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.
Travel A Sorry Episode at the KLCC Could he be armed? I thought. He was not big, but he had youth and was wiry, and he had an energetic stride.
Travel Penang Post Not one revealed a hint of xenophobic resentment toward alien people arriving from all kinds of places to settle into a life of leisure in sea-facing homes. Nobody I met expressed envy at the class of accommodation the expatriates were investing in.
Travel How Old Is He? For eighty odd years the only times the old man’s hands have rested is one day each Chinese New Year.
Travel Whiling Time Away in Convivial Kuala Lumpur The movies. Morning walks in the KLCC park. Looking for vegan restaurants. Reading wherever I’ve found shade. That’s all I’ve done in KL through the year.
Travel Celebrating My Birthday Solo, in Rainy KL Evenings, I could see in the far distance the approaching rain, the dark clouds that had opened up, and were steadily closing in, shrinking the world.
Malnad A Vegan Prayer Ceremony for Chowdy This Year When he brought his machete crashing down, slicing the banana and the vibhuti, and cracking the coconut, there wasn't in this year's poojé the yellow of yolk or the goo of egg-white.
Indian Journeys The Fortune Select Grand The Fortune Select Grand is new, I'm told. There’s a bareness in its rooms, rather like in a budget hotel. You get only one key, even if you’re with spouse.
