Tel Aviv

Israel

June 13, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,
Boker tov. Good morning. 

I just finished a tasty Israeli salad and a satisfactory cup of coffee at an outdoor café on the campus of Tel Aviv University.

The University sits on a hillside, and from the cafe I have a fine sunny view of the suburbs. In the distance I count at least four tall construction booms swaying back and forth over this busy city that seems to be growing in all directions.

I am shocked at what I see here at the University. But in a good way. Despite the fact that too many of the kids are smokers, there is not one cigarette butt anywhere. The students are neatly dressed and attractive. There are no scruffy outfits or torn jeans or gatkes hanging out. The lawns are green and smooth. The trees are pruned. There is not a paper bag or plastic cup rolling around. Not one poster or handbill is pasted on any wall or lamppost. No graffiti defaces any building. This campus is a clean and beautiful parkland.

Jerusalem

Israel
June 13, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

The highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem passes through the Palestinian Territories of the West Bank. Towns and villages, farms and mosques are clearly visible on the rocky hillsides. And to my right is a series of tall, tan concrete walls. "The Wall."

Here is one description:

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

India
February 28, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Jodhpur is blue. Yes, blue.

I am sitting astride the barrel of the cannon, ten feet long, perched on the muscular ramparts of Mehrangarh Fort. From here, 125m (410 ft) above the desert, the roofs of Brahmapuri village are a "washed blue." ^[*]

Lothal

State of Gujarat

India

March 9, 2007

Dr. Oscar White Muscarella

(Cc: Family and Friends)
Ancient Near East Department
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, New York

Dear Dr. Muscarella,

Oscar, my friend. One of us slipped up!

Was it you? Did you cut the Indus Valley Civilization from the curriculum of your Ancient History course at The City College?

Palitana

Bhavnagar

Gujarat, India

March 10, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Kem cho,

The green and yellow aluminum beach chair is lashed to a bamboo platform. The platform is then lashed to two long bamboo poles. Here in Palitana this litter, this contraption, is called a dholi.

I sit. Charged camera is at my side, binoculars strung from my neck, cap atop my head, my day-bag loaded with water and sunscreen. I give the signal. In the late morning sun, one on each end of a pole, the four young dholi bearers deftly hoist yours truly aloft for the two hour, four kilometer (2.5 mi) scenic ascent of 3572 steps. Three thousand. Five hundred. Seventy two. Steps. Six hundred meters. Up.

Mumbai,

India
March 11, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

The Gateway of India was built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary who visited their colony in 1911.

The Gateway stands tall in Mumbai (Bombay) on the shore of the Arabian Sea. This "bold basalt arch of colonial triumph" greeted the many thousands of soldiers who arrived during the later years of the British Raj.* It also was the last structure they saw when they departed in 1948 after Indian Independence was proclaimed.