There’s this funny story doing the rounds—about a young couple raising their two kids in modern-day urban India. When their first came along, they had higher ideals about the good and proper way to raise a child, in which the idiot box had no part. By the time the second emerged, they had significantly more […]
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Comfort food
A craving for curd rice? How unglamorous! Until last week, when I was laid low by a stomach bug, I wasn’t even aware of how much I love curd rice. But after spending the better part of the week spent eating a variety of boiled things, the craving hit. I could almost smell the mustard […]
Can’t buy you love
Something strange happened today—I almost found myself in agreement with HT City. “Are we being conned?” screamed the headlines, asking if Valentine’s day was a gimmick thought up to line the pockets of sellers of pink and heart-shaped things. Unfortunately, a closer look revealed that the placement of the story was probably a gimmick itself. […]
Things to do
Things have been busy lately. A humungous editing assignment and a string of persistent deadlines have thrown my preferred priorities to the winds. However, I intend to rein in the madness before the month ends. What better way to start than to make a list. Things to do before February 2013 ends: Finish Mass Effect […]
Where’s all the chocolate?
There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.(Linda Grayson) For someone who doesn’t have too many of them, I sometimes feel I tend to take friendships for granted. I don’t mean in the take-advantage-of kind of way (at least I hope not!), but more in the way of not […]
A hairy story
Fact: women’s body hair is dirty. And how do I know this? Because I’ve always been told you’re cleaner if you shave your legs; and, stretching that logic, unhygienic if you happen to have armpit hair. And it’s on TV and in the newspapers, so it must be triply true. Heck, according to the media, […]
Happy New Year 37
Turning older in January means that it is easy to see the regular new year thing and the birthday thing as a big, all-encompassing Big New Year Thing in general. It also makes it possible to procrastinate doing my usual year-end audit. Overall, 2012 and Year 36 was a mixed one. From a professional perspective, […]
Doing a phoenix
Is my blog dead? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for quite a few weeks now. The answer I want to give is: “No, of course not!” The truth… well, that’s a whole different kettle of fish. But then, if I do want to resurrect Writer’s Log, what better time to do it than […]
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Writing about writing
…Or why I’m not a beetle Writing about writing—my that’s a hard one. Which is a bit of a paradox since I write for a living. Even this piece, which I started writing for a website that was inviting entries about what writing means to different people, could be put down to “work”. Needless to […]
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Bookaroo 2012
On 23, 24 and 25 November, the Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival was held in Delhi, bringing together about 70 authors, illustrators, theatre people and various other storytellers—and, of course, thousands of young readers. While 23 November was the schools’ day, the next two days were open to the public. Entry was free and the crowds […]