Kalki Krishnamurthy, the famous Tamil Novelist is widely known for his magnum opus 'Ponniyin Selvan.' Actually one of his other novels - Sivakimiyin Sapatham (Sivakami's Vow) relates more to us because the novel is based in Mahabalipuram, the village/town where we grew up. Kalki's narration about any ancient city is so powerful it brings to... Continue Reading →
Vinay my nephew based in Toronto, Canada and I were chatting few Sundays back on WhatsApp video and somehow the conversation turned to some language howlers. He then mentioned an incident happened the previous day. He was checking the features of a mobile phone in a shop and the sales guy at the shop was... Continue Reading →
Maha Ganapathy and Mahatma Gandhi have something in common. Figures of both are drawn in million different ways and each one of them is easily recognizable. More about this in a minute. My Cousin Manogar or Mano Anna to us, narrated this story sometime in the early seventies. As every elder brother, he was a... Continue Reading →
I published a blog last year (What’s the Magic? You Asked Time to Stop!) where I have written about two great lyricists of Tamil Movies namely Kannadasan and Vali. I thought I would follow that up with couple of more songs from these great poets but never got around to it. You always need a... Continue Reading →
Kolkata or Calcutta is the most generous city in the world. Yes! You read it correctly. No typos there. It is the most accommodating city. It packs more human beings per square foot than most of the cities would do per square mile. Yet, it welcomes more people every day from its own state, the... Continue Reading →
"In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope." -Peter Nivio Zarlenga What is the greatest invention of the industrial era? Mr. Lee Kuan Yew or LKY, the father of Modern Singapore Nation State believed it is the Air Conditioner. The reason for his choice was simple. The comfortable life we live,... Continue Reading →
Mohan Ram, my friend, co-conspirator in adventures in school Eye Witness – Movie with Mohan Ram and a colleague now, is convinced that yours truly is the sole reason for all the heatwave and water shortage in Chennai. Residents of most of the big cities in India count the days once the summer starts. People, for... Continue Reading →
From the first train which ran on 16th April 1853 which carried 400 people from Bombay (Bori Bundar to Thane) to carrying 9.2 billion riders in 2018, the Indian Railways has come a long way. Let me not bore you with statistics - enough to say it's one of the largest in the world. Indian... Continue Reading →
A typical monsoon day in Mumbai. Heavy rains were lashing the city and suburbs. I was boarding the airline's bus from the terminal to the aircraft. The driver first parked the bus near the aircraft and immediately realised that the passengers would get drenched in the rains for a second before they could get on... Continue Reading →
