Tired from the antics of a character, a creator finally decides one evening to let go, push his creation off a ledge and leave. Perhaps his eyes are set on fresh pastures. Or he might have found this one character he himself has created from void, a burden, his death, that dead albatross around his stretch of creative neck. Better leave him behind and go, he tells himself. So in the next story he sits with his fictional villain, plots a trap, and pulls it off with such … Continue reading
Drinker? You like to tank up in parties at the expense of big shots of the country? What if we help you travel through time and then get you an invitation from none other than Peter the Great, that Russian Tsar of the 17th century? Would you accept and go for the royal bash? Well listen, you must haul RRR through sulfurous and smoldering embers of hell before forcing it stay even in the continent where Peter holds a bash for his poor pals … Continue reading
Can you stand long months without a sun, with the temperature dipping below minus 30, with every vista out there laminated by an unnatural sheen thrown in by auroras, those fluorescent solar waves peculiar to polar skies, followed by long months without any hope of a pitch dark night when we could slough off our worries and bitterness gathered over a day, leap into cozy beds, and gravitate slowly down into the cushy bosom of slumber? In short, can you live in Finland? … Continue reading
First published in ‘The Economic Times.’ It is a storm that the high court of Kerala has kicked up recently when it observed why the government should consider banning toddy, a traditional beverage of the state, given the kind of spurious liquor that flows galore by its name. Can a drink be wiped off with the swish of a wand? Have we ever witch-hunted any other drink like this before? That Green Fairy A pair of green eyes peers us … Continue reading
