The not-so-secret diary

Ayurveda (literal translation 'Knowledge of Life' or 'Science of Life') is an ancient Indian science, based on the Vedas , that helps to maintain the body, mind and spirit in equilibrium. As I was in Delhi over the Diwali period, an Ayurveda Detox sounded like just the thing I needed with the season changing. The actual Panchkarma cleansing process is done at ashrams/ ayurvedic spa resorts under supervision. But for the yuppies and people on the run (which explains why they are burned-out in the first place) there is a short-cut of sorts requiring about nine days. And for people pretending to live on two continents at the same time, there is an even quicker short-cut of (possibly) detoxing in five days. Health Warning: the last one is the IG version of an Ayurveda-inspired-detox. Practise at own risk! So here's a short account of how it went for me. Ideally this is to be done over a holiday period as energy levels can get low. Remember, you might be better of...

Between a Thursday and Friday in the middle of October, and in the short span of 20 hours, I found myself contemplating how the very humdrum task of washing & ironing clothes can be undertaken in two ways which are a world apart yet give you the same end result. On Thursday evening in Central London I found myself in Leicester Square watching the UK premiere of Kiran Rao's Dhobi Ghaat. For this I must thank some of my friends who tipped me off in time, so I could buy the much-in-demand tickets at the London Film Festival. And I also escaped a potential anticlimax, by reaching the 'venue' early only to discover it was the wrong venue (not the South Bank!) but still in time to grab a friend and rush to the correct one. Dhobi Ghaat (literal translation Washerman, River Bank or 'the river bank where they wash, dry the clothes') is another take on life in Mumbai. Its Kiran Rao's debut film as writer/ director. The story has a mix of 'modern western' c...

The past is but the past of a beginning. H. G. Wells And so Kapoor and her team at Free Pixels have opened a little window for us that takes us along with our modern day tools from the past to the future with a little stop in the present. Many of us have always believed that the only limitation to technological innovation is one's imagination. The exponential growth in technology over the last few decades has only re-affirmed this belief. In this short film, the writer and director encourage us to step out of the box and pull, push, stretch, compress or in other words simply re-shape our view of the world with one of the most ubiquitous modern-day tools: a touch phone. There is some interesting camera work and animation with a background story that is as thought-provoking as the technology story. The subtle reference to our robotic, production-line world is the complete anti-thesis of the free mind. Yet, it also points to systematic research and experimentation or a scienti...

Recently, I found myself thinking that being a city-hopper in the modern day is so much easier than in the times of Ibn Batuta. No need to join caravans or cavalries heading to your place of interest. Or to take a lift from dubious shipping expeditions crossing uncharted waters and bumping into pirates to enliven the journey. No need even  to arrive in a city and discover that the plague had demolished half of its population  a few months ago, and continued to rage. So here we are about 700 years later, armed with health warnings, access to local politics, hourly weather forecasts via the web, water-purification tablets, a handy digicam, a smart phone with GPS, restaurant guide and free Skype, and several guide books telling you how to take it  'rough' or 'easy' or 'authentic' as per your temperament. Thus a modern day traveller is All Set to wander across the globe, stopping for a few days or a few months as the he...

Its been a good two decades since Indian youngsters grew up with the hugely popular 'Unity in Diversity' video 'Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiya...' describing how various creatures of God were stronger when they acted together. In the last decade, with the mushrooming of private TV channels, social advertising such as literacy campaigns, seed & fertiliser advice for farmers and family planning issues (Hum Do Hamaare Do- i.e. two kids/ family) were pushed in the background and only the national broadcaster Doordarshan trudged ahead with important messages, most done a bit boringly. Then suddenly last year everyone was talking of Global Warming, the melting Himalayan glaciers and the Blight-of-Plastic, and before we knew it some bright chap in Corporate India turned a mobile phone advert into a Green-India message. Ever since then there's been no stopping the private and government sponsors. We have ads now that tell us about 1411 tigers left in ...

Aaah, much has been said and written about tourism in Goa lately that I prefer not to add to the multitude of voices and opinions on this subject - from pure ecstasy displayed by professional beach bums to the sad 'lost-tranquility' stories of Goan Holiday veterans and the smug 'we've-found-an-as-yet-unspoilt-strip-of-white-sand' finds of the yuppies. I will however re-affirm the good nature of the people of Goa who are ever-welcoming, warm and helpful even as they stoically watch their beautiful state being swallowed by mass commercialization. As far as I can tell their economic growth now depends largely on tourism. These tourists, both national and international, flock here for the lovely sandy beaches much like the one in the photo below. (Bambolim Beach, Central Goa) I hope sooner rather than later, the Goans will be able to find and enforce a balance that keeps bringing in the tourists who crave their natural beauty and rich history but prevent the pla...

Today I called a business associate’s phone to get some important information and the ring tone was a two decade-old Indian film song- ‘Mera Dil bhee kitna pagal hai yeh pyaar jo tumko karta hai.Par saamne jab tum aate ho, kuch bhee kehne se darta hai…’. Which translates roughly as ‘My heart is so silly to love you. But when you are in front of me it is too scared to say anything…..’ Actually it’s a nice, romantic and melodious song but not quite what you expect to hear when you call your financial consultants on a mega-city project! Its really bizarre how the film song-ring tones have caught so many people’s fancy in India. In most other parts of the world where I’ve travelled/ lived, I have seen mainly teenagers and college students having proper songs as ring tones. Of course there are always a few ‘grown-ups’ who go through a phase of trying out different songs as ring tones, but the majority of the population is usually OK with just the nokia beep beeps, tring trings, buzz...

I recently went to the renown Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai which is run by one of India’s oldest film-family, the Kapoors. The theatre is maintained in the memory of Prithviraj Kapoor, a pioneer of Indian theatre and films. Five generations of his family have been associated with the Indian film industry including the latest Bollywood Hearthrobs- Kareena Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor. The play was part-narration, part-enactment of a controversial 1970s play on censorship in theatre. The acting was powerful and there was an unusual mix of several mediums- cinema via film clips that came up at appropriate points on a screen overhead, ‘lavani’- a traditional, seductive Marathi Folk Dance, and the theatre act itself. The play was mostly in Hindi with a small sprinkling of English and Marathi. Based on my very amateur, personal experiences of watching theatre, there are a few things that spring to my mind when I’m watching a play in India. Firstly, it is the props and lighting. When I...

I don’t know if this is specific to India or my childhood. At the start of every new school year, one of the ritual involves parents visiting the ‘authorised book shop’ which may be in the school or in another neighbourhood, ticking off text books form the list provided by the class teacher, selecting an appropriate number of empty notebooks of some specified size and then buying a roll of brown paper. Now I’m guessing the more modern, international schools may not follow this ritual. But I'm certain that across the country, thousands of little children are cutting brown paper into rectangular shapes and putting a ‘jilat’ or a cover on the notebooks to prevent wear and tear over a new term. I have memories of sitting down with my parents on the weekend before the start of a new term with paper, glue, tape and those all-important ‘name stickers’. They came in lots of bright colours with animals, flowers and cartoons as the background. You had to write your ‘FULL NAME’, ‘STAN...

Not many people who meet me would imagine that I have more than a passing interest in food. And indeed it has been a long journey for the little girl who threw roti pieces under the table to the adult who can now appreciate the fine and varied taste of dishes such as cream-topped artichokes, Camembert-filled pasta and even the quintessential North Indian lentil dish- Dal Makhani. I can’t quite remember the when, how and where but at some point in the last decade I started noticing the difference between ‘good cooking’ and ‘bad cooking’. Family meals were always healthy at home, but now I find myself (and most of my social circle) getting fanatical about the greens, five-fruits a day, wholegrain cereals, salted celery sticks and what-not. And all this usually after a weekend binge of fried food and fizzy-drinks ;-) However the one thing that has spoiled me for ever is the ‘food globalisation’ . It is such an integral part of my London-life that I started taking it for granted over ...

On the first day of the new year 2010, I looked out of the window in Delhi and stared at the swirling fog. I made a mental note: avoid flying in and out of Delhi in January. Travellers seem to be spending more time at the airport than all their flight times combined in half a year. Then what do I proceed to do? I go and book myself about 6 flights in January! To be fair it wasn't by design. Things just turned out to be such that the travel, both work and non work, became inevitable. In the process I got to spend a lot of 'quality time' at the domestic terminals of Delhi and Mumbai airports undertaking one of my favourite pastimes - people watching. As I'm back in the Fog-city Terminal 1D of Delhi Airport today and have a good free wi-fi connection, I must share the environs. There has been a sudden and dense fog since 8 AM which started clearing by noon. Flights are on an average three hours delayed. The shiny, new Delhi terminal has all kind of smart equipment ...

One thing that is never missing in India is the element of surprise. You could have arrived here a few hours ago or lived here your entire life, yet there is always something unusual or bizarre to see each day. Many of these events are noted and forgotten in an instant. The average Indian has a lot more on her mind than recording a bizarre occurrence. As one would say “Its Kalyug after all so anything is possible”.  If the occurrence is pleasant, the modern Indian might savour it for a few moments and glow with pride: “Ahh look at this 6-lane tolled expressway, just like DC no?!”. If it is not that tasteful, the urbanite will moan “Why do these damn drivers keep spitting on the road? All those social adverts saying that gutka gives you mouth cancer are no use !!” Recently, on a road trip to Rajasthan with my family, I found a lot of things to put in the ‘pleasant surprise’ list and a few in the ‘not-that-cool’ category. As this is my feel-good post I shall ignore the 2nd ...