a blog about information
I’d never ever left the Indian subcontinent until November 1980, a few weeks after my 23rd birthday. [Technically I’d ventured across the border into Bangladesh, and into Nepal via Naxalbari as well, but these were deliciously illicit and very very brief, all part of being a teenager in Calcutta at that time]. When … Continue reading “There are places I remember”
There was a Women’s Doubles match at Wimbledon yesterday. And Martina Hingis won it. All by herself. No one else involved. So the BBC would have you believe. And it’s true. She did it on her own. As you can see from the photographs above and below. Martina … Continue reading “Hingis wins … BBC loses. [Updated]”
Some years ago I wrote a few posts about the “adda” in Calcutta. Since then the term has a Wikipedia entry; there’s been an award-winning film made about the phenomenon (which you can watch here in its entirety, worth it for the music alone): Even the New York Times covered the topic … Continue reading “thinking about tolerance and opinion polls”
Photo (and associated recipe) courtesy minniecooks.wordpress.com I used to be a vegetarian. Growing up in a Brahmin Hindu household in Calcutta, that meant potatoes and chapatis and daal and dahi (thayir) as my staple meal. Of course I had rasam and sambar with rice; of course I had mixed-vegetable delicacies like avial; and … Continue reading “Why you should read Peers Inc”
Murmuration. What a wonderful word. I remember being fascinated by collective nouns at school, particularly those to do with birds. An unkindness of ravens. A parliament of rooks. A murder of crows. An ostentation of peacocks. And a murmuration of starlings. That one stuck with me. Really stuck with me. Particularly since I then had … Continue reading “Murmurations on a Sunday morning”