I am not entirely unhip.

Yesterday I ran into my friend. He took out a smart phone and twitted that he was hanging out with me. I read his twit on my cellphone and knew that this was indeed true.

But I admit that when it comes to new technologies, a… Read full post »

Roger Federer’s win in Paris ensures that he lives on forever as one of the all-time greats in tennis history. But it does more than that. It gives us greater reason to cherish and extend the lifetime of the little ecstasies in his game; the backhand that magically increased in angularity… Read full post »

There are some sights that are uniquely Indian. A familiar visual is that of women in lush green paddies singing timeless songs with a lilting chorus. Another uniquely Indian vision is that of the Ganges breaking free from the matted locks of Shiva and quenching the thirst of the Northern Plains.… Read full post »

As a man gets older, the valves of his mind calcify and block all that is new. His friends breathe new words into old memories, his pains are at once familiar and enlightened and his music collection is limited to a litany of songs from old CDs, the radios of forgotten… Read full post »

Excuse me Sir.

Would it be highly inconvenient if you could kindly step aside and unblock the door, so that I too could ride in your personal carriage?

Oh, wait a second. From the lights that shine dimly, but shine nevertheless I see that the train belongs to the New York… Read full post »

This is the long weekend.

A normal weekend has forty-eight hours in which one can go for a run, stand in the post office and do something “that sounds great.”

The long weekend has one whole extra day to do something else.

I don’t mind the rain on the extra day… Read full post »

Mindful of the recession, the rich have begun carrying their purchases from expensive retail stores like Chanel, Burberry and Whole Foods in white, logo-less bags. They hope that the poor will notice their magnanimity and be overcome by compassion, an emotion that renders it difficult to start revolu… Read full post »

After making its way through Faneli (the fabled annex to Andy Warhol’s Factory), shades of cobblestone and the rippling of springtime skirts, Prince Street meets an untimely demise on Bowery. Just as it has begun to bustle with promise, Prince Street t-bones into an unrelenting stretch of store… Read full post »

A few weeks ago, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama met with the West Indian cricketer Brian Lara. In the course of their conversation, the President picked up a cricket bat, and as an American baseball player (or a New Jersey Mafia Don) would say, he took… Read full post »

I am not a judgmental person.

If I were alive during the Biblical ages, and saw Jesus Christ pleading with a group of people not to throw stones on a hapless woman, you would catch me in the center of the crowd screaming Ditto with all the lung power that… Read full post »

Nowadays, Bombayites are quick to spot trouble even if they aren’t entirely sure what’s causing it. Spotting a man with dark intent outside the Victoria Terminus station on the night of November 26, 2008, the cab driver’s feet did a nervous shuffle on the accelerator. Get in quickly… Read full post »