The Reel Parsis
AS I WATCHED Jim Sarbh play the lead role in Rocket Boys, now streaming, I was reminded of the time when Parsis were a dominant force in Indian cinema, long before the word “Bollywood” was coined....
View ArticleThe Passage to Fiji
PERHAPS THE MOST miserable day of my life was July 15, 1956. That was 66 years ago, but it still wakes me up at night in a cold sweat. As a teenager, travelling alone, from a country thousands of...
View ArticleThe Pleasure and Pain of Old Age
“OLD AGE SUCKS,” my neighbour shouted at me the other day as I hobbled towards my flat with the cane in one hand and my house keys in the other. I was unsteady on my feet and she had noticed. I looked...
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Gymkhana Clubbed. Rightly So
THE MEMBERS OF the Delhi Gymkhana Club are a nervous lot these days. The running of the club has been taken away from them. For the last two years, its administration has been in the hands of...
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Bombay High
ONCE UPON A time, there was a roundabout on top of the hill in a city that was then known as Bombay. In the middle of the roundabout were three street lights on an iron pole. These lights ran on gas...
View ArticleIn Search of the Greatest Indian Film
WHICH IS THE greatest Hindi film of all time? If you ask that question to 10 different people, you will get 10 different answers. The films will include the usual suspects, but I am willing to bet that...
View ArticleThe Tipping Point
HOW MUCH should one tip for services in a restaurant and elsewhere? It’s a dilemma we all face at times. It’s not easy to get it right. Tipping practices vary from country to country. In our country,...
View ArticleOld Man and See!
WHEN YOU ARE old and retired you have time to kill, 24 slow-moving hours each day. Hopefully, eight of them will pass in restless sleep with three excursions to the bathroom to pee. Peeing is not easy...
View ArticleA Train Wreck of Tradition
DELHI’S MOST elegant restaurant is named after a train. Not just any train but the most famous and luxurious train in history, the legendary long-distance passenger train that began its journey in...
View ArticleLike a Motion Picture
WHAT CAN ONE SAY about a woman who once dated Marlon Brando? In the 1960s Aruna Vasudev was employed in the films section of the United Nations in New York when the famous actor walked into her...
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