Dharani Kala Prakash was studying international business in the US when life brought her back to her hometown Bangalore in 1993. “I came back to give birth to my son and to start my life anew as a single mother,” she reminisces. Then unfurled the urge to create a life that would not require her […]
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Month: October 2014
Review: The Sleepwalker`s Guide to Dancing
The Indian reader should be forgiven for rolling her eyes soon after she starts to read The Sleepwalker`s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob (Bloomsbury India). Because the story seems to faithfully check all the little boxes that serve as bullet points for the Diaspora novel. Immigrants transitioning awkwardly, check. Father, white collar professional (a doctor in this case) […]
Upclose and Personal With Mount Rainier
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees – John Muir On the day of our big trip to Mount Rainier, we rose early and headed out by 7.00 a.m. The roads were free and we made it in good time. We saw a rainbow as […]
From Sorrow To Bliss
In deep sorrow lies the doorway to bliss. It is cruel to ask but have you parted from or lost someone whom you loved deeply? In this separation one encounters a deep sorrow. A sorrow that shakes the very root of your being. The loss is not the loss of a person alone; it is also the loss […]
Happy New Year: A Mirthless Joke
There is a scene in Farah Khan’s Happy New Year where Boman Irani takes out a fully iced cake from a bag and says to himself, “I am going to have my cake and eat it too.” Two seconds later his face is buried in the gooey stuff and when he faces the camera, a […]
How To Tell Your Child About CSA
Entrepreneur and mother Deepa Kumar has issues with the blanket terminology that surrounds the issue of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). “To start with, I don’t quite agree with the distinction between a ‘good touch’ and a ‘bad touch.’ If there is a touch that a child needs to distinguish as good or bad, we are already in dangerous […]
A Trip To A Vineyard
Fields of swaying sugar-cane all around, interspersed with grazing herds of sheep, goats and cows, village men in all white neat dhoti-kurta and topi – these are the sights that welcomed in this part of rural Maharashtra. I was headed to Fratelli Vineyards in Motewadi, near Akluj (190 km from Pune). I had always thought of exploring […]
Gone…
She was left behind on the marbled staircase Just as she had begun to climb the first step into Solid colour. She could see pastels floating above her head Escaping as she tried to hold on to them. They floated up into the fluffy white mantle Lingering on the horizon before gliding towards Celestial city. […]
A Celebration Of Ian Fleming
Quantum of Solace, The complete James Bond short stories by Ian Fleming As a precocious pre-teen, I used to devour each and every James Bond book I came across in my grandmother’s large library. To my delight, most of the fourteen in the series were there, in fairly good condition for well-thumbed paperbacks! ** Then I started […]
The Light Within
Mystifying silence within the prayers, the sounds of drums and bells the claps of devotees, the chants of priests the feeling of coming home on the edge of a river bank tender, cool breeze on my face feet immersed in the flow of eternity the deep stillness in the dancing flames of aarti in the […]
Looking For Little Miracles
There are many ways to find a spiritual connect with life. You can find it in a concert, in a cinema hall, at a bus stop, at an animal shelter, in a book, in rain falling down on parched earth, in your mother’s cooking, in a phrase painted behind an auto, in a dream, in […]
What Dreams May Yet Come True
There was a girl looking straight at me, slightly confused, mildly annoyed, her kohl smeared face, her frizzy and unkempt hair reminded of the person I was scared of becoming. She didn’t look familiar. She looked distraught and unhappy but as I continued to look at the reflection in the mirror, my mind went into the […]