• Fear and Roaming in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

    Dawn, and the rangers who forbid these forays slumber. Through a screen of bamboo, a sheen of silver water and vapor like smoke from a cauldron simmers. The far bank a vague whiteness. Nothing moves but the rising mist, all living things unstirred and in hiding.  Mudumalai is only two hundred kilometers from Bangalore, but…

  • Morocco, in Brazil

    Unzipping the tent flaps the dune appeared closer and taller than when seen in daylight, like something threatening using darkness as cover for stealth. There was the silhouette of a tree. A few stars. I was in Brazil, the trees dripping with the morning’s downpour. But the words “remote desert” in a news article had…