Withering Heats Mangoes stricken with pale yellow wither before they blow up into full-sized fruits. Sun-struck, newspapers wilt in hands, before they are read. My city red with blisters. Her homes are kilns, firing up human beings, body and soul. I ride. I continue to ride my bike. Until I realize that: Riding a motorcycle these days is almost like fording a river of fire. After all this, if there could be no rain and storm waiting for me at … Continue reading
We go to the Xiamen region in China where the Cold Food festival is conducted this month. Perhaps the legends behind the celebration have struck a chord with the writer. When Maharaja Sibi hacked a pound of flesh from his own thigh to save the life of a pigeon in our puranas, the cruel kite who was chasing the victim was pleased with the magnanimous feat, shed its guise to re-assume the shape of Lord Yama, and showered praises and … Continue reading
When you stand here at the edge of this crater, you can see waves thrashing on the craggy beach a hundred feet down below. There is only the vast expanse of blue all around as far as the eyes can see, except for a few small islets at a distance. Listen! Do your ears us pick those faint rumblings -prayers, spells, chants – from the hoary past? This is Orongo, a stone village and ceremonial ground in the Southwestern tip … Continue reading
“Dum Maro Dum… Miit Jaye Ghum… Bolo Subha Shaam… Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishnaa Hare Rama…” You either love that song like me or you belong to the generation which shook its legs ecstatically in tune with the number. The song was India’s answer to the hippie tradition which raged in the west fifty years ago. The hippies! Long flowing hair, uncouth garbs, on the road for hashish, cheap travel and promiscuous sex – the hippies were perhaps the … Continue reading
