It’s like your first dinner with a date – you take a while to gather gusto. Except for the food on the way you know little else. You look around…
There is not much difference when you look at Bahraich from half a kilometre in the sky and from street level. It is a tumbleweed cluster of shanty dwellings, lean-to…
Heritage plays a temporal trick – it can make history feel within reach. I walked up the pathway leading to Lahori Gate, entrance to Red Fort, where friends waited. On…
Butterfly, butterfly
Fly in the sky
Butterfly, butterfly
Flies so high
Butterfly, butterfly
Lands on my thigh
Butterfly, butterfly
Motionlessly lies
Butterfly, butterfly
Gracefully dies
(Full transcript of poem ‘Butterfly, butterfly’ by Adryan Bates.)
Peter Smetacek
For a life that rarely…
(Buoyed by the inclusion of my short 'Highway 666' in 'Have a safe journey - The world's first collection of short stories on road safety' I thought I'd do another…
We are on the Kumily – Munnar route, one of the most scenic drives in Kerala. I am being introduced to a large canvas – from where smaller ones originate.…
On the 'wrong' bus
My favourite pastime while riding public transport in Kerala is listening to conversations of co-passengers especially when they are talking into their mobile phones. Then, this is…
The only woman passenger in the entire coach was furious and scared. Maybe she was furious because she was scared. As she huffed her way to the next, more inhabited,…
The young sand sculptor was visibly chuffed as he stepped back to enjoy his creation – a mermaid. Recognisable as one from all angles. It was his first ever work,…