March 1999, a village on the outskirts of Leh. A golden morning glow embraces the freezing land stirring it to life. Above, a trail of wispy cirrus clouds is strung across a cold blue sky. Looking out from a small, one-room mud-brick canteen at the back of an OCR, a deeply sunburnt Gilik, exclaims: Aaaa, […]
Sharing another letter from Kiran sir, written (Sept. 1982) from Rajghat, Varanasi. The monsoons come alive and the vivid imagery of the land’s fecundity during the rains is Marquezesqe. His first novel – Halfway Up The Mountain – is replete with such evocative descriptions. Thank you, sir! One of his favourite authors was Steinbeck. I […]
This thali of colourful vegetables, accompanied by rotis/ phulkas or plain rice or a sour dough loaf, should be good for about six persons. These vegetables combine in a delicious, nutritious mix such that you get to savour the beans, the baigan/ bhanta/ aubergine and the aloo/ potatoes separately as well as the goodness of […]
Weightless, she rode the clouds floating over oceans, Snow-covered mountains, fields green and brown, scraggly human habitations, serpentine rivers, and silvery streams She rode the wispy ones in cold blue skies, and the dark thunderous monsoon battleships, firing lightening salvos, drenching the ground underneath. She had watched them float unhindered, across hostile borders and nations, […]
Sharing a letter from my school teacher and warden at Rajghat school, Varanasi. I was in class 10. The writer, Kiran Khalap, co-founder and Manging Director of Chlorophyll, avid rock-climber and author, based in Mumbai, agreed to this sharing. The letter is equally a work of calligraphy. What more do you need from a Guru? […]
Raju waited in the dappled shade of an old grove of low-branching mango trees that spread over a patch of Bhangar north-west of the village. From his vantage point, he could see the half paved, half dirt road from the village snaking between the fields to join the road that took you to Sarni. On […]
As we travelled further from the Hyderabad airport in Shamshabad with its shining industrial parks and commercial hubs through Rangareddy and then Nalgonda districts to meet Vidyadhan families, paddy and cotton fields, interspersed with clusters of industrial units, increasingly dominated the landscape. These are stories of families and individuals struggling and emerging more empowered in […]
What else had unhinged him …something to do, perhaps, with the gap between our dreams and our realities. John Le Carre A narrow pagdandi meandered up the sheer south-west face of the looming mountain. Rahman climbed in slow deliberate steps, avoiding the jagged edges, drawing in long even breaths, as the air got thin and […]
Dr Sengupta lives in CR park. He is older, doesn’t drive these days on Delhi’s ever-more maddening roads but his mind does at times drift back to now faint, adrenaline-tinted memories, and a nostalgic-ache for those more adventurous times. Meanwhile, in these last few years, Mrs Sengupta has taken complete charge of their new vehicle […]
It was the middle of January; another year had just started. A westerly wind blew stirring dust in the urban air. The usually bustling streets wore a deserted look, except for a few stray dogs loitering, stupefied by the sudden absence of humans after the frenzy of violence the previous day. Some had curled up […]
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