Archive for the ‘Differences’ Category
Regardless of gender
Woman of the year
Feminism is not outdated. Dressed people appear more confident. Johnny Depp looks younger without facial hair. I need to teach my daughter to choose her own clothes.
Stolen from Lady Dahmer
Steiner: back in boxes and the chase for cool
Cool in 1928
When I was 13 I hated about everything with round corners. I did not want to practice the piano anymore, was generally embarrassed during Chorus – although I dearly loved it – , thought the kids who each had their own TV set were coolest and was convinced my mom purposely tortured us with whole-wheat pasta. Or that “milk from cows” in brown glass bottles with the disgusting greasy stuff on top. Read the rest of this entry »
Midsummer, Quincy Jones and a banned Ikea commercial
Small frogs dance
Midsummer weekend is over. Celebrating the longest day of the year, the shortest night, light in the sky until the sun rises again. Midsummer is also a celebration of fertility, which is hard to miss considering the shape of the midsummer tree. Read the rest of this entry »
Loving Stockholm
Love
When in our mid-end-twenties many of my friends packed their suitcase and CV and walked into offices in San Francisco, Tokyo, Sydney and New York, I took a timeout where no one would find me and have been stuck in Stockholm ever since. The question “why” has been asked a thousand times, verbally or using small muscles in friends and colleagues faces. Swedes tend to think I am weird, Read the rest of this entry »
Tired with fever – Saving the matrix no 2
Not awake
When flipping through iphoto this morning, I stumbled over these two pictures. I remember taking them in the subway on my way to work. It was one of those mornings where I felt very much like a foreigner, not at all in harmony with my environment and I had a 700 meter long to-do-list in my bag. Read the rest of this entry »
Hello Kitty, Manga Margarine and the secret of crema
Continental spread
Butter, toast and jam come in threes, at least in the UK. The years as a colony have successfully planted the idea in Indian heads, that every foreigner wants cardboard with sugar mousse to kick off their day. I usually don’t belong to this category, but learned on a trip to Martinique, that countries with amazingly ripe tropical fruits can make a so called continental breakfast quite delicious.
India has not yet Read the rest of this entry »
Been there, done that. Recycling and flowers for Gowalla
Developing country?
People talk about the arrival of plastics like about the beginning of a new era. The garbage era. Times in which tourist guides are ashamed of showing their villages to guests because they lead Flipflop-feet through piles of plastic bottles. Westerners driving by nod knowingly: it’s a developing country after all. At home… – at home we either burn or bury plastics, providing soil for some fine toxic tomatoes. In India, it is in our face – developing in which direction?
As it has become my habit, I question Marina about this. Read the rest of this entry »
Naked, no sheets, rice puffs and Dr. Bindu
This way, please.
The first question I was asked in Kerala (apart from “Taxi, Madame?”) was “Are you doing treatment?” No Sir. I had considered strolls through crowded Indian towns, beach, sunset, green coconuts, the finest of fabrics, coffee, backwaters, tea plantations and spices. No treatment.
After discussing Ayurveda over dinner, P. and I decided to get an herbal opinion on our typical western immune systems, shattered by a bouquet of different antibiotics.
Recycled memories and Ayurvedic pasta
The Hindu, November 20th 2009
I went for a stroll along the beach this afternoon. After avoiding 78 tourist shops I went into the 79th one and bought something to sit on during sunset. The shop makes its own bags out of recycled newspapers. Nice looking and reused, I like the concept. My bag announces Read the rest of this entry »
Patiala banking
I exchanged some money in downtown Patiala today. In an AC-market to be precise, the more luxurious, air-conditioned way to shop.
Dollars and Rupees add complexity to my usual currency confusion (I still think in Euro after 5 years Sweden), so I did ask for some hard facts, when the gentlemen behind the banking counter gently wriggled his head and said: “Yes Madame, that will be 4450 Rupees”. Read the rest of this entry »
