We're going out of town for a couple of weeks, during which time I will assiduously avoid the computer. I wondered what to post ...

At one point in my life I was crazy about science fiction. I avoided the swashbucklers and the flying dragons for the most part, but read j...

A friend dropped by, yawning because he's been going to weddings every day. The mahurtham (wedding ceremony) is usually at about 4:30 ...

Ramesh often quotes snatches of Hindi film songs -- romantic, melancholy -- and I usually understand them. But yesterday, we were putting o...

Population of India to overtake China's within 30 years India's population will overtake China's as the world's largest in...

I just couldn't resist posting this picture of the late, great actor (or Thespian, as such people were often called) Shivaji Ganeshan, i...

One of those things that floats around the Internet. Can't translate it without losing the charm: Aahat si koi aye to lagta hai ki tum...

via Points of Departure : A GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO SOUTH INDIAN CLASSICAL (KARNATIC) MUSIC -- Part I , Part II , Part III , Part IV I d...

Via wood s lot (an excerpt from a fascinating article -- read it!): Translating Tamil Dalit Poetry - [PDF] Anushiya Sivanarayanan World...

I’ve spent years in another country, learning songs you’ve never heard. What is it that rises like the scent of attar from the whisp...

997 A.D. stone inscriptions found in Tamil Nadu 997 A.D. stone inscriptions found in Tamil Nadu   CHENNAI, JULY 3. Bilingual i...

I saw this cartoon on Whiskey River , and it reminded me of a little story of Ramesh's: One day he was visiting the Technical Teachers...

I subscribe to The New Yorker , but my issues arrive a little late. It's better than in the old days, when every two or three months I ...

From The Guardian : It's not natural: The developing world's homophobia is a legacy of colonial rule ... When the constitution...

This wonderful poem, from yesterday's Poetry Daily : Afterlife We remember the darkness at our backs, the spine of stars. How ...

You can always tell a North Indian wedding, because they have the bridegroom perched up on a white horse, wearing a turban, and looking fool...

All month the gul mohur trees have been in brilliant bloom. I've decided to make my new coptic-bound book into an alphabet book, cent...

Here's a page of travel sketchbooks by Enrique Flores . Click each book for a slideshow. Three of them are about India, one for the So...

Somewhere last year, I read this: About The Three Golden Keys by Peter Sís: Through the images and texts, the reader follows a trail of m...

James Joyce's Ulysses: One Page Every Day In honor of the 100th anniversary of the date that Ulysses is set, this lauded book is bei...