The Monthly Essays
“Laila. Laila. I need your help now. If you don’t help me now, I am finish. And we are finish.”
It was Maria on the phone. My 85-year-old Hungarian best friend and neighbour. “I never ask for nothing from no one. But, Laila, I ask you this. You must to help me. I got no one. Will be only
Where is the journalism we need going to come from now?
We stepped into the temple and quietened as we passed in front of a depiction of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, tearing open his chest to reveal Ram and Sita inside: Ram and Sita, eternal consorts, the perfect balance of male and female cosmic forces. Jan’s smile was beatific. Standing in front of this line of
