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For weeks I was meeting Kolkatans who bragged about their coming festival, the Durga Puja. “The city doesn’t sleep.” They told me. “There is dancing in the streets… it’s Kolkata’s biggest festival, its this city’s true culture…” And on and on. The first night I saw very little action. The next day [...]

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It is difficult to be inspired when you live in a hole, and when your brain fluids have been boiling under your temples for three days. I look out the window and feel little sparks of “create everywhere, redeem everything, and be a fool!” And I stand motionless looking out into the rain, which is [...]

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I love Kolkata on Sunday. For me and a handful of others the day begins with the blessed refuge of an Orthodox Liturgy. Its difficult to imagine a better way to start the week. But Sunday brings other benefits to this city as well. This morning as I was walking back to the hostel [...]

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We decided that my friend Sunil wouldn’t come into the city today because of the weather. And that was fine, I liked the idea of taking a break. But Kolkata was not resting. So I grabbed my digital point and shoot and hit the streets, skipping from doorway to doorway through the erratic rain. I [...]

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I wanted an easy way for people to get a hold of me. So here it is, my Indian business card. (Thanks Abigail, for the photo.) If you want to call me from North America, dial 011 91 first.

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I write because I hope these words will pass away from me and ease the pain in my chest. It’s an amazing thing God has created in us; a heartache. There is nothing metaphoric about it. To feel your blood has thickened, and this beating organ has become heavier. But the farther I fall into [...]

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I moved out of my old place, away from the sparkling clean floors and polished wooden desk against the window, and away from the depressing empty hallways, and I moved in here. I liked the idea; the plaster walls and corrugated roof had a rustic and simple appeal, and the “penthouse” location was cool too. [...]

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I am not going to choke on the shrapnel that is floating to the surface. It’s this stillness that gets to me, like a moving river that has reached an end. All memories, all thoughts, are fair game, foaming up, keeping me awake. Leading to bad poetry night and day; frustration and weariness are the [...]

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On Sunday I attended a protest initiated by the Catholic Church in Hyderabad, where hundreds of Christians gathered on either side of Tank Bund Road, a main roadway that connects Secunderbad and Hyderabad. Not long ago a vibrant and magnetic Fr. Tomas Pandipally, a Father and teacher to many, was brutally murdered and [...]

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I’ve heard India is the place to “find oneself.” I arrived in Goa a week ago to do exactly that. With Abigail’s Goan connections I was certain that this would be a week that would define all other weeks. Following a latest tradition, Abbi began by dressing herself appropriately, and then lit sparklers. And when [...]

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