the hardest thing to catch really is a feeling. And yet, why must it be caught, why not just let it flow, go where it wants to. fly. shobhona strolled in the garden, the bed of roses was brimming with the light pink variety banker dadu had sent with chhorda. she wondered if like banker dadu, she should leave everything and go away to kalimpong. live up in the hills, among flowers and oranges and quiet slopes; and children with…
twitter is a funny place i see girls dying over tv drama lovers, sighing about their favourite heroes i see a women died on a bus and her husband and kid were thrown out of it i see pictures of madhubani paintings and talk of art i see a journalist’s taunt at a shot that paints a picture too good not to make likes and rts out of i see images of children mangled by syria i see cute messages…
Tired and worn Tattered and torn Swept along hapless with the winds Left alone, faded and forlorn. Wailing and weeping Sobbing and screaming Inconsequential in the grand scheme of things Damp eyes with tears streaming. Depressed and driven insane Tortured and in pain Invisible to all that good fate brings Left alone fighting in vain. Hopeless and unheeded Ignored and defeated A lone cry in the discordant dissonant string With all happiness depleted. Ever had a day when you just can’t get…
Lady in white is a romance novel where forbidden love meets arranged marriage. Thrown in is a ghost or two, for good measure. Denise Domning mixes royal political drama with some old fashioned romance and the result turns out to be a well-written book all in all. Bella is a rather plain-faced recent young window. Her mother was a conniving narcissistic siren in Queen Elizabeth’s court. Surprisingly, the Queen is portrayed as this petulant child-woman who likes to get her way.…
Whenever summer arrives, my mother starts worrying about getting things ready for the daunting task of making the mango pickle which is done once a year. It’s made in a large quantity so that it could last for the whole year. Making of the mango pickle, which in Telugu is called the Avakaya, is quite a family affair. The word avakaya is a combination of avalu, which means mustard seeds; and kaya, which in this case means vegetable. Essentially, avakaya…
he sat there looking lost on the old park bench. when i saw the jaw line, i knew there was only one thing i could do. i sat down. “what’s up?” i asked when i found my voice. he looked so disoriented. he turned and there were his eyes. i remembered chocolate, my habit of quietly eating a little chocolate every night, chocolate all by myself. my throat went dry again. “huh!” oh, so he had a voice. how do…
at the end of our walk yesterday, we came across the galistan family service centre. it was a simple, single storey, slightly rundown building surrounded by a metal fence, but there was a welcoming air to it. we had just turned into choa chu kang road from upper bukit timah road. aj said these centres helped needy families, also the many foreign workers on the island. the banners hanging on the fence gave details of recreational programmes for maids, or…
if you happen to live in bungalow number 7 in digboi, you’ll know you have to climb sixty steps up the tila to the house. this being digboi in upper assam, the terrain is dotted with tilas or hillocks; on top of many of these sit bungalows built by the assam oil company. the company’s officers live in them. digboi, if you’ve never heard of it, is a town up in the north east of the north eastern state of…
Blame it on Sooraj Barjatya. Those loud hyper happy families with beautiful decked grand halls, curving stairways, women with stone jewellery, intricate ornate lehengas and all that food! I was a Bihari (or half since my mother is a Bengali), but I longed to be a Marwari. The food was a big part of this yearning. In the movies, the heroine or mother would make gajar ka halwa (carrot dessert). But, there are so many more food options. My Marwari neighbours would call…
if you’re not bengali, you haven’t probably heard of kheer komla. in english, i guess that would be condensed sweetened milk with orange. sounds prettier in bengali, i must say. orange has been used in many well known and much loved dishes in cuisines from all over the world. duck a l’orange and crepe suzette came promptly to mind and distracted me the moment i wrote that. both are memorable and i haven’t had either in the longest time. but…