Readers of the blog know very well that I love travelogues and reading about different corners of the world. In our singular life, we cannot travel everywhere that our mind wishes to travel. We are often bound by finances, the duty to work, and dedication to family (and now, covid). Even if we were to only travel all our lives, one lifetime isn’t enough.
Leave a CommentTag: Books
The perpetual seeming lock-down has gotten us down trying new things. Through a close friend from childhood, I came across the recipe for cooking onions. So, we go down the rabbit hole of the internet, the original domestic goddess, and her early nineteenth-century cookbook.
Leave a CommentA match concluded in Brisbane after a month-long test series fought with verve and grit, among depleting troops and injuries, by teams stretched by the tiresome seclusion in covid bubbles. Test cricket is such a persistent anomaly in the breakneck pace of the current world.
Leave a CommentSince Brexit, I had always wanted to read about the peculiarity of Euroscepticism in England, and the reasons England voted in stark difference from Scotland on the Remain/Leave referendum. I started with the single-volume history of England — The English and Their History by the historian Robert Tombs. As an engineering grad, I did not take a formal course in history. Reading this book would be an enjoyable learning experience and rectify that mistake. The Brexit referendum would impose that the whole of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) exits Europe. The term Brexit, of course, refers to the exit of Great Britain. In truth, it was a slim majority of older, working-class England that was itching…
Leave a CommentIn light of the ongoing skirmishes in Ladakh region the Indian subcontinent, I came across an interesting essay by Peter Worthington, who co-founded Toronto Sun (and who was its editor-in-chief for 12 years), on his first-hand observations in India-China conflict of 1962. It is an informative essay despite its brevity, with many highlights including a searing description of the valor of Sikh units despite the loss, an interview with sorrowful Nehru is visited by a large rat running across the carpet (Worthington feels sorry for him), and an interlude with Dalai Lama where he reminisces about Heinrich Harrer (played by Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet). Both India and China seemed embarrassed – one because was defeated so easily,…
Leave a CommentKnives Out is a modern throwback to classic Christie whodunits, complete with the imposing mansion, an old dead person, the usual assortment of idiosyncratic family members and backhanded political commentary. And the Pynchon Joke.
Leave a CommentGrowing up in India, one saw the image of Gandhi everywhere. Gandhi was Mahatma (“great soul”), whose aura soared above the martyrs of struggle for Independence. Gandhi’s bespectacled visage is still a universal presence on rural committees, on non-profit logos, in drawing competitions, and in children’s “fancy dress” parades on his birthday celebrations. He is etched on the Indian currency bills and sketched in collective memories, but always with the same imagery: the charkha (the wheel), the round spectacled bald head, the walking stick on which his spindly weight rested, the white khaddar fabric and time-piece, and the ever-present smile. Even as Gandhian lifestyle fades into the distant past, with memories being re-layered in celluloid hues of Kingsley’s face, Gandhi’s round spectacles…
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