Author Archives: admin

(Excerpted from Time March 4, 2013 – Bitter Pill – How Outrageous pricing and egregious profits are destroying our health care by Steven Brill) A 47 year old man developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Self employed, they were unable to buy comprehensive … Continue reading →

SRI LANKA March 13 – April 2, 2013. HILL COUNTRY From Delhi, I flew via Chennai to Colombo. Within 20 minutes of landing, I had my luggage, Sri Lanka visa ($35 payable by credit card), gone through immigration, visited an … Continue reading →

HISTORY The problem here is that there are two completely different versions, depending on if you are Sinhalese or Tamil, the two biggest ethnic groups. The island’s location, its position along hundreds of ancient trade routes and its proximity to … Continue reading →

INDIA November 17, 2012 – March 13, 2013.

VISAS In my experience India has the most difficult visa application problems of any country (I’m sure there are worse, I just haven’t experienced them). The whole process is handled by private contractors, not the consulates. An online application is … Continue reading →

It is now the end of February and I have booked my flight to Sri Lanka for March 13. As a result, I will be in five states in two weeks – Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhga … Continue reading →

GUJARAT STATE Gurjarat (pop 61 million), originally settled 4000 years ago, went through the usual Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and British conquerors. It is slightly off the tourist trail and alcohol is illegal here. From Aurangabad, it was a tortuous 11-hour … Continue reading →

KERALA State Kerala State (pop. 35 million) is on the south-west corner of India. It is one of the more popular tourist destinations because of its great white sand beaches, general beauty (coconut groves, rice paddies, the famous backwaters) and … Continue reading →

Kolkata (pop 20 million) is the capital of West Bengal State and the third largest city in India. It was a rural backwater until the British merchant, Job Charnock started a colonial settlement in 1686 and a miniature version of … Continue reading →

INDIA – History Through thousands of years of great civilizations, invasions and the birth of religions, understanding Indian history can be elusive. Nomadic tribes from the Indus valley straddling the India/Pakistan border were the initial people and great cities had … Continue reading →