Ayasofya, Istanbul’s defining landmark at the heart of the city in history-soaked Sultanahmet is often referred in guidebooks as one of the greatest monuments a traveler will ever see. From the outside it isn’t very impressive – its exposed brickwork and peeling façade only downplaying and readying you for the dizzying effect it has upon [...]

I’m recently returned from Goa, where I was at IFFI for a few days, doing mostly non-IFFI things, hedonistic and aimless. I saw a couple films, but that’s not what this post is about.
I was at IFFI because I’d been on the Panorama non-fiction jury. Did I want to take on this onerous task? Not [...]

How often do you come across articles and vignettes of conversations with cabbies? A lot. Once a week at least, and if you are the sort who scans all editions of all newspapers plus the internet for stories, probably five times a day. Editors love this. But then so do greenhorn literati. Somehow for most [...]

As a young woman, just starting working life, I remember going to my first ever Women’s Day rally about 19 years ago. A motley group of women and a few good men marching down a central Bombay street yelling: meri behna maange: Aazadi! Arre Jaativaad se: Aazadi – that’s still the most infectious chant I’ve [...]

Hail to the King Baby…..Jacko is Backo! but is he still Michael Jackson or hadn’t he recently reportedly “embraced” Islam as many of the worlds top luminaries do.  Cat Stevens, Jermaine Jackson and Mike Tyson among them and apparently even Britney Spears toyed with the idea before Mel Gibson talked her out of it.  I [...]

In 1990, a friend of mine, a writer and an intellectual, went to visit his son in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His son worked for a Multinational corporation. The writer had been there for about three days when, in the early morning, he received a phone call from a Palestinian friend. The friend asked him to [...]

I have been following and keeping track of the Middle East conflict for many, many years. But it was only about two and a half years ago that I actually got an opportunity to visit Israel and Palestine. I spent about three weeks traveling around Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and Tel Aviv. What amazed me [...]