It’s 5am, and I am wide awake. But I dare not open my eyes. Because it’s Vishu, and I am miles from home. Eyes tightly shut, I do my best to build an image in my mind…yellow flowers and soft mangoes, silver coins and glowing valakkus, ripe jackfruits and golden cucumbers…my vishukani looks beautiful in...
A Very Southern Wedding
I had some exciting mail a month back, which was rare on two counts: I usually don’t get mail, and certainly never the exciting kind. But there it was — in a white and gold envelope, stamped with my name — a lovely wedding invitation. A batchmate from college was getting hitched, and I...
Chai Conversations
In Munnar, a small hill station in Kerala, began my tryst with endless cups of steaming hot chai. Of the many gems which dot the Indian landscape, the chayakada or the local tea shop is the one you’re bound to find in every corner you turn. And that’s how I met masala chai…in a small glass tumbler, on...
A Night of Kathakali
Under one of the many exposed yellow bulbs hanging inside a tent, a man lies absolutely still, oblivious to the din of chattering voices around him. He doesn’t move a muscle. In fact, he seems to be sound asleep. A bespectacled artist, her face screwed up in concentration, bends down and applies a fresh...