To find a needle in a HAYMARKET

May 1, 2022.Reading time 32 minutes.

Was Haymarket a Riot, a Massacre, an Affair, or a Tragedy? I questioned, while on a scavenger hunt in my hometown to find a memorial that had been curiously removed. It made me think about that day when a bomb exploded in Chicago, dividing the world irrevocably into two teams.

Crossing a Redline

December 23, 2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

by Ricky Toledano The midday temperature is just above freezing when Ricky enters the redline “L” heading northbound. Assessing the distances between passengers, he plops himself in the empty middle of the car. The sky is the same grey of the winter city through the window of the elevated train that chugs above the street. […]

A Place To Be Happy

October 15, 2023.Reading time 44 minutes.

I suspect that whomever can answer the question of whether gentrification is progress or problem shall answer all questions, because it reverts to a much more profound human challenge.

A Gift for Navratri

October 8, 2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

Then I saw that there was not only one but three flowers on this day, the very first day of Navratri, the Nine Nights – for me, the most important of the year’s festivals. I fell to my knees.

On Hierba Dulce and Death

July 25, 2023.Reading time 21 minutes.

I had told myself I would never write a restaurant review. Some of my closest friends have never understood why I wouldn’t wed my writing with my pursuit of gastronomy. Only in Oaxaca would I finally break the rule I had always kept for two reasons.

Xanenetla and the seed of a tomato

July 9, 2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

Murals transform the streets of a rough neighborhood into a world-renowned gallery

The Portals of Chandni Chowk

December 1, 2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

I call it the Law of Ganesha, whereby passing through any doorway requires something to be left behind and something new to be accepted. This is the human dilemma, and it is one that is not getting any easier as there are ever more of us in this world, all unsatisfied, desiring progress and development […]

Walking the Old City

November 13, 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

Gujarat has been at the crossroads of civilizations for longer than memory. Its most iconic city, Ahmedabad, still holds its unique architectural mix of Jainism, Hinduism and Islam. The comparison was inevitable: the old city was much cleaner and more preserved than my beloved Chandni Chowk in Delhi. Then there was the woodwork and the […]

The Cosmos of Kerala

November 8, 2022.Reading time 14 minutes.

Cosmopolitan, before the word was invented by the ancient Greeks, who had already known of Kerala.

Journey to Cuetzalan

June 18, 2022.Reading time 14 minutes.

Rain brought back memories that weren’t actually mine, including how my father ate fried ants in his native sierra.