A stitch in time saves nine. Old proverb. My mind turned to tailors recently. Or to put it more precisely, my mind turned to why my mind had not turned to tailors for a very long time. Several years, in fact. There are good reasons for this. Over the past few decades, the sartorial […]
Author Archives: sureshsubrahmanyan
The road to hell
This ain’t no technological breakdown / Oh no, this is the road to hell. Chris Rea. My wife and I moved to Bangalore from Calcutta 20 years ago. The reasons were not far to seek. The much-vaunted salubrious climate of Bangalore (if you are not prone to allergies), the relatively slower pace of life and […]
Appassionato
Follow your own passion – not your parents’, not your teachers’ – yours.~ Robert Ballard. Now let me tell you, straight off the bat that I had no idea who Robert Ballard was until I came across that snappy quotation. For the record, he is a retired US naval officer and an expert on oceanography. […]
Happy New Year, India
Christmas is upon us and the New Year is just around the corner. 2020, there is a nice symmetry, roundness and ring to the sound of the coming year. Doubtless some smart aleck advertising copywriter will dub it T20. In keeping with the usual custom, just about every one you know along with many you […]
Yesudas fluffs his lines
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Blaise Pascal. The vexed question of whether women of a certain age group should be allowed to enter the hallowed portals of the Sabarimala temple and pay obeisance to the resident shrine, Lord Ayyappa, has been exercising the minds […]
It is that time of the year again
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible, is music. Aldous Huxley. The 2019 Chennai Music Season is upon us. The 2018 Season seems just like yesterday. A pleasant aural illusion. Over recent decades, we have witnessed a massive upsurge in the interest and enthusiasm evinced in Carnatic music. Those who brought about […]
When foes become friends
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton. I was attempting to explain the recent, messy Maharashtra imbroglio to my English friend, John. He lives in London and travels frequently to Mumbai and Delhi. He is something of an Indophile. We were chatting on WhatsApp, and he was posing some awkward questions on the […]
The Pink City – a reprise
The city of Calcutta (a moniker I greatly prefer to Kolkata) recently went pink. We know that the present ruling dispensation’s favourite colour is blue. However, needs must. When a cricket crazy city like Calcutta decides to host the first ever day / night Test Match in India at the storied Eden Gardens, to be […]
The Mousetrap
‘I mean, imagine how some unfortunate Master Criminal would feel, on coming down to do a murder at the old Grange, if he found that not only was Sherlock Holmes putting in the weekend there, but Hercule Poirot, as well.’ – Bertie Wooster / P.G. Wodehouse. The world can broadly be divided into two discrete […]
Book Cricket
‘It’s not cricket’ – Anon. In India, cricket is all-pervasive. Kipling’s ‘flannelled fools’ are to be seen day in and day out on our television screens. Though, apart from being attired in pure whites, you will also find them in blues, yellows, greens and a variety of rainbow hues, depending on the variant […]
