The Curse of Saraswati
If I look irritated, it is because I was. It is in these moments of disappointment, however, when we learn the most.
Read More
The Logic of Faith
I have probably already supplied you with enough information to reinforce your belief that such a pilgrimage is yet another pointless act of religious craziness. But I would not be so quick to draw your sharp weapon of logic. You might discover it is much blunter than you had imagined.
Read MoreThe Stuccadore Peon
“Do you know why you do not like conceptual art? It is because you know how to solve problems with your hands. You have the means to create plastically, visually. If you only had concepts, you would write.”
Read MoreWhat I do remember…
It is a simple test, but a pertinent one after visiting any exhibition – but it was profound after the Kochi-Muziris International Biennale The fact that I remembered anything at all was surprising. I avoid most contemporary art, especially conceptual art, a category for which I have a strong opinion that is hard for me […]
Read Morethe Lodi Garden
It may be the way the air chills softly under great neem trees, cackling with parakeets, or the eagles that swoop calmly over the roses as the sun sets. Bamboos create archways between fields dotted with the crumbling stone of tombs from empires past. The scent of jasmine lifts the air from the smell of […]
Read MoreThe Portals of Chandni Chowk
According to the Law that goes by many names, including Ganesha, every 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 […]
Read MoreTropeçando em Paquetá
O negócio é acordar cedo em Paquetá e andar pelo Praia da Moreninha a ler todos os versos, postos em cada árvore. São muitos!
Read MoreLooking through the Chagall Windows
Properly called the America Windows, they are what everyone in Chicago has called the Chagall Windows for as long as I can remember, and I was born some years before they were installed in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977. A tribute to a city and a nation from the great Russian-French-Jewish artist and […]
Read MoreChicago stories
The skyline might have changed. Millennium Park certainly had not existed. But there still so many things I remember about my hometown, even after more than twenty years abroad. Returning awakens the memories of how the summertime smells of cut grass and coming rain. Pizza. Those cement sidewalk stamps at the corners just before the […]
Read MoreBook review: “Ema, the Captive” by César Aira
Argentina, 1800s. A nubile captive, together with her infant child, are government prisoners, taken on long caravan as part of the supplies needed at the military outpost of a sinister colonial world deprived of women. It is just the beginning of the adventurous captivity of Ema, a “white” woman of unknown origins who is bartered […]
Read MoreAbout a culture | Como agradecer lo que me ha dado la vida
“Where did you learn to dance?” was more of an interjection than a question from both friends and strangers who were shocked when I jumped to the rhythm of the old Cuban song I love. Expecting that I would respond with the name of some local dance studio, I could not help but smile, stumped, […]
Read MoreA Lógica da Fé
E se você é como qualquer um dos meus muitos amigos racionais, eu provavelmente já lhe forneci informações suficientes para reforçar sua crença de que tal peregrinação é mais um ato inútil de loucura religiosa. Mas eu não seria tão rápido em sacar a arma afiada da lógica. Você pode descobrir que tem, nas suas mãos, uma faca muito mais cega do que imaginava.
Read More