An envoy’s barber story

I had Mr Prakash reminiscing about his Shimoga barber when I sent him the link to a fascinating piece by Mr M P V Shenoi on his Mysore barber, who played clarinet. Mohalla barbers in Shenoi’s younger days (1940s) doubled up as street musicians, hired to play musical instruments at weddings and other festivities.. ..More...

A Summer Play

For a few years now, Karthik Fine Arts has been doing a great service to theatre by promoting the staging of new plays and holding a contest for them, calling it the Summer Play Festival. Dramatists find it a good launching pad to present their latest, and also win a few prizes in the bargain. More....

An exercise in dis-organisation

A touch of concern : cases of swine flu have crossed borders and are showing up in India too. The papers this morning reported 2 cases but by evening now there seem to be 5 cases detected in India.
Scary? You bet! But you know what, if my experiences were anything to go by, I wouldn't be surprised if more cases show up with the virus being literally forced on the patients at our airports.

Elections in Chennai

Each constituency has its own character, colour and composition. Though all three make Chennai what it is. So are there Chennai-driven issues that are dominating the elections this time around? And is it important to put these issues on top of the agenda of the candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring last fortnight?...More

On Holiday

I finally did it! I'm in Singapore right now and drooling over the absolutely fantastic orchids blooming their heads off in every nook and corner . And I'm so envious of the very trim figures I see everywhere...More

Asthtalakshmi Temple, Chennai

I was fascinated by the structure which highlighted several features of the Dravidian temple architecture. It is a comparatively new temple, built in 1976. Within the short span of three decades this shrine has become a tourist attraction in Chennai...More

Law Against Internet Piracy

Downloading movies and music from the Internet is so rampant that no one really thinks it is an offence. Mainly teenagers and youth are so adept at these things.Not many of them care to ponder over the impact such piracy has on the very industry that gives them so much contentment and happiness...More

Biodegradable dish ware..

It is nothing else but the palm leaves (sheaths) that have been used since ages for various purposes in parts of India and I believe in most Asian countries. It is from the Areca Palm or the Betel tree as it is widely known in India whose nuts are used by betel/pan chewers...More

Blogger Friends

On Easter Sunday, Abraham visited us and we spent a nice one hour talking to one another. The surprising thing was, none of us felt we were talking to strangers whom we were meeting for the first time. Over some coffee...More

Post LTTE Sri Lanka – The Innocent Tamils Must Not Be Confused With The LTTE Cadres

Now, with the LTTE being on the verge of final crumbling, it is time to think over a crucial question - what will be the status of the ethnic Tamils in the post-LTTE Sri Lanka? While discussing this question, the very first thing that we all must understand is that the innocent Tamils of Sri Lanka have absolutely no connections with the dreaded LTTE...More

Bangalore Trip--A Personal Event

Bangalore has changed, and at the same time, there is not much of a change. The traffic is woeful, the sediments of dust settle from all angles, and as I was standing in the imaginary queue to pick up something for dinner, Chetan nudged me from behind and said "Maga, idhu Bostonalla, this is Bengaluru"...More

A Simple way of barring NSD

As age got up with my mother, she too started showing signs of her mother’s genes. One day when I visited her she was irritated as the phone was out of order for a couple of days and about the same time her cellular phone also had konged out...More

pizza box of the 21st century

It is completely recyclable. The pizza box top tears down into 4 plates. The bottom can find very neatly into another closable box - for storing leftovers in the refrigerator (if you are like me — this would really not be of much use - but it is a good idea none the less...More

Can I please just have 5 more minutes...

How many times we have heared this pleading. If you let them have extra five minutes and then forget to ask them to stop, 5 minutes will turn easily to an hour or even more...More

L.I.F.E

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When Gandhiji met Chaplin

Eric L Flom provided more details the meeting in the book ‘Chaplin in the Sound era’. Following an excursion to Spain, Chaplin made his way back to London where he hoped to have a few months of rest before returning to California. There he received an unusual invitation to meet Gandhi at the house...More

Back to basics

There are loads of things we do not know, things and stuff we come across in our daily lives. I had my eye-opener in the form of a simple question from my cousin as to how an AC works; the question triggered few more questions...More

Peacock Feathers

I have focused my lens on them a number of times, trying to capture its colors from different angles, never have I got the same results. Particularly the eye of the feather; it is an intricate structure difficult not only to imitate in art but also through lens...More

A Real Good One

I am herewith enclosing a poem by an IT professional. Though it is in Tamil, I am sure you will be able to decipher it.Though the professional tries to justify I believe they are reaping what they sowed...More

Box Collection!

In olden days, most of the products came to the consumer from the manufacturer either in wooden containers or tin boxes or tin cans. Plastic was not an item in the dictionary before the 1950s...More

Ten things that define Delhi (3)

Whether it is hearty butter chicken, Moghlai cuisine or just roadside chaat, Delhi truly has some amazing food on offer. This photo is of a very 'standard' meal...More

Platitude

Verse that rhymes is out of fashion,
Though I enjoy it with a passion.
Wordsworth and Keats are cast aside
Where once they were a nation's pride!...More

Of Kings and Empires

This map lies lost in a thatched hut which houses the museum as well. And the thatched hut is in a forgotten town called Gangaikondacholapuram,...More

279 days

Strange! I wrote the previous post about writing and since then, haven’t written. And then I read this manifesto by Chris Guillebeau: 279 days to overnight success. If you haven’t already read about Chris, I think you should read now...More

The Cry of the Vegetable Vendor

No matter how hot or cold it is, no matter if it is raining or scorching our vegetable vendor does not miss his rounds. His cry is like the comfortable chime of an old clock...More

My First Days at Zurich

I went to take some tea and asked what is that spiced tea or what type of spices you put..and a very pleasant voice told me in Hindi...le lo, bilkul indian jaisa ha..with sugar inide....and I was so happy to see a helping Indian on the counter...More

Turning 40

Today I benched pressed 300 LBS, I am very proud of myself. However, I often wonder why I continue exercising at this pace. My kids are young could be a reason...More

Fleet Street. in the 60s

Major London dailies may have moved to the Docklands, Canary Wharf or wherever, but they remain Fleet Street newspapers. To those in the media Fleet Street is a synonym for British journalism.. .More...

Oru Whisky Oru Masala Dosai

And the buffet did look good enough to hmmm eat !! But what caught my eye was a display card that said "Dosa Dhamaka" exhorting one to eat as much as one could and went on to describe an array of mouthwatering fillings for more than eight different kinds of dosas ........More dosas here


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Tree slaughter

But who needs words when the trunks can speak. Road-widening is cited as an explanation. What is often not so obvious is a minor fortune some people could stand to make by lobbying for widening roads rich with old avenue trees. . . .More. . .