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)
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
‘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...
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
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
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
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...
Jump In, Hold Tight – A Joyride Through London’s Cab Culture
Wodehouse spares no one, not even the iconic cab-walas of London. The black cabs and their drivers have inspired the flavor of a million jokes but P G Wodehouse in ‘Right Ho, Jeeves’ considers even hailing a cab feel like someone entering the arena of Mortal Combat… and I quote: ‘I weighed the matter for...
Inhaling London, One Poem at a Time
London is a bustling metropolis with everything one can imagine about, and these are not limited to inventories in stores and must-see lists of tourists. There is a lot of rhythm beneath the city’s skin that is way beyond the capabilities of the steel veins and loops of cables that are constantly pulsating. The poetry...
Epic encounters – Indians who fell in love with London
Touchdown at Heathrow and the first realization that pulls the quilts off the drowsy mind is that it is time for the subconscious to expect unfamiliar accents. The subconscious remains bewildered for the first few minutes but then, as is with most literate Indians, it eases into a different mode and marches along with the...
Changing face of London: From curiosity to inclusion
London was a fine city even in the mid-nineties. One could spot tourists from India wearing lovely western dresses. They generally conversed in English and most of them claimed to be from Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Madras, or Bangalore. This obviously meant that most people who were not from India naturally assumed that the rest of...
Art in London – Between Control and Chance
Has art reached a level where one may safely call it splatters, smears, and squiggles or if one wishes to be gentler, simply call it art without a map? If one considers the reels that some artists share on Instagram, one gets a feeling of travelling at neck-break speed on the edge of meaning. I...
