X-ray of a living city – London
Any city stands exposed when seen from a vantage point. One could be in London and watching this city from Horizon 22, like we did yesterday… well, we have seen London sitting in a capsule of London Eye, from the roof of Tate Modern, from the Sky Garden, and even from the walkway above the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Guardians of London’s green havens
We have been visiting London since the mid-nineties and so our love for the ducks, swans, pigeons, and squirrels of London has grown over time. It was not easy as many Indians, like us, might shake their heads in dismay and say: “Forget pigeons and squirrels. They are a nuisance. And we have had too...
Dramatic London – Dancing clouds and whispering lights
There is hidden magic in the ever-changing London skies that turn it into a potent Muse. No wonder there is poetry all around. From poetry on the Underground to poets on hire overground, so to say. It is as if the skies over London have just one aim – defy the grey! Not just 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...
Travel is all about new eyes and not new landscapes
The first time I was in London was sometime in the mid-nineties and then for the next three years the city became an annual celebration. There was then a gap of a few years and the London happened again… and then again a couple of years later. I remember a friend asking, ‘Don’t you get...
