Joys of Being Alive
Whenever in Mussoorie, Bill and I walk the talk, mostly. At the end of any lit-meet or get-together he usually lingers a while absorbing the ambiance before making the move, and I catch him on the trot.
How to Tell a Tale
Imagine you are marooned in an island like the one in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Before the rescue team arrives you have only one way to keep thought of any danger at bay: To erect a tent, take shelter in it and keep each other occupied by telling and performing stories created on the spot!
Inner Understanding
It’s almost like a leaf straight out of The Naïve & the Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk or Preoccupations by Seamus Heaney at the 4th Mussoorie Lit-Fest held at Woodstock campus, Landour, Mussoorie, on 5th & 6th Oct’11, where the writers, editors, poets and publishers delved deep into the art and craft of writing and publishing; into what they call finding the center or spirituality that the process of writing leads to.
Meeting Thorge Berger at Ujjain Kumbh Mela (2016)
When the Air India flight touched down at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar airport in Indore at around 2 pm, the temperature outside, the air-hostess announced, was 40+ degrees Celsius. Out of the airport in search of a cab for an hour’s journey to Ujjain, I just recoiled from the blistering heat. Would I be able to withstand this intense hot spell and have a good look around this holiest of holy place, hosting the Simhasth Kumbh Mahaparv 2016, I wondered.
People Who Meet People
People Who Meet People is an amazing anthology of uncommon interviews of the finest spread and variety. Each of these interviews is a specimen of meaningful dialogue that makes for compulsive reading.
Rusty And I
Rusty and Iis a tangible expression of the highest admiration for the great literary gifts and rare humanism of Ruskin Bond.
The Power Of Prayer
When we reached the Ashram, Lord Krishna had already been put to bed for His siesta. The temple would reopen at 4 pm, the Ashramites told us.
Tryst With The Titan
Celebrated author Amos Oz says that you cannot write unless the subject is given to you by the Governor who rules the universe. So the days when his output is insignificant, he does not feel guilty. His duty, he says, is to open the shop every day. Whether there’ll be any footfall on a given day is not in his hands.
An Evening At Kovalam
From Trivandrum railway station it took us a 30-minute auto-ride to reach Kovalam beach. We had a room reserved in a PWD guest-house with a view of the cobalt blue sea-water and the Light House beach.
A Ride Down Memory Lane
I’m a railway enthusiast. My favourite haunt for train-spotting was a relative’s house by the railway track where, whenever we visited them, I would scamper away to the roof and wait for a train to rumble past. Not surprisingly, all my life I preferred a train journey to any other. I travelled extensively to meet my favourite writers in far-away places, and during the journeys many interesting things happened. Let merecount a few such incidents.