It was with a sense of dread that I watched the Geetika Tyagi ..Subhash Kapoor video. In a tastefully decorated room where friends possibly gather to discuss films and life..a conversation unfolded that could not have been easy for any of the people present. A young woman with naked pain and revulsion in her voice. A friend trying […]
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Month: February 2014
Ten Years In Chennai
When I came to Chennai to join a newspaper as the chief sub-editor, I did not know this city. I had no friends here. I could not speak the language. There was just one thing I was absolutely clear about — this city was too hot, too crowded ( I was coming from Mangalore, […]
How to Tell You Have Grown As A Traveller
I was just sitting today and wondering at all my past travels and realised how my taste for travelling has undergone a tremendous change. I certainly feel more evolved and confident when travelling now, than 8-9 years back when I started. I no longer wish to carry my world of comfort with me when […]
Ten Things To Do In New Zealand
** The list is definitely longer than just 10. But this one, in random order, is based on my own travel experience about a month back. I have to plan a year long holiday in New Zealand to probably prepare a list of 101 things to do! ** 1. Wine Trail In Motueka And Marlborough […]
Known Stranger
She stared back at me. Deep, dark eyes. Mixed with fear and uncertainty, blended in anticipation and hope. Tried to speak. But something stopped her. A force, a faint shadow loomed behind her. It held her rigidly, yet not tightly. Her struggle pushed her back slightly, but she stood there. Waiting to be seen, waiting to reveal the shadow. […]
The Domicile Puzzle
In Kuwait: I am an Indian. In India: I am from Kuwait. In my hometown: I am a Mumbaite. In Mumbai: My native place is Rajasthan. I am not white. I am not black. Apparently I am brown. Or Light Black. Maybe even Dark White! In India: I have a Kuwaiti accent. In Kuwait: The […]
The Agenda Of Happiness
#100happydays… @Pay it forward…10 ways to stay happy…6 steps to a happy life…so on and so forth. Ever wonder why we are trying so hard to be happy? I look at this kid who sees the wheels of a car rotating and starts to clap his hands…I think to myself, “Stupid child, gets excited by […]
Hikmat: The Sculptor Of Baghdad
Politics and wars decimate history, memory, geography, architecture, human life and art. No city knows this better than Baghdad. Baghdad has been battered by decades of war and has lost among other things a sense of normalcy that human existence thrives on. In the worst of times, art comes to the rescue of the human spirit and reminds it […]
Gaiety Theatre: Alive With History
Gaiety has got to be one of the complicated words in English, or at least for me. I always mess up the ‘e’, then need to lean backwards and stare at the word till it says I’m missing an ‘e’ or its ‘i’ before ‘e’… The actual Gaiety Theatre in Simla is not missing anything, and […]
Firing A Blank
Editor’s note: Proceed with caution..spoilers ahead! I had the good fortune of investing three hours of my hitherto worthless life in edifying myself when friends propelled me to a show of Gunday. I learnt that the Indian Police is so diabolically clever that they can lay an intricately plotted conspiracy to rival the best of Ludlums and John […]
Highway: Such A Long Journey
In the last scene of Highway, Alia Bhatt’s Veera stands cradling Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her arms watching over two undamaged children playing in the valley stretched before her. She has run with the wolves and come home. It has been a long journey with a lot of motifs that we recognise by now from […]
A Masterclass In Life
He is a conjurer of narratives. The story teller who brings to life the rising of spring sap in a winter-struck tree and then creates the moment when the silence of months gushes out as maple syrup. ** He paints with his gestures the journey in a canoe of a man and a woman as […]