social

After 10 years -- I look back at myself and the WTC and how the world changed.

All the rage in the blogosphere Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting ¼ teaspoon instant yeast 1¼ teaspoons salt Cornmeal o...

I love biscotti. I have been trying various recipes and here is one that I consider that is sure bet. I found it on Alton Brown. biscotti (original from Owen Zoars) It is important to dry out the biscotti, but don't let it get stale. Ingr...

Visit to the local mall in Bangalore

Roxy #lO# Norma Shearer Brodway #lO kaancana maala# Let me assure you those were good choices. If I switch on my TV, I am not as lucky. I get to choose between horror and horreur! Ok, I am in Banagalore now. I come back to guest house at odd hours ...

"We will have to wait for one more hour" he said while I was washing my hands in the bathroom. "It happens all the time with Deccan airlines" I said. "This is my first time flying" he confided. We were talking in Telugu....

  My brother told me an anecdote. As anecdotes go, it was not much. Apparently, a few of his friends went to a wedding of a college friend. It was a small village, with no electricity or even good transportation. For the wedding, they...

I grow old, I grow old, I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled ...

Each word has a small, a taste, and a story. How do we understand it? Perhaps it will take lifetime. Sunrise on the beach In #kanThaabharaNam# (కంఠాభరణము) one of the characters says "#Sabda braham#(శబ్ద బ్రహ�...

One more story untold. Did it happen? Who cares? It is real enough.

Truth is stranger than fiction; Or fiction is strager than truth. In any case, is this fiction or real? At least one person said that it was their cousin that wrote me this letter. Me? I am not so sure if it happened or not.

I have been a judge for TANA short story and novel competetions for the last six years. This is my perspective (not TANA's or TANA publication committee's).

I like Bapu. But, make no mistake -- all he did was to Telugize a clear genre of Art.

In my hubris, I started nitpicking even writings of Alan Greenspan. I was vindicated later when Paul Krugman has similar criticism about AG's writings.

Rise of the pro-ams in the Telugu literary scene.

People accuse me of hiding behind foreign phrases. Actually, I do. But, no matter what, I cannot translate from Telugu.

Kiss me out of the bearded barley "Kiss me, out of the bearded barley, Nightly, beside the green, green grass. Oh, kiss me, beneath the milky twilight Lead me, out on the moonlit floor" I am a sucker for love poetry, even the schm...

Poetry and Prose -- A prosaic view [The oldpost ...] Reminds me of "nuvvu lEvu, nee paaTa vundi". I also remember a trick that I was told by somebody back when I was in 8th grade and trying my hand at poetry. Here is the simple recipe. First wri...

Relaxing on a sunday afternoon, I caught a TV show on MAA TV. I was glued to the set in no time -- an interesting call out show.

A response to one of the articles on Vividha. This too is published in vividha.

On a recent TANA trip, I met JP and he was expounding on his theory of governance. My thoughts on that topic.

It was written after a local literary meet in Ann Arbor. It was a time to meet old friends, make new friends. Btw, the last minute speaker was me. Also, the style is a copy of Maureen Dowd from NYTimes.

I love New York. I was devastated when the WTC attacks happened. I was in India at that time. As a cathersis, I wrote this piece.

My travails in getting my hair cut in the city of Bangalore

Days of surreal bundh in Bangalore

On one of my first trips to Bangalore, I had to contend with a local strike.

Musing about hot sunday afternoons in Guntur

Waiting to Go Home -- in India and in the USA

Riding on a bike to Amaravati and Heidelberg

It was a controversial decision to give it 1st prize. There were lot of criticisms, but none of them were the right criticisms. I disliked for different reasons -- but then, I was not vehemently against it.

I remember a story that I read a long time ago, how a suburban housewife ends up becoming a leader of gang after a cataclysmic nuclear war. The transformation is complete; she becomes a ruthless fighter in the post-apocalyptic land. Suddenly, one day s...

Once they were mighty. They could break the rocks into tiny pebbles with their bare hands. They stood tall, with irons legs and fiery breath. If they stood on their toes, they could almost touch the heavens. Everyone of them is superhuman. They may ha...

... each factory and town look the same to me ... Finally. I am homeward bound. After all these years, I am going home. Of course, I have been seeing my parents, brother, and cousins frequently. Still, I have not seen home for a long time. It is as if...

A semi-serious look at the life of NRAs from the 1990s. In those days Madhuri Dixit was considered the Madhubala on Indian movies. Silk Smitha was the dancer with oomph. We used to take spices (Irony that would turn Columbus in his grave) home as gifts...

I think it was Bairagi who said "నాక్కొంచం నమ్మకమివ్వు". All we Telugus need is a little bit of belief, or suspension thereof, especially when watching movies. Fortunately, we all oblige. We have been b...

All this talk about the social conferences makes me nostalgic about the annual "tirunaaLLu" [Etymology left as an excersize] back home in Sowpadu. The meet happens over Hanuman Jayanti, inevitably near the temple, with three-day long puja act...

This is what prosperity does. It bends us, it saps away our will, it makes a homogenous crowd out of us. For the jews, what thousands of years of diaspora, couldn't do, prosperity of America did. For me, what education and years of schooling outside th...

I confess; my tastes are pedestrian. Put me in front of the TV and I turn the channel to Seinfeld. Send me to the Video store, I come back with UTM(*) movies. Take me to TANA--I will stand in the corridors and gossip. I am the subbarao that goes out fo...

A note on addressing people in Telugu. Written way back when.

naa aksharaalu vennelalO aadukonE andmaina aaDapillalu. Thus spake a poet, who often shunned labels and categorization. I myself have never seen his hand writing; I am not sure if it looked as beautiful as it read. I don't know if you all rememeber, ...

My recollections from the long forgotten days of Emergency.

... What is in a name saar? annaaDu Appa Rao cheDDa baThaanee namilina vedaantilaa navvi. (అన్నాడు చెడ్డ బఠాణీ నమిలిన వేదాంతిలా నవ్వి) Don't you believe it one moment, there is ...

Once upon a time ... I got down from my horse near a central సత్రం. I looked around and decided that most people were itinerant merchants, from distant shores. The village must have had good crops, I thought. I came from the capital Dha...

Life is funny that way, oozing poetry out of insignificant corners. A friend of mine, who visited acropolis in her childhood, says that she all that remembers about that place is the steps being too big for her to climb. That is the most memorable thin...

[Since my posts rarely generate any flames, or follow-ups I must be doing something wrong! May be I should say that Naxalites are really blue thereby answering the KT's subject line Naxalites and their true colors ... that has been haunting the net for...

I n the preceding article Kurada Shantipriya writes eloquently and evocatively about sarees. Since I am the original kibitzer, I can't but write on a topic that I very much like. What are my qualifications to write about a saree, you may ask. Alas, n...

I have always complained of my imagination. It was solely responsible for me not getting a job in CBI. I know that I am easy to crack, as easy as an egg. All that the enemy agents have to do is to tell me the beginnings of a gruesome story or do the na...

I always liked weddings. Mind you, not as a main performer. Me, I never liked being that much the center of the attention. People may tell you otherwise, but don't believe it. As an uncharitable friend put it, "When he went to a funeral, he wante...

As an ancient philosopher from AP [kanfusiyya S.] said, food is one of the few renewable pleasures of life. [The others being watching missamma for n+1'th time, etc ...] When this nation celebrates the food-fest aka Thanksgiving day with Turkey, pumpk...

Alternate history [This is a report from a science student transported to some alternate reality in AP. Usual disclaimer applies, blah, blah, and blah. Oh, blah also!!] To who ever receives this report: Please bring it to the attention of the authori...

I am fascinated by River Godavari. During my final year B.Tech. in IIT, I went on a trip to Godavari districts. Here is that travelogue. Video Night in Rampa Choda Varam [part I of Godavari Travelogue] Dear friends, Have you ever walked by Godavari...

Long time back, eons ago, there were a couple, Ruru and Pramadvara. They lived among the singing birds, dancing deer, flowing streams, flowering plants, and yes, musing monks. They sang with the birds, danced with the deer, swam with the fish, laughed ...

* * * [A fictitious letter posted from USA. The "I" in this letter is not me. You can't catch me dead writing such a letter!! -- rama ] Spring Field,  March 14, 1993. To: Annavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India. Dear Prasad, I apologi...

Glossary: tolakari = The early monsoon season merupu = lightning tolakari merupu = la belle Telugu meghaih madhuram ambaram naktam tamaala drumaih Every time I read that haiku like composition from Geeta Govindam, I remember ...