Archive for October, 2007

Go trail my daughter

charukesi October 11th, 2007

Today’s Hindustan Times has this piece on the front page - Sherlock Holmes has a dandiya job - which means ‘parents hire sleuths to stalk flirty youngsters’ as they go around whirling and twirling to Phalguni Pathak’s dandiya music this Navratri.

“They want to know who their girl is with, whether she is having sex,” said Rahul Nanda, CMD of Tops Security. A mother of a sixteen year old is worried because a gynecologist friend told her about abortions rising after Navratri. Also, the report says, parents approach detective agencies - who then send detectives dressed as dandiya dancers - when children start behaving differently. Go figure that out.

Now you may naively ask, but why watch her and report if she is having sex? I mean, just what does that achieve except to keep your score card updated. Why not just talk to her - ask her questions, give her answers, advice, even warning. Elementary, my dear Watson. We are Indians, we do not talk about sex, not even to our partners, forget children. Heck, we do not even have sex. It is God’s Will that we are a nation of a billion plus people - all born as Divine Blessing.

Heart of stone

charukesi October 4th, 2007

Photo essay that appeared in the October issue of India Today Travel Plus

Heart of stone

Don’t believe everything they tell you about Hampi – all those stones do not sing. Some of them speak to you with unmatched eloquence, some others stutter while others stare at you silently, mute witnesses to centuries of destruction wrought by nature and man.

Here among the ruins of the Vijayanagara empire is really the closest you can get to time travel. Watching the sun set from Hemakuta hill, watching the sun set or enclosed in the almost completely destroyed Achutaraya temple, it is possible to close your eyes and imagine that you have been thrown back a few centuries.

Keep your ears open, however, and listen to what the stones are saying. They ask you to return, and you will.

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