Going home

I know it’s a cliché, but it seems like only yesterday that I came to live in Delhi. I will miss my work colleagues who have been very kind to me. I will miss the historical sites of the capital, that I have come to know so well. I will miss the food. I won’t…

Nicholson Cemetery

This is the main resting place of the British community of Delhi after the disaster of the Mutiny in 1857. It was originally a Mughal garden. It is named after its most illustrious resident, Brigadier-General John Nicholson, “Lion of the Punjab”. He began his career as an ensign in the East India Company Native Infantry.…

Republic Day

January 26th is the anniversary of the Indian Constitution which came into effect in 1950. I would have enjoyed watching the parade in person, but duty called, and I had to work. MSF had donated some blankets and toiletries to the Naaz Foundation, a non-government charitable organisation which is based in the slums and works…

Nirbhaya

Four years ago in Delhi, a gang of five men* and a boy raped and brutally murdered a young woman. The internal injuries she sustained from a metal rod being thrust inside her eventually caused multi-organ failure. She died a few days later, despite desperate attempts to treat her in specialist unit in Singapore. The…

Diwali

This is going to disappoint Deb, I am afraid. Here in Delhi, Diwali is dull, crowded, smoggy and very loud. Although Chinese-manufactured firecrackers have been banned, there were intermittent, eardrum-rupturing explosions through the night. I am not sure that this ordinance/ordnance chases away evil spirits, but it certainly kept me awake until 1am. I went…

Ajrakh

In Gujerat and Rajasthan there are still a few craftsmen who use the ancient traditional Ajrakh technique to make patterned cotton cloth. It is an incredibly complicated and time-consuming business. There are fourteen steps in the process, but basically, it is a reverse block print, with areas of cloth being treated to avoid dye. The…

Sitting

Sitting around in K Block, Jahangir Puri. These photographs were stolen. This isn’t proper street photography. I just pressed my camera to the glass of the car window as we drove through the neighbourhood and squeezed off a few pictures when I saw something interesting. Although technically K Block is an “unplanned settlement”, it is developed…

Rubbish

Every day 10,000 tonnes of rubbish gets dumped at the four major landfill sites around the Indian capital city, Delhi. One of these sites, Ghazipur, has been on fire for the past two weeks. This is not surprising as organic refuse generates methane when it rots. Of course, the garbage has already been picked through…

Chipembele Revisited

I could not leave the Valley without having one of Anna and Steve’s famous gin and tonics, watching the sunset over the Luangwa River. With a bit of luck, I would also bump into Douglas the three and a half year old hippopotamus, whom I had met in 2014. Anna met me and the car…

Blood Moon

Just as the sun sank beyond the western horizon, the full moon rose above the trees fringing the Luangwa River. It was blood red. Perhaps the smoke and dust in the atmosphere gave it a rusty hue. Perhaps there is another more scientific explanation for its remarkable colour. It looked stunning. The sky around the…