Structure is at times over-emphasised in architecture. It is not just what is seen and what can be touched that is important in a building but what flows inside it..what can be felt. Frank Gehry, arguably the most famous architect in the world today is a master orchestrator of subliminal experience. Of creating buildings that come across as […]
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Month: January 2014
Jackson Pollock: Art That Roared
There is a moment in the 2003 Julia Roberts starrer Mona Lisa Smile where Katherine Ann Watson, an art lecturer introduces her students to Jackson Pollock’s art and there is a hush in the room as a larger-than-life canvas fills up the silence with a wordless roar. There is nothing to say really because Pollock’s art […]
A Perfect Moment
If someone were to ask you, about a moment that you could create that could be absolutely perfect, what would it be? Have you ever thought about that? Somewhere you could be, far far away from the traffic, noise, madness, anger, frustration, maybe in the arms of your loved one, or surrounded by children, or […]
To Chekov
When I was young, I was a little bit of an ugly duckling, not that I had no friends, but I was always conscious about my appearance, and to get out of this self obsessing habit, I used to read, I read almost everything I could get my hands on. Reading opened my world, I travelled around places , across time and […]
Happy New Year?
29 days have gone by since New Year’s Day yet nothing has changed. Resolutions etched in my mind, resemble the carvings I once made on tree barks and old walls, hoping they would remain there forever, but they were seldom noticed, or then just wore off. ** I’m not a big fan of resolutions, it’s […]
Recipe: Goan Pumpkin Curry
Travel for me is all about getting to know the local people through their culture, arts and traditions, and their food. While I don’t think I am a foodie from what I understand to be the modern sense of that word… I don’t understand ingredients, can’t guess what’s in the pot unless told, and I can’t […]
Stepping On A Moonstone
I visited Sri Lanka last year and that is the first time I came across a sandakada pahana or a moonstone. This is a semi-circular stone that is seen at the entrance of the temples at Anuradhapuram and Polonnaruwa. Buddhism flourished here and the moonstone became more and more pronounced with intricate carvings and came a […]
Nirbheek: A Solution to Rape?
I read this article in The Times of India the other day, with a growing sense of dismay. No – am not talking of accidents, murders or rapes. Those seem to be happening as routinely as clockwork, even now. I’m talking of Nirbheek (I believe that’s what it is called). Nirbheek is said to be India’s first gun for women, a […]
Novel Watch: ‘Culling Mynahs and Crows’
I’ve known Rumjhum Biswas (or RK Biswas) for some years now. I have read her poetry and her short stories, so am happy her first novel is just out. It’s set in a very intriguing time, as she explains it. So if you’ve seen and read about Calcutta of the 1960s and 1970s from, and this is by way […]
Gender Benders
The other day I was watching the rerun of a popular comedy show on TV with my wife. I found that out of the six main characters in the show- a man and his wife, a grandmother and an aunt with two women from the neighbourhood- as many as three female characters were being played by men. In […]
Three Men And A Walk
On a scenic hill top in Munnar, we noticed a small coffee stall and decided to stop for a break. The stall was run by a young, chatty guy who showed us his village located at the foot of the hill… not very far. We could see a church and a few quaint houses down […]
Uniquely Nairobi
The terrible attack on a Nairobi mall sometime back was heart-breaking and I hope and pray a tragedy like that never ever occurs again. I was in the city over two years ago and came back with a suitcase full of memories. I was in Nairobi only for a day but here are a few unique […]