Assignment 4 # MatadorU

It was past midnight. I was waiting for the bus, exhausted, in need of sleep; instead I stood calculating the day’s expenses – map, water, coffee, lunch, water taxi. The Euros were leaking.

Zagreb: It’s a forty minute drive to the airport. Since it’s early, and our taxi driver is high on caffeine, we get there in thirty minutes flat.

London (Luton): It takes forever to get to the airport. After the first hour, the journey is a blur. Between the road work and road diversions, traffic...

Rewrite for Assignment 2 # MatadorU

In July 2006, two days short of my birthday, I was sitting at my cubicle, working on a radio script for a local retail brand. It had been raining when I arrived earlier that morning, much like it is today – dull, continuous rain.

We were in the middle of the...

Assignment 3 # MatadorU

The morning air is spiked with the warm aroma of chai, a scent that manages to seep through during these early morning hours, overpowering the poisons and fumes in the air. The cabbie offers to turn on the radio, I politely decline. But silence is never an option in the city....

Assignment 2 # MatadorU

The sun bursts into the room and pries my eyelids open. I have little choice but to wake up. I tried putting up a fight during my first summer here, using double curtains and blinds, but now I know better.

I'm not sure how I make it to the toothbrush or the coffee machine - a...

Assignment 1 # MatadorU

Coming from a rich culinary heritage, I’ve always believed that food is an inherent part of culture. From the sizzling woks to the flavours that burst forth with every bite, food opens doors and offers an insight to the people and history of the region. This is especially true...

In a landmark judgment issued on July 2, 2009, the Delhi High Court has decriminalized homosexuality in India.And while nothing in India ever comes easy (I see a long process of appeals against the decision, dilly-dallying on the amendment, and protests by religious types) this eight year long battle...

We are well into the second week of June but the monsoon hasn’t arrived yet. The day is heavy, sweating profusely, waiting for relief. Every time a small curse is thrown to the skies, “Damn this heat” a dozen prayers are offered, “Please don’t let it rain before the wedding!”

In this...

I have my first piece up on Matador Goods, take a look.  

At my favourite café, a quartet sits on the table next to mine and gossips over coffee. Dressed in the many shades of white and blue, they balance a muffin, cigarettes and coffee with effortless grace. I don't see them bite, but the muffins disappear little by little. I brush the crumbs collected...

My Mother never took to expat life. Through her ten year stint away from home, she suffered bouts of depression and loneliness that immigrant themed novels are made of. This despite the large Indian community in the city, creating and recreating memories, and the number of India stores, stocked...

Zagreb doesn’t wear the winter well. It’s not a surprise; it’s something I expected from a city which depends so much on its summer finery. Come November the spring flowers are gone, the brilliant red of autumn begins to fall away, and the bright sun bouncing off the pastel buildings, making...

I became an avid traveler at about the same time as I became an avid reader. I sat with my books in one cozy corner and took off to exotic locations. As a six year old I went all over England with a Peter and Jane series prescribed by the school. England was followed by ancient India, which...

It’s a beautiful day in Zagreb. The sun is blazing through with a ferocity I have come to associate only with an Indian summer. But here I am, many miles away, in the same soft white cottons. My balcony door is wide open, bringing in the morning sounds of traffic; horizontal beams of sun come...

One of the first recommendations that you receive as an expat in Zagreb is the coastal town of Opatija. Maybe it’s to do with proximity, or may be it’s an initiation ceremony, a detox centre, if you please, to shake off the city rust and begin a new way of life: unhurried and laid back. We...

We’re sitting in the heart of Ljubljana, at an outdoor café, the only one that has any space left. The weather has taken a sharp turn for the bad and while the Internet promised us sunshine and summer smiles, the city has unleashed on us a cold, watery attack.

Despite the rain, the...

These are our first few days in Croatia. My husband and I have just relocated to Zagreb and we decide to introduce ourselves to the city that very weekend. We walk its cobbled streets and take in its Baroque styles. We bend with the roads and rise with the church steeples. Every once...