I have been having so many problems with my computer - it's been crashing and crashing, and I'm feeling quite flattened. I'm st...

The title is a Hindi colloquialism. It means, literally, There's something black in the lentils; and figuratively, There's somethin...

I've added another threat exchange from Hindi movies to my collection. This one is from Dhoom : The policeman is trying to find the thi...

I don't know how they are to work or be incarcerated in, but from the outside Chennai's old police stations are among the more charm...

Abraham dropped by again yesterday. He has somehow decided that we, like him, should sell our house to a computer company for a fabulous pr...

From the Onion (because I was morosely sipping tea when I read it): National Poetry Month Raises Awareness Of Poetry Prevention NEW YORK—Th...

We were waiting for friends to arrive for dinner when the doorbell rang. I swung the door wide, expecting them, but it was a man who drops ...

From The Onion : New Tech-Support Caste Arises In India NEW DELHI—Thanks to widespread outsourcing of telephone-service jobs, a sixth caste ...

I went to the post office and stood in line at the stamp window, which was surrounded with several hand-written signs, all of which read ...

Chapati Mystery has an interesting post on the origin of the Hindi word vilayat , which is popularly believed to have been derived from Bli...

under the fire star is two years old today. I haven't been giving it much care and feeding lately, but it seems to be a survivor. Thre...

Ramesh has been reading Talking Songs by the great Hindi lyricist Javed Akhtar. Yesterday he mentioned that, although the book includes th...

I've been reading Alembic almost every day for about two years now -- it's beautifully written, and by a thoughtful person; exactly...

How odd -- I was going to post a ghazal by Mary Jo Salter, which arrived in my email as one of Knopf's daily emails for Poetry Month (A...

We drove to Anna Nagar, to dinner at a friend's house. It had rained for much of the day, and was still drizzling lightly. Santhome Hi...

On Sunday, at around 3:30 in the afternoon, the sky became dark. I looked out the window and saw dozens of birds speeding across the sky, c...

A new photoblog by R. Balaji, in camera , largely made up of pictures taken in Chennai and its state, Tamil Nadu. There's an amazing ph...

Anna invited me, and I really meant to do it, but I didn't; now abdul-walid has (though he had already invited himself and three other...

I'm not sure what it is yet, but I know it's really cool: Global Village Health Manual And the terrific Chapati Mystery speculates...

I admit it, I'm always a sucker for these tongue-in-cheek uses of Indian mythology for product advertising. Note: I got some interesti...