A few years ago, I asked my sister and her daughter a very simple question: "Do girls wear half-saris anymore?" I would never have imagined the response I got: I was laughed out.  The niece just couldn't stop laughing, and commented that my memories of India were stuck in some prehistoric times.

Mark Twain famously observed that water in America’s west was for fighting and that whiskey was for drinking.  Here in the southern part of India, while Twain’s whiskey might not be applicable, fights, though, are in plenty! A significant fight is over a dam that is located in the border areas of two s

The New York Review of Books and Pankaj Mishra together add up to a delightful combination for essays.  In his latest one, Mishra writes about Anna Hazare's protest movement by presenting it against the backdrop of

Muahahaha :) More in

Over the past few weeks, one of the most fas

A month ago, after a meeting, "G" suggested to a few of us that we go have dinner.  "S" and I thought it was a great suggestion.  It was only the three of us, and "G" drove us to Park Sheraton.  As we walked in, I told them how that hotel was my employer for a grand total of three weeks, twenty-s

One of the best habits I got into a very long time ago was to read Lingua Franca.  The magazine began about the time I was growing up as a graduate student.  It was something like an inside-baseball version of intellectual discussions.  From Lingua Franca, which didn't last long, I transitioned

Caption at the source

I cannot even remember the last time I watched the President's State of the Union address.  All the fake applause, and the monarchical settings just don't agree with me.  So, I know for sure that I would not have watched Obama's address, but would have read about it. And that is what I did even while

I thought this advice for a sabbatical was neat.  But, Freeman Dyson does it better, of course (

The Foreign Policy interview with Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer re-affirms my own views, like

One taboo subject on campus, perhaps on any university campus: anything to do with comparing intellectual abilities of students across majors.  We are expected to pretend that all students are equally capable.  (Plus, of course, pretentious faculty, even at teaching universities like mine, walking around as if the

A standard argument in urban economics/geography is that residential use of land is a residual use--only if commercial use of it is not viable.  Similarly, if money is to be made, then homes in an area can be bought, demolished, and the land will be converted to commercial uses. My parents lived through th

I am homesick :)

If ever I need evidence for how the world is full of crazies, I need not go very far.  I have to merely look at myself in the mirror :) No, seriously, the following is a comment that somebody had left, in response to

"I will be back in a minute, sir" the autorickshaw

So, there I was walking along the beach enjoying the pleasant afternoon sun and breeze, after quite some time at the art exhibit, when the sounds of screeching vehicle brakes jolted me into the world around me.&n

Whether it is in India or in the US, higher education sells, seemingly at rates faster than how tulips sold in the manic Dutch and European markets nearly 500 years ago. Students (and their parents) operate with a skewed understanding of what higher education is about.  In

Recently, I traveled in Tamil Nadu government buses.  These are buses funded and operated by the government. Yet, on one bus I saw a decal of a Shiva Lingam. Another bus had a cross.  A third one had a figure representing another Hindu god, Muruga. We are not talking about the bus driver wearing any r

The driver warned me that I would not be able

In a corner of the day's supplemental pages of the newspaper that dad buys daily, I saw a note about an arts exhibit.  For three days. Across from the beach. Always looking out for activities like

After visiting Mahabalipuram for the first time in my life, I was all the more convinced that I ought to visit the old temple structures in Kanchipuram.  Which is what I did. As one who doesn't care for

Wikipedia's

Dad arranged for a call-taxi for me.  By 2:40, I was all ready for the cab, which was scheduled for 3:00. 2:50, and I got a tad antsy that the cab might be late.  Dad called them, and updated me. I was pleasantly stunned when the call taxi arrived at 3:00 sharp.  Another measure of I

Back home, I am a huge fan of C-Span's BookTV.  I have spent one too many hours at home watching and listening to authors talk about their books.  I have even spent the mornings of the first Sundays of many months watching the extended three-hour sessions with writers. A couple of years ago, when I wa

Flicking the channels in this part of the world where I have no idea about the lineup seems to be a version of Forrest Gump's "life's like a box of chocolates. you never gonna know what you're gonna get." :) Earlier this afternoon, I got Nouriel Roubini. In his unique voice and tone, Roubini delive

Twenty-six years ago, when I was gainfully employed and living in Calcutta as a freshly minted engineer, I went to the book fair there.  (I think it was during that time, and not during my second work-related stay there,