Main Radha tu mera shaam from Vishwaroop

Some songs from Indian films are simply outstanding.

And since I love dancing and theatre, those with an element of dance are also my favourites. 

Whats better is when the entire things comes together beautifully on screen.  This one almost does...

Haruki Murakami's “Scheherazade" in the New Yorker

Short stories can be tricky and I think the jury is out on what really makes a good short story.  When I got around to reading the short stories outside my textbooks -  This is very different, I realized,  from what I read in school - which were mostly reeeeally short as in SHORT stories. Most of the stuff I read in school were the shorter ones by RK Narayan (malgudi) and O Henry etc.

So, some very good ones would actually not be very short at all. I quite liked reading Maugham's stories from the orient, and expatriate life back in the days when colonization was in its last days. Jeffrey archer, Roald Dahl, Jhumpa Lahiri etc. were some of my favourites (and I think the entire list would be difficult to put down ehre)

The temples of Goa

My community – the Gowd Saraswat Brahmins contain various clans (called Kula) and each of them have their Kula deva sthaan (or the clan's temple) in the province of Goa.  This is also common to other communities from Karnataka and Maharashtra. 

                              

At various stages in life it is customary to make a pilgrimage to your Kula devasthaan – some do this annually, a few only on special occasions (thread ceremony, wedding etc.).

And then One day... A memoir by Naseeruddin Shah

Hi, Not much to write here. The title pretty much says it all.

Ever since this book was published and I heard about it on the web waves, I wanted a copy of this. Unfortunately not so easy when you are in distant shores.

So the moment I land in India, I manage to grab a copy,

Undhiyo - a seasonal speciality from Gujarat

Tis the season to be Jolly, and Undhiyo is one of the reasons that makes this season even more special.

But first, an embarrassing confession....