I love doing laundry. I enjoy sorting the clothes by color and fabric, choosing the water temperature and pushing all the machine’s buttons. (For many years, we washed clothes by hand. I did not enjoy that. Nothing like a washing machine [...]

This morning an elderly neighbor called to ask if I could help her find a new maidservant, someone to wash the floors and do the dishes. The old one, she said, had been stealing from her. A gold chain here, a pair of earrings there. “You [...]

After my mother died, my sister Lucy kept discovering interesting things she had left behind. One of the most fascinating was a do-it-yourself autobiography which someone must have given her (it was definitely not something she would have bought [...]

On this day of turmoil and revenge, I thought it would be nice to remember the joys of childhood and innocence.  One of the questions we are so often asked at Latika and Karuna Vihar is “Don’t you ever teach the children? All [...]

“Well, who’s behind the anti-corruption bill?” she said. “I have friends in Allahabad who say that Prashant and Shanti Bhushan aren’t quite as clean as they make themselves out to be.” I don’t quite know [...]

A little girl and her mother came to see me last night. “She’s got these white patches on her legs,” the Mom said, trying to sound casual. “It started with just one, but then they spread.” My heart sank. I sat down [...]

Everybody wants a job. “Jo, there’s a woman at the gate. Says she knows you. She looks like a job-seeker. What do you want me to do?” That’s my husband speaking and I am in luck because I wasn’t the one who opened [...]