SG OwnBlog

I have a beautiful small house in the hills. It is about 3 km from Manali, in Himachal Pradesh. It is not much. Probably calling it a cottage is stretching it too far. I have got a couple of bedrooms, a small drawing room cum kitchen where we dine as well. There is storage and a small garage that is mostly empty. I have got another small room with just a single bed and a study built on the first floor. It is just about ten feet by ten feet but it has got a retractable ceiling and a wall made of glass with the rest of the roof being something of a balcony. This is the place where I like to spend most of my time.
In the front, there is a garden with some flowers in the front and trees lining the boundary wall. My mother has planted a few vegetables in the back that we regularly use in the kitchen. We mostly require only rice and eggs from the market.

A typical day starts with me waking up and going for a morning stroll. I often spend my nights in the room on the roof. So the first thing I…

Karnavati is one of the oldest cities of Indian state of Gujarat. You may recognise it as the city of Ahmedabad.

Over the past few weeks I have been traveling to Karnavati on weekends. My brother had a minor mishap. He tore a few ligaments in his leg while playing football. The doctor suggested that he may need to have a surgery to fix it. The very next day my mother landed in the city to take care of him. Ahmedabad is less than 500 km from Mumbai. I could not miss it.

So I did not. For the past month, I have travelled back and forth on every single weekend. I usually prefer the train. One, because it is cheaper than a flight (though not much) and second, because I can sleep comfortably. There are a lot of trains that ply between Mumbai and Karnavati. Duronto are the best.



Weather in Gujarat is oppressive. You have got good food, good roads, electricity and so on. But the weather makes anyone look forward to greener pastures (literally). The temperatures soar up to near 50s and it’s …

I should be sorry for the highly controversial and click bait title. But I am not. There are some things in life that you can not just let go. This taunt is one of them.

Recently, Thomson Reuters published a report stating that they have found out the world's most dangerous countries for women. This was the eight iteration of their annual undertaking where they assess several metrics to reach a conclusion as to where countries stand. This year they have concluded that India is the most dangerous country for women. In the world. Even after Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.

Yes, you read that right. Even a war torn country with a barely functioning Government is safer for women that India. I know for a fact that India has its share of problems. But Somalia and Syria being better than India in terms of women safety was a bit hard for me accept point blank.

Liberals in India picked it right up. This is as clickbaity as my own title here. The only difference is that they won't admit…

I met Ali in the Leh airport,he drove us in our hotel. The very next morning we went for sightseeing. He used to drive very fast. I repeatedly told him to drive slow, he followed for  a short time; again continued in his own speed.
On the way to Nubra valley the road was very stiff and the altitude was very high. As I was sick before our tour it was difficult for me to bear that fast ride.After coming back I complained our tour  operator for his driving and asked for another driver.




Our tour operator assured me that he would tell him to drive  comfortably.The next day Ali came drove the car and I enjoyed my entire remaining  trip.
Sometimes he used to push the accelerator and I just told "Ali.....ahista"...he became consous. We used to chat during this long drive. I asked him "How old are you Ali?he replied "22years mam."He told me "At the age of 16 I started driving without lisence,I used to drive big vehicles ,now I drive tourist cars during the seas…

Christian evangelicals are similar to parasites[1]. The similarities are simply astounding. Among all predatory religions, Evangelical Christianity has done, by far, the greatest harm to humankind[2]. Like leeches, the Evangelical sucks the lifeblood of an unchristian society till it descends either into chaos and incessant civil conflict or the relegation of the culture to the pages of history(Bowden, 1985). Even in the 21st century this unashamed activity continues(Bhosle, 2003).[3]
Evangelicals usually have a similar methodology when it comes to proselytization. Like parasites, the target is usually one belonging to the most vulnerable section of society. This does not necessarily mean that they try harvesting only the most down trodden of the society(Kelly, 2001). And most certainly, the objective is never the upliftment of the persons involved. The target groups may, for example, belong to ethnic minorities, refugees (both economic and political), caste groups, the poor and the si…

It is mid March in Mumbai. It is supposed to be hot and humid. As it usually is all the year round with monsoon and December exceptions.
But it's cloudy today. To be fair, yesterday was also cloudy but today is dark. As dark as it usually is just before a downpour. It may rain and I don't have an umbrella with me. It's not that a change of weather is bad. I like rains. But the suddenness is rather strange.
I am not the only one confused with the weather change. The birds seem to be totally messed up by the onset of darkness. It was about 9 AM in the morning. The birds had just perched on the trees for their daily routine. The cloud came. They possibly understood that to be the beginning of the evening and end of day. Next thing I know, I see hundreds (yes, literally hundreds) of birds rushing back to their nests.
This is not a unique scene. I have seen this umpteen number of times in the monsoons. This is the first time I have noticed it in March (as far as I can remember) an…