Sea of Poppies in Russian, trans. Alexander Safronov
Amitav Ghosh'Sea of Poppies' was published in Russian last year, in a translation by Alexander Safronov. I don't read Russian of course, but Alexander's queries were evidence both of his…
Bomra’s Restaurant, Goa
Bawmra Jap is, in my view, one of the finest and most inventive chefs in the world. He is ethnically a Kachin from northern Burma, but he left the…
Banteay Srei, Cambodia, 1993
One of the most beatiful temples in the world. In those days, it was deep in the jungle, with the Khmer Rouge swarming about and mines scattered over the grounds.
Le Morne Brabant, Mauritius
Le Morne Brabant marks the south-western corner of Mauritius. It is a World Heritage Site, for reasons that are explained at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Morne_Brabant
Encounters: Gore Vidal in Montreal
Encounters: Gore Vidal at Montreal Gore Vidal’s Julian is one of the finest epistolary novels I’ve ever read. Listening to him in Montreal, I reverted to the…
Letters
I am not very good with the Internet, and have only recently figured out how to put up my own posts (and that too with a great deal…
Current Reading: Gabriella De Ferrari’s ‘Gringa Latina’
As a schoolboy I was fascinated by the Atacama desert, partly because of the music of the name, and partly because my geography textbook declared it to be the driest…
In A Writer’s Garden
With Pramoedya Ananta Toer Gardening was one of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's passions. I visited the great Indonesian writer at his home in Jakarta in 1997, nine years before his death.…
Posada de Coloane
A small posada (inn) on the beach, a world away from the casinos and skyscrapers of Macau. It serves some of the best Macahnese food in the city and the…