Last week, I got to hear Umayalpuram Sivaraman playing the mridangam in Delhi. He turns 91 this year. Whenever I see someone in their 90s (doesn't happen too often with me since I live in India, not Japan), I'm always reminded of the philosopher Bryan Magee's analysis of centenarians. According to him, when you're in … Continue reading Twenty People Away from Christ
After reading and writing a bit about the American Revolution, I have been tackling the biographies of a few of the Founding Fathers. Jon Meacham’s ‘Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power’ was the first of the lot. In 1962, at a dinner honoring the Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere, President Kennedy began his … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy (It’s Complicated)
Satluj: Wrote about this here. The Agency (Season 2): Worth watching as it takes off from where it left us in Season 1. Great Expectations (1946): Wrote about this here Great Expectations (1998): Wrote about this here Patriot: Malayalam cinema is slowly learning to make slick flicks. But the writing needs a lot more improvement. … Continue reading What I Watched – August 2026
Sikkil was accompanied by the legendary Umayalpuram Sivaraman (going strong at 91) on the mridangam, Delhi Sriram on the violin and B.S Purushotam on the Khanjira. Chalamela (Varnam) in Nattaikurinji Siddhi Vinayakam in Shanmukhapriya by Dikshitar Kanintharul Purinthal in Kalyani by Papanasam Sivan Nenarunichi Nanu in Maalavi by Thyagaraja Chesinadella in Todi by Thyagaraja I … Continue reading Sikkil Gurucharan at Chinmaya Mission Auditorium, New Delhi
Thanks to being the resident Social Science teacher at home, I got to read the content on Shivaji in the Class VIII NCERT textbook. The chapter made random references to Afzal Khan, Shivaiji’s raid of Surat, his defeat by Jai Singh, the famous escape from Agra, his coronation, Tarabai, Thanjavur etc. The mandatory reference to … Continue reading The Remarkable Shivaji
The Classics bug has taken hold of me and I decided to continue the streak with Dickens. My choice was Great Expectations, based on the feedback from this Reddit thread on Charles Dickens' 'best work'. There’s a special kind of joy in reading Dickens. While he’s never in the league of the great Russian masters, … Continue reading Great Expectations
I watched Satluj a few weeks ago and was disappointed by its overall treatment of a complex subject like Punjab’s militancy. Until the movie hit the headlines, I knew next to nothing of Jaswant Singh Khalra. This full-page profile by the Indian Express was one of the best introductions to the case and Khalra’s life. … Continue reading ‘Satluj’
Until yesterday, the only Eden that I knew was Antony Eden, the British PM remembered for the disastrous Suez Crisis of 1956. Apparently, Lord Auckland, the Governor General of India from 1836-42 was an ancestor of Eden. When Lord Auckland was posted in India, he was accompanied by his sister Emily Eden who ended up … Continue reading Emily Eden’s ‘Ranjit Singh’
The Humayun Tomb Museum has a special exhibition called ‘One Mother, Many Mother Tongues’ which explores how the concept of motherhood has been a constant motif in civilizations across millennia both in the East and the West. With just a few pieces from various Indian and Italian collections, the exhibition was quite interesting. By focussing … Continue reading Botticelli in Delhi
The Fabelmans: I wasn't too keen to watch it but am happy that I did. Spielberg based it on his own childhood and had to wait for his parents' death to finally make it. It's not easy to make a movie in which your mother's infidelity is and the subsequent unraveling of the family is … Continue reading What I Watched – July 2026
