Golden orioles: My favourite summer sight
Sevagram can be terribly atrocious in the summers with the temperatures climbing to over 45 degrees C. But there are some blessings of nature one can look forward to even when the sun is blazing down. Delicious…
Piazza Navona: An ode to the genius of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The final element- Water. If you are a Dan Brown fan, and if you’ve read Angels and Demons, you will surely recognize this place. This is the place where Robert Langdon finds the assassin trying to drown…
The glitz and glamour of Cannes
So Aishwarya Rai and Sonam Kapoor are making waves at Cannes? Never mind! We were on a Mediterranean cruise and spent a day in Cannes a week before the 2016 festival. Have a look at the real…
Rikki Tikki Tavi in my garden!
Hey I spotted Kipling’s Rikki Tikki Tavi with his entire family in my garden! I didn’t know that this mongoose family (mongooses? mongeese?!) likes taking a morning walk on the boundary wall! But what a gorgeous fur coat the…
Shy visitor: Black-hooded Cuckooshrike
Delightful morning. Waited with breathless anticipation wondering if this new visitor to the mango tree could be captured for posterity. Each time it shyly disappeared between the leaves in the canopy, my arms ached with holding the…
Who buttbuttinated Abraham Lincoln? : The clbuttic buttumption
Well, I buttume the breastle of this post will be understood by most of you. After all it is in plain English and is not as difficult to comprehend as our consbreastution. And yes, the profanity filters…
Finding my muse at Keats-Shelly Memorial House
Very early in school, my first English teacher, Mrs Beatrice Hawkins introduced me to John Keats, as she taught me cursive writing, by making me repeatedly write “A thing of beauty is joy forever” in my four-lined…
Bael sherbet: The summer cooler
Just behind my house, is a Bael tree. It caught my interest last year, when I found a pair of yellow-footed green pigeons making a nest in its branches. This year it is the koel’s favourite haunt.…
The Gondoliers of Venice
“Will you sing for me?”, I asked as I gingerly tiptoed into the gondola. “Of course, my lady!”, said Cristiano, our gondolier. Cristiano is one of the 400 gondoliers who has a license to operate gondola rides for tourists.…
