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Voices from author
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Food Fables – Charoli Nuts for a Jaded Appetite
May 20, 2014, 3:46 PM IST
It is a rather bitter irony that so many expensive food ingredients come from poorer places. Birds nests for soup are scraped from cave walls in Southeast Asia (though now they build artificial caves to…
May 20, 2014, 3:46 PM IST
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Currencies, Counterfeits and Confidence
May 12, 2014, 11:30 PM IST
This election a lot of the black money that changed hands may have been fake. But then counterfeits may not matter to the central bank in the larger scheme of things Elections and money have…
May 12, 2014, 11:30 PM IST
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Food Fables: Fruity with toffee notes
May 9, 2014, 1:35 PM IST
Chikoos are unlucky. They look dull – one alternative name for them is tree potatoes and another is mud apple. They come to market along with much more glamorous and attention grabbing mangoes. They aren’t…
May 9, 2014, 1:35 PM IST
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Shrill History: When words on campaign trail sow seeds of doubt
May 3, 2014, 4:05 PM IST
Fifty years ago, on January 22, 1964, the jury in a small town in Washington state, USA, delivered a verdict in a trial that had caught national attention for its political nature. John Goldmark, a…
May 3, 2014, 4:05 PM IST
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Food Fables – A refreshing pop of tonic
May 1, 2014, 3:52 PM IST
Bankers’ salary packages have always been legendary, but I wonder if these days they still include tonic water allowances. I first heard of this perk from my grand uncle K.V.Sitaram who retired years ago as…
May 1, 2014, 3:52 PM IST
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Food Fables – Bitter sweet notes of vinegar
April 25, 2014, 4:33 PM IST
Have you finished the eggs and hot cross buns you got this Easter? Both foods are now inseparable from Easter, yet neither has much of an original connection to it. Eggs, for example, symbolise spring…
April 25, 2014, 4:33 PM IST
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Food fables – Edible blooms
April 19, 2014, 7:06 PM IST
Every April it is like lighting firecrackers. First there are just a few flowers, like sparks on a cracker’s fuse, and then before you realise it the trees explode. Yellow copperpods and laburnums, purple and…
April 19, 2014, 7:06 PM IST
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Nothing accidental about this timing
April 19, 2014, 7:04 PM IST
Baru’s book is meant for a culture of politics as reality TV, which this election cycle has accentuated On August 29, 2003, when Alastair Campbell stepped down as spokesman of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair,…
April 19, 2014, 7:04 PM IST
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Sartorial styles played a key role in South Asian politics
April 16, 2014, 6:29 PM IST
Indian prime ministers rarely feature in global popular culture. Indira Gandhi did, for being a woman, and her father did too, for an item of clothing he never wore. The Nehru jacket which made a…
April 16, 2014, 6:29 PM IST
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PowerPuppy Pride: The meaning of pink pants
April 16, 2014, 6:23 PM IST
Outside India, questions of political fashion tend to be reserved for political spouses. This is a reflection of the overwhelming male domination of politics and, even more, of the domination of men’s suit culture from…
April 16, 2014, 6:23 PM IST
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The questionable virtues of unmarried politicians
April 11, 2014, 11:13 PM IST
[Narendra Modi’s electoral papers admission that he is married to Jashodaban draws attention again to the strange virtue we seem to ascribe in India to unmarried politicians. This piece from a year back looked at…
April 11, 2014, 11:13 PM IST
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Food Fables: Amazing avocados
April 10, 2014, 8:47 PM IST
Chennai fruit juice and shake stalls generally feature just the standard fruits: sweet lime, orange, grape, banana, pineapple. But recently, I saw one with something different at the top of its list: ‘Butter Fruit’, it…
April 10, 2014, 8:47 PM IST
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Driving Into Controversy
April 7, 2014, 6:17 PM IST
Fifty years after flyovers in India were first conceived, urban planners are now looking at their usefulness and environmental impact On April 9, 1964 The Times of India reported that the Bombay Municipal Corporation planned…
April 7, 2014, 6:17 PM IST
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Food Fables: Marie biscuits
April 3, 2014, 10:40 PM IST
The Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna would not be amused at how she is remembered. She had a strong sense of her status, to the extent of annoying her mother-in-law, Queen Victoria. Marie married Victoria’s second…
April 3, 2014, 10:40 PM IST
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Battle 2014: Daaru Murge ki Rajniti
March 26, 2014, 9:45 AM IST
Food & politics go together, as this election season is reminding us in many ways VIKRAM DOCTOR People outside Tamil Nadu tend to assume its dominant food is idli-dosa, but those who live there know…
March 26, 2014, 9:45 AM IST
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No getting away from Cavendish in ‘Banana Republic’
March 15, 2014, 3:03 AM IST
To get good bananas in Mumbai you must go to CST station. Not to take a train, but because every evening a few hawkers bring baskets of bananas to sell to the evening commuter crowd….
March 15, 2014, 3:03 AM IST
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Crimean Deja Vu
March 10, 2014, 5:05 PM IST
Despite the 160-year gap, there are interesting parallels between the ongoing Crimean conflict and the First Crimean War, to which India had a deep link, says Vikram Doctor In late 1856 the British introduced a…
March 10, 2014, 5:05 PM IST
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Staying on the grid – the past and future of crosswords in India
February 26, 2014, 10:35 PM IST
Delhi University teachers’ strikes rarely have productive outcomes, but for Vivek Kumar Singh it was different. As a young IAS aspirant from Bihar studying in Delhi during one such strike he used the unexpected time…
February 26, 2014, 10:35 PM IST
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The domain of discord
February 26, 2014, 10:32 PM IST
Few people are late to meet the chief minister of a state. In 1995 when Rebecca Mark, the famously stylish CEO of Enron, kept Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi waiting he was predictably furious and…
February 26, 2014, 10:32 PM IST
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Garam Masala – Andhra-Telangana food traditions
February 19, 2014, 6:14 PM IST
[This column was first written in 2009 when the agitation that has finally resulted in the Lok Sabha passing a bill for the creation of Telangana was really getting into gear. The use of food…
February 19, 2014, 6:14 PM IST
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