‘Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.’ ~ J.K. Rowling More out of a sense of mulish determination …
Author Archives: sureshsubrahmanyan
Keenan and Shakespeare tread the boards
The interminable wait for the Covid19 vaccine seems almost over, the United Kingdom leading the pack, while other nations are hot on their heels playing catch-up. 90-year-old Margaret Keenan was the first to receive this long-awaited shot in the arm at her local hospital in Coventry on Tuesday, December 8, 2020. Mark this day and …
‘O Sole Mio!
In case there are those amongst you, gentle readers, who are scratching your heads and going, ‘What has the title of this piece got to do with Superstar Rajinikanth?’, tarry awhile and I shall enlighten you. When our Thalaivar, (literally meaning the head honcho but metaphorically, the monarch of all he surveys) decided to formally …
Separating the wheat from the chaff
Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together. Jonathan Swift. The recently introduced farm bills passed by voice-vote in Parliament has expectedly stirred up a …
How does my garden grow?
Gardeners don’t get old. They go to pot. Anonymous. I come from a family that knew next to nothing about gardening. My earliest recollection of a private garden was one that fronted our bungalow in Kuala Lumpur, where my father was stationed with a reputed Indian commercial bank with branches in the Far East. It …
When Lutyens became an adjective
Those amongst you who are glued to a specific set of television news channels or read only a couple of newspapers that lean towards a particular side of the Indian political divide, will have frequently come across the term ‘the Lutyens lobby.’ The expression is usually employed in a distinctly pejorative manner, and on television, …
Pardon me, your rejection slip is showing
‘I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.’ Sylvia Plath Those amongst you like me, who belong to the amateur writing fraternity, will be familiar with the dreaded ‘rejection slip.’ I am referring to the poor sap who toils night and day burning the midnight oil, thinking up crazy ideas for the opinion …
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The world is their oyster
As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world. Virginia Woolf. I am raising one-and-a-half cheers for 41-year-old Priyanca Radhakrishnan. She is a New Zealander by citizenship, born in Chennai, Keralite by birth, Singaporean by early domicile and finally settled in …
So, what will you be doing this Season?
Flight booking. Check. Hotel booking. Check. Car booking. Check. Music Academy season ticket. Check. All present and correct. That was last year. It’s getting close to twenty-five years now and I don’t believe I have skipped the Chennai or Margazhi music season even once. Not that I spent the whole of December in the cultural …
The Unbearable Tyranny of the Password
Sorry, your password must contain a capital letter, two numbers, a symbol, an inspiring message, a spell, a gang sign, a hieroglyph, and the blood of a virgin. Anon. Last time I checked, I was the custodian of something of the order of thirty-seven passwords, and counting. That would be around thirty-five more passwords than …
