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...
Waiting
Waiting (Two poems and one photograph that I clicked one night in London. The other poem that goes with the picture can be read here.) So many stories read Pages opened Words unfurled Through the day gone by As I walk back home slowly One night in London.
Conversations with a noose by the river Thames
‘What is this noose doing out there?’ I asked as we watched it swing ominously in the wind that blew in from somewhere in the direction of Tower bridge in London. ‘I really am not sure,’ said the young Frenchman who was clearly not aware of any stories that would be connected to this noose....
Look down to discover chewing gum art in London
Travel get more interesting at times when you begin stumbling upon wonderful undiscovered facets of a city or a country. And during my 2017 trip to London (which is still going on… and I do pray I meet and interview this chewing gum artist) I happened to read about chewing gum art on the Millennium...
Create or die
Being pro creation doesn’t mean you need to procreate or you will die. Nor does it work out if we just pick words out of create and say things like eat or die or rate or die. But then I guess we have all sorts in this world. After all, our eateries are thriving and...
Syllables waiting for a voice
Syllables waiting for a voice (Two poems and one photograph that I clicked one night in London. The other poem that goes with the picture can be read here.) Silence doesn’t exist anywhere Not even in a voiceless stare. The mind invents sounds to see Even a future that may never really be – Sometimes I...
The consonants and vowels in life
Specky, my wife, entered with a frown and said, ‘Phew! Now I have to make a presentation on PowerPoint and it must be in Hindi.’ I looked at Pushkin and he smiled. Only a few minutes back we had been browsing the net and had stumbled upon ‘Shusha’ a font that could be used to...
The adventurous woman in my life
I clicked this and the other pics inside the London Olympics Park in Stratford. This happened on one of our walks there when Specky, my wife, pointed to the site where a Burma bridge and other rope obstacles beckoned. She said, ‘I’ve never done all this.’ I said, ‘Go ahead and reach for the top....
The battle between black cabs and mobile apps
London. 11 June 2014. The black cab strike London is a great city if you choose to walk. Well, there are buses, trams, trains, and cabs too but if you’re in central London, you really don’t want to pay for a transport miss out on stopping every few seconds to unsling your DSLR and go...
