Yesterday, while I was on the Namma Metro, I was trying to read. The book was a crime novel and I was immersed in the details of a decapitated head when the train stopped at a station. Now, I have been on many trains in different parts of the world. But the Bengaluru Metro is […]
I can’t believe it’s the Year of the Monkey again. That it has been more than a decade since the last Year of the Monkey. Gone through 12 Zodiac signs. All the other animals before reaching the monkey again. It was in 2004 that I first met the monkey. Back then, I was in Lianyungang, […]
Many years ago, now more than a decade, I spent a few months in the most obscure town you can imagine in China. Shuyang. Deep in Jiangsu Province in the northern part of China, it was my first stay abroad. Shuyang was a nondescript town. A village really. It was drab, colorless, and would […]
Infinite thoughts. Infinitesimal moments.And when they converge, the result is a perfect memory. To be framed and hung, no matter how crowded the walls of our minds, space enough for these mind paintings that smile over our lives. Away from India. Away from the familiar. Here is where I am. In this country called China. […]
Having spent around 3 years in China, the first question that people ask me, a vegetarian for life, is “How did you manage/survive?” Not how the land was. Its wonderful people. The spectacular temples. The beautiful juxtaposition of tradition and culture. Just this question. You then shrug and say, “Oh, it was fine.” “But I […]
I wake up these days feeling like I have never slept. I don’t know what it is – the lethargy of a hot summer kicking in? Or the ennui of each day that yawns itself into monotony? Or just the excesses of an adrenaline-packed week in Shanghai? After a gap of just over 7 months, […]
The other day, while having lunch at my favorite noodles place, I met a girl who looks remarkably Indian. I had been curious about her – I had seen her fleetingly, and she was usually with the Thais. There is another woman who looks so much like Rani Mukherjee, but is from Chile. Turns out […]
Last Saturday, Yoke called us to go “cherry picking, drink tea and play mahjong.” Are there better ways to spend a Saturday? Since I couldn’t think of any, we agreed. It was around 10AM when he came knocking on the door. The day was gloomy with a forecast of rain and we were wondering if […]
After the frustration of day before, it was 7 40AM when we set off from Wuxiangang Parking lot. The students we met warn us that to climb the summit on foot is ‘dangerous.’ “It’s very cold up there,” they say. Take the bus, they urge. “Oh well, we are crazy, ” I laugh. Sigh. I […]
Ah, I have spent the last two weeks (has it been that long since I wrote here?) being ill. I have been afflicted with a strange bug that doctors have taken two tests to find out and now still require another third one before they find out what it is. So I wait. And now, […]