefore much of the city's architecture is quite different from anywhere else in india & there's a bit of a western european flair.  i'll be staying in central goa near the vainguinim beach & hope to make it to see the old city as well... ciao!

{photo from: a cup of jo}

lodi evening

lodi gardens is so pretty & the lodi gardens restaurant has a lovely atmosphere at night with its white tents and garden paths.  i wouldn't consider the food superb {which is really a shame}, but it's a good place for drinks & meet-ups.  we had a little impromptu LSE get-together last night there which made me miss everyone else so much!  can't wait for graduation in december & am really looking forward to being back in london, & hope others will come back too!

lodi garden restaurant, downstairs

gaya, me, nico