Indian Journeys Lord Shiva is an Emotional Fellow Lord Shiva cursed Kamadhenu: “You will never again receive worship at your face. Henceforth, all worship to you shall be at your tail.”
Indian Journeys Muddling Around at the Sira Fort This huge fort — its ramparts still standing — was built in the time of the Vijayanagara empire, passing down to a succession of other dynasties: the Bijapur sultans, the Mughals, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Marathas, and, finally, the Raj.
Indian Journeys Featured Remembering William Baillie, Defeated By Tipu Sultan Baillie is reported to have said to Haidar Ali: “Your son will inform you that you owe the victory to our disaster rather than to our defeat."
Indian Journeys A Short Trip to Auroville, and the Aurobindo Ashram A weighty hush kept everybody in silence. My wife pinched my arm to show me things.
Indian Journeys The Devanahalli Fort in Bangalore Built of mud by the Gowda rulers, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan fortified it with stone. Afterward, the fort fell to the British under Cornwallis.
Musing The Writing Craft, the Formidable Iain Sinclair, Allen, Sedaris A creation that none but the creator may comprehend has been performed only once ever, by the Creator of creators, and who may dare to rise to His bar?
Indian Journeys The Hasanamba Temple in Hassan A stricken Kafur rushed to the poojaris of the devis but they couldn't help him, the affront to the devis being so terrible. But Hasanamba, who is goddess to all men and forgives every penitent, appeared to Kafur in a dream and suggested he build a temple to her as penitence.
Bangalore The Ugly Indians In the end, in that little spot in Bangalore, the stench, the hideous wet and dry garbage, and that sense of shame that's our lot in India — all evaporated.
Travel A Weekend In Old San Juan An acceptance by each of their lot, and an easy adjustment to life, all go to make Puerto Ricans, some surveys say, among happiest people on the planet.
Travel John Lennon: Lennon Peace Monument Unveiled in Liverpool Cynthia (Lennon) asked everyone to seek the kind of peace Lennon enjoyed, which was to have a good time. "Go and have a good time," she said.
Musing An Indian Ruminates on Independence Day Though some of us speak of lost values and vanished principles, none will risk disruption of this opiate prosperous state of being.
Coffee Planter's Diary Kadumane Estate — A Giant Theater I take a last look at the glowing mist that has filled the trees and capped the hills. It is as though a cold white heat has rimmed this world, this enormous bowl ringed by hills.
Coffee Planter's Diary The White Planter's Coffee Club Peering through time, the mists are thick. In their haze are white men from six-thousand miles away, seeking fortune and adventure in the jungles of Malnad.
Travel Diaries: Tokyo and Kyoto The maikos posed on Ninenzaka's cobblestones: young, gracious, smiling without showing teeth, more cute than sexy, attractive to all ages and to both sexes.
Travel Wandering About in Sultanahmet, Istanbul His cry rode a long time on each breath and dipped and rose and turned and twisted in the sweet manner of an endless Hindusthani strain and my mind came to a halt and listened, rapt.
Travel Mauritius : About Honouring Past Heroes At the National Museum in Mahebourg, there is a celebration of another type of hero in Mauritian history—the corsair. And Surcouf was the king of Corsairs.
Coffee Planter's Diary Why is Shankar Shetru leaving Sakleshpur? Every morning, the planter should walk everywhere in his plantation — the trees and the pepper and the coffee seek his smell.
Travel Tuol Sleng, Duch, and Hell on Earth Duch ran the prison, oversaw the torture, and, soon as he had a "confession," certified the dispatch of his prisoners to the "killing fields" out of town.
Travel At a Pond in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia The sight holds a long time, it is wondrous, but I want to see fish, so I intensify my gaze: they come out like ghosts …
Musing My Grandmother, A Remembrance Full of Regrets She raised her six children there, turning from a soft-spoken woman — as she battled her way through life — to a parsimonious tyrant, raising money through every means to send them through school and college.
Bangalore Dreams and Birds, and Cricket at the Dentist’s The needle was long, and the barrel huge, so my jaw died for a while. The Dentist tore into my teeth, all the while speaking with his assistant about Kumble’s fantastic century.
Indian Journeys Feeling Good and Bad at the Melukote Temple This temple is a place of pilgrimage on account of the saint Ramanujacharya, who lived in Melukote during the rule of Vishnuvardhana, nine hundred years ago. More recently, the Wodeyars have poured generosity upon it.
Indian Journeys Return to the Now Drowned Magge Church This visit, I went there on a theppa (coracle). Reaching the church, only the top of which is exposed, I sat on a dry part on the Southern wall, feeling tiny, my body and mind lost in the immensity of water.
Travel A Lite History of Singapore She wanted lions, and the realtors said: "Lions also can see, la." Utama rejoiced, settled down with Siti on the island, and gave Temasek a new name.
Travel Even in Modern Singapore Everybody who passed stared at it: young and old, Singaporeans and Japanese and Westerners, women and men. Many took pictures, some took lots of pictures.
