Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
Usually a matter of choice, Indian state takes political tattoos to new level. Check out my new feature, with Laure Siegel, on one of India’s enduring personality cults. For decades, the followers of six times state minister and recently deceased Jayalalithaa Jayaram, have been wearing their political idol’s face on their skins, acquired in mass […]
Continue ReadingMy latest story with French journalist Laure Siegel on Odisha, one of India’s least visited states, and its fledgling tourist industry, published in the Nikkei Asian Review. PURI, India — “Jay Jagannath! Jay Jagannath!” A sea of people chants the sacred mantra while pulling on thick ropes hauling three massive, 14-meter-high wooden carts decorated in […]
Continue ReadingNumerous aftershocks wracked Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and surrounding regions into Monday, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region Saturday afternoon, killing more than 3,700 people and injuring at least 6,500. Many more people have been left homeless, while others are camping in the streets for fear that aftershocks could hit their residences…. Read the […]
Continue ReadingMy on the ground view of the earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal in the Nikkei Asian Review.
Continue ReadingI just wrote a new article on Thailand’s sacred tattoos in the Nikkei Asian Review. Photographs by Aroon Thaewchatturat.
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