Letter from Malaysia
Amitav GhoshMy correspondence with Fernando Rosa began some months ago: he is a Brazilian doing research in Malaysia. This is how he describes his work: ‘I am doing research…
The mysterious death of India’s coastal and inland shipping
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries opium was transported from Ghazipur to Calcutta by large and heavily fortified fleets of vessels (the progress of one such…
Letter from Qatar
Dear Amitav, I have just returned from a trip to Beirut and Malta. While in Beirut I took a truly wonderful walking tour led by an AUB grad that I…
Echoes of Goa: São Paulo, Brazil
Yesterday, at São Paulo University, met Prof. Dr. Lynn Mario T. Menezes de Souza. His is a fascinating history of travel. His family hails from Salvador do Mundo in…
Delhi in the 1980s
In response to my post of September 9 (on the recent bombing of the High Court) Shernaz Italia writes from Delhi: 'The terror of the 80s ... I had…
September 11, 2001
In 1999, soon after moving to the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, my wife and I were befriended by Frank and Nicole De Martini, a couple whose lives…
Piranha Stew
The Espirito Santa restaurant in Rio de Janeiro is like none I have ever experienced. It sits high on a slope…
The bomb in New Delhi
No matter whether it is dropped by an airborne drone or planted by a man on a bicycle, a bomb’s effects are felt not only by those who…
Rio de Janeiro: Churches and confeitarias
Church of São Bento, 17th century Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição e Boa-Morte, 1735 Confeitaria Colombo, 1894 …
With Abraham Verghese
at the Rio de Janeiro Book Festival Some years ago, after reading the The Tennis Partner I wrote to Abraham Verghese to tell him how…