My Berlin – a nod to Jewish history & an NYT piece

October 19, 2016   Comments (0)
 

For 27 years, I’ve made pilgrimages to Berlin to visit family. My mother’s sister moved there in 1964 and her children and now grandchildren were all born there. Since I can remember, Berlin has never been a tourist destination, more a homestay, sometimes a stopover. When I lived in Poland I went numerous times and when I moved to the US, I tried to break my homeward journey there. And still, when I visit Europe, (more…)

 
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“Save trees, plant trees” – the irony of urban Mumbai

November 18, 2015   Comments (0)
 

Cry, Mumbai, cry. #depressing #nature #irony #sad

A post shared by chhavi sachdev (@chhavi_sachdev) on

 
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desecration

March 3, 2012   Comments (3)
 

desecrationIndians never fail to amaze me. We want to etch our names on every space we can find – “Yes, I was here. I really was. So what if I’m never coming back and that it destroys the serenity, sanctity, authenticity, or aesthetic of where I am. Dude, *I* was here!”
I’ve seen celebs try to talk sense into the junta, I’ve heard academics discussing white boards and pin boards at monuments so people can scribble on those rather than the walls, but this … this is the first time I’ve seen something like this and it’s all over the Hawah Beach area of Trivandrum’s Kovalam beach. Unbelievable!

 
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where singles go to … pray?

March 1, 2012   Comments (2)
 

singlesThis is a shrine in Anegundi, Karnataka (across the Tungabhadra river from Hampi) where long-suffering parents who were worried about their still single (stubborn) kids came to ask the goddess for help. If you donated a statue in the image of your child and placed it just so, apparently they’d get hitched pronto. And the four of us single women took in this view and digested the tale and laughed.

 
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proud to vote!

February 16, 2012   Comments (4)
 

beence That’s me. I’m proud to have voted. I’m pleased to be able to exercise my rights and do my civic duty. This time was MUCH easier than the last time in 2009. I’m still the wrong age, have the wrong name, and am listed in the wrong gender, but they overlooked all that. I only drew attention to the spelling and the ‘purush’ part but both the list booth and the polling agent brushed it off as a typo. And after 3 minutes of being in line, I had verified my identity, pushed my selection, and I was out. I didn’t even get to crack open Kiran Manral’s The Reluctant Detective that I’d thought to bring along with me based on the long wait last time! 🙂

P.S. I’m very disillusioned by my friends who haven’t voted. What do you do with your friends whose ideologies and basic values don’t match yours? Demotion? Deletion?

 
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babygate

February 24, 2011   Comments (3)
 

Babygate!
No, not another scandal. Though, maybe it should be!
This hideous doll was stuck in the grate of a friend’s gate. Were I still 11, I’d be intent of cracking the whodunit it presents.
Who’d mutilate a doll so grotesquely?
Who’d then leave it on someone else’s gate?
Is it meant to be a message?
Who knows?

 
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upside down in delhi

February 19, 2011   Comments (3)
 

Where else but in saadi Dilli? This one is a pretty old – taken from Outer Ring Road, with a friend in the driver’s seat. We spotted this one night heading back after a film, soon after the #CWG and were awestruck. A whole, huge directional sign hung upside down, pointing the wrong way. Yes, that sign is above the other lane.
The next night we were heading back, we tried to capture it – shakily and blurrily and in motion, sorry!
Well, Mumbaikars could counter that at least Delhi has visible road signage! Here, every time I go to the airport, I  see a car (sometimes two!) attempting to back down the flyover, having totally missed the tiny sign on the left and then having spotted the Sahar hotel, thinking “Oh $#!%@”

 
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