A good friend sent me this yesterday. The timing was appropriate. Later in the day, my son called me, feeling most down. “I have been working on a written summary,” he said. “When I look at what others have done, I realise mine is awful.” I reacted calmly but was…
Procrastination is so much easier now. For time has lost all sense of identity. Every day is like the other – a state of suspended fluidity. To postpone is a very common tendency for one born human, but some do so more than others. My husband is one who NEVER…
I rounded off my intermittent attendance of this music season with my final concert for the year, yesterday, that of Sri. Abhishek Raghuram at the Music Academy. Driving in at about 6.10 pm for the 6.45 pm concert, I approached the valets. They told me unequivocally that there was no…
Ever since I returned to Madras over a decade ago, I have been strongly dissuaded from traveling on the bus saying “It is not what it used to be. It is not safe” etc. etc. However, it is important to me to have the ability to negotiate public transport to…
As I read Indian clothing designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s comment at Harvard regarding women and the saree – http://bit.ly/2HbTQI7, and counter points to it – http://bit.ly/2CiaemH, some thoughts came up. Mr. Mukherjee said “I think, if you tell me that you do not know how to wear a saree, I would say shame…
I was recently on a panel titled ‘Raise your Game’ that addressed the current batch of 12th Std students of PSBB KK Nagar and Nungambakkam schools on the importance, and the process, of preparing for the 12th Std board exams. My co-panelists were Captain Raghavan, currently in charge of Business…
We often hear negative stories of local products and services and of abysmal customer service. However, there are many occasions when things go right. And when they are put right when they do go wrong. Booking train tickets in India is so easy now – just a few clicks on…
As school leaving examinations approach in India, tensions and anxieties run high – not just for the children but also for parents and everyone residing under the same roof. Even if we keep telling ourselves that there is life beyond this examination and regardless of what happens, life goes on…
A garbled conundrum of traffic signals leading commuters to at least five streets, always packed with vehicles, many defying description – this is the major Valluvar Kottam intersection in my city of Madras. For the past few weeks, the traffic signals there have been completely non functional and there were…
Here’s a guide through the land of the four seas — the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. 1. The Baha’i Gardens This piece appeared in The Hindu. These gardens in Haifa, the third most populous city in Israel, are spectacular. With 19 terraces of…