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.…
The Curse of the Upper Berth
I glare at the computer screen. My entire mood of making that train trip vanishes in an instant. Not again. B4. 54. UB. The Indian Railways has this peculiar penchant of allotting me the upper berth whenever I travel.…
The Dance of Fate
I saw Fate dance today. She lifted her skirts a little Stood tiptoe And twirled across my canvas. A canvas I had kept secure since long And yearned to paint With my imagination. But she arrived unannounced…
Degrees of separation
They choose to walk away from my life And I learn that game of masquerade- Pretend their absence doesn’t affect me. How do I explain the insomnia And your constant presence In all my dreams? I wonder…