To-Let:Brahmins Only

“We are Brahmins, so you’ll have no problem”, Amma flashed a wide pandering smile at Mrs.J.
We had left Bangalore for Madras to pitch tent ”permanently”. We went on to rent a small pad with a terrace from Mrs.J in Mandavelli on a secluded lane called Sambandam Street. The landlady had a small notebook paper stuck on a cardboard that swung on [...]

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McKeown Mums and Earth Mothers

A summer breeze has made the night cool. But I’m tossing, sleepless, over the pillows.
I hear the familiar flapping of wings by the window above my bed.  He parts the drapes to hover over my head.
“It’s a pretty moon up there”, he points up to a silver disc shimmering in the dark sky. 
“What’s with my heart?  It’s stone-cold,” I say.
“Here, let me show you [...]

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Karachi, Kamal Hassan and Kheema

We had guests for dinner on Sunday and among them was a couple from Karachi and their cherubic 2 year-old.
I am usually chilled as I’ve creased out the dinner-for-dummies schedule. This time I went into doubt.”Is it appropriate to bring out a bottle of wine? Should I replace it with lemonades and sodas? Push the South-Indian vegetarian menu, I cheat at, off the [...]

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Out of Uniform

Rokkiah aka Salma, 38, is a mother, wife and panchayat leader in a small village near Tiruchi. But she ’s bad news for the neighbourhood. Especially when she wrote poems and articles and novellas. ”Mother tells me that all erring in bed is my fault…it’s my responsibility to rear the child, play the mother, buy my sanitary napkins [...]

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