CURRENT MISSION

Eat and talk

ABOUT ME

Like everyone on this site, I love traveling. I've spent most of my time in India, starting when I studied abroad there in college, and since then on Urdu language programs and research trips. I've also had wonderful times in China, Mexico and western Europe, and inside the US. When I travel, I like to just pick an interesting neighborhood, like Chandni Chowk or Nizamuddin in Delhi, or College Street in Kolkata, and just walk around for a few hours, with no particular goal. I like nature and mountains and so on, but what I really love is old, dense cities, where I can talk to people and watch them doing their jobs and eat.

Both when I'm traveling and at home, I really, really like to eat. I also like to cook and talk about food. In between eating one meal and cooking the next, I like to read. Lately, I've been playing basketball a little, but that's probably a passing fad, since it goes against a lifelong tradition of not exercising.

PHILOSOPHY

I don't believe in guilty pleasures: if something is a pleasure, I don't see why you should be guilty about it. I don't eat that much junk food or watch any reality TV shows, but when I do, I don't feel bad.

Interests

History (I study migration to North Indian Cities in the early twentieth century)
Urdu
India
Gangsters
Board Games
Languages
Pop Music
Typography
Newspapers
Trains
Modernity
Cities
Science

Coffee
Beer
Fried Food
Baked Food
Fruit
Meat
Noodles
Dumplings
Tacos
Chaat
Barbecue

• folklore
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• bbq
• exercise
• board games
• tv
• traveling
• music
• basketball
• history
• languages
• science
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Children's Books: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, The BFG, The Neverending Story

Grownup Novels: The Golden Gate, The Mezzanine, Gods' Man, The Trotter-Nama, Motherless Brooklyn

Nonfiction: City of Dreadful Delight, Maximum City, The Tummy Trilogy, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier

Poetry: Ghalib, Mir

TV Shows: The Wire, Dexter, Big Love, Inspector Morse, The Singing Detective, The West Wing, The Shield, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Dr. Katz Professional Therapist

American/English Movies: The Third Man, The Big Lebowski, The Big Sleep, The Godfather, The Knack and How to Get It

Indian Movies: Sholay, Don (original), Teesri Kasam, Bunty aur Babli, Omkara, Aar Paar, Meghe Dhaka Tara

Other Movies: The Best of Youth

Music: The Mountain Goats, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, The New Pornographers, Eliades Ochoa, Charles Mingus, The Beatles, R.D. Burman, Jorge Ben, Stereo Total, Destroyer, Serge Gainsbourg, Kishore Kumar, Heaven 17

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, China, Mexico, Netherlands, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States

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