Hypocrisy today
There is a profound difference between religions that demand an allegiance to a single story and those that demand nothing
Read MoreCategory: Culture & Literature
The Sabarmati Ashram
by Ricky Toledano When not in jail or walking around to unite India, this is where the Great Soul lived, founding the SATYAGRAHA movement, the unwaivering, unshakable commitment to Truth: that which cannot be defeated; that which is invincible. I held back tears when I saw his desk, the place where Gandhi sat, writing and […]
Read MoreWalking the Old City
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 […]
Read MoreThe Carnival Seamstress
Behind the seams of Rio de Janeiro’s spectacular festival by Soledad Dominguez | translated by Ricky Toledano Monica has not slept at home since January 28. And it is most likely that she will not return to her husband and her youngest son until March 4, the day when the Paraiso do Tuiuti samba school will […]
Read MoreWords matter
Although on the team of Words Matter, I decided to look at some numbers. by Ricky Toledano I threw myself on the floor of my house when the machine gunfire started – once – in an instinctive reaction, because I immediately knew from the thunder around me, and the whistling of the bullets through the […]
Read MoreNo one in the world is illegal
The past can be truly seductive, despite all the evidence to the contrary and the fact that no one has ever returned from it. That is why I have always been suspicious of nostalgia: it always sprouts in the present, no matter when it was sown from the seeds of what people prefer to remember, and never from the dead seeds of what they prefer to forget.
Read MoreGentrification: problem or progress?
I suspect that whomever can answer that question of whether gentrification is progress or problem shall answer all questions, because it reverts to a much more profound human challenge.
Read MoreThe Street Art of Montevideo
The most amazing panorama
Read MoreThe Port[als] of Buenos Aires
The words for port and door are quite the same in Latin languages. Actually, it is hardly a stretch for English speakers to grasp the relevant vocabules for a place of entry and exit. In the case of Buenos Aires, however, I found poetry in how the very doors of the city reflected the amazing […]
Read MoreThe 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.
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