Posted in men, tagged draupadi, gandhi, hemingway, nehru, picasso, sita, subramania bharathi, v.s.naipaul on June 23, 2008 | 39 Comments »
Summer is ushered in here by a sequence of flowering trees. It begins with towering scarlet cannon ball trees in full bloom and a little later with the beguiling charm of frangipani blossoms. It is quickly followed by a rash of orange gulmohar flowering tree tops and pink powder puff trees. I stick a bunch [...]
Posted in men, tagged Dasavatharam, Kamal Hassan, Nayakan, Pushpak, Sarika, Singaravelan on June 15, 2008 | 50 Comments »
When I was 14, I received my first make-up box. It was a present from Appa, who had arrived from his first visit abroad. It was a flat purple plastic case. I flipped it open and the slight fragrance tickled my nose. It contained a compact rectangle, a tiny brush, a selection of creamy eye-shadows [...]
Posted in men, tagged kamalahasan, mallika sherawat, sari, shriya saran, silapadigaram, tamil cinema on May 5, 2008 | 67 Comments »
A stone’s throw away from the Madhya Kailash temple, bordering the woods of IIT, Madras, stood a decrepit Institute of Tamil Language and Culture (now called Roja Muthiah Research Library). I chanced upon the gems that place holds in its dusty shelves and moth eaten library when I went to read up on Tamil textile history [...]
Posted in men, tagged rajnikanth, raj thackeray, nagma, mumbai, marathi, sena on March 6, 2008 | 17 Comments »
It’s late morning in Chennai. The sun’s acting cruel and adding to the heat at ground-level.
The crowd outside 18, Raghaveera Avenue, Poes Garden has not yet waned. Screeching past the vans and tempos, swaying with thambis from Srikakulam and Tiruverkadu, is a steely SUV. Raj Thackeray in dacron trousers, white shirt, and orange pullover hops down from the [...]
