Nua Mahulia

Nua Mahulia - this word which has strange rhyming resemblance with the word Oumuamua* is not any interstellar object. Nor is it any Greek or Latin word for a legal term. It is the name of my native village. The theme of this present series of blogs being mera gaon mera desh, a post about … Continue reading Nua Mahulia →

A Virtual Tour of Mughal India

I don't write book reviews. But sometimes, I write about a book or share my excitement about a book that enthralled me. You may call it a book review if you chose so. In fact this article was first published as a Book Review in the September 1999 issue of 'Bengaluru Review'. I am sharing … Continue reading A Virtual Tour of Mughal India →

The Liberals of Hindustan

Liberalism comes from the latin word libre which means 'free'. Libre is the origin for other words like liberal, liberty, libertarian, and libertine. It is also the inspiration for two of the most frequently used words in Indian social media these days : librandu and fiberal. Even though its popular use started in 17th century … Continue reading The Liberals of Hindustan →

Kaveri connections

Since childhood I have a fascination for rivers. Both mine and my maternal uncle’s villages where I spent most part of my childhood were surrounded by rivers. I can write volumes about my adventures and playful activities associated with rivers. The story of the river is also the story of its people. All ancient civilisations … Continue reading Kaveri connections →

From Jagannath to Juggernaut

Google's dictionary gives the meaning of the word Juggernaut as follows: When you try to find out the word origin, the first page of google search results is full of links to sites run by established dictionary publishers like Macmillan, Webster etc. Of course wikipedia also finds a place. The explanation of wikipedia is much … Continue reading From Jagannath to Juggernaut →

The Idea of India

If I were asked to have only one post on the current AtoZ theme, mera gaon mera desh, I would have this one. It is a book review of ‘India: a sacred Geography’. The book was written by Diana L. Eck - an award winning professor of comparative religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University. … Continue reading The Idea of India →

The Missing History of Hindustan

In my first article of this series I have mentioned about the tradition of Boita Bandana and Bali Jatra that commemorate the glorious maritime adventures of Odias in South East Asia. The businessmen who engaged in such maritime trade were known as sadhabas. There is a popular folk tale in Odisha about one of sadhaba … Continue reading The Missing History of Hindustan →

mera gaon mera desh

Having missed the theme reveal post as I was late in waking up to the AtoZ challenge, I hope this post would compensate for that. In almost all Indian languages, a village is called a Gramam or any of its minor variations. Same way the word palli and its minor variations (like in Kannada it … Continue reading mera gaon mera desh →

What about some thoughts for foods?

Having chosen a deshi theme, I will be talking of Indian Foods. Nothing in particular. Some random observations foraged over the years. Disclaimer: I am neither a foodie nor some kind of a Chef- in- the-making taking advantage of the period of lock down. A sweet battle with our neighbour Unlike some Indian states which … Continue reading What about some thoughts for foods? →

we can’t do away with English but …

I had the opportunity of listening to William Dalrymple when he had come to the Times Literature Festival, Bengaluru this year to promote his latest book - The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. From his account it appears that, unlike the Mughals, the British did not have to struggle either to … Continue reading we can’t do away with English but … →