I recently wrote a small piece on the controversial ‘Hole in the wall’ project for a UK-based magazine called Green Futures. Controversial, because of endless questions about its relevance in a country where primary education rates are dismal, and sustainability over time and place. And even more so, now that Sugata Mitra has won the… Continue reading A hole in the wall, a spark in the mind
Category: In Print
Selected published features
Opera for change
Let nobody tell you that opera is boring. Not if it is served in delectable, bite-sized pieces. Consider the worldwide success of Les Misérables, if you don’t believe me. Prior to the film adaptation, it has been the longest running musical in London’s West End. Perhaps, it is more fitting to call it an opera… Continue reading Opera for change
Clothing for dignity
Anshu Gupta’s journey began in 1992 after a 6-year-old girl in New Delhi told him that she hugged dead bodies through the night to keep her warm. The girl’s father, Habib, and her blind mother, Amina Begum, were municipal workers, in charge of disposing of unclaimed corpses. Habib would receive 20 rupees (about 38 cents)… Continue reading Clothing for dignity
Controversy Calling
My thoughts on the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – some of the reasons it just didn’t work for me – appeared in Tehekla.com on February 18, 2013. Read it online here… *** Although the word is on everyone’s lips in Kochi, most locals are only vaguely aware of the biennale as an event that has created quite… Continue reading Controversy Calling
Firangi filmi bloggers
Beth Watkins calls herself the Foreign Minister of Shashi Pradesh and has taken an oath to share with the world any Shashiliciousness she may come across. This blogger from Illinois is a Shashi Kapoor devotee and writes about him and all things Bollywood on the popular Beth loves Bollywood. She started the blog in 2005… Continue reading Firangi filmi bloggers
Battle of the beverages
It is early evening, still a couple of hours to go before the sun sets. In a roadside stall, a blackened pan sits on a single stove, a brown sludgy mixture of milk, tea, and sugar brewing in it since morning. And in front of the stall, a dozen men of all ages exchanging the… Continue reading Battle of the beverages
A moveable commune
Shakespeare and Company is a bookstore in Paris where one feels like being in one’s own apartment, just exactly how founder George Whitman wanted it to be, says Charukesi Ramadurai George Whitman liked to call himself the Don Quixote of the Latin Quarter. His windmills were the faceless bookstore chains and one-size-fits-all websites that threatened… Continue reading A moveable commune
Chills and thrills
My story in The Hindu on marking 60 years of The Mousetrap, celebrating good crime writing and lamenting about all that gore in modern day crime fiction. I’ve already ranted at the Scandinavians once long ago on this blog – just treat this as a longer rant. Sixty years after The Mousetrap’s premiere, there is… Continue reading Chills and thrills
Bollywood romances the rains
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… Continue reading Bollywood romances the rains
Celebrating pure and absolute nonsense
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… Continue reading Celebrating pure and absolute nonsense