I wouldn’t want to be a white male writer right now
by Rashmee
Posted on May 16, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND Today’s my birthday so I’m going to offer up a gift — of truth. Blunt truth. It won’t be fashionably woke, but it will be sensitive to the reality of what we see around us. Here goes. Looking at the advert for Norwich’s “City of Literature” Festival, which starts next … Continue reading “I wouldn’t want to be a white male writer right now”
Read MoreIran and that Renaissance idea, ‘no means yes’
by Rashmee
Posted on May 9, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND Iran is having a moment around the ‘no means yes’ idea that women can’t be taken at their word. This is an old notion and it is laid bare, believe it or not, in Renaissance art. We saw it vividly portrayed in two very different renderings of the story around … Continue reading “Iran and that Renaissance idea, ‘no means yes’”
Read MoreThrough the film lens: For three days, south London became Berlin
by Rashmee
Posted on May 2, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND For three whole days this past week, our local swimming pool – a handsome, 50-metre, outdoor affair – has been playing a starring role in a movie. I exaggerate. I don’t know if it’s a starring role. That a film crew came down and co-opted the pool and the surrounding … Continue reading “Through the film lens: For three days, south London became Berlin”
Read MoreMuch ado about the Bard’s birth-day
by Rashmee
Posted on April 25, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND April 23 was Shakespeare’s birthday. Allegedly. No one really knows because there aren’t any records of his birth. However, the Holy Trinity church in Stratford-upon-Avon apparently records his baptism on April 26, 1564. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust says this means a birthday no later than April 23 because “captisms typically took … Continue reading “Much ado about the Bard’s birth-day”
Read More#CHfuturescapelondon is fantastic – as a video game – not as a brave new world
by Rashmee
Posted on April 18, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND I’ve often thought that Aldous Huxley would’ve been a good city planner. A robust imagination is an asset to anyone, but especially to city planners. Huxley’s early 1930s novel ‘Brave New World’ shows us the London of the future in AF (After Ford) 632 or 2540 AD according to the … Continue reading “#CHfuturescapelondon is fantastic – as a video game – not as a brave new world”
Read More‘A rude old man from a bygone age?’
by Rashmee
Posted on April 11, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND I have a niece who is a Duke of Edinburgh scheme awardee. When Prince Philip died, barely two months before his 100th birthday, I asked her how she felt. “Sad,” she said, “I always liked him, he was funny.” Now my niece was, by no means close to Prince Philip. … Continue reading “‘A rude old man from a bygone age?’”
Read MoreThe journalist who wasn’t and other stories
by Rashmee
Posted on April 4, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND China’s alleged attempt to fake approval by western journalists is like something out of a rather unbelievable short story. According to reports, Beijing conjured up someone called Laurene Beaumond (see screenshot of her piece on the CGTN site) and described her as a French journalist who had studied at the … Continue reading “The journalist who wasn’t and other stories”
Read MoreA bright green hug in a mug
by Rashmee
Posted on March 28, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND Earlier this week I made spinach-cilantro soup with tahini. it is hard to describe what made it so…satisfying. But let me have a stab. ** It was simple, which made it easy to whip up. ** It was healthy, which allowed one to consume it with pleasure and sans guilt. … Continue reading “A bright green hug in a mug”
Read MoreWhat dress codes and Zoom backgrounds have in common with social inequity
by Rashmee
Posted on March 21, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND In the Before Times, we judged people by their clothes (and presumably the designer they liked or could afford). Now, we rate their Zoom background. There’s a connection and it was DealBook, the NYT’s sassy newsletter on the intersection of business, policy and culture, that recently revealed it. DealBook reported on … Continue reading “What dress codes and Zoom backgrounds have in common with social inequity”
Read MoreGreenwich Park and the city on the hill
by Rashmee
Posted on March 14, 2021
/ TRAVELS IN MY MIND At least once a week we amble through Greenwich Park, a couple of hundred acres of green space with a history that reaches back through the arches of the years. Hundreds of years. Once upon a time, this space, owned by the Abbey of St Peter at Ghent in Belgium, … Continue reading “Greenwich Park and the city on the hill”
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Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK