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January 17th, 2020

Just saying, India. Just saying

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I’m sitting at Bangkok Airport, waiting for my delayed Air India flight back to Delhi.

Delayed due to fog, perhaps?

I‘ve just read the Bangkok Post (the English language daily here) and there is one story about India.

Just one.

And it’s about the Delhi gang-rapists on death row.

That’s it.

Shivering, just looking at these temperatures…

As a cold-weather-hater of note, am not looking forward to Delhi’s shivery temperatures.

But I am very intrigued to go back and see how the political situation is on the ground, with the continuing protests against the government’s citizenship measures.

Looks like […]

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January 14th, 2020

Abide with me no more

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Call me an idealistic old fool, but the sight and sound of the massed bands of the Indian military playing “Abide with me” at the annual Beating Retreat used to move me to tears.

Without fail.

For over 30 years, I’ve wept at this moment.

Not because I am a Christian, but because it was a moment that spoke to the inclusivity of India.

Of India’s ability to accept ideas and moments and music and traditions from other cultures and interpret them and weave them into an Indian context.

Apparently Mahatma Gandhi particularly loved this Christian hymn, and that […]

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January 9th, 2020

Oh good Lord

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Waking up in sunny Bangkok to breaking news of a very British kind.

Prince Harry and Ms Markle are stepping down as senior royals.

Oh my giddy aunt.

Whatever is the world coming to?

Actually, there’s no need to answer that, is there, because we all know the answer already.

2020 is only a week old, & we are already feeling defeated by the devastating Australian infernos + Trump’s terrifying lunacy. For those of us in India, the unfolding crisis in the country is deeply worrying.

So, yes, the world is giving a very good impression of going to […]

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January 5th, 2020

Of India & plum cake & wistfulness

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I’m out of India at the moment, holidaying in Thailand, so my news about Indian politics and current events comes from online sources.

Obviously.

Sources like Twitter, for example.

Of late, it seems that social media, especially Twitter, has become increasingly toxic.

People don’t simply agree to disagree.

They berate, they insult.

All of which is to say that the news I’ve been reading about India, seen through such prisms of information, appears bitter and virulent.

I worry about India, I truly do.

I worry about apparent attempts to divide society along religious lines, and what that might do […]

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