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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. [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
