There's an unbelievable op-ed piece in the NYT today: Pakistan's Collapse Our Problem . It seems to me to be delusional in the ext...

I just learned from Blogocentricity that Sawariya (a new Hindi movie, which has had poorish reviews) means 'Are you dying?' in coll...

Hindi is riddled with pair-words (there's probably a more technical word for them). I learned a new one last night, because there's...

Because I like getting glimpses of other people’s work spaces, I thought I’d show you my office. (I don't know why I call it that -- be...

I just love this paragraph, from The Sleep-Industrial Complex , in the NYT magazine: All good nights of sleep are alike. Each miserable nigh...

These tins of barley have been mouldering in the back of a cupboard for untold eons -- perhaps my late mother-in-law had intended to prepare...

I haven't posted this before - I thought it might be too sugary. Nonetheless... Pretend I Orange berries, bittersweet on a leaf plate, ...

Twitter's charms have not been evident to me -- but today I read in Via Negativa '"I’m taking advantage of Twitter’s strict, 1...

The day after Divali is Gujarati (and some other people's -- but not Tamils') New Years Day, according to the Vikram calendar . The ...

Yesterday was the south Indian festival of Deepavali; today is the north Indian festival of Divali -- but it's all one: lights, firework...

I sent this poem out -- I had written it some years back, and forgotten about it until recently -- and got it back with a constructive note,...

The Sunday Washington Post reviewed Shashi Tharoor's new book, The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone : Reflections on India, the ...

I usually go to The Daily Times , a liberal Pakistani newspaper, when I want to know more about what's going on there. Today there'...

One of the blogs that I started my blogging life with, Giornale Nuovo , has ended after a wonderful five-year run (though the archives are s...

A slide show of some remarkable work by Indian photographers -- from the New York times. Raghubir Sing's Pavement Mirror Shop, Howrah, ...

I just read a beautifully written story in the New Yorker, Nawabdin Electrician , by Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin. It's online h...

We're back at sea level. It's not too bad -- it's raining, and the sky is soft and grey. About 30 years ago, I took 2 years out...

I’m having a jaladosham ( jala = water; dosham = disease, in Sanskrit-Tamil) – i.e., a cold. My nose is producing almost as much jala a...

I never feel so purely childlike as when we take the toy train (it has a grander official name and status: The Nilgiri Mountain Railway , a...

Coonoor is about 1770 metres higher, and 30 degrees cooler, than steamy, tropical Chennai by the sea. Here are some things about it: it ha...