One night last week, Bagli started barking and we went out to the Front verandah to investigate. It was her "snake bark", and sure enough, it was a snake in the flower beds under the Front verandah ledge. We could hear it clearly, and see it vaguely, but none of our torches was bright enough to iden...

[caption id="attachment_299" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption=""Duraisamy propitiating the Gods" caught by Varuna"][/caption]

Nearly all of you who have visited us here would have met Duraisamy, our neighbour, who used to help us on our land. Over the years the love-hate relationship (We h...

Yesterday (Rogue) Annamalai and co. were building the kallukattu (stone wall) separating our land from his. I have been aware that they have been pushing their boundary outwards into our land for a while now,  and this was an attempt to stop the attrition.

Our case was being made by a solitary b...

Two years ago, Chandran had come by on Election morning, with the "voting slips" and rather awkwardly offered me Rs.50 per vote. This year, he offered Rs.150 per vote. (The voting slips this time were distributed by the schoolmaster, and had no party affiliation). I refused once again, asking him t...

After all the dramatic changes at Powai and at Vashi, where I could not find my Athai's house since it had all metamorphosed in the last twelve years, it was a comfort to see Colaba much the same as when I last saw it.

The trees at the BPT park had grown in the twelve years  since we used to take...

For me, it was a visit to the campus after more than 15 years. The first thing that struck me was the traffic on campus: I think I saw more vehicles in a day than I did in all four years of my B.Tech. I later heard that the situation had been even worse before motorbikes had been banned for studen...

We just got back from Bombay, having attended a workshop on "Creating Content for Children" at the IDC at IIT Bombay. When Monty (Raja Mohanty) invited us, it seemed that it would be really interesting; and so it turned out to be... A get-together of so many people doing so many interesting thin...

For a long time we were not aware that a film was being made. And after we realised what was happening, we were not allowed to see the process. The boys finished making their movie last year, in time to carry it with us on our Bharat Yatra. Now, you can watch it on Vimeo

Dasarathan was shot dead at the doorstep of his house, as he stepped out for a pee, on the night of February 11th. The "bullets" were 4" kambi (iron rod) pieces cut and sharpened.

I have met him a few times; "Hello", "Nalla irrukengela?"... the last time in the Gas queue at Karumandurai, the Satur...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="Ariedes blossoms"][/caption]

"Dheere dheere re mana,

Dheere sab kuch hoye.

Mali seenche sau ghara,

Rtu aaye, phool hoye."

(Kabir says:

"Slowly, slowly, oh my mind,

Slowly, everything happens.

The gardener may water a hundred ti...

"Here we are, all of us: in a dream-caravan.

A caravan, but a dream - a dream, but a caravan.

And we know which are the dreams.

Therein lies the hope."

---Sheikh Bahaudin

Some time ago, the boys were asking me about why Piyush was in jail. I had to collect my thoughts, and try and give them a reasonable answer, without ranting, and yet without sounding hopeless. I put the case to them as a story, but much of it is true-to-life and far worse things are happening.

Raintree is an IIT-B magazine for which we were asked to write an article which I have copy-and-pasted below:

We (Sunder and Sonati) live with our two sons Badri(12), and Varun(8) on our land outside Thekambattu which is a small village near Salem in Tamil Nadu.The boys do not go to school and...

(Where are you coming from, where are you going to?)

I was walking down to Karumandurai yesterday, to pick up my bike from the battre (mechanic's). The brand new tar road which has been looked forward to for so long, has some unforeseen fallouts.

Earlier the traffic and the walkers occupied th...

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was A time of innocence, a time of confidences Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph Preserve your memories; they're all that's left to me"

Those of you who have visited us in the last two years would have seen one or more of our Shadow Puppet Shows. This is for those of you who haven't; with the disclaimer that, of course, the Live show is the "Real McCoy". Every performance is different from any other: Come and see or see it at Vim...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Moonrise from Hippo Rock"][/caption]

A few nights ago, we had a stunning red moonrise, which we watched from the Hippo Rock and the Nesting Grounds.

More pictures here.

A wonderful Solar Eclipse, one that happened in the middle of the day (11.15 am to 3.15 pm or thereabouts) so that we could enjoy it to the fullest, and notice all the effects.

For one, it was about 80% total here, so the reduction in daylight was appreciable. The temperature also fell by about 4C...

While we were on our Bharat Yatra, we did a lot of eating out: from Parathewali galli to Little Italy, the boys enjoyed it all (and so did we). We also had great "authentic" food at various people's homes: Dal Baati, Zumka Bhakar, Makkai ki roti, Eggplant Parmezan... the list is endless.

The boys...

Well, we did it and are back home again. Many thanks to all our hosts, friends, people we met, and even some whom we didn't, for  a great trip. It was great on all counts. And definitely an Internet-age trip. I don't think we would have dared conceive this trip, let alone carry it off successfully w...