Holi

What’s not to like about Holi? It is a festival of love. It celebrates the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Good triumphs over evil. It is the time to rekindle old friendships. It starts in the evening with a bonfire and the following day, people spray each other with coloured powder and…

Art Festival Continued

Some of the paintings were excellent. Others were reminiscent of the mass produced paintings which were so popular in the 1960s. Trees were a common theme. I liked these plump portraits which reminded me of Beryl Cook. These were rather more bizarre, but amusing. A bit of photorealism. We really enjoyed the Festival and were…

Monday Window

This photograph was taken in a slum area of North Delhi called Bhalswa. The architecture is “ambitious brickwork. The loudspeakers on the roof suggest that it is a mosque. The lady in the yellow shawl peeks out from behind the heavy curtain, observing the health education event we are running in the open courtyard beneath…

The Law of Unintended Consequences*

It is now over a month since the government of India withdrew the validity of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in order to stamp out “black money” – cash obtained through bribes or illegal activity. This amounted to 87% of the cash on the streets. The government redesigned the 500 note and issued a new…

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts

Thirty one years ago, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi set up this National Centre for the Arts , in memory of his mother. It is a wonderful place to visit which is rarely frequented by tourists. Every few days, there is a different artistic project or event. I went to a superb exhibition of primitive paintings…

Time for a change

Early next month, I start work with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Jahangir Puri, a slum area in North Delhi, at their new sexual and gender based violence clinic, Umeed Ki Kiran. The contract is for a minimum of 12 months. From the clean air and pleasant climate of South Luangwa in July,…