First posted May 02, 2013 “Even if we are unable to win in our battle, my darling, try you must to be at the head of the caravan engaged in the battle for truth. It is far from my dream that you grow up to be a Sikh, Hindu or Muslim. Try you must to… Read More Baldev Singh Mann: My darling daughter! (1986)
Annie Lord Dating apps have changed us and in reality there’s probably no going back. When people don’t use apps, it doesn’t mean they start meeting in person, it just means they don’t meet anyone at all. A friend of mine recently compared the situation to Uber and the way the ride sharing app monopolised… Read More Swipe fatigue, or the rise and fall of dating apps
First posted May 02, 2015 She was described admiringly by Vladimir Lenin’s wife as the “primeval force of the Black Earth”, a revolutionary firebrand with sparkling brown eyes whose natural aroma was of “fresh meadow grasses”. It is no wonder then that the search for an image of Apollinariya Yakubova, considered by some to be… Read More Apollinariya Yakubova: The face of the woman Vladimir Lenin loved most is revealed
First posted on November 12, 2019 I am back in Gangtok after many years. As I grew up here, I call it home. During a whirlwind book tour in India to talk about my new book, The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia, I decided to take a few days off to go home. It is raining… Read More Sarbpreet Singh: The Curious Connection Between Sikkim’s Lake Guru Dongmar & Guru Nanak
First posted January 26, 2017 Three forces carved the landscape of my life. Two of them crushed half the world. The third was very small and weak and, actually, invisible. It was a shy little bird hidden in my rib cage an inch or two above my stomach. Sometimes in the most unexpected moments the… Read More Heda Margolius Kovaly (1919-2010) : Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941–1968
First posted June 10, 2019 NB: I was sent this by a friend who saw it on Facebook. I post it without permission of the author as I am sure he will not mind. It is meant for us all to read. It is one of the most beautiful stories I have read in many years.… Read More SECULARISM IN A HOUSE OF GOD
First posted July 22, 2017 Ann O’Loughlin set off across the Soviet Union nearly 30 years ago, looking for adventure and a chance to practise her Russian. Instead, she met a fascinating stranger in a leather jacket in the next carriage … The Trans-Siberian railway, the greatest train journey in the world, is where our… Read More Ann O’Loughlin – How the Trans-Siberian railway became the love train
Kasia Delgado First posted September 7, 2019 Vladimir was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour. Ivanna was Prisoner 108, and his secret correspondent. She looks back on a love affair with a man she never met In 1953, a young Ivanna Maszczak trudged through the Siberian labour camp in which she was serving a 10-year… Read More ‘I longed for the moment you would write’: The Gulag penpals whose love lasted 60 years
New research shows small gestures matter even more than we may think. By Catherine Pearson In late August, Erin Alexander, 57, sat in the parking lot of a Target store in Fairfield, Calif., and wept. Her sister-in-law had recently died, and Ms. Alexander was having a hard day. A barista working at the Starbucks inside the… Read More The Unexpected Power of Random Acts of Kindness
JUAN COLE Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a creepy policy out of a Kafka or Joseph Heller novel, Israeli authorities have decreed that if a foreign visitor to the Palestinian West Bank develops a romantic relationship with a local Palestinian, they must report the relationship to the military Occupation authorities within 30 days. So reports the… Read More Now Israel is Occupying the Hearts of Lovers in the Palestinian West Bank
After the truth-shower 