Known Turf

Consider the difference between watching a film in a foreign language and trying to read a book in that language. The film will still give...

One of my favourite experiences while traveling in more developed nations is the button you can press whenever pedestrians want to cross ...

Somewhere in the Haryanvi village of Mughwali, there is a little acquifer. That is to say, there is a hole in the earth, bricked around, a...

To call it filth is to dress it up. To call it a disgrace is to lend it grace. Let us call it what it is. It is the manifestation of minds ...

When does a borrowing turn into a theft? The answer is obvious – ask before borrowing, and do not go about saying that the goods are your ...

One can’t help it. One feels good about an Indian (well, okay Indian origin) girl growing up to do big things. Nikki – probably a pet nam...

The way to a man's heart, they say, is through the stomach. The way to keeping a nation's heart healthy is also sort of through the...

When I was little, I remember reading a story, or perhaps a play, where an Irish family is considering migrating to a new land, America. Mo...

I've enjoyed reading and reviewing two books this past month: Tabish Khair's "Night of Happiness" and Intizar Husain'...

There have been times when I've been asked what city I'd like to live in for the rest of my life. What sort of neighbourhoo...

One of my enduring memories from the first time I visited Melbourne is walking around looking for lunch and spotting a compact row of bri...

This poem had appeared in The Narrow Road zine. What more does a girl want? ·          notebooks. new, with hard covers so the page...

The naming of streets is a tricky business. In the old days, streets got their names off occupations. There could be named after a Baker, a...

At the turn of the millenium, the phrase “information superhighway” was tossed around a lot. I had no idea what it meant, even though my ...

Two days after Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hung, another glorious martyr gave his life for India. Most of us have forgotten him a...

There's a conversation I often play back in my head. I keep wishing I could back in time and argue properly. I had gone to an ar...

I have a favourite poem. Not necessarily a favourite poet, but a single short poem that demands that I hold on to it, remember it, like a t...

I'd been told the village I was headed to would be twenty-five or thirty kilometers from the kasbah where my family home was. I cou...

A few days ago, I had decided to visit my ancestral home in eastern Uttar Pradesh. As the taxi neared our destination, I was re-introduced ...

Today is Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's death anniversary. I knew very little about him, except that he was one of the tallest leaders of In...