The Indian Pitta
Spotted this very colourful bird- the Indian Pitta in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in 2016. It is called nauranga in Hindi in apparent reference to its many colours. It has a buff coloured crown stripe, black coronal stripes, a…
Pompeii: an ancient city buried under volcanic ash
Pompeii was an ancient Roman town which was buried under 4-6 metres of volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Archaeologists have excavated the site and have found the well preserved ruins of a thriving…
The range and genius of Pablo Picasso
My first stop at Barcelona was at Museu Picasso. We weren’t allowed to click any pictures there, and so all these pictures are from the internet. I couldn’t but return amazed by the sheer range of the genius…
Holi ke phool: Flame of the Forest
Flame of the Forest. Family Papilionaceae. Genus Butea. Species monosperma Not every kid has known the pleasure of taking a walk with a Dad who’d walk with a small razor blade, snip off fallen flowers and explain…
Muzaffarpur: The lichi city
Muzaffarpur has different connotations for different people. It was near the world’s first republic of the Licchavi clan near Vaishali. It is famous for colourful lahthi (lac based) bangles and juicy shahi lichis. It is where Baba…
Life viewed through the eyes of a seventies kid
Most of us were born a year or two on either side of the year 1970. We are all now in our forties. This perhaps is a good time to look back and savour the essence of…
Paa: Paa (r) excellence!
Watching R Balki’s Paa has been so uplifting. It teaches you to celebrate the goodness of life— however short it is. Auro (Amitabh Bachchan)— a 12 year old patient of progeria suffers from a rare congenital disorder…
Dev D: More original than the original
If you hated the different film adaptations of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas for the elaborate emotional atyaachaar, it is time you watched Dev D. Anurag Kashyap turns the age old tale on its head and comes up…
Slumdog Millionaire: Does it even deserve an Oscar nomination?
The script of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is a much better version of the original book- Vikas Swarup’s Q & A. However for the life of me, I cannot fathom why it is being lauded as Oscar…
