India Archives

Swimming in My Father’s Ashes

Somebody once told me that if you want to go to India, you have to give yourself time. Time to see, to taste, time to sink into the spirit of the land – but most of all, time to get sick. Because even if all the other things leave you cold and uninspired, you will…

ByPhilip Webb GreggJuly 5, 2023

White Feminism and Cultural Appropriation Beyond Clothes

You’re at a house party and a woman you don’t know won’t stop blabbering to the group about her three-month trip to India and Nepal. “I just got back! Like six months ago,” she says, raising her voice to compete with the music. It’s the third time she’s recounted this anecdote tonight in your earshot,…

ByNirvana BhandaryJune 24, 2022

India Story

The Halloween Puja

I’m going to be a boxer. I walk to town and ask my tailor to make me a baby blue bathrobe with a hood. This requires a fair amount of pantomiming and gesturing. Then I ask him to make me a pair of red boxing gloves. “Boxing gloves?” asks Rajesh. He sends a boy out…

ByAlex TzelnicJuly 27, 2020

India Story

No One Ever Told Me How to Reject a Billionaire

I have a habit of getting into cars with strange men. And despite what your mother may have told you about such activities, I’ve had a good run. I’ve lived to tell the tale of Venetian musos, Nepali gurus, Indian politicians and Spanish royalists, all prepared to give a reckless Kiwi lass a lift in…

ByJosie MajorJanuary 2, 2019

India Story

Ingenuity on the Streets of India

Pottering through a lively marketplace in the lakeside Indian town of Pushkar, I was seized around the elbow by the firm grip of a wily old lady. “Hello my baby,” she said. I turned around eagerly: no one’s called me baby in a while. Unfortunately though, she wasn’t referring to me, but to an adorable…

ByGemma ClarkeNovember 20, 2018

India Story

Bhanged Up Abroad

“Dinner, madam?” A small frame stretched up and peered into my bed with inquisitive eyes as the Aravalli Range whipped past through the window behind him. He was a dabbawala – a lunchbox delivery man – and he couldn’t have come at a better time. For several weeks now, I had been traipsing across the…

ByGemma ClarkeNovember 13, 2018