Irawati Karve’s ‘Yuganta- The end of an epoch’
Just finished reading Irawati Karve’s ‘Yuganta– The end of an epoch‘. It is an English version of the original Marathi book written in the 1960s. In a series of compelling essays, she draws sketches of the most prominent…
Newton: Amit V Masurkar’s masterpiece
India’s 2017 entry for the Oscar for Best Foreign language film is Amit V Masurkar’s Newton. The film stars Rajkummar Rao as Newton– a conscientious, upright officer who is sent on his first assignment to conduct polls in a…
Weekend getaway: Markanda Devasthan
On Sunday, we visited this 1200 year old temple complex dedicated to Lord Shiva near Chamorshi in Gadchiroli district. Built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty on the banks of the Wainganga river, only 18 of the original 24…
The mausoleum of Gond kings and Shri Anchaleshwar temple
Just inside the Gond fort, near the Anchaleshwar gate in Chandrapur, is the ancient Anchaleshwar temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. It was built in the 16th century. But what is more interesting than the temple are the…
Hansal Mehta’s Simran: a letdown
Coming from Hansal Mehta- director of films like Shahid and Aligarh- Simran is a letdown. It is a tale of an NRI gujju hotel maid Praful Patel who is ambitious and impulsive. (I couldn’t but think of…
Hiking in the Bernese Oberland: Bachalpsee
On this trip we dumped our predecided agenda and chose to do non-touristy stuff. Step one was booking a room and backpacking to the idyllic settings of the Swiss village of Grindelwald. Surrounded by the beautiful peaks of…
Em and the big Hoom: Jerry Pinto’s poignant novel
“Imagine you are walking in a pleasant meadow with someone you love, your mother. It is warm, and there’s just enough of a breeze to cool you…… Suddenly, your mother steps into a patch of quicksand. The…
My marathon bird watching session!
What a glorious day of bird watching today has been! Ten hours of watching a whole cavalcade of birds, and all from within the comfort of my bedroom. How was that possible you might ask? Here is…
Selection Day: Aravind Adiga’s third novel
‘Selection Day’ is Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga’s third novel. Published by Fourth Estate, the book is set in Mumbai with cricket as its backdrop. Like his first novel, ‘The White Tiger’, Adiga successfully delves into the…
Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Begum Jaan’: Powerful and nuanced
Several versions in cinema describe the impact of the partition of India in 1947 – some are grim, some intense, while others are emotional. Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Begum Jaan‘ is a metaphorical story which offers a completely different…
