Seen them all, he said. Really, I asked?

Seen them all, he said. Really, I asked?

Between seeing and seeing again lies an entire universe of change. Changes happen faster than one blinks an eye. What this means is that one visit is never going to be enough. Not ten. Not even a hundred visits. There will always be some new addition or some perceptive insight...
It’s not that simple to be simple, says Chetan Bhagat

It’s not that simple to be simple, says Chetan Bhagat

I saw him from a distance and waved. He smiled and waved back. No airs. No snooty looks thrown at anyone. Chetan Bhagat loves to retain his easy and communicative personality… and I guess this is exactly how he has shaped his writing through the years. As we walked around...
Redefining ‘Sanjeevani’ at the Valley of Flowers

Redefining ‘Sanjeevani’ at the Valley of Flowers

It was sometime in the nineteen thirties that Frank S Smythe ‘came upon the lush and colourful Bhyundar Valley, the Valley of Flowers’ and he describes his adventures in the lower and upper Himalayas in his book. Smythe discovered that ‘the predominant note was peace; not the faintest breeze ruffled...
Ashwin Sanghi and the secrets of writing a thriller

Ashwin Sanghi and the secrets of writing a thriller

I remember reading Chanakya’s Chant a few years back and knew then that the time for Indian readers to get high on thrillers written by Indian writers had come. In the years that followed, I read and reviewed The Krishna Key and Private India as well. Obviously then, it was...
Terrorism is a monologue in a subverted mind

Terrorism is a monologue in a subverted mind

Defining terrorism isn’t easy. Kamalhasan calls Nathuram Gadse the first Hindu terrorist but Madhu Purnima Kishwar retorts by tweeting that some people ‘can’t tell the difference between a terrorist and an assassin. The latter is not a complimentary term. Kennedy’s killing was an assassination and never called a terrorist act....
Poaching is a terror unleashed on wildlife

Poaching is a terror unleashed on wildlife

Poaching isn’t a word that exists only in political parlance around the world. Employees can be poached by corporates, ideas are often poached by unscrupulous writers, and of course lots of people love poached eggs. However, it is time to connect the word back to the world where it rightly...
Radio is the theatre of the mind

Radio is the theatre of the mind

If any of you thought radio was only for driving on packed highways or it was just a lot of words without the boxing gloves of statistics or that only preaching happened there, you are probably the sort who has never listened to ‘Mann ki baat’ by Narendra Modi, the...
Holy cow! Why in the world will we want to move away from traditions?

Holy cow! Why in the world will we want to move away from traditions?

Jarping. Songkran. Ruzzola. Namaste. This post is about understanding traditions and why need a contemporary make-over.
Comedy, creativity, and green tea

Comedy, creativity, and green tea

Comedy, creativity, and green tea. Read this post to know the secrets of a super boost in creativity. #SuperBloggerChallenge #Instacuppa
That’s how stories happen

That’s how stories happen

I tried rubbing the edge of my study table, whispering, ‘Appear, my lovely story. Appear!’ It didn’t. I tried this with the walls in my home, with trees in the park, and once even slyly tried rubbing the end of the shawl of a woman I didn’t know at all....
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Vanished roads and vintage ghosts in a London pub

Vanished roads and vintage ghosts in a London pub

Walking around London and suddenly stumbling upon a pub in a cobbled lane and told a timeless tale and of unwritten toasts can convince anyone of the sort of spell that this city can cast over anyone. Our spooky encounter with unwritten histories in a hidden pub happened a few years back during one of...
Unspoken art in unfiltered London

Unspoken art in unfiltered London

London is a city where even randomness looks like art. I’d call this city the birthplace of moody Instagram aesthetics. I have found empty beer cans thrust upside-down between the planks of a bench in a park and the first thought that came to my mind was – is this a modern commentary on post-industrial...
Theatrical Reflections in London – A City on Stage

Theatrical Reflections in London – A City on Stage

One day the sun was up. Warm and sunny, Chorused all Londoners. Another day it was raining again in London. The kind of rain that doesn’t pour but lingers – soft, stubborn, and gray like an old coat that doesn’t fit but keeps you warm. The streets were slick with it. The pavements mirrored the...
Smile, you’re on a London bus

Smile, you’re on a London bus

In the nineties, when Pushkin was a small boy, we always rushed up the stairs to the top deck and the front seats. We have fallen in love with London as seen from the second deck. These scarlet spirits of the city gave us a million stories to remember. Even today we love to go...
Resilience in brick – London reclaims the rhythm every time

Resilience in brick – London reclaims the rhythm every time

We have watched the London skyline transform from a huddle of Victorian buildings to a reimagined architectural language that is bold, angular, glass-faced, and gleaming. I am talking of the period between the mid-nineties and now. London appears to be trickily balanced between the words of Julia Morgan (“Architecture is a visual art, and the...
Quiet courage in a yellow coat – London Lollipop ladies (and men)

Quiet courage in a yellow coat – London Lollipop ladies (and men)

It was in York in 1985 that I first came across a lollipop lady. This happened on one day when we had gone to pick up Pushkin from his school – Fishergate Primary. Two of the mothers whom Specky, my wife, was able to identify, were wearing yellow fluorescent jackets with reflective strips and they...
Portraits in porcelain preserving secrets and pouring history in London

Portraits in porcelain preserving secrets and pouring history in London

‘The keeper of all the secrets’ is now displayed in the Queen’s House at the Royal Museums Greenwich. This place is oozing with history, art, and artifacts collected from all over the world. Well, Shashi Tharoor might have preferred the expression ‘looted from the colonies’ but then many of those displayed here are created by...
Outcry of the deep in London

Outcry of the deep in London

London takes a determined step towards issues that trouble the world. Every time… besides the times the city’s political hub wants to kowtow to the Americans, I’d add. This isn’t an analysis of the political hues that often submerge the city’s features. This essay is about an issue that jumps out of the water into...
No Rush, No Blur – Just London

No Rush, No Blur – Just London

London is a city where the moment waits, and the moment runs. This city encourages both the deliberate gaze as well as the quick fire which is just another way of saying that London lets you choose your pace. Photography lives in the slow walk of seeing as well as in the quick leap of...
Moonlit Murmurs of the Metropolis – London

Moonlit Murmurs of the Metropolis – London

London at night is no longer in a rush. Not a hush really but you can find yourself hearing whispers through glowing windows, reflections in the river, and even the traffic breathes slower, steadier, revealing mysteries that are not possible to see in the day. One falls in love even with London at dusk when...
Luring London – The City’s Playful Public Art Trails

Luring London – The City’s Playful Public Art Trails

London surprises me. Every time. This is one city that doesn’t just wear its history on its sleeve but paints it across pavements, balances it on rooftops, and hides it in plain sight. Every time I have stepped out of my home in London, I have stepped into a story told in sculpture and colour....
Kwick Wits and Kryptic Codes of London Cabbies

Kwick Wits and Kryptic Codes of London Cabbies

Cabbies are not the same everywhere. I remember the drivers of the iconic kaali-Peeli taxis of Delhi who loved to honk incessantly, tailgated other cars, used a full beam at night, played loud filmi music, and began every ride with a sly smile and an apology: ‘The meter isn’t working.’ London cabbies cannot be crowned...