Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Flora and Fauna in Sanskrit literature
For any nature-lover, this video interview with Naresh Keerthi, who is a doctoral student at NIAS (National Institute of Advanced Studies), Bangalore is a treat. I loved his lecture on the same topic here and got in touch with him afterwards. Thanks to Suhas Mahesh for the connect. Skanda of Shaale.com is the producer and Sampath is the cameraman/editor. View my interview with Naresh here. I mess up polymath/polyglot.
Memories are made of buttermilk for Mint Lounge
My first memory of buttermilk is warmth and darkness. I must have been five or six years old. Still confused by the mists of sleep, I walked into my grandmother’s kitchen, drawn by a comforting swishing sound. My grandmother was sitting on the floor, her legs spread-eagled and resting on the wall. Soft light filtered through the window in front of her. In between her legs was a heavy mud pot that was held firmly in place by a coiled towel.
Ajmer Dargah
Mint has been sending me on trips to various spots to write on "sacred food." This week, it is Ajmer Dargah. What a sensual experience. I respond to scents and sounds. The enveloping scent of roses was amazing. You have to read it at the site for the full photo cum words experiences. Oh, I am taking photos for these pieces myself. For Mint on Sunday here Photos here I am standing outside the main shrine of the Ajmer Dargah listening to a spirited group of qawwali singers perform. They voices are entreating; their eyes sincere, rising up to search [...]
Love Chennai. Had fun writing this piece.
FRI, JUL 10 2015. 03 44 PM Anger management at a Chennai cinema How Shoba Narayan queued up to watch the latest Tamil indie and dished out multi-coloured combs to aunties I tried my anger management technique when I was standing in line for tickets to “Kaaka Muttai,” the new Tamil film. Kaaka Muttai is a must-watch, even for those who don’t understand Tamil. The story is simple: two slum boys want to taste pizza. How they achieve this goal forms the core of this heartwarming debut. Director Manikandan, who lists Iranian films ‘A Separation’ and ‘Children of Heaven’ as [...]
Birds in culture– the last of the four part series that I hugely enjoyed writing.
Everyone says that bird-watching requires patience. I don’t think so. I think that the pleasure of bird watching comes from the questions you ask. You can watch a crow and try to figure out why it is cawing at that moment. You can listen to the variety of calls that a common mynah makes and try to see if there is a pattern. I watch the birds come and go in the trees in front of my home and see if there is a reason or pattern that they follow when they sit down and take off.
A beautiful dancer talks about hand gestures–
Here and here
So of course I had to write about yoga: for Mint Lounge
Actually, my editor suggested that I write about yoga on yoga day. It is here and below It is a little disconcerting, but ask yourself this question: what unites India? I have tried asking this question in various forums. It is hard to agree on three or four things that form the value system of this country. It cannot be religion because we are secular. It cannot be language because that changes every few hundred kilometres. It cannot be clothing style because even that varies from region to region. We listen to different music in the north and in the south. [...]
Birding: seeing versus hearing
In the beginning, with pig-headed ambition, I decided that I would memorize the Latin names for all the bird species that I saw. I have given up that endeavour now. It is complicated enough to keep track of the markings and learn the common names. This then is the other learning that will occur: spotting minor differences between birds that belong to the same species: White-cheeked Barbet, Grey-headed Barbet, Coppersmith barbet, Blue-throated Barbet, you get the picture. They all belong to the Megalaima species.
The Savage Beauty of Alexander McQueen: for Mint
Memories of the V&A and my Parisienne friend Elisabeth Guez are fresh in my mind. The V&A has another nice exhibit where they try to answer: "What is luxury?" Wish I could have seen the John Galliano retrospective also-- in Paris. My review of the exhibit here. And you have to see it on the newly launched Mint on Sunday. There is a great piece on the "Quest for the Himalayan Quail." I never thought I would say this, but digital publications can be just as beautiful as nicely laid out print publications.