Matthes 
Wie gebannt beobachte ich, wie die metallenen Schuppen des Gepäckbandes an mir vorbeiziehen, sich an den Ecken zu einem Dreieck zusammendrängen und schließlich mit den einsamen Koffern, die noch ihre Runden drehen aus meinem Blickfeld entschwinden. Mein Rucksack müsste jeden Augenblick auftauchen. Neben mir wartet Yuanyuan schon mit ihrer Reisetasche in der Hand darauf, endlich … Read moreDie ganze Nacht
I love goodbyes. Can’t really pinpoint it, but it must be this glorious feeling of transitioning from one realm to the next, without really being sure what lies ahead, that excites me. The tear of the one I part with breaks my heart with a bitter sweetness that tenderly tickles my own eyes and nose. … Read moreWalking in the Air
Give me any place, any city, town or village to live in for a couple of months, ideally a year, and I will inevitably fall in love with it. This is, however, far from being a romantic habit, for love means the vicinity of hatred and the exposure to pain just as much as it … Read moreMumbai
The small kitchen room is filled to the brim with the smell of fried dough and warm bananas. Rutvik and I are squatting on the floor around the small stove and talking about how we want to design our next pancake. It turned out to be a little more challenging to create banana pancakes than … Read morePancakes Please
The metallic scales of the luggage belt slowly pass where I am standing, contract at the corners to form a triangle and finally escape my field of vision carrying only a few lonely suitcases with them. My luggage should arrive any moment now. Next to me Yuanyuan is already waiting bag in hand to finally … Read moreA Bass in the Distance
It’s been a while. And although a lot of things happened, the one thing that shook up my stay here in this already very alien country occurred just a few days ago, the night before the US elections: Two hours before midnight the prime minister of India publicly announced that the highest denominations, 1000 and … Read moreVirtually rich, really broke
So I am sick. The doctor says it should be just a sore throat, although it feels like a spiky alien hiding in my esophagus. That being said, I put all endeavors to explore Indian cuisine aside and focus on finding meals that are both familiar and potentially swallowable without the risk to faint from … Read moreUnfamiliarly familiar uncomfortableness
I point at a bunch of bananas. It’s just six of them. The old man nods and puts the bunch into a plastic bag. Then he goes on to lift up another small bunch and tries to put them in the bag as well. “No.”, I say, wiggling my hand in disagreement. He puts down … Read moreCheap Bananas
Permaculture is weird to explain. Its a concept of the 1970s, there was this guy Bill Mollison and people are still implementing it today – even after reading the literature only that much made sense to me. People who asked me to explain the word to them must have been disappointed and astonished by how … Read moreLike a dumb tourist
Bang-bang go the bass drums. Snares crack like machine gun fire through the night. Echoes of chimes ring between each beat and a faint melody colors the whole huge cacophony a pale violet in the dwindling light of the urban evening. It’s Ganapati, the festival of the god who wears that very same name. Others … Read moreFlushing down the Gods