January 22, 2012 · 5:58 pm

Clean souls and Satanic Verses

‘I remember you from last time! Last time you buy very much for your wife!’

From my seat in the rickshaw I glance up at the rearview mirror to be greeted by a wide grin. It is clear that telling the driver that I am neither married nor bought anything on my visit here (to the Jaipur Literary Festival) last year will make no difference.

‘Yes you buy very much! I remember! What you take back for her this year? Jewellery?’

‘A clean soul,’ I reply, half sarcastically, the words falling out of my mouth before I know what I am saying. Continue reading →

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January 19, 2012 · 3:09 pm

Ladies and acceptable authors only

“Excuse me sir. Ladies only,” says the platform guard.

He looks apologetic. I look around the carriage of the Delhi Underground train I have just boarded. Yup, there is no mistaking the hundreds of sari-clad women around me. I slink back out of the closing doors as unobtrusively as I can, followed by a crowd of puzzled dark eyes. Another lesson re-learned in India.

It takes a little time to get used to Delhi’s foibles again after a period away; but despite the freezing January fog (the city’s inhabitants are wrapped in a bizarre assortment of winter shawls, scarves and balaclavas against the nine degrees temperature), some things never change. Continue reading →

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January 22, 2011 · 3:48 am

Bollywood and politics – in one word…

The huge advert in Kolkata’s South City Mall screamed its message across the marbled forecourt. “At our school your child could become the next Bill Gates, the next David Beckham, the next Katrina!”

Katrina? For a nanosecond I wondered why anyone would want their child to become a natural disaster. But then I remembered the Indian tendency to reduce those they love to a one-word moniker. “Katrina” is the stunning Katrina Kaif, the 26-year-old rising star of Indian pop culture. Half Kashmiri, half English, born in Hong Kong, raised in Hawaii – Katrina has all the globish credentials of a 21st century superstar with hit films and songs under her belt. Continue reading →

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