At the end of a recent interview, I couldn’t help but ask the charming author of the Booker-nominated Sea of Poppies a filmi question: I noticed where, in Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times,  in the piece “The Ghat of the Only World” Agha Shahid Ali in Brooklyn, you mentioned […]

  Note:   Here’s  a piece that I did that appeared in the August 1, 2008 issue of India Abroad.   The filmi connection comes toward the end: Some people consider scaling the side of a mountain as a daring act, for others it’s scheduling two dates on the same evening. And then there’s what […]

This is the first part of an interview with Manish acharya, the  director, co-writer and actor  of  his successful debut film Loins of Punjab Presents:   Tell me about your background, where you grew up, what you did before  your first film, etc.   I was born in Bombay, to a middle class family.   […]

  Note: Here’s an interview that I did with Kailash Kher that  ran in the July 25, 2008 issue  of India Abroad.   It’s getting close to midnight and Kailash Kher has just emerged from the elevator.   As he moves through the hotel lobby, his short curly hair still damp from a shower, the […]

  This is a story that  I did that ran in the June 20, 2008 issue of India Abroad.   “I’m from Kerala, I live in Chennai and work in Bombay, also a bit in London, and I often come to the United States, but I am basically a backwater boy from Kerala.”   Given […]

After winding up a long and fascinating interview with singer Kailash Kher this weekend, just before he departed for Bombay, I asked if he wouldn’t mind  a few pictures too.   The seemingly always good-tempered man happily agreed, and this was the most amusing of the shots. Here’s a wee bit of trivia: sure, we […]