By Keith Pereña
Recently, my friend posed a question on Instagram: “How do you say daybreak in Filipino?” Knowing the answer, I replied, “Easy. It’s bukang liwayway.” Wrong. There’s supposed to be a dash separating the two words, my friend said. The dash in Filipino, she said, is called gitling. This was an interesting to learn. As it happens, August in the Philippines is Buwan ng Wika or the National Language Month. Continue reading How many Filipino phrases do you know, anyway?
By Asma Ali Zain
Punjabis are, by nature, loud and passionate. They celebrate the smallest of victories or debunk the biggest of happenings with equal fervour. They don’t believe in the middle ground. And during election time, they are especially charged. Continue reading Bowled over by the Punjabis, the biryani, and post-election Lahore
By Kelly Clarke
I remember the moment vividly; filled with indignation I knew I had to get my revenge, and eventually I did. It was sweet. I was 12-years-old. It was a Saturday evening; movie night in the Clarke household. Back then, it was a trip to the video store for Hollywood’s latest blockbuster; on-demand and Netflix didn’t exist. With my mum and I in charge of the popcorn, my father and brother were tasked with going to fetch the film.
Continue reading Pointless deaths of 300 crocs left me mad at people
By Suresh Pattali
Been there, done that, I know how bad it could get inside a dark hellish labyrinth a kilometre beneath the earth and four kilometres from the nearest point of sunlight. In the 19 days when the 12 boys and their football coach were trapped inside the flooded Tham Luang cave system in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, not a day had passed without my prayers for their safety. Such was my agony that at times I metamorphosed into one among the boys who survived the ordeal on hopes, prayers, and more importantly the bond that existed between them.
Continue reading What those caves were like for the 12 brave Thai boys
By Anamika Chatterjee
The last time I drove was when I was six. My father had bought me a bicycle to keep me gainfully occupied. As the years passed, my penchant for driving remained a thing of childhood. Among all the things one has to learn while growing up — striving and surviving — driving got left out No wonder then the car my family eventually bought stands as a relic we collectively gaze at while entering and leaving the house. For the most part, I rely on RTA, Uber, Careem and some well-intentioned friends to drive me from point A to B.
Continue reading Ladies in Saudi have won their rights to those car keys, so yay!
By Nivriti Butalia
By now, everyone must have seen that photograph of Angela Merkel, Donald Trump and other world leaders at the G7 Summit in Canada earlier this week. We splashed it on page one of this newspaper. And retweet-wise, it’s been creating a storm.
Continue reading Sit up and read what to make of Angela Merkel’s body language
By Suresh Pattali
The Istana, 35 Orchard Road, Singapore 238902. This most prestigious address on the island nation shot to prominence with the arrival of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump earlier this week for their much-hyped historic summit. Ever since it was confirmed in May that the tiny First World nation would be the venue of the meeting, Google Trends showed a sharp spike in American searches for “Where is Singapore located?” That ignorance is pardonable because their leader, the 45th president of the United States, himself is notorious for his many geographical faux pas. He once assumed Paris was in Germany, and called Belgium a city. Following in his footsteps, the US State Department this week mentioned Singapore as part of Malaysia on a summit-related document posted on its official website.
Continue reading How cool to see Trump and Kim in my former neighbourhood
