Observations, Thoughts and Stories as they form in the mind! Book Reviews, Art, Travelogue, Economy and Society
This was the second Kochi Muziris Biennale that we were visiting. This art festival is held every two years in the old Cochin island and attracts artists from all over the country and the world. We had the joy of visiting this 2016 version, while two years earlier we had visited the 2014 Biennale. My … Continue reading Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016: Artist’s delight
In Kolkata after more than a decade! My favourite city and my favourite spot, New Market! In spite of living in cities and watching the growth of the cities of Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi over the years, I was taken aback by Kolkata's growth. Growth of population, crowds like I have not seen anywhere, not … Continue reading Oh Kolkata!
While India has enacted progressive laws to protect the environment and indigenous tribal communities, the mining industry and financial capital are able to evade them with huge costs to the environment and tribal communities. Financial capital and the metal exchange systems in UK and USA combine to take away cultivable lands of the tribal communities … Continue reading In India, local people bear the cost of high-profit mining ventures
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in 2007 in literature. The book was written and published in 1962. It records the life of Anna Wuff and her experiences with the communist movements in South Rodhesia and United Kingdom. One of the most fascinating books I have read, Doris Lessing style is … Continue reading Pages Out of The Golden Notebook
An early novel by my favourite author Amitav Ghosh ‘The Shadow Lines’ (1988) is a rather rambling story about two families from Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) who moved to India and the UK. His later novels mastered this art of a wide sweep across time and space. I have read all his novels with great … Continue reading The World of Shadow Lines
I am a NRK, non-resident Keralite, as I was born in Kunnamkulam town, Kerala, but never really lived there. The only time I actually lived in Kerala was two years of my M.Phil course at CDS, Trivandrum. However, I spent all my summer holidays between Kunnamkulam and Irinjalakuda, both in Trissur. I have heard numerous … Continue reading Of Orthodox Syrian Christian Heritage
In Russia, Stalin conceived of the idea that the common man must also experience the grandeur of the palaces! As they spent a lot of time in the underground, he felt the Moscow Metro stations, started construction in1935, should be as grandiose as the castles and palaces. However, he was unable to build more than … Continue reading The Grand Metro: Moscow II
Russia is a country that has undergone a lot of turmoil over the centuries. People have suffered. The authoritarian rule of the Tzars was followed by the pains of revolution and then what is called the totalitarian rule during the Stalin era! All over Moscow you see this tumultuous history depicted. Kremlin is a fortress … Continue reading State and Religion: Kremlin and the Orthodox Russian Church, Moscow I
The animation movie "Inside Out", Disney Pixar, was sheer genius, Ideation on the working of the mind of a little girl Riley! The characters in the film are not the girl or her friends, but her five emotions: Joy (the heroine), Sadness (the villainous turning heroine), Anger, Fear and Disgust. These emotions fight it out within her mind while the … Continue reading Inside Out on Creativity!
In the early nineties, when I was a post-doc at Yale University, I insisted on not shifting to Western attire. "We are proud of our culture and will stick to it" attitude!. Well I wore long sleeved salwaar kameez through the four seasons. As summer set in, the Secretaries on my floor started to shed … Continue reading Worldly Wardrobe Woes!
Unni-Verse 