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Delhi, yesterday

THE two hours in Lahore permitted only a quick lunge into a highly recommended bookshop. But the pickings were good. The top catch was a...

Poet of the hopeless

I REMEMBER well that December evening in Moscow when I picked up a fresh copy of the slim volume of Chekhov's short stories that I have...

In the land of the Panjachinar

FOR a panic stricken moment, just before a short trip to Kabul, no book on Afghanistan comes to mind. Then suddenly, as the news spreads...

Prayers answered, somewhat... ?

AN unfinished novel by a great author has all the poignancy of a bird shot in mid-flight. The same sort of questions are left, hovering...

Monumental searches

A SMALL agency item, picked up from Russian TV channels, caught the eye recently. "Unknown vandals," it read, "have desecrated the grave...

Landscapes of the mind

THIS large glass window looks on to a peak the villagers call Shali. The early morning light caresses the valleys, skims the tops of the...

A daiquiri, then a mojito

Ernest Hemingway stayed often at the Hotel Ambos Mundos in the 1930s and was a regular at El Floriditia. The La Bodeguita Del Medio makes...

Your Mumbai, my Bombay

In the early morning, the scene from the balcony would be very different — the sea held no dark secrets, the water had receded to reveal...

Water, stone and sky

THE Gulf of Finland is a choppy grey this afternoon. Two long low hydrofoils waft uncomfortably in the water. The strong breeze blows in...

Journals of the footloose

IMMOBILISED by the heat outside, in which only the blushing bougainvillea could dare to sway gently, I spent the weekend among the...

`I remember you well in Chelsea Hotel'

JUST back from a quick trip to the Himachal hills, a news snippet about the reclusive poet and singer Leonard Cohen catches the eye. He...

Give me your seconds

IN the 1960s, Dehra Dun's Paltan Bazaar was as throbbing a slice of life as one could ever wish for. Cycling downhill from the clock...

Of roses and poets

FIFTEEN years ago, a friendly captain of an Air-India jumbo invited me into the cockpit during a flight back from Paris. It was a magical...

The right way to write

VIKRAM CHANDRA is in the news these days for the mind-boggling advance that he has earned for his forthcoming novel Sacred Games. If the...