There and Back Again: my trip to Orlando
I’m like a million other people: I’m at the airport, waiting for a flight. I packed last night, and even checked in on-line; it was all extremely organized. I’m that sort of person. Of course,...
Category: Themes
Interview with author Hugh Miles
This is an interview with Hugh Miles, author of Playing Cards In Cairo. We wish to thank everyone who made this interview possible. Jonathan Mok: What inspired you to write the book? Hugh Miles:...
Playing Cards in Cairo: A Review
This is a review of Playing Cards in Cairo by Hugh Miles. Abacus. 2008. Hugh Miles, the son of a British diplomat, has a freewheeling approach to life that, by proxy, helps readers gain a better...
Monaco: for those with massive credit limits!
For the last ten years, I have been coming to sunny and opulent Monaco for the odd weekend here and there. My mother moved here following my parents' divorce. Monaco a strange place, rather like...
Two Thoughts in the Prado Museum, Madrid
I. Guards, sentries, guides, they stalk the halls like silent wraiths clad in their dead blue blazers and knee length skirts. To speak to them is to encounter monotony made woman: instructions...
The Revenge: The Fellow Undead
The previous installment of Chloe Bradshaw's tale can be found here. That morning, I asked Luke what our plan was. "I know people who will give us a ship for free," he answered mysteriously as we...
The Unholy Union of Starbucks and “Juno”
I’m fairly neutral on the subject of Starbucks, because I don’t care about coffee. Coffee generally reminds me of dirty, boiling water that has been poured through a rusty grating and into a cup...
When humanitarianism loses its message
I attended a silent vigil outside the Pakistani High Commission in London last week. It called for the abolishment of the death penalty in Pakistan and came just one week before the planned execution...
Yoni is the wrong damn word: marginalization and exoticism
Why, oh, why does it have to be Yoni Ki Baat? Why? I'm South Asian, right? I'm solid South Asian. So why does it make my blood boil that South Asians are doing an adaptation of the Vagina Monologues...
Mark Seal on Kenya in Vanity Fair: bad implications and dead ends
If you thought that a recent cover of Vogue magazine had a whiff of King Kong about it, consider the possibility that this month, Vanity Fair may have given Vogue a run for its money. Just remember...