The Hindu 3/3

All Writings

CALL it a leftover fantasy of youth, or perhaps the last burst of middle-aged angst, but I still want to do a Kerouac. Just pick up the...

May 6, 20074 min read

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...

Apr 1, 20074 min read

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...

Mar 4, 20074 min read

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...

Feb 4, 20074 min read

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...

Jan 7, 20074 min read

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

Dec 3, 20064 min read

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...

Nov 5, 20064 min read

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...

Oct 1, 20064 min read

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...

Sep 3, 20064 min read

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

Aug 6, 20064 min read

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

Jul 2, 20064 min read

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...

Jun 4, 20064 min read

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...

May 7, 20065 min read

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...

Apr 2, 20064 min read

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...

Mar 5, 20064 min read