The mango mystique
Will you call me loopy if I tell you that every time I see a mango-laden bough I think of Mirza Ghalib? I know no one puts Ghalib and mangoes in one basket. I could throw in Nobel Laureate Rabindranath...
View ArticleThe maturity index
She was all over the place. A blow-up here and a picture there; paper clippings and magazine write-ups; portraits and exclusive photographs, some of her quotable quotes — all adorning the...
View ArticleDear Diary...
Do you write a diary to keep a record of what happened that day? If you have tried, but been unable to stick to it, don't worry, you're in excellent company. J K Rowling candidly admits that she's...
View ArticlePortrait of an artist
It is May Day! The unexpected overnight rain seems to have washed clean the entire town of Naggar, midway between Kullu and Manali in Himachal Pradesh. The tourist season has just begun and as the...
View ArticleGood news is no news
The elders' reprimand to keep quiet if I spoke during the news on radio is an abiding childhood memory. News was timed — morning and evening on the radio; the local morning newspaper; and the...
View ArticleJust a little rain
Are you a rain girl? Daughter of the Rain God?" I was walking in the rain when a stranger murmured questions. Dark clouds were rumbling, the pitter-patter of the fat raindrops was drowning my...
View ArticleSimla's Raj legacy
The story of the making of Simla as India's summer capital epitomises India's colonial encounter in its extremes. The history of the making of Simla is essentially the history of discovery, domination...
View ArticleA brand voyage
In the late 80s, when the late Walter Mendez, National Creative Director of Mudra, scripted the tagline, 'God's Own Country', Kerala Tourism initiated a trend in state tourism marketing. The stunning...
View ArticleNo excuses, please...
This might sound far-fetched. Nonetheless, it is a true story. A group of fresh collegemates who were also hostelmates of a professional college, got together to dine at a nearby restaurant on a...
View ArticleHow young are you?
When you first heard 'youth is wasted on the young', you were young enough for the quote to be wasted on you. And while the internet debates whether George Bernard Shaw said it or Oscar Wilde, it is...
View ArticleKitchen chronicles
Have you heard of a dish called 'choup'? It is nothing but a more dilute, soup-like version of an American dish called chili. The meat version has beef in it, but the veggie version is made with red...
View ArticleHappiness is a choice
You are on your usual morning walk. At one end of the park, the tender coconut vendor is already attracting a few 'walk-in' customers. Not far from his cart is a temporary plastic booth manned by two...
View ArticleMargins to mainstream
Afriend posted an update about a milkman's daughter getting 93 per cent marks in Class 12 board exams and someone responded by saying, "What does the parents' profession have to do with their...
View ArticleLest we forget...
Referring to India's relations with the outside world, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his weekly Young India in 1921: "I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible....
View ArticleFreedom of life
They say a person dies twice — once when his physical body dies, and once when his name is spoken for the last time. The same thing could be said about events: The human race, as a...
View ArticleEnter the dragon
Every precious spot of shade and vantage point at Hemis gompa (monastery) was taken while the not-so-lucky sat patiently in the sun. Whenever a masked performer came too close, old women touched their...
View ArticleFrom me to you
The constant peering out of doors and windows... ears tuned to the ting-ting of the postman's bicycle bell... the khaki-clad man dropping something into the letter-box... the rush to retrieve it, tear...
View ArticleThe power of literacy
Today I realised that I'm illiterate. In Kannada. The government's guidelines to check for literacy specify that I should be able to (a) write my name, and (b) read the newspaper in that language. I...
View ArticleA 'clean' initiative
On October 2, 2014 wondrous scenes unfolded in India's public spaces. True to the spirit of the Mahatma, Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated Gandhi Jayanti by taking to the streets with a broom to...
View ArticleInto the wild
I wake up at the crack of dawn with strange bedfellows. An arm's length away is a three-month-old calf. Further away, under a tree swishing its tail feverishly stands a black horse. Perched on the...
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