Asiatic library
Asiatic Library with its town hall flight of steps, Cinderella-like from afar and chipped and battered up-close, a promised haven of...
Million-star hotel
We’ve had three discussions now on marriage. I am unsure if this is because it is all our limited Hindi will allow or if he is just...
Matchmaker
The desert is absolute silence, building in your ears like static. When the wind picks up, it howls, a personal song. The village we go...
Pretty fly (for a white guy)
[Note: I’ve been given permission to write this blog post on the understanding that I will name it the above title. I have spent almost...
Tofino: Lighthouse keeper
It is 7am in the morning here, and the view outside the large bay windows is a deep and steady grey. A blue oyster house sits perched at...
Flower woman
She runs a 24-hour flower shop in Montreal. It is 2am and the light from her shop creates a luminous section of pavement. We passed it...
Lines and skeletons
I have been trying to come up with a phrase for Canada—words that convey its flavour (derivative as that might be for a country so vast)....
Canada
There is something about Canada that I cannot quite put my finger on. I see it flashing past me through the window of a car, slim...
Genocide
“Okay,” I say. “Now a hard question. Super hard.” They giggle at the made-up word. “How has”—I take my time enunciating each...
Learning English
I go to the beginners’ room at conversation class today. There are so many people there that I have to pick my way across—stepping on a...
