The Train From Mayiladuthurai – Part I

It was shortly after 1947. A rust colored train chugged out of the Sholapur railway station towards Bombay. Pulled by a steam engine draped in soot it sped slowly through the changing landscape. The arid brown landscape after Raichur had transformed into a hilly verdant one. A fortyish man sat in the first class compartment [...]

The Meaning of the Diya

On a chilly dark November day in Chandani Chowk, with storm clouds gathering from the west, a serene looking man was dragged out of an iron cage and shoved on to a platform. Just as he bowed his head in prayer, he was beheaded. A terrible storm broke out as he lay on the ground. [...]

Protected: The Vain Old Man Who Stole A Little Girl’s Diwali

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Do you like your phone?

How often have you heard someone ask you – just after you pulled out your Treo or Blackberry or any other PDA phone. “Do you like your phone? I am thinking of getting one of these..” I have a Treo and have carried a blackberry in the recent past. If I go back far enough, [...]

Place Shifting – not the U-Haul kind

(First published two years ago)
My 3yr old son walked into my study hearing the radio. He looked at the computer monitor with a puzzled expression and said “that’s not the picture, that’s your email”. He kept scanning the room – I realized that he was looking for a TV picture to match Garrison Keilor’s voice. [...]