Bangalore|Karnataka

the rural will die; long live the urban

June 14, 2010
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At the Global Investors’ Meet, Mohandas Pai was ready to speak but the introducer droned on about Pai’s achievements and didn’t notice his hand urging a stop to the paraak, so Pai walked over and squeezed the man’s shoulder and silenced him. Pai threw down facts on what IT has done for India, and of [...]

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death in the evening

June 6, 2010
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His skin was the color of night, washed down a shade by the moon. I’d been reading, using a clip-on LED light, and I raised my head when Sujaya exclaimed in a way I’ve never heard from her before. Did he rush across the highway? Was he loitering in its middle? I saw him just [...]

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Deshakaala: fifth year’s special release

May 6, 2010
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Vivek Shanbhag went about his affairs quietly in college. He was among the best performers in his batch, and he stood out because of his reticence in a boisterous class, so I knew Vivek though I was two years his senior, though I’ve spoken not so much as ten sentences with him on the campus. [...]

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trifling with history in Halebid

March 17, 2010
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Two minutes before arriving in Halebid a farm came up, its house painted in pink and green fluorescent colors completely foreign to this region, but our eyes were drawn beyond the startling walls of the house to a mound shaped like the smooth top of a giant sarcophagus fifty meters behind the house. The mound, [...]

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a coffee-table story of Angadi

January 13, 2010
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There isn’t an outlet that serves a decent cup of coffee in Malnad. The little shops that make it use instant-coffee powder; but if you are desperate for good coffee, knock on the door of the coffee-planter. His woman will serve it with a fluff of froth with a wee bit of powder on top, [...]

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the Hoysalas: brigand chiefs who became kings

December 27, 2009
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In my last post I told you that all the public walls of Bangalore are painted over with scenes of ruins of our historical monuments, and larger-than-hoarding depictions of our beasts and birds and beaches. I am sitting in the Cafe Coffee Day by the highway at Hirisave, a hundred and ten kilometers west of [...]

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this foggy clear December

December 21, 2009
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This December, as in every December, I approach Electronics City seeing the sun through the fog, and mistake it for a morning moon—I see it so absently. I wonder that the moon is so large, and after a while I realize there is no rabbit on it, and so it is the sun in its [...]

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a divine smile called Hassan

December 17, 2009
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The ride into town Turn right to the north on NH-48 and then at the square which comes up turn left to the west. The road (Bangalore-Mangalore Road) goes straight and curves fine to the right after a while, and then it is straight again for the few furlongs into the town center. On either [...]

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the Bhagawan’s eyes

November 29, 2009
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Every introduction to Bangalore speaks of the four towers of Kempegowda that marked the corners of the capital he founded four-hundred years ago. But these small things are not towers—not in the way the Jin Mao or the Sears or the Qutb Minar are towers. Kempegowda’s Towers are small gopuras, tiny things built on dome-shaped [...]

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