Remember two fingers

The little memories spring up from every corner. In that shady spot overlooking the playing field, I used to climb the tamarind tree, munch on sour unripe tamarinds, slide down to the top of the little shed-like structure that was there, and once some friend dared me to jump off that structure. I did. I [...]

Once homes

And as a final post before I hit the road (or really, the train) … Want to know what a Bombay turning into a Shanghai does to some Bombayites? Here are some photographs.

36 years

It’s only when you get to a certain age that you can say this: “I’m visiting a place I last saw 36 years ago!” I’m at that age, I guess, because I can say it, and this time tomorrow I should be nearing one such place: a school I spent a couple of years at [...]

BT fix, not cAontrived

For all you ladies, there’s a “Pick-Him Up Pointer” (yes, complete with inexplicable hyphen) in the Bombay Times today, and this is that pointer, verbatim:
Tap into his guy mind-set: When it comes to meeting men, it helps to have something specific to talk about. The next time you see a hot dude on the weekend, [...]

Bamboo and tyres

Signs of the times, you know. The subtlest things sometimes alert you to things that have changed. Three days last year on the college campus where I — being frank here — lusted away five delightful years, and I kept thinking to myself: something has changed, but what? I mean, lots had changed, but there [...]

Odd ends

Some odds and ends. Or, well, an odd and an end.
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The National Foundation for India is looking for applications from journalists — “early to mid-career”, with 5-7 years professional experience, age limit 40 — for its media fellowship programme. The idea of the programme is to “research and publish articles/photo essays on issues concerning the [...]

Old Do Haath

The name came back, sepia-toned like the pictures, when I read the news yesterday. Back in the days when we would crowd around a radio to hear the deep robust voices of Anant Setalvad and Dicky Rutnagur bringing cricket to us, back in those school-uniformed, adolescent-angst days, we made up a name for the man. [...]

They met

Coffee (even if I forgot to pay for mine… sorry!), the angry sea, grey skies, what a fine bunch of gals and guys! What a pleasure to just shoot the (metaphorical) breeze. Thanks Andy for asking me to come (thanks for the previous you-know-what too). Great, too, to chat with Santosh, Akshay and Shubir (don’t [...]

Terror and Tension

So I called it “Still Warm”, but The Hindu changed that to Tale of Terror and Tension: an essay that’s in their issue today, June 26. Either way, your thoughts welcome. (I had a shorter version in this space some months ago).

Turning to Turing

Can computers think? This question has fascinated scientists for over half a century, since the first computers were born. Computers are good at processing data, solving complicated problems, doing repetitive tasks — far better at these things than humans are. But can they think?
Then again, what do we mean by “thinking”? A computer can add [...]