Blogpourri

A Spoonful of Pickle Makes Life Go Down Easy

2013-05-02T13:53:00.000-04:00

At 2am on a cold, damp weeknight, the highway that connects Washington, D.C. to its Virginia suburbs was nearly empty. I had the run of its deserted lanes as I hurtled through the darkness towards home with this single tantalizing thought on my mind – a bowl of hot rice, ghee and spicy mango pickle. The past several days and nights had been one unending blur at work and the next few weeks

Why Does the Higgs Particle Matter?

2013-04-24T10:01:00.000-04:00

Physicist Frank Wilczek's essay is absolutely lovely to read, and inspiring, because it considers not only the science but also the human aspects involved in an inquiry of this magnitude: The scientific work leading to the Higgs particle discovery involved thousands of engineers and physicists, not to mention billions of taxpayers, from all over the world co-operating to pursue a common goal.

When All That's Left of a Pressure Cooker are Fragments and Hurt

2013-04-18T01:56:00.000-04:00

As an intern at a communications consulting company many years ago, I had to get familiar with the firm's documents and their various formats and templates. The resident tech guru pointed to the computer screen and said, "Click on that icon." Try as I might, I couldn't see an image of Jesus, Mary or any other religious figure. I turned to him and shook my head. "The icon. Here." He pointed to a

How Does the 2013 Immigration Reform Proposal Compare to the 2006 and 2007 Senate Bills?

2013-04-17T12:18:00.001-04:00

Via e-mail from the DC-based Migration Policy Institute: The Migration Policy Institute has completed an analysis of the major provisions in the bipartisan group of senators' 2013 immigration reform framework, comparing them to provisions in the earlier 2006 and 2007 Senate legislation. The side-by-side comparison's topics include border security and enforcement; visa reforms; earned

ForbesLife India: Altruism Everyday

2013-04-04T18:14:00.000-04:00

This essay appeared in the Winter 2012 edition of ForbesLife India. In a material world, working for nothing can bear unexpected rewards - especially for heritage volunteers. I must have dropped the nails about 10 times. In my defence, it was a typically freezing day in February in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. I had two layers of t-shirts underneath my hooded sweatshirt, a heavy jacket on top

A Playreading Group for Children, at Jagriti in Bangalore

2013-01-11T09:32:00.001-05:00

Via e-mail: This is open to children who would like to keep in touch with plays and drama. There will be one session at week—on Saturday at 4 pm—for three months. Through this time, the group will read plays, watch plays and meet with directors, actors and designers to understand the workings of a dramatic text. This is not a class, where a syllabus is followed and a trainer

In Honor of Mardi Gras, A Little Slice of New Orleans

2012-02-20T17:39:00.001-05:00

In just a few hours, Mardi Gras will get underway in New Orleans, one of my favorite cities in all the world. Over Christmas break, with the Sugar Bowl, a Saints game and New Year's parties all happening around that time, the city was buzzing with excitement and energy. But what's a good party without food, eh? Each meal was an event in itself, as we tried to get our fill of the delicious

Profiting from Social Media

2012-02-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

Sree Sreenivasan, a professor of digital media and dean of student affairs at Columbia Journalism School, has a new blog on CNET. His first post is on profiting from social media.

Jabberwock's Review of Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers

2012-02-12T09:28:00.000-05:00

I recently heard an interview with Katherine Boo on radio and want to get her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, about life in Annawadi, a slum in Mumbai. This Jabberwock review seals the deal. And here's an interesting profile of the author in The New York Times.

Swimming Lessons in Bangalore at the Nisha Millet Swimming Academy

2012-02-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

Olympian Nisha Millet runs the Nisha Millet Swimming Academy at various locations in Bangalore for many age groups and skill levels - from five year-olds to 70 year-olds, from beginners to competitive swimmers. Check out her Facebook page for more details. From first hand experience, I can say that she has a firm but gentle approach with the kids and gets them to love the water, which as many

Theater Review: Adventure Theatre's A Snowy Day

2012-01-23T02:35:00.000-05:00

There are few things more delightful than an afternoon spent surrounded by a gaggle of giggling five and six year-olds. And there was plenty of opportunity for that at a showing of Adventure Theatre's new musical production, The Snowy Day. Based on Ezra Jack Keats' Caldecott Medal winning children's book of the same name, the antics of the four main characters in the play provide plenty of

Forbes Article on D.C. Pedicabs

2012-01-22T15:41:00.001-05:00

The nose wheel makes an acute turn and plants itself in the six-foot-wide gap between two cars idling at a traffic light on 14thStreet. Before we have time to analyse just how our driver would steer the rest of the 10-foot-long ‘pedicab’ into that space, we’re straddling another lane line a few feet down the road between a big, red tourist bus and a truck. A few more zigs and zags later, we

Travel Essay: Budapest

2011-03-11T13:26:00.002-05:00

Ajay Devgn. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. His stark white suit. Her lusciously rich red sari. The earthy tones of the concrete and metal of Chain Bridge. A maudlin song wailing in the background. Their meeting on the deserted bridge. Her limpid eyes. His sad face. And…you know the rest. The scene plays out in slow motion in my mind’s eye as we gaze at the majestic Chain Bridge

Travel Essay: Vienna

2010-11-20T06:19:00.015-05:00

The drone of early morning traffic trickles in through the thick double-paned kitchen windows and into our apartment in the heart of Vienna. I hear buses, cars and a couple of motorbikes, usual fare for a modern city. Then, distinct from the mix, I hear a familiar sound from a long time ago—the clip-clop of a horse’s hooves. In an instant I’m transported to my grandmother’s house in Mysore, to

Book Review: The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit, by Sylvia Plath

2010-10-11T11:00:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago we were at the library and I came across a book by Sylvia Plath in the children's section. I had never heard of Sylvia Plath writing books for kids. Out of curiosity, I picked it up. The jacket was bright and colorful with a happy-looking kid and his cat populating the front cover. The jacket blurb said that the book had remained "undiscovered for years within the Plath

Advertisements and Parenting: A Little Bit of Help From an Unlikely Source

2010-09-14T11:34:00.004-04:00

I am not a big fan of blaming television or video games for kids gone wild. Nor do I expect sports stars to be role models for my children. I don't believe that schools are solely responsible for making sure our children are well-educated. I don't blame advertisers or broadcast companies for airing enticing ads for sugary junk in the middle of what are touted to be educational programs.What I

After School Care in Bangalore

2010-06-16T09:17:00.004-04:00

I know day care is a big concern in Bangalore for those families in which both parents work and who don't have family there. A quick post to tell you about a new after school care center called Spectrum (via Sue). Here's their blurb and address:Spectrum is an After School Care Centre where children nurtured through holistic development, leaving parents worry free to concentrate on their careers.

Update on Devan's Bone Marrow Transplant Search

2010-06-03T10:42:00.003-04:00

Update to this post below, from Time Magazine:Devan's doctor informed the family a cord blood match had turned up. It's not a perfect solution, but Devan's doctor says it's good enough. Blood from the umbilical cord is rich in blood-forming cells, and cord blood doesn't have to match quite as closely as marrow from an adult. In the U.S. registry, compared to the over eight million potential

Summer Activities in the DC Area for Children

2010-05-28T10:00:00.003-04:00

A quick post to point to a few interesting activities for children in the DC area.Registration is open for German language classes at the Goethe Institut. Info here.Acting for Young People's summer program is open for registration. Info here.The India International School's language, music and dance classes are continuing. Info here.Inf0rmation about children's summer programming at Wolf Trap is

A 4-year-old needs a bone marrow transplant; the situation is dire

2010-05-21T07:46:00.005-04:00

I'm copying here a note circulated by Bloomberg on behalf of their colleague. If you have never registered with the Bone Marrow Registry, please consider doing it. It's a very simple process. This story puts a face to all those people that are waiting for a match. Due to his family ancestry (1/4 South Indian, 3/4 European) Devan's potential match could come from someone who is of mixed Asian and

Blog on Hiatus

2010-03-08T12:41:00.001-05:00

This blog will be silent for a while. I hope to be back soon and I look forward to catching up with you then on your blogs and in comment boxes. In the meantime, feel free to cursor your way through the archives.

Blog Admin - Comment Replies

2010-03-04T09:57:00.002-05:00

A quick note about replies to comments.I love reading comments, especially the thoughtful ones that keep a conversation going. And the way to keep a conversation going (as long as it will organically go) is to reply to them. When I first started blogging in India, it was apparent that the convention was to reply to the comments on your blog and on your post, i.e., if someone commented on one of

The Bangle Shop

2010-02-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

Long, long ago, in villages and towns across India, the 'bangle man' roamed the streets. A cloth knapsack slung on his shoulders, he called out his wares - glass bangles in resplendent colors, some plain, some decorated with gold or silver paint - and made the rounds of his beat perhaps once a month, but more frequently during the marriage or festival seasons.Inside the knapsack - fashioned out

The Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers as Seen From the Air

2010-02-10T22:22:00.004-05:00

ABC News has obtained aerial photographs of the collapse of the Twin Towers taken in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. They were taken by Det. Greg Semendinger of the NY Police Aviation Unit, the only photographer allowed in the airspace around that time, according to the NY Times.They make for stunning visuals. All of my visual memory of that day seems to contain images of the towers seen

The Hurt Locker: A Review

2010-02-08T23:19:00.000-05:00

The Hurt Locker is the tale of a trio of soldiers that makes up the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), a bomb disposal squad, attached to an army regiment on rotation in Iraq. Of the three, Staff Sgt. William James (played by James Renner, nominated for a Best Actor Oscar this year) functions as the bomb-disposal technician, Specialist Owen Eldridge (played by Brian Geraghty) and Sgt. JT Sanborn