Early on in “Sherlock Holmes”, Watson tells Holmes that he knew a man in India who was able to predict not just the time and date of his death but also how many bullets would kill and where he would be shot. This was Watson’s attempt at suggesting to Holmes that magic may exist. I’m [...]

This has to be the best invite of the year. Jenny Bhatt doesn’t just want people to come to her exhibition of paintings, she wants them to achieve “liberation thru’ consumption”, which is why the invite for her show is a credit card.
“Dear Seeker,
As part of our dedicated effort to take care of the spiritual [...]

Apparently, if you’re a guy from South Mumbai — sorry, SoBo; for South Bombay, naturally — then there’s a new way to hit on a girl. You go up to her and pretend to be a dude from Andheri. This involves saying things like, “Hey, wanna dance?” (with dance pronounced with a Texan twang) or [...]

Guess what was reportedly the first buy at the business centre of the Mumbai Film Festival (which is known as MAMI but is actually the MFF)? Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. Meanwhile, on IMDb, Antichrist’s popularity fell by 71%. Sharmila Tagore, who heads up the Indian Censor Board, must feel like she’s just eaten crow. Just [...]

Two reasons to love the New Yorker this week:
1. Anthony Lane’s review of Antichrist.
For every promise of affection, there is a snap of wrath, and the woman who declares, “I love you, darling,” is the same person who, not long after, fetches a drill to bore a hole in her beloved’s leg, plus a pair [...]

I was in my teens. He was in his thirties. I reached his shoulder. We shook hands when we met and, after our last meeting, he kissed my hand. He’s the only man who swung me around a tree, a la Tarzan, and I was more than happy to be his Jane because it’s not [...]

How to Traumatise a Young Girl, or Why it isn’t safe to let Patriarchy into Kerala
Young NS was in her teens and had come to her “native place” in Kerala for a family wedding. There were aunts, smelling of fresh flowers, and rooms smelling of coconut oil. Everything began rather soberly but dignity and restraint went [...]

I have vowed to gag myself (i.e. not blog) until I’m done writing my wretched book but I figured copying something out doesn’t amount to a real blog post. Plus, this was just too good to not share. From Partha Mitter’s “Much Maligned Monsters“, a wonderful book that is available only as an import in [...]

It’s not every day that I have the time to take a walk along the sea in the mornings. Today was one of those rare days when the weather was perfect and I had the time so I thought, “Carpe diem et coffee. Let’s go for a walk.” As I got into the lift, I [...]

“Hello, Calcutta Electric Supply?”
“Hello.”
“I’m calling from Ballygunge Place and I have an emergency.”
“Madam, we are all in a state of emergency. Modern urban life is like that. But how can I help you?”
“Like, I said, I have an emergency.”
“Is it related to your electric supply?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m calling you.”
“You’d be surprised how many people [...]

There are days when being a journalist isn’t equal to being underpaid, ignored, abused, overworked and generally equated with a beast of burden. Sometimes, it’s a journey of discovery that begins in your Inbox. Most of the time, the Inbox is full of nonsense notifications like the one that informed me that Nandana Sen is [...]

In 1988, the Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea. I’ve no idea why I remembered this while rushing past the poster for “Aadimanav aur Sarparani”, whose English tagline proclaimed the movie is “In the line of Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones”, but I did. Twenty-one years ago, sitting in Singapore, it was a big [...]

Hercules killed a few animals, cleaned a stable and stole the Amazon Queen’s girdle when completing the twelve labours that would restore his honour. Rostam’s seven labours included wrestling with a dragon, killing a witch and a demon. Having written almost 70,000 words and thereby completing an entire book, I feel I’ve earned the right [...]

I’m in a tiny little town in Maharashtra. It has one flyover, one temple for B.R. Ambedkar, one spa, two hookah parlours, no discos and 12 gates dating back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is not the kind of place where you expect to walk into a modest hotel and find not one, [...]