India

Vincent van Gogh: Gypsy encampment I’d never been to the Camargue before, the home of salt marshes, red rice, wild horses and pink flamingoes and because I was curious to witness the great annual gypsy pilgrimage to Saint Sara Kali in the fishing village of Saintes Maries de la Mer, I  held my nose and […] Read more

Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if I never went to another art exhibition, read another novel or poem or listened to another musical performance. It would be lesser, of course, without the banquet of  earthly delights to wonder at and rejoice in; and would leave me without the comfort  of a […] Read more

Today is Priya’s birthday, so my mother asked Mishri Lal the Cook to make a feast to celebrate the happy day. Significant days in the calendar- birthdays, anniversaries, special prayer days- are marked by specially delicious and calorific dishes: potatoes curried with tomatoes,  sweet and sour chickpeas, puffy fried puris and a sticky semolina halvah […] Read more

There is a particular excitement in spotting an unknown bird, especially one with a lively plumage. The one I saw in a Delhi park was round and plump like a robin, but its front was a glossy dark blue, its top feathers were sooty like charcoal and it sported a red flash on its rump.  […] Read more

Upper middle- class Delhi socialites (just “middle” class without the “upper” is distinctly pejorative in our immensely status conscious city) can afford luxuries like facials and deep-pore cleansing at suburban beauty parlours.  But what a struggle to present the glowing complexion of  admens’ dreams when you have to make do with Delhi air and its […] Read more

Alfonso de Albuquerque (the King of Mangoes is named after him) arrived  in Goa in 1542 followed by  his Portugese  compatriots a few years later.  They colonized this end of the Malabar coast, becoming  busily engaged in commerce and conversion and hugely brutal with it. In 1961 our idolised first Prime Minister, Mr Nehru,  sent […] Read more

We Indians are all familiar with  time-honoured and, frankly, yawn-making  clichés about our distinctive regional  pecadilloes; after all, what sets a Punjabi apart from a Bengali and a Bengali from a Southerner or a Gujerati from a U.P bhaiya?  We fondly cherish stereotypes of  the brainy Bong who eats a lot of fish and thus […] Read more

Mrs Suares is a sprightly 92 year-old  Goan lady of education and culture. She was a schoolteacher, like her late husband. He won many awards for his teaching of Portugese and I wish I had asked her to recite me some verses from the Portugese Shakespeare, Camoes,  who came to Goa in 1553. RED  rose […] Read more

It’s not just in Britain that young people full of energy and vision are launching cafes and restaurants to excite the palate and provide social hubs buzzing with interest. I found one in Goa. Chris Agha Bee, half Iranian and half Goan, has created an oasis in the middle of a culinary desert in North […] Read more