Train Travel in India

Having briefly mentioned in a previous post about the opportunity train travel provides to meet with alien characters, I intend to write a full post about it. Moreover this series may feel incomplete without such a topic since train journeys are so much part of our real and reel life. Talking of reel life who … Continue reading Train Travel in India →

What happens when you don’t understand Sanskrit

So, what does really happen if you are an Indian and don't understand Sanskrit? Chances are, you may grow up to be a fake mythologist like Devdutt Pattanaik. It is a matter of shame that Indians grow up reading the interpretation of our mythologies and other scriptures of only western authors and then grow up … Continue reading What happens when you don’t understand Sanskrit →

Her Majesty’s Royal Service – Making Sense of the British Raj

When it comes to interpretation of the British Rule in India there are two schools of thought. The popular view is that it was an era of darkness. Then there are intellectuals who attribute everything that is good in modern India to the colonial rule. The Popular View After Shashi Tharoor quit his international career … Continue reading Her Majesty’s Royal Service – Making Sense of the British Raj →

The Quitters of Hindustan

image source: resanskrit.com Scene I In my first post of the current series, a reader has asked about how Odisha fell from its high pedestals of fine arts, affluence, power and glory. The presence of large number of huge temples of architectural grandeur indicate to affluent times in the past and to be affluent the … Continue reading The Quitters of Hindustan →

How we learnt our puranas

Hari anant hari katha ananta, kahahi sunahi bahu bidhi sadhu santa - thus goes a stanza in Ramacharita Manasa of Tulsidas. Hari is endless, so are his stories. The saint listens and speaks of it in so many ways. Mahabharata, the biggest epic of the world runs into hundred thousand slokas. Then there is Ramayana … Continue reading How we learnt our puranas →

The Odyssey of Odissi Dance

The first time I saw Odissi live on stage was in 1999. It was Kargil time. I was in active defense service and was posted in a forward position. We used to receive the love of citizens in many forms, one of them being an Odissi dance performance. Sonal Mansingh with her troupe had flown … Continue reading The Odyssey of Odissi Dance →

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 →