Renewing an Expired Passport

Part 1 – Figuring Out What to Do

This, let me tell you, is not easy. The website gives scattered, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory instructions. My favourite was:
           If <something something something>
           And <something else>
           Then <do this>
           Period.

If not, or if this but not that, then go figure, cos this [...]

The Private Lives of Domestic Help

My mother used to say, “Never get involved in the private lives of domestic help.”
My first domestic help was  a cook. Shaheena was a young muslim girl, tall, slim, pleasant looking, cheerful and clean. Also honest – I never noticed the slightest suspicious dwindling of kitchen supplies. Shaheena could read Hindi and Urdu, and a [...]

Darjeeling and Pelling

Pelling is the right place to go if you want to do absolutely nothing. There really is absolutely nothing to do here. This is not necessarily a bad thing, provided you’re in the sort of hotel where doing nothing is a full-time occupation. The only hotel that fits this description in Pelling is the Norbu [...]