Happy...

...Republic Day India


...Australia Day Down Under


...Chinese New Year All

.....And....yes, there's more...

...Happy *Cough, Cough, Achooo to* Me!

Roses are bloody, diamonds are death, chocolates destroy childhoods

Aaah, Valentine's Day...love, red roses, chocolate, diamonds. And racism, death, and destruction. Damn! So I knew about blood diamonds and now I find out that roses for Valentines Day come from Kenya, at least in Europe. So red rose harvesters in Kenya desperately depend on sales from Feb 14 for their livelihood. But then how many of those fields of flowers might belong to those responsible for stirring up violence in Kenya? Is it better to buy or not buy? And if I do get roses do I bury my nose and inhale their fragrance? Will I smell their scent or will I get a whiff of desperation and death?

Now I live in Switzerland, land of chocolate right? And apart from the fact that they are oh-so delicious even even if they go straight to my hips (who am I kidding? they go all over me) but I digress. Apparently the beans are harvested by kids in South America who work hard working when they should be in school.

I.Give.Up

The world is one fucked up, sad place where childhoods are snatched away and symbols of love and romance for some come up at the expense of shattered dreams and death for those who labor to make those symbols real.

Damn it!

So bottoms up and Happy Valentine's Day All...in advance. Make someone you love feel loved. Yes, that is possible without diamonds, roses...and yes, even without chocolate though that's the hardest one of all.

Surprising people: La Italia II

I am an avowed cynic, always looking at life, events and people with a slightly (okay, more than slightly) jaundiced eye. But happily despite my Scroogish side, people manage to surprise me.

On the way back from Naples and before flying out the next morning, we decided to head out to the Trevi fountain in Rome and also get some dinner. We got off the metro and couldn't remember how to get to the fountain.

It was Christmas Eve and sort of deserted. A rather prosperous looking older gentleman and his wife (girlfriend)who was in furs and diamonds, walked out of a pharmacy.

Nope, he didn't speak any English but his wife did...just a bit.

Trevi fountain?

He pointed.

We tried crossing the road, not remembering insane Roman drivers, where the car is king. We survived. They observed. We began to wait by the cross-walk.

"Senora, come, we drop you."

Really? OMG. Now I am used to poorer people being helpful in places but this guy with his cashmere coat, silk tie and his wife twinkling with gems and resplendent in fur, opening the door to his large, late-model Jaguar...he was giving us a ride?

He took us right to the fountain, then pointed it out with a smile. We wished them Buone Natale (I said that with a question mark at the end. "Close enough", the lady laughed) and Happy New Year, shook their hands, and thanked them profusely.

How's that for for some Christmas spirit huh?


I threw another coin in the fountain. Rome despite its aggravations and problems is growing on me. And on December 24th it showed me its heart...and won me over as even the Colesseum could not.

Viva Roma!

Happy Birthday India and Happy Anniversary to us

We make wishes and they are blown away by time, breath on a thistledown scattering away the fairy-like petals until nothing is left but the core. And isn't it the core that matters?

When the flesh falls away from the bone and all other things rot, what is left behind is real. And substantial and pure.

What is left of India after 60 years is its skeleton, its core. And there are problems, of course, but despite it all, there she stands. And today, of all days, I want to overlook the issues, the problems, the things that did not go so well and just bask in a grand idea that became a reality. And what a reality.

Just as we are 13 years later, a reality that few would have predicted.

I love you.