Known Turf

I grew up with nursery rhymes. My mother says that I had begun to recite four-line rhymes (and was very annoying, am sure, but she doesn...

On the local cable TV channel, Bollywood songs and dances played with a running ticker offering various products and services. One of them w...

A few weeks ago, Jamia had organised an Indo-Pak mushaira . Since I was heading towards Jamia in any case - to visit Qurratulain Hyder...

Inside Hazratbal, a jaali -wall, a concrete veil outside which women and children kneel. Beyond this point, I am not allowed to go. This con...

The other thing about this job is the hardening and having to watch out for it. Last month, while making calls to some contacts in Madhya Pr...

A few days ago, I was at Gwalior station, waiting for a train that just wouldn't arrive. Since I travel very light these days, I just sw...

A few weeks ago, holed up in a small-town hotel one evening, staring dully at the television, my finger stopped jabbing remote when I caught...

This is almost a ritual for bloggers now: to keep an eye - a widened, part-horrified, part-amused eye - out for the weird searches that di...

It is the season for regrets, it seems. Dashrath , the man who single-handedly cut a road through a hill, breathed his last recently. From ...

So Qurrat-ul-Ain Haider too is gone . Slipped away , in a hospital at the edges of this city. I've been trying to say something about he...

While I was away and unconnected, several items awaited me in my work inbox. A small sample. 1. Govt.Girls Middle School, Jaffrabad Extensio...

I met Lal Singh 'Dil' about two years ago. Interviewed him for this story , mentioned him in passing, in that blog post . And I did ...

Seen at Srinagar airport, on my way back from covering this story : Large groups of tourists, possibly religious tourists, working themselve...

"Chairing the meeting, the PCCF-cum-Secretary, Environment & Forests, Shri S S Choudhury urged upon the PRI members to decimate th...

To get a feel of just how influential the Dera is, around Sirsa, just drive through it. You will see Sachi Daadhi, Sach Nursery, Sach Petro...

In Punjab, there is a village called Ajitwal. In Ajitwal, there is a family of farmers. They probably have roots in UP, but have been here f...

Came across this poem by Kunwar Narayan. Am not going to attempt a translation because this poem works primarily (for me) phonetically. It h...

I sometimes wonder whether some of us (film reviewers especially) are losing the ability to be entertained. Or whether we like to set oursel...