India

August 3, 2011 by admin |

Sibling Revelry

Are you ready for Raksha Bandhan? It’s August 13th this year. I know, that’s 10 days away. But if you’re not Hindu, and this is your first Raksha Bandhan, you might need some time to prepare yourself to celebrate. The way I understand it, Raksha Bandhan is a celebration of siblings. It started out a…

Beauty from Birth

At our childbirth prep class on Sunday I bravely asked the visiting pediatrician the question my husband wanted answered, but was too shy to articulate: When is it appropriate to pierce the baby’s ears? We had already covered how soon a baby can fly in an airplane, and spent 10 minutes on the pros and…

Quiet Time, Getting Crazy, and Psychic Reboots

There is a lot going on in the world this week, and it’s all very “turn, turn, turn,” to quote the Book of Ecclesiastes (and, later, Pete Seeger, and even later, the Byrds). The verse reminds us that to everything there is a season. And because Orthodox Easter and Western Easter are the same this…

Kalo Mina!

That means “Good Month!” in Greek and it’s what people say to each other on the first of every month, to invite luck for the 30 or so days to come. When I lived in Greece I loved it that every shopgirl (that’s a sexist word but I can’t think of the equivalent–Retail Attendant?) or…

Celebrating in Cyberspace: Save-the-dates and Saints and Saris, Oh My!

Those who like to malign the sad state the world’s in (and who doesn’t? It’s pretty much everyone’s favorite pastime) often complain that we’re so plugged in to our computers that we’re cut off from each other. And it’s true to an extent–we’ve all seen (or been) a table of friends at dinner, busily texting…

Bright Lights, Big River!

So, it’s fitting, given that the Ganges is the scene of so much transformation, that my own film career started (and ended) on the Ganges. On January 1st, 2007 (are you feeling the liminality yet?) I awoke in the lovely Hotel Ganges View in Benares. A converted nobleman’s palace, the hotel is located above Assi…