Ginger Without Borders

Latest Adventures

What is in a Surname?

GingerWithoutBorders

August 13, 2023

When a women gets married in the west, there is an expectation that she takes her husband’s last name (what we also call a ‘surname’). So if John Smith and Jane Doe got married, Jane would become Jane Smith. This is not, however, a universal practice. For my husband’s family, for example, a woman will…

Life Stories, Two Families Combine
Day 1 in Mumbai on the Kingston tour

rdraxter

August 12, 2023

Kingston recognized we needed “some” rest from the long air journey, so he gave us the morning to eat a leisurely Western breakfast. Our hotel is a Western chain, but their buffet offered Asian and Indian sections in addition to the English breakfast section (the bacon was thick and tasty). Kingston’s brother was again our…

Two Families Combine
Mumbai

rdraxter

August 10, 2023

The site where Mumbai grew was originally an archipelago of seven islands. Records indicate that there was a settlement here as early as the third century BCE. The Greek mathematician and geographer Ptolemy described the island settlements in 150 CE. In 1535, the Sultan of Gujarat ceeded the islands to the Portuguese in return for…

Travels, Two Families Combine
A Spotting of the Ginger

GingerWithoutBorders

August 10, 2023

One reality of being a ginger (having red hair) is you stick out in almost any crowd. This is particularly so in India, where sighting a ginger is practically as rare as sighting a unicorn. As a result, as of day 10 in India, I have been approached at least five times every day to…

Two Families Combine
My Philosopy When Traveling

rdraxter

August 5, 2023

History has been my lifelong companion and friend. It can result in loads of “comments” from my family. I am just as happy in the corridors of a history museum as my daughter is in a zoo, my wife in an art museum or my son on a beach. It was one of my two…

Travels, Two Families Combine