Butter & Lasagna

Weird food habits run in my family - most of them related to texture. My father, for example, won’t eat fruits of any kind except plantain that is barely ripe. He won’t eat tomatoes for the same reason and for 35 years my mother has been cooking him sambar (which he loves) and surreptitiously fishing [...]

Fusion When Done Right

You know, I’ve frequently made disparaging noises about what passes for fusion in Hindi (or to be more exact, Bollywood) music for a long time, with special contempt reserved for all the wanna be hip hop tracks. This is not because I’m a crazed traditionalist who hates to see any kind of innovation. Just [...]

Barack Obama & The Muslim Problem

Spreading rumor and innuendo about your political opponents has a long and distinguished past. Whether you ran for elected office or were a monarch, rumors have often proved more difficult to defeat than flesh and blood competition. From Julius Caesar to John McCain, they all fell to whisper campaigns just when they were deemed unbeatable. [...]

Tobacco Tales

Note: The stories I write today are completely based on hearsay. You shouldn’t believe a word of it but if you do, you’re obviously a person of excellent judgment and loyal reader. This makes me happy because it tells me if I ever start a cult aiming at world domination, I know where to look [...]

Oh No! Techno Woe!

Yes, that’s a rhyming title. Because I too can poem (poet? poetry? po? never mind).
As technology advances, unexpected but related woes are on the rise. Take, for example, Steven Levy who has one of those really cool jobs that I wish I could land: he reviews gadgets for Newsweek. It’s just one step short of [...]

Aurangzeb is Somebody’s Hero

Hey, remember Aurangzeb? You know - that jolly old Mughal fellow who imprisoned various family members including his dad and his son, killed his brothers and generally went about making himself pleasant to his populace through the means of banning things like music on religious grounds and killing Sikh gurus? Yeah, that one. Turns out, [...]

Shahrukh Khan = Michael Jackson

Bunty and Babbloo, childhood friends and proud members of the South Bombay Michael Jackson Fan Club, were thrilled this past Friday when they stopped by their favorite Mumbai pub, The Epileptic Fit Pit. There, on the dance floor was their idol, surrounded by Russian back up dancers.
“We were so excited, yaar,” said Bunty. “I mean, [...]

Everybody Hates Biharis

It’s a frantic contest in the Thackeray household! Who hates the North Indians, especially Biharis, the most? Is it Tiger-in-chief, Bal Thackeray; Tiger-in-waiting Uddhav Thackeray; or Tiger-in-the-cold Raj Thackeray?
Raj hates the Biharis so much, he gave up his right to hold political rallies just for the pleasure of saying it once or twice and inciting [...]

Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union

Is it odd that the most famous Frenchman in India is a journalist? I guess not - after all, Dominique Lapierre wrote City of Joy, a book that forever christened Kolkatta as such. And that’s not counting some of his other books like Freedom at Midnight (with Larry Collins) and Five Past Midnight in Bhopal [...]

The Return of Kashmir Singh

It sounds like a movie or a novel - and a cheesy one at that. Man, wrongly convicted of espionage, is sentenced to death by an army court and spends 35 years on death row until a chance encounter with a Minister grants him a reprieve; finally he comes home to the wife and children [...]