Of locks without keys

Still scratching your head and your windowpanes wondering how to get your keys out of the car? Or getting locked outside your home with keys inside? Sometimes you even run the risk of (ugghhhh) someone stealing your footprint for biometric locks!!It's time to move on...More

Eurasian Hoopoe

Many months later, at Kokkare Bellur near Bangalore I spotted one more Hoopoe. It was searching for its food among the short grass, in the soil...More

An Encounter at Vedanthangal

The bird was looking intently at the crevices formed between the stones studding the waterside of the bund. Suddenly it made a sharp dive towards the bund, caught a wriggling animal and flew back to its perch...More

Once upon a time, eating Nanjanagud hallupudi...

Despite these rigours, their teeth used to be like The Wall—strong, reliable and always ready to tackle what the opposition threw at them all day. Most of our ancestors even capped their sumptuous meal by chewing the juice of a betel nut...More

Fascination for the Radio

The sound from the radio has always fascinated me. My earliest memory is of a Made-in-England 8-band Bush radio, a gift from a family friend...More

Ten things that define Delhi (2)

I was sitting at the bar at the Maurya Sheraton with two English colleagues a couple of years ago, when we saw a high profile society wedding in the hotel. For nearly an hour, as the who's who of Delhi came for the wedding, the three of us just sat there fascinated...More

Koh Samui: Thai Island

Weather in Koh Samui or just Samui for short, is tropical year round, just as one would expect Thailand to be. Last month it was a bit cooler in the evenings, pleasant breeze blowing in from the sea always...More

The Grizzled Sprid

The Grizzled Sprid
Did what he did,
And did it very well.
He chumfed his splang...More

Where are the tourists?

Probably its the recession or maybe the season is getting over..but we hardly found any tourist in Kumbalgarh, but for a few Indian families on a summer vacation...More

Writing

When I worked at my previous company, my manager used to tell me “Be very careful when you put something in black and white”. The reasoning was that, things you write weigh heavily as compared to what you say. Write an autobiography and you will be judged about your every move thereafter...More

The Last Turnaround

I am no economist or specialist of any kind, but in my humble and limited opinion what we are facing is a moral crisis more than an economic way...More

A special candidate who needs our support

Sarath Babu's mother sold idlis to support her children. Having seen the
harsh realities of life, Sarath Babu believes that youth have the honesty
and the ability to make the country a better place to live in. "I want to be
a beacon of hope for the youth," he said...More

View from the other side

As I look at two photographs of surrender that lie before me, I can't help recalling his words. The first is the celebrated event at Dhaka on Dec 16, 1971, which now adorns most Army messes in Delhi and Calcutta. The second, sir, is the video of a teenage girl being flogged by the Taliban in Swat -- not far, I am sure, from one of your Army check posts...More

Vintage and Classic Cars Rally at Nariman Point

Gopilal Sharma had ridden Ajaypat Singhania’s 1956 Mercedes 300 to the rally and reveled in the attention it was drawing from curious onlookers...More

At Pismo Beach

The sands do shift fast and the waves come crashing towards you at a terrific pace, don’t they? It’s better to surf the calm seas before they turn turbulent in thunderstorms...More

Always keep your A game

Just remember that although life is full of tests, these tests have a time limit, and we should not still be taking the test long after our allotted time...More

No Ghostly Experience!

I call those nights as blissful today, because I now know, that Palace is haunted. Yes, haunted by the ghost of Major Charles Burton, killed by Indians in the 1857 armed revolt against the British. I was ignorant of this fact on the nights of 8th and 9th of Oct. 2008. Probably that is why the nights were blissful.

Educating Junior

Whoever drew this brilliant cartoon (do click on it) has my full sympathy ... and absolute understanding. Actually I'm not too sure it is a cartoon. It looks more like a page from my son's notebook. Or that of any of the thousands of 16-year olds in India.
I've been stewing all of this past year, not because of anything I have to do, but because my son was preparing for his Board exams this year. Now, if you're not from India, chances are that you won't know the sheer hell of this phase!

Lisa's Bangalore connection

A New Hampshire school teacher who did four months of volunteer work at an orphanage in Bangalore. The experience so impacted Lisa that, on her return to the US, she organised fund-raising events, made slide-show presentations, and set up a blog ...More...

Ezhumalai Was Govindan Then

There were about 20 palms in the compound of Lakshmi Nivas. Govindan would come once a month about 8 am, and wait outside till my mother was free to talk to him. If any of us children saw him, we would shout out to my mother that the ‘thengai parakkaravan’ (coconut plucker) had come. Hearing us once, he said, “Kochammai,(Little Miss) I have a name....More...

Think positive

"Reminding someone of their misery makes them frown even more. Putting a smile on someone’s face costs nothing. Think about it.

Think positive!" More . . .

Floored

.......I am really happy that we women don’t need to slave over hot firewood stoves, or grind the spices for the curries manually, or grind the dough for our staple idlis and dosas using the old grinding stones. More ........

A Tibetan place near Mysore

Today Bylakuppe is a well- settled race of Tibetans among Mysoreans and Kodavas. After 50 years, their children work in hospitals, shops and offices. What is heartening is, Tibetans have maintained their culture intact.. . .More. . .

Happy Easter!

Summer is here and the trees and shrubs in my house are a spray with blooms in myriad colors. This year we've had a semblance of a "Bangalore Summer" of yore...comparatively mild compared to the summers we have been having for the past seven years or so. I took some pictures of the flowers and trees in my house on a pleasant summer evening some time last week...More

Our visa interview

Interview area resembled railway reservations counters, with several visa-seekers being attended to simultaneously. Many other couples like us were in queue, waiting in unspoken silence, and anxious to get it over with...More...

Some Things Don't Change ...

Promptly, at 8.p.m. she received a call from her mother asking, when are you coming home. My friend told her Mom, that we might be late as we were having dinner outside. A little disapproval there......

KOH SAMUI ISLAND

Waiter, There's An Elephant In My Tea

Elephants can cause a lot of damage, and these boys were doing their best to drive them away. It isn't good to be in the path of an elephant when it runs towards you. It can race along at 60km an hour. More. . .

Singing For Rama Navami

For the first time, we had a proper stage (albeit small) to sit on and sing. We were introduced individually . More .......

Happy Goes Lucky In Punjab

The first words of greeting I heard in Amritsar set the tone for the whole of my absolutely awe-inspiring visit in the Punjab. Hello Madam ji, myself Harinder Singh Happy – please call me Happy ! More ......