Flashback: Reporting Punjab

Mr Khosla’s reporting reflected a socio-political reality in Punjab that didn’t suit New Delhi’s perspective. TOI management considered itself to be, not so much a pro-establishment newspaper, but as part of the New Delhi Establishment itself. TOI editorial writers believed their editorials and op-ed opinion columns shaped South Block’s policy on Punjab...More...

How I was startled by a Hippie

A little incident that was luckily harmless is reminisced. It happened on the Anjuna beach in Goa in 1982. That was during the time when the hippie movement was still active. See more.

Let’s Not Confuse Globalization With Cultural Homogeneity

Now it is our responsibility to have a balanced approach towards Globalization, wherein we can successfully pick up the gems of other cultures that we come across, without losing the assets of our own culture. More

Sports Tourism In India – A Seemingly Undertapped Potential

The Indian Tourism Ministry can use these sports facilities to lure a huge number of potential foreign tourists who are sports freak, and will love to practice their favourite games in an ideal locale. So the question is, does the Tourism Ministry promote and market these sports facilities properly among the potential target audience? More

The Last Day

I found I enjoyed teaching the youngsters, and interacting with them. They were intelligent, attentive, and eager to learn. But I wondered if they were happy with my methods, and getting the right learning from me - my teaching experience was dated, more than 40 years ago! Read more

A tale of two photos

The two images, from two different generations , have a running theme - of strife, sufferings and oppression. And the thread in the two situations are the Jews. Irony is the oppressed race in the earlier generation plays oppressors in the subsequent one...More...

Flash Floods

We had a tragic reminder of the intensity of monsoon rains in the Dooars recently. A trainee assistant from Chengmari Tea Estate got swept away by a flooded rivulet. He was on his way to the bunglaow from the office on his motorcycle, and there were a few other people making their way home along the same route. All of them crossed the flooded stream just minutes before Debashis attempted it. His body and his motorcycle were found in the tea area several hundred metres away.

It's a wet, green world

Green is my world and as wet as can be!
I feel as if I'm living in a rainforest. Everywhere I turn, Mumbai is a palette of every shade of green imaginable. But nowhere more so than in my own garden.

Growing my own food

Cucumbers, gourds, beans and ladies' fingers (okra) are some of the monsoon vegetables that grow so well in Mumbai at this time.
By the way, you don't need a lot of land to grow most of these vegetables.

The “Ideal Utilization” Of Tourism Generated Revenue

Tourism has the proven potential to usher in significant economic development for an area.

However, we can “tap” that potential only if we channelize the Tourism generated revenue in the appropriate manner. And unfortunately a gross problem with us is that most of us perceive Tourism just as a means to generate revenue, without bothering much about the “ideal utilization” of the revenue that has been generated. More

‘Neteracy’ for seniors, in 5 days

Their smiles triggered Vijaya to develop a five-day ‘Neteracy’ (Net literacy) course for uninitiated seniors, if only to bring smiles to some more wrinkled faces. There are hardly any middle-class households that don’t have a computer nowadays...More...

The Captivating Skyline

....gaze at the New York skyline, visible from our 10th floor apartment. The view was the same, yet ever changing. I was simply fascinated by it..... See here

Photos: Flowers from a bouquet

House-hunting in Chennai

I even found an apartments complex with plans for a helipad on top of every residential tower. They want to transpose to Urappakkam and Siruseri the ‘gated community’ enclaves from San Francisco and LA....More...

Palace Tourism In Rajasthan

So I was just wondering whether we can cash in on this fascination, and thus boost tourism in Rajasthan? And the plan that I suggest is the initiation of a specialized “Palace Tourism” for foreign tourists.

Yes, I know that Palace Tourism is already there, wherein tourists are taken inside the ancient palaces and forts in Rajasthan (and also in other places like Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc.), and exposed to various traces and remnants (like clothes, utensils, etc.) of the memory of the royals who used to stay there.

But what I am suggesting is a bit different. More

High Tourist Influx In The Corbett National Park – A Boon Or Bane?

Tourism is undoubtedly a crucial issue, as it ushers in a huge revenue for the government, thus enriching the latter’s coffer to a great extent. However, at the same time we can not wish away the issue of conservation. In fact, we must remember that negligence towards conservation can ultimately threaten the existence of the National Park itself, thus resulting in a threat for the very tourism business for which the conservation issue was ignored. More

Photo contest of North East India

Beautiful tropical countryside - see entries for the contest in several categories. More...

BethaL on Bhopal....

The BethaL asked Raja Thrivikram.......

# Who gave the permission to fly out Anderson?
# Can Government now get back the amount for the cleanup from Dow Chemicals?
# Can Anderson be extradited from US…?

Dalai Lama – The Gritty Peace Lover

Dalai Lama – the gritty peace lover, for whom “Peace” is not an excuse to avoid conflict and adversity

But a powerful tool to counter his adversaries with composure and dignity. More

Another bandh

In my opinion the BJP should have a rethink on its approach. They are unlikely to gain anything by aligning with the Left. There is the example of the Congress – that party moved ahead once the Left withdrew support. BJP is a party which might head the Government of India again. They should take a more objective and mature view.

'Hum Honge Kamyab'

This honge in front of a shopping block on Ramavilas Rd. has been named Kamyab. It is the only one of its kind on a row of aged roadside gulmohar and neem. Kamyab is Hindi word for 'accomplishment'.So named, because the person who planted this honge, Mr K R Gurukar, has fulfilled what many of us in the neighbourhood had long wished, but couldn't get it done. ...More...

Food

The other day I was watching a Food & Travel show hosted by the famous Padma Lakshmi. She was in Udipi and inside a 400 year old kitchen.

Squirrel Watching

The latest visitor to my balcony garden is a little squirrel. It is the Indian Palm Squirrel breed more popularly known as the Three Stripped Palm Squirrel. Read more...

Monsoon memories...

My paternal grandparents’ house was made entirely of wood. It still is. Only the four walls of the home are made of brick, unlike the imposing structure I call my maternal grandparents home. The house is very old, built by my great grandfather, who was into the wood business too. He was a pioneer of sorts, who knew that wood would be worth its weight in gold, in a few years to come. People laughed at him when he started a small wood shop as a side business. They laughed louder when he loaded the wood into Lorries and sent them off to far off markets. They stopped laughing when he leased his own fleet of Lorries that took wood from Kerala to Chennai and from there on to, buyers distributed it around the country. Perhaps they went out of the country too. I am not sure...more.

Gol-Kaanda-Keri

I wanted to post this recipe since a long time. Gol-kaanda-keri is made in Gujarat a lot when summer is at its peak. The ingredients are a combination believed to safeguard from sunstroke and dehydration. We use it as a chutney, but there is no grinding involved, so I am not sure if this qualifies as a chutney.This is one of the few recipes from my mother whose taste we can reproduce quite well.



For more photos and recipe, read here

India’s “Palace On Wheels” Declared To Be The World’s 4th Best Luxury Train

It was a moment of extreme pride, glory and honour for India’s rich hospitality legacy, when the country’s mind-blowing luxury train “Palace On Wheels” was declared to be the world’s 4th best luxury train by “Conde Nast”, the prominent global travel magazine. More

Kachi keri ni chatni / Raw mango chutney

Read here

Two in the Bush

There was no way I could sleep. It felt as if the bird was crying inside my head. By morning, I thought I'd gone mad. The bird didn't stop. It became clear that it was saying, 'Brain fever! Brain fever!'

We hear another bird now, one that sings sweetly. It is the Indian cuckoo, called the 'Bou-Ko-Tha-Ko' bird in Bengali. Tea planters say the bird is calling, 'Orange Pekoe', 'Broken Pekoe' or 'Make more pekoe'!!

Apologies for AWOL, rains in Cochin

For a few months now I have not been paying due attention to my blog. It has been a kind of absence without leave. Some of the regular readers have been kind enough to write to me about it. My apologies to them, and to those who made comments on my posts and did not receive any response.

A Cup of Tea

Each and every tea drinker has her or his own way of making that cup of tea. The English people were (I am talking about those good old days – I do not know about these days) very particular about making their tea. First wash the teapot with hot water, measure three –four (as need be) cups of water to boil, put three or four (again as need be) spoons of tea - that is one spoon for each cup and one for the pot....More here