Quirkiness is a strange platform for creativity. Just a little push towards the ostentatious can turn it into a carnival of kitsch; a little nudge towards the humourless can make it self-important and inaccessible. If there’s a pair in the Indian music scene who thoroughly understands this unsaid rule,
I’m tired. And it’s only 8.00 a.m. I trudge along the dirt track that leads me to the latest village I have been frequenting. After two bus rides that pulverised my morning meal quite successfully, and a quick zip on a motorcycle, during which I nearly
Uttarkashi isn’t likely to make the top ten lists of many tourists. It doesn’t offer much in the way of museums or ancient ruins or souvenirs. The heart of town is the large open stadium---a combination of political rally venue/cricket ground/open bazaar/general crossroad. One side
In the dead of a summer afternoon, hiking through a forest in the Deccan is an unnatural experience. There’s only the ear-numbing noise of cicadas chirping and the sound of dry leaves and twigs cracking underneath your feet as you plod along in the heat. Your ears ache because
Several films, Shortbus and 9 Songs to name two, have sought to ‘de-eroticise’ explicit sexual scenes and depict them as some kind of a happenstance in the broader context of the plot. More specifically, what I am referring to here is un-simulated sex in mainstream cinema and not just a
Blue. Like the blue films this anthology is a tribute to. Blue with all the excitement of the forbidden and darkened rooms. The revolution has come to books, and with a tad more aesthetic, erotica is slowly carving a niche of its own. Blue book cover. Suddenly, everybody’s writing
"Don’t judge a book by its cover," said one. "What's in a name?" asked another. Both statements may hold some weight in the philosophical sense, but I for one found it very difficult to follow their advice as I held the book Artist,
How does a television show based on a cult fantasy series become a mainstream success? By faithfully following the writer’s vision, not just in terms of the story and pace, but also in its tone. Game of Thrones, based on the first novel of George R. R. Martin’s
Airports are perhaps the most amusing locations to test your creativity. For people like me---and yes, I very presumptuously speak on behalf of all “people like me”, whoever they might be---who have to move around very frequently, we have to reinvent ourselves to adapt better and avoid previous mistakes. For
Noted astrophysicist, cosmologist, and popular science author, Carl Sagan ends his book The Dragons of Eden with the following lines: “The universe is elegant and intricate. We wrest secrets from nature by the most unlikely routes.” Even though the subject matter of the book deals with his speculations on the