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The shack life
The artist couple arrived on the dot of nine as they promised they would. It didn’t matter that it was Diwali eve or that it was pouring or they were on a two-wheeler. The irritating plangent of the...
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From Pacolo in Fontainhas to Marykutty in Indiranagar
Dearest Marykutty, I am in Goa and I think coming here was one of the best calls I made in life. The monsoons – and the unseasonal showers that followed – have drenched the place and I am not as...
View ArticleThai’s the way
‘Dance? Did you say dance?’ Zorba asks Basil ecstatically as he removes his own coat and takes him through the first steps of sirtaki in what was later to be known as the legendary ‘Zorba dance.’...
View ArticleAll quiet in Kaffa country
“I am Nabira,” she said gesturing towards me to take a seat. Adjusting the flowy chiffon drape of her habesha kemis she sat down at the center of the ceremonial table. “I am your hostess for Bona Tetu,...
View ArticleThe longest ride
A life cannot be reduced to words, but we still do it because we are yet to find ways to keep our dear ones from dying. Memories penned down become something else altogether but we keep at it whether...
View ArticleIf I stopped rolling now…
The devoir of a good son is to break the news of surviving a near-fatal miss to his mother softly. Fortune is on his side as it is dusk preventing her from seeing the numerous bandages stuck to his...
View ArticleSwakopmund – Like a movie set
The setting Swakopmund would be a ‘living movie set’ kind of township if there was one. Bright timber gables, solid color tapering steeples, pastel-hued facades, stark lintels and turrets, pavements...
View ArticleWindmills for Windhoek
Vincent came running. “I was in that house cleaning their swimming pool,” he said pointing and with a broad smile I had gotten used to in Africa by now. “The rain and the wind had mucked it up,” he...
View ArticleThe anatomy of an emergency landing
I prayed and offered my soul to God. Then I took Susan’s hand and held it tight. She was crying. I told her it was good that we are together – if we are to die, we will die in each other’s arms. Of...
View ArticleThrough the fourth wall, lightly
Tripping across the imagined barrier, from director calling the shots, to actor and audience. A truism yes, but one of the most alluring aspects about mortality should be the enthusiasm with which we...
View ArticleGoree Island – Confrontation as reconciliation
All around me was dark. I think it has been kept that way – midday outside but a kind of gloaming inside – probably the closest a visitor can be made to feel what went on in these narrow corridors and...
View ArticleTheyyam – The folk and the lore
Once a kolam Extraordinary experiences make one a raconteur. Gopi sat in our midst, narrating tales animatedly but unhurriedly from his outings as a kolam, theyyam performer. Elaborate, gilt-laden...
View ArticleWalking through rainbows: Victoria Falls
Those who still say David Livingstone discovered Victoria Falls are counting on the slightly tongue-twisty name ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ given by the local Kololo tribe who lived there forever. It means ‘smoke...
View ArticleHerero, kosher
Acts of assertion At airports: Bole International, Addis Ababa One would think it a gold-plated oil pipe if it was found anywhere else but on the passenger’s wrist. Even then the dimensions were...
View ArticleA walk in Windhoek
You lose count on two accounts: one, when the number exceeds your counting ability and two, when you don’t count and instead just look forward to the next. I started visiting Namibia about two years...
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