Curiosity, Travel and Change
January 1, 2023: Arrived in Kochi (Cochin), located on the far southwestern tip of India, from Delhi on New Years Eve. But the real party in Kochi seemed to be on New Years Day, when the streets were filled with costumed and bewigged people atop floats that would parade through the city. Women of all …
Continue reading "Kochi, Kerala and an Ancient Jewish Community: India Travels Part 3"
December 28, 2022: I don’t often post about hotels, but sometimes they are so unique and memorable, I must send praise. Fort Bishangargh, an 18th century Shahpura fort from days when this region was peopled with warring kingdoms, has been renovated into an elegant hotel, with rooms carved out of the granite. From above you …
Continue reading "Jaipur by Way of Bishangarh: India Travels Part 2"
Some people test their mettle camping our or climbing a mountain. My latest personal challenge was India. Three days wandering around Delhi, three in and around Jaipur, and then nine days in Kerala, the lush tropical state at the southwest tip of India. A month after returning and I am still processing what I saw …
Continue reading "Navigating Delhi: My India Travels Part 1"
What could be more picturesque than those lavender fields and bastides—the medieval fortified villages hugging hilltops— of Provence? Cezanne and Van Gogh marveled at the luminous light and the ever-changing purples, vermillion, and ochres. Provence is the stuff of travelers' dreams, of memoirs of rejuvenation and inspiration. But on a recent trip through the south …
A weaver in Teotitlan del Valle gives thanks before beginning work I am in awe of people who can make something out of nothing—salvagers and re-purposers and cultivators, dumpster divers and weavers, farmers coaxing food from the harshest earth, entrepreneurs finding possibility in a world of scarcity. On my recent trip to Mexico I saw …
Pete heading into class There is something about a test that, even at age 65, being retired, 40 years after taking two bar exams, LSATs, SATs, GREs and countless other tests, pop quizzes and final exams, still produces anxiety. At least that’s what I felt when I found myself last week in the cool, palm-shaded …
The view from my home Not long before the world went into lockdown, I traded the city for the country. For almost 40 years, I lived on busy Philadelphia streets, awakened at times by sirens and horns. For all those years, I reveled in the messiness and color of urban life and prowled many corners …
I lived for four years in a gracious apartment at 6500 Wissahickon Avenue, in Philadelphia, in an elegant but understated stone building designed for his children by the prominent Philadelphia architect of the early 20th century- Horace Trumbauer. Living with the Trumbauer ghosts made me want to visit the Duke University campus, which I finally …
Old and On the Way 