Taamul

Compiling a list of favourite books is not as easy as it seemed when Chitra nominated me. Perhaps because our expectations and experiences from a book changes as we change. Thus as I reflected about those books which left a great deal of impression on me, I realised that they varied with the distinct phases of my life, which at the risk of oversimplification, I have categorised into- school, college-university and working life. Below are my top 10 books from my school life- the volume 1. School life - “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” I didn’t inherit a reading library from my family. And the among the gifts that I got during my birthdays which could be read were brass vessels  embedded  with my name. As kids, buying a book, apart from what was prescribed in our school curriculum was a luxury my father couldn’t afford. But what they did, clearly beyond their financial bounds, was to pu...

Deciding on movies to watch and movies to ditch (in the theatre) is not a difficult job. Particularly when you are a married person living in India on a student allowance. With Hindi language films made in India, it’s even simpler. Do not watch anything unless it is directed by one of them four directors whose work I absolutely adore. One Sunday (supposed to be last Sunday but for my lazy ass), I broke this rule. There were two main reasons: 1. It came heavily recommended by a friend. 2. The film was produced by one of ‘the’ 4 directors. And while I wasn’t disappointed, it didn’t blew me off either. However, my wife absolutely loved it and later argued that it would be impossible to find an Indian woman or a girl who would not love this movie. And till now her theory has held as water-tight as Newtons’ theory of gravity. The movie in the question is Queen directed by Vikas Bahl, who co-owns Phantom Films with Vikramaditya Motwane (see Udaan ) and Anurag Kashyap (see Black F...

Discovered this article which I had written 5 years ago, and had lost it since then, while doing a random google search. The original article is in the archives of Ecowatch Blog  . The sun scorched above me as I started my trip up the misty mountains to revisit my extended family of Nilgiri langurs, the Misty Monkeys of the Sahayadris. In the next two and a half hours, dramatic changes in weather conditions would unfold. I would be climbing from sea-level to 1330 meters above sea level and the temperatures would drop from a scorching 38-39 degrees centigrade to a cool 18-22 degrees centigrade. I feel apprehensive as I climb higher and higher. The first glimpse of a lonely Langur during the trip makes my heart almost skip a beat. Would the Nilgiri langur families whom I had befriended still remember me as I do them? Would they still be as friendly towards me as before or would I have to start the whole process again?  I did miss them in my urban abode. Did they too m...