19
November
Adman Santosh Desai has this interesting little piece in Outlook about his the malted drinks of his childhood days – Horlicks and Bournvita. He says, rightly, that drinking Horlicks was an awful experience, especially given that the brand was sold aggressively in milk-scarce states as a substitute for milk, just Horlicks mixed with hot water. [...]
19
July
With the arrival of the rains, the scorching temperatures of summer in most of India have abated. The dry, parched browns of the cities are slowly turning a lush green. The Mumbai monsoon rains are like a much-anticipated guest – the first few days are magical; everything you longed for and waited for through the [...]
7
July
This year marks the bicentenary of the man who gave us the delightful image of the owl and the pussycat who sailed away together, married in the land of the bong tree and ate quince with runcible spoons. Edward Lear (1812- 1888), the acknowledged master of the limerick, described his own work as “nonsense, pure [...]
6
July
Barbara had been diagnosed as depressive and was under treatment for the condition for several years before she discovered that she was bipolar. She signed up on a networking website and rigorously monitored her moods through charts on her profile page. It was here that she noticed how frequently her mood fluctuations went from being [...]
19
May
Long time no blog. For now, here is a longish story I wrote for The National on oral storytelling traditions in India. I had great fun researching for and writing this story. To watch Jeeva Raghunath tell a story is a bit like being transported back to one’s childhood; those days of innocence when you [...]
8
April
Penguin India turns 25 this year and to celebrate this, they have a range of quirky merchandise based on popular Penguin titles – so there are mugs (The Great Indian Mug, A Suitable Mug), bags (ditto), keychains, notebooks, diaries… I want them all! I particularly like the idea of drinking from The Reluctant Mug – [...]
20
March
My earliest memories of a library are of Murugan lending library in the neighbourhood of Adayar in Chennai where I grew up. This was my most eagerly awaited trip of the week, where I used to go with my father (and later on, by myself) to pick books. Comics, detective novels, classics – I devoured [...]
28
February
Remember Baby Falak? In a country where babies, especially girls are abandoned and killed every day, the story of the bruised and battered two-year-old girl is not really new or particularly shocking. Now leave Baby Falak for a moment and travel with me across the country. To Tamil Nadu, which has one of the highest [...]
5
January
I am a big one for lists – I love making to-do lists (but necessarily the doing!) but rarely set goals. All along, I have been taking work as it comes without making ambitious and aggressive plans. No longer (I hope). 2012 is the year of the ambitious plans. So as a first step, I [...]
5
December
Come December and Chennai begins to hum with the start of the kutcheri (classical music concert) season, referred to in the city simply as the “Season.” It’s one of the largest music festivals in the world, with more than 1,500 concerts over six weeks at various locations. The Season attracts not just aficionados of South [...]
