Figuring Things Out

George Orwell's book, "Burmese Days" is centred on a fictional town called Kyauktada 'in Upper Burma'. It is the stor...

At first glance Sanjoy Hazarika's book may seem rather dated. It gives a snapshot of the North Eastern states up to the early 1990s.  Mu...

An endless white expanse of saltpans, blue skies, and Dholavira. If you are a history buff nothing quite prepares you for the ancient Harapp...

A carpet from Balkh adorns our living room. It is a constant reminder old assignments with the UN in Afghanistan, of traveling long dusty ro...

If there is any place that completely defies expectations it must be Ajanta. We grow up reading about this place in our school textbooks, it...

I thought I knew a thing or two about Indian epics and classics.  Over the past months, two books and a podcast have undermined this notion,...

  "Vatapi Ganapati" is a much loved composition in Carnatic Music, one of the two branches of classical music in India. Composed b...

  It seems nobody actually thought the cornered bear would attack, but last week, it did. Perhaps it was assumed that all the snarling and s...

  On the banks of Manimala river in Tiruvalla, Kerala, there is a place called Thottabhagom. Perhaps the area gets it name (~ 'garden ar...

It's 5:30AM and there is a nip in the air. You look out from the balcony and your gaze moves up from the empty roads, the streetlights, ...

 The Suez was in the news last month. A single, massive ship passing through the canal got blown by the winds and ended up getting wedged ac...

 Today is the winter equinox - one of the few festivals days linked to the solar calendar India. In the north - especially in Punjab the day...

 I got my first introduction to the concept of Slavery a few decades ago,  from Alex Haley's book, "Roots" .  This book not on...

This was a New Year trip to remember. Our road trip to Alwar and the Sariska Tiger Reserve was just meant to be a break - from the drearine...

  Let us be upfront about two things about this book: first, its a fine piece of work, and second, it might look like a tome but its not - n...

Among the many disturbing videos that turned up on twitter last week, there was one from North West Pakistan . At first glance it loo...