Returning To Delhi
I just didn’t think it would be so tough. In September I returned to Delhi, for the first time since leaving in mid-06. It was an emotional roller-coaster. Of course, it was wonderful to see the ways the city has developed and to reconnect with old friends and familiar places. But, walking through the new [...]
Back In Delhi
This morning’s flight from Leh to Delhi was delayed (owing to cancellation of yesterday’s flights). Thankfully we made it out by mid morning (through very tight security) and I’m now in my hotel room in Gurgaon, relaxing and catching up on emails. This afternoon will be a slow one, with a pile of laundry to [...]
Delhi: Ten Things
Soon I’ll be back in Delhi, before embarking on a photo tour of Ladakh. I’ll also be spending a few more days in Delhi after the tour. I lived in Delhi from 2003 to 2006 and although those were difficult years, I grew to love a lot of things about the city. I always assumed [...]
Bits And Pieces
It’s been a while since the last post. Sometimes blogging is a funny game – it feels like one has posted a lot of content, but looking back, the flow of ideas was more of a trickle than a torrent. This will be my thirteenth post for August – with the same number of updates [...]
Travel Plans
Next month I was due to travel to Delhi, Kashmir and Ladakh. However, the Kashmir leg of the trip has been cancelled, due to the current security concerns. That’s a big dissapointment, as I have always wanted to see that region. It was unsafe when I lived in India as well. For a while it [...]
Nearing The Mid-Point Of 2010
We are nearing the middle of the year. How are you finding it? Is this year dragging, or flying by? Are you reaching your goals, or abandoning them as new realities impose themselves? For me, the calendar flipping over to June reminds me that I arrived in Hong Kong four years ago and left London [...]
Passports And Nation-Branding
There is probably no trend that speaks more clearly to the pervasiveness of consumerist thinking than the penchant for countries and cities to try and brand themselves. Take, for example, sites like FutureBrand and NationBranding, which describe countries in the language of marketing and highlight the ways that countries are trying to “brand” and “position” [...]
Mid-May Madness
Well, not so much madness as industriousness. I’m now mixing everyday on my solo album in what is, probably, the best spell I’ve had on that project. Of course, as always happens, the moment I manage to become sedulous, a number of other things pop-up to vie for my attention. As my mentioned in my [...]
The Whole Birthday Thing
Yeah, it’s the 18th of November again. Happy Birthday to me, etc. One interesting thing about journalling (or blogging) is that you can look back through the years and remember how you felt and where you were on specific days. I had three birthdays in India. If I had blogged my birthday in 2003, I [...]
Five Years Of Blogging, Five Years Of Stats, Five Years Of Learning The Hard Way
This is a graph of my blogposts per month, since 2004. You can probably see that 05 and 06 were my most active blogging years and that recently, I’ve been updates have become less frequent. Not surprisingly, 05 and 06 were the years when I had the most traffic, the most incoming links and probably [...]
Touch Everything
Hong Kong is my first experience of living in an apartment. Sure, I’ve done my fair share of serviced apartments on holidays and some longish stints in hotel rooms, but never before have I lived in an apartment – and to be blunt, although we do well, most Hong Kong apartments are small. As I [...]
An Anniversary That Did Not Go Completely Unnoticed
A few days back an important anniversary date for our family passed by without much celebration. Three years ago, we left Delhi for Hong Kong. Six years ago, we left London for Delhi. Two huge decisions and important decisions. Add to that the anniversary from earlier this year – ten years since leaving Sydney. I [...]
Best Of The Blogosphere
Twitter To Go: How one local coffee shop used Twitter to double their clientele. – Great account of how Houston coffeeshop, CoffeeGroundz, used their twitter account (@coffeegroundz) to increase sales, provide better (and deeper) customer service and build meaningful connections with their community. Steps Towards a More Sustainable Life of Less – ZenLife is a [...]
10+5+2= Change?
Two years ago today we left Delhi and arrived in Hong Kong to start a new chapter of our life. Five years ago, on the same date, we left London for Delhi, with a mix of anticipation, excitement and not a little sorrow. Ten years ago, at this time of year we were living in [...]
This Week’s Blog Roundup
Here’s a few blogposts and comment conversations that have caught my eye, Sunshine: The Movie Clothed in the Sun – SF Gospel is a new blog for me, coming via a link from GreenFlame. This review Sunshine (for my review see here) of Danny Boyle’s excellent film, Sunshine makes some very good points and reminds [...]
Untouchability And Glocalisation
During our years in Delhi, reading the Saturday edition of the paper was always a unique experience. It wasn’t the sport, or current affairs that caught the eye of ourselves or our visitors. It was the matrimonials section. Sure, in other country you find heartfelt and detailed personals for those seeking life-partners, sure in some [...]
Food Blogs
Food and cooking blogs occupy a fascinating space within the blogosphere. Clearly, recipes and restaurant reviews adapt well to the this format. Here’s a quick rundown of some personal favourites. Delicious Days – A longtime favourite and one of the most consistently good-looking blogs out there. Check out the Egg Ravioli! Ms Glaze’s Pommes d’Amour [...]
One Year On: What India Taught Me
It is now a year since we left India and arrived here in Hong Kong. Over the last week I’ve been thinking about this anniversary and, in particular, what the years in Delhi taught me. So it was interesting to hear Andrew Marr interviewing former BBC India Correspondent Mark Tully on the new book, India’s [...]
Another Week, Another Roundup
Which is more accurate? or sadly true? – Take a look at the two cartoons and decide for yourself. Me, I think they are both true (can we mirror them and put them at two ends of a plateau). That said, I find no comfort in my answer, because I’m agreeing that many thinkers I [...]
Thoughts From The Blogosphere
A selection of the comments, ideas and insights that have got me thinking (and in one case salivating) this week… Mind The Gap – Brodie highlights the growing inequality gap as one of the core issues facing PM-to-be-at-last Gordon Brown. The quote from Miroslav Volf is worth repeating here. “A third form of exclusion is [...]
Roundup From Around The Blogs
We Need To Re-Think- Brilliant “presentation” on the changing role of text in a digital age – Web 2.0, mashups, authorship, content and creativity. “Teaching the machine” – very provocative. Cocreation – A New Path to the Bottom of the Pyramid – C.K. Prahalad is one of the most important thinkers today. Co-Creation is the [...]
12 Links For This Roundup
Driving In India – Yes, I’ve posted this one already, but it makes for such intoxicating viewing. There are some things I miss about India, some I don’t and then there is the traffic! Anatomy of a Comment Spammer – Interesting given my recent problems. By the way, Volker Weber’s blog, (a.k.a. vowe) is a [...]
My Life, In Boxes
phone017.jpg Originally uploaded by fernandogros. Yesterday I spent a very emotionally draining day going through some of things, decided what we will take to the apartment and what will go into storage. It says something about the lack of space we have here (or the amount of space in we had India) that most of [...]
Stray Links – Ten For Today
The Church You Know (via Rodd Jefferson) – Rodd linked the excellent vignette on worship leading, but I found the one above on tithing even more cutting and thought-provoking (warning – videos not suitable for those who do not underadnst the educational value of satire). Patti LaBelle, Chrysler Team On Church Tour (via Mattopia) – [...]
Fernando Gros is a musician, photographer & writer based in Singapore. Born in Santiago de Chile, Fernando grew up in Sydney and has also lived in London, Delhi and Hong Kong.