By Bikram Vohra
When one of the editors asked me to do this piece, she said you can be as honest as you like. That, of course, underscores the suspicion that half the time all of us writers are fibbing and that honesty is now at a premium.
Continue reading I didn’t always tell the truth to my friends
By Purva Grover
Something astounding was happening in the world and I was unaware. I was hiding in my cocoon — sitting on my couch with my favourite coffee mug. I had even wrapped up myself in a blanket. I was cosy and content. The hair on my crown had begun to turn a new shade, grey to be specific. I had begun to outrightly refuse any ‘catching up’ invites that involved meeting at places that played music at an ear deafening volume. I was promoting clean eating, regular exercising and fixed hours of sleep to everyone. I was at peace. Little did I know that it wasn’t going to last for long.
Continue reading I fell in love with kids we call the millennials
By Suneeti Ahuja-Kohli
You have to give it to the Japanese for their exquisite taste in food and total devotion to the craft. No wonder they are often in the news for their willingness to spend on food and going the extra mile to ensure freshness, richness and aesthetic appeal on their plate. Remember Kiyoshi Kimura, the owner of a Japanese sushi restaurant chain, who spends an awful amount at the Tsukiji fish market every year? An eye-watering $1.8 million for bluefin in 2013; and $636,000 in January this year for his restaurant, all to ensure that his customers get to eat the best.
By Suresh Patalli
“I’m a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone.” Prof Krishnan crooned Irene McLeod in a 90-strong classroom, his husky voice breathing a saturnine mood into his diction. Some yawned. Some dozed off. I, for myself, soaked up all the ambience of the poem and replaced the dog with my own soul. Loneliness has since been embedded in my DNA. Tangible pretensions of loneliness, along with a sling bag, unkempt hair and scrubby beard were a fad in those days. Girls marked out such guys as they romanced anything or anyone left-of-centre.
Continue reading I learnt the art of solitude, thanks to an 87-year-old man
By Sherouk Zakaria
On a hustling Sunday afternoon in April, my former boss — now a good friend — rang me. “There’s a press trip to Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, and I’m pitching in your name,” I heard him say on the line. He had known that last year, four of my scheduled press trips to Europe got cancelled due to delayed visa issues, and he had caught my passion for writing refugee-related stories.
Continue reading A journey to the refugee camp changed my life
By Anamika Chatterjee
At the age of 15, stability eluded me. I was in tenth grade, preparing for one of the early rites of passage (read: the board exams), when my hands began to tremble routinely. The minor tremors sent major shockwaves to my family. Anxious, my parents decided to take me to the doctor’s. Was it Parkinson’s? No, said a neurologist. Certainly not, assured another. A detailed interrogation ensued. Smoking? No. Consuming the beverage that kids your age mustn’t consume? Hell, no. Nursing a broken heart? If only. Finally, the doctors concluded that studies were taking their toll on me. Solution? Take it easy.
Continue reading How Louvre reached out to me one winter morning
By Maan Jalal
I don’t know if I believe in magic in the traditional sense of the word. Though I love Harry Potter and the worlds of fantasy in general, whether on the page or on the screen, I am in many ways a common sense type of person. However, to contradict myself in print, there is a more nuanced meaning of magic that I do believe in.
Continue reading I just stumbled on a distant voice called Mercury
