Bangalore Experiencing Wabi-Sabi at The Oberoi, Bangalore I wanted to ask her, looking into her ever-happy face and her gleaming eyes and at her sari, if she found me wabi-sabi after all these years.
Malnad The Mandala Snake "Why this particular fear of the mandala"? I asked him. "The cobra is poisonous, and they're here in greater numbers. You never mention a cobra sighting."
State of the Union This Schadenfreude Over Drugs in Bollywood and Sandalwood In place of grave concern regarding real issues, there's glee drawn from the sweet smell of scandal.
Malnad The Truths About Corona Are Fake And That Is The Truth "We've hardly any corona," they said. "A fellow goes to the hospital with a fever. They throw him in a ward. They send him home in a few days. It's a scam."
State of the Union Won't Ram Count Mehbub Among His Sons? Although he has no time or inclination for mischief, though he earns his living from good honest labour, the chap is lodged in a faraway jail.
State of the Union Independence Day, 2020 Even when I was five, it was a man that we celebrated on Independence Day. His name was Gandhi, we called him Bapu. He’s not so much in fashion anymore.
State of the Union It's Ramrajya Now. Why Should I Fear? I've been reading what could happen to you — especially in North India — if you won't chant Jai Shri Ram on demand. It supports a fear I've had a long time.
Indian Journeys The Lakshmi Narasimha Hoysala Temple at Nuggehalli It is over 750 years old, with sculpture done by the two celebrated Hoysala craftsmen of the thirteenth century — Mallitamma and Baichoja.
Bangalore To BBMP of Bangalore, a Word of Appreciation I’ve been visualising coming down with Covid as being in extremis, but — with these four, at least — that’s not the case.
Musing Will They Lockdown, Won't They Lockdown? This points to unbridled free speech in the Chief Minister's cabinet—a healthy democratic exercise, maybe, but workers are fleeing the city all over again.
Musing Too Great a Sacrifice Colonel Santosh Babu was 37 on June 15. Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla was 45 on December 9, 1971.
Travel Why Should I Travel? There's a part of me asking, in defiance of Montaigne, "Should I travel at all? Should I leave my home, really?" I'm pitting the Maharshi against Michel de Montaigne.
Not Feeling Pain for the Corona Victims The daily figures of those fallen to corona look like scores in cricket — a game I understand but don't follow. I read the statistics without emotion.
Malnad Locked Down Plantation, Elephants, Sandalwood Smugglers It's a blue-topped bright-green world now during June, and more avians than ever in the twelve years I've known the place have flown into the plantation.
Musing Ramachandra Guha’s Gandhi Gandhi's time in India ended differently than in Africa. Even before the bullets came for him, Gandhiji had begun to wonder if it wasn't time he left.
Bangalore Lockdown: Mask to Taste, Damn the Distance These actions are not going to erase the wrongs being done to people that deserve gratitude, not this pain. There's going to be a price to pay. It'll hurt.
Bangalore Businesses Might Open, With None to Man Them The migrants might come back to Bangalore, because one needs to make a living, but it would be interesting to see how we will regard one another in future.
Bangalore Some Fresh Wind In My Sail In fifty years, the Guardian says, temperatures in India would rank with Saharan Africa. My son would be eighty then. My grandson would be fifty-five.
Bangalore What's in a Name? As regards Zuriberg, they say the owner used to be a doctor in Switzerland. And Maple up the street belongs to an elder who taught physics in North America.
Bangalore Lockdown Diary: Cures and Other Responses He has a course of preventive medicine for COVID 19, to be taken twice a day, for five days. Did she pick it up? Absolutely. Are we taking it? You bet.
Bangalore Lockdown in Bangalore Lifted a Little And we're afraid, too. Because above all, there's the daunting question: What if one of our numbers tests positive?
Bangalore Lockdown Blues In Bangalore The breeze comes in now and then and soothes the face, but it smells of worry and of flagging hope. Will the lockdown end after three weeks?
Malnad Malnad Diary: March The birds kept up their pitiable cries for over a half-hour. I cannot say what was up with them. Did they sight a cat? Was one in their numbers cuckolded?
Travel Bowing In, Bowing Out I remember the scene because it reminded me of the preliminary rituals of the Indian arranged marriage.
