Chitra Talkies
This is about a movie theatre which doesn't exist anymore - it was torn down to make way for an office building. It used to be in Pudupet. The building's facade was Art Deco, with motifs in raised...
View ArticlePaanwala
Someone I know went to Bombay for a visit, and reported back: Everyone in Bombay goes out for dinner. Then they go to Muchhad (pron. MOOCH-ard) Paanwala and eat paan, he has his own website, he sits...
View ArticleThe Cat Catcher
A man carrying a long pole with a metal loop on the end told Bahadur that he was a cat catcher, and Bahadur let him inside the gate without question. He was after a stray cat which had been coming in...
View ArticleBuddha Poornima
Today is the birthday of Gautama Buddha, which is celebrated on the full moon in the month of Vaishakh. Here are two poems in his praise from Sanskrit Poetry From Vidyakara's Treasury, translated by...
View ArticleDalpat Ram's Mad King
Ramesh was reciting a Gujerati poem he had had to memorise in childhood - by the poet Dalpat Ram. He told me the story: A guru and his chela are travelling together from place to place. One day they...
View ArticleMy First Time
The first Tamil movie I ever saw was Pennin Perumai (Woman's Pride), (1956).It was presented as a classic film to the South Indian community in Boston, where I went to college. I was a beginning Tamil...
View ArticleHow We Live
From India Today's cover story 'How We Live' (registration required), based on information from the latest Indian Census: ... There are 179 million residential houses in India-that is about six people...
View ArticleAnupam Kher
The actor Anupam Kher interviewed himself on NDTV 24X7, a news channel, on Sunday night. He said that once his car was stopped at an intersection in Bombay, waiting for the light to change, and a...
View ArticleThe Tamil Calendar
A Tamil calendar page for every day of the year.Information about how the traditional Tamil calendar works.The Tamil month of Adi began on July 17 this year. I thought I ought to know more about the...
View ArticleMermaid
Supple and slippery above and below,Sliding wide-eyed under my handsWith a smile like daybreak,You swim into my life only at night,Bringing the shush of waves and shingle,The smell of salt and...
View ArticleA Wedding
Yesterday I went to the nikah, Muslim wedding ceremony, of my neighbour's son. It was held at a community hall around the corner from my house, so I walked. As it turned out, I sat for an hour and...
View ArticleHernia, bat-o vina..
De cativa ani de zile ma chinuie durerile de spate. Am tot evitat sa ma duc la doctor dar in ultimele luni s-au inmultit momentele de criza in care raman la pat cu spatele blocat si cu dureri...
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