those places and between

  Philadelphia Skyline and Schuylkill River Banks Being able to walk around in a city makes you feel connected to it; gives you the sense of belonging. Among its many attractions Philadelphia is a city where you can count on your own two feet to commute to work or school everyday, shop, dine and explore. It is one of the top ten walkable cities in the United States. Philadelphia boasts to be the first American city that was designed on a grid street plan that is now 300 years old. The wide streets run at right angels to each other crisscrossing the smaller streets forming a grid .                                            University City district - Home of Drexel and UPenn Waking up in 19th century home, going out for a walk along the Schuylkill River , passing by people walking dogs, pushing their babies in strollers, construction workers taking a break on the porch...

  I lived in China for years, yet I never heard the word “ Wet Market ” until very recently, until it has been associated with the outbreak of COVID-19 . Within a day of reaching China, we were shown the local chain supermarket, which was a small grocery filled with imported goods and a small shelf with fresh produce. More often than not the ‘fresh’ produces were not fresh. However, every time I was out after breakfast or before dinner, I would see a steady stream of people, usually older men and women, carrying big identical looking plastic bags in both hands. I could see fresh vegetables peeking out of them. I thought there must have been a market somewhere around. I decided to follow them one day and ended up in a narrow alleyway with traditional houses. A staircase went up a narrow balcony to an entrance that was covered with ceiling to floor plastic sheets. The structure looked like a huge warehouse. Inside was a surprisingly big bustling market. Organized rows of stalls wer...

When on one beautiful late spring morning my friend Sebastian asked me if I would like to go camping next weekend I answered, “Sure, why not.” Then realizing my impulsive response, I immediately started to look for an alternate answer - an answer that would save me from going camping without making me sounding like a wimp. I was a 30-year old adult and had never gone camping before. The closest I came to anything camping was passing by a camping-gear store every morning on my way to school from my dorm. The idea of camping was fascinating though; a tent, a few cool and hip men and women sitting around fire and doing barbeque.  This was how I saw it on TV . But the practical realities of sleeping under the sky with bugs and creepers crawling and flying around me and biting me didn’t feel inviting. It was hard for me to realize how sleeping in a tent could be a better idea than sleeping on my own bed in my own cozy bedroom; a bedroom with immediate acce...

Photo: Cobbled street in Lund It was many years ago when I went to a small little picturesque town called Lund in Southern Sweden to study. Lund is a medieval university town with cobblestone streets, open air museum, and the town's massive Romanesque cathedral built in 1145.  Photo: The Medieval Cathedral in Lund I could see the misty runaway from the airplane's window. The terminal slowly became clear in sight as the plane nears it. It was a grey and gloomy Fall afternoon in Copenhagen, Denmark. I flew to Copenhagen because my university in Sweden was only a 40 minutes train ride away from the airport.  I stretched my legs, started to collect all my stuff that I managed to scatter around me. I was amazed to see how I managed to make this tiny space into my own little den! I looked through the pockets in front of my seat to take my book that I was reading. In the narrow hidden space between the travel pillow and the armrest held my hair tie. I could see the passenge...