In March this year, I visited Istanbul. In addition to visiting the various tourist attractions like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia etc, here are six things that I recommend and you CANNOT, should not miss doing in Istanbul. 1. Take two Bosphorus cruise rides – One in the daytime and one in the night. The day ride will give […]
Fourteen years ago in November, I was in Odisha when the cyclone hit the coast. Co-incidentally it was Durga Pooja even then. It was a surreal experience. Winds lashing at 118 miles an hour coupled with heavy rains. Water had filled into the flat that I was living in. Within hours we were disconnected from […]
No matter how self-obsessed you are, you would have heard of Doctors Without Borders. Officially known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF, they are, like Marvel’s Avengers, superheroes who tread where devils have no fear of going either. They might even make you think of the Steinbeck story immortalised by Henry Fonda in Grapes of […]
Rekha will soon be seen playing Super Nani but the icon turns into an age-defying model in the film to teach her errant family a lesson. No, dowdy weepies for the lady.There are many faces of Bhanurekha Ganesan. The little girl who danced on a table in a white frilly frock to the tune […]
I’ve been a fan of television since the 70s, when bits and pieces of shows first started trickling out as though they were tail-ends of meteors and the grand spectacle was yet to come in a kind of reversal of magic. It came alright, and I was snared forever. So when I say Breaking Bad […]
As I write, drums are being beaten, conch shells are being blown. They are celebrating the season of the Goddess. It is now that she is at her most powerful, her biggest, her most terrifying and beatific. Hoards of men and women in a frenzied procession, demonstrating their faith in time to the incessant beat of […]
‘Travel’ is a beautiful word. It breathes deep, sets you free and replaces familiar routes, responses and landmarks with the unexpected, the surprising. As you leave behind a city you live and work in, an invisible string gets loosened and releases you. The sky opens up. The sunlight becomes more concentrated and pure. Green fields […]
There are many tales, documented and unsubstantiated about Nariman (Nari) Dossabhai Gandhi or Nari Gandhi as he was known as. He was one of the most remarkable creative voices in architecture and an article published in the eighties speculated that he was the inspiration behind Ayn Rand’s best-selling classic The Fountainhead where a brilliant architect builds the precursors of what […]
‘The Child is father of the Man’, said Wordsworth and so it goes that kids in school must be taught that what will make them good men when they grow up. Yes, they must learn to read and write. They must mug up tables and dates. They must learn about the crops grown in outer […]
I’ve mentioned before, I’m relatively new to Kolkata.. Calcutta. Before coming here, I’ve never had domestic help. Today, I have a cook, a cleaner and someone to look after the little ones. I’m a little spoilt, if truth be told. I’m living an easy life, free to do as I choose. But having this freedom […]
When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste […]
The Company Theatre completes two decades this year. All these years have amounted to something..to creating, to living and dreaming and moving on from one milestone to another. To a body of work and a repertoire that speaks of reinvention of not just theatre and entrenched ideas but of self. It could not have been […]