As you can imagine, in a small town like Madikeri, there isn’t a huge amount to do once it gets dark. As a result, the young lads at Cyber Zoom, an internet and gaming parlour, have got to know me over the last several evenings, and I have become familiar with their favourite music (that is, when the gamers aren’t dominating with the flatulent artillery sounds that I’m used to hearing emanate from my godson’s room when I visit his Mum).
I have become quite hooked on a...
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After spending from 6.30am to 2pm on a train from Mangalore to Goa, I have lost yet another day to travel. I should have realised the proposed five-hour time was on the optimistic side. Having run out of time, Hampi is not going to happen this trip I’m afraid, but I guess you should always leave a bit for later and give yourself a reason to come back.
As it happens, my ticket to ‘Goa’ didn’t indicate at which station I would disembark. I assumed near Panjim or Old Goa,...
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We are ejected from the train at the ungodly time of 6.30am. Even cities like Mumbai are only waking up at that hour. It’s grim murky morning out there and everything is in shades of grey. Grey beggars, pallid phantom faces appearing in crumpled blankets, black Ambassadors creeping around, white steam rising from chai stalls. I take a step back to see what I’ve just emerged from and to get some orientation. In this light, Victoria Terminus is towering and almost gothic...
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I am 50 rupees short of the cab fare to get me to the airport (naturally they do not take credit card) and so I am forced to cash another $50. That’s okay I think, as I have a few things I would like to buy at the airport and the concierge at my hotel assures me there are lots of shops. When I get to the airport I find that there are precisely three shops; all selling fast food. And at my attempt to change money back I find you have to have a minimum of $50. My day has...
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For anyone with an interest in geopolitics and the vagaries of world power and who wants to understand what is happening in the world a little better, this book makes for compulsive and informative reading. Whilst the decline of the Roman Empire has been analysed ad nauseum (Gibbon’s classic receives its due here) and comparing America to the Roman template has also occupied many minds, this book still manages to make a refreshing addition to the body of work.
The...
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Having just spent two months in India it was great to pick up a current interpretation of where this country finds itself in 2007. Shashi Tharoor is a well-respected writer on the international scene and he balances his love of his own country with some pretty sharp judgements and analysis on where it could, and should, do better by its people.
Tharoor’s life experience (he was the youngest undersecretary general of the UN when appointed), exposure to the cultures of...
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Of all the ardent book lovers out there I'd guess there's a fair portion who have fantasised about being surrounded by books all day and extending their time in bookshops to the hours of 9 to 5. I know I have. I even went so far as to research the subject, only to find out about the low margins, long hours, tough competition and how darned hard it is.
This book is about a woman who actually turned her fantasy into reality, albeit for a short time. I heard Annette...
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