“First, stomach.”

Notes from a talk by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik, about food and the philosophy it contained in ancient Hindu India at Tata Lit Live: Continue reading →

Protests and pontifications

Warning: This is going to be a loooong and serious one. In Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Continue reading →

August and Nissim Ezekiel

Even now a host of miracles hurries me a daily business, minding the ways of the island as a good Continue reading →

The Ocean At the End of the Lane

By the time I finished The Ocean At the End of the Lane, I wanted a cheese sandwich. Nothing exotic. Continue reading →

RIP Chinua Achebe

Yes, you should read Things Fall Apart, the 1958 novel by Chinua Achebe that made many sit up and acknowledge that Continue reading →

‘Critics are writers’

From an interview with Daniel Mendelsohn: Well critics are writers. I think that my point has been that critics are not just carrying Continue reading →

‘Art is a fistfight’

Who knew cantankerous film reviewers could inspire a poem? Russian poet Kirill Medvedev calls them “schizocinephiles” in a poem that Continue reading →

Of Patron Saints

Since yesterday, when I heard about a senior journalist ‘going on a sabbatical’ — rubbish — I’ve had a passage Continue reading →