It came up over a bowl of brain stew at Karim’s, Old Delhi’s famously-dingy 1913 eatery. “Tasty,” I said, wiping my mouth. “By the way, did I tell you about the brain museum in Bangalore? The architect told me we…
I love this hand-painted ad for Bhadra Tarps. You know they’re tough if even this mustached hunk can’t rip them! (Then compare to their rather lackluster website. Oh….)
Flipkart doesn’t carry much in the way of regional films. Sure, they’ve got Hollywood and Bollywood DVDs, but if you’re searching for Kollywood, Mollywood, or Sandalwood hits, there’s nothing for you here. Well, hidden on SP Road in the south…
Krishna’s my go-to-guy for Kannada pop culture. And when I asked him what his favorite Sandalwood film was, the answer was so obvious he didn’t pause to think: Mungaaru Male. When it came out in 2006, it played in 115…
Dr. Rajkumar is like a god. Singer, actor, political force, he was known as The Emperor of Acting and The Singer in the Court of Gods. He starred in over 200 Sandalwood movies. And then, an old man, he died…
At this little Dickenson Road eatery, you’ll find a litany of North Indian Marwari-style sweets: Kaju Pista Kalash and Motichoor Ladoo, Kaju Katli and Pede, Barfi, Rasgulla, Ras Malai and so much more. They fill the displays and cover the…
Indian pickles can take months to prepare. Recipes on my shelf call for shake the clay pot twice a day for thirty days, or ferment the fruit on your roof for up to two months. Come on, Sanjeev Kapoor, I…
If you know me, you know I like things big and overdone. I care less about the society of the spectacle than I do the spectacle of the spectacular. And Shangrila fills that fetish. It’s this month’s hit song from…
Love this video from The Perennial Plate, chronicling three weeks of epicurindian glory. It reminds me that it’s time for another meal…
Could there be a better day than one spent digging through stacks of dusty amaze at Balaji’s old curiosity shop? His Raintree spotlights come a close second. Expect piles of old movie stills, classic art-deco furniture, and maybe even some…
The old Tudor-style castle in the middle of Bangalore is touted as a tourist must-see. It’s not. Sure, it’s big. It looks mildly British. It’s filled with dusty old rooms and blurry reproductions of old photos. But for a Rs….
In an Austin Town alleyway filled with short single-storey shacks, Noel Wilson’s architribute to soccer skyrockets up like a skinny football-worshipping minaret. It’s absolutely bizarrchitecture! You know Noel, right? He plays football for India. (Of course he does.) The outside…
I didn’t know Hindus were buried. Like, they’re always cremated, right? And then I stumbled on our local Hindu graveyard. And realized how wrong we were. The Bangalore architect laughed at me when I asked him about it later. “That’s…
The first time I saw the menu, I was lost. Sure, I knew dosas and idlis, but that was as far as it went. The other items were utterly alien to me. And so I did the only thing I…
I’m a huge fan of Amitabh Bachchan. But then again, who isn’t? He’s the king of Bollywood. BBC readers chose him as the greatest star of stage or screen of the last thousand years. I’m sure you’ve seen him as…
You’ve seen them everywhere. And you love them too, right? The first one I saw, I was mesmerized. Slapped up against a brick wall, so beautiful I was almost hit by a rickshaw crossing the street. Unevenly hand-drawn, printed in garish colors,…
Recent Comments