Aasif suddenly stopped the car. A black, Mahindra Scorpio. It was dark, late into the night, and a pot-holed country road. He took a tissue and wiped his face. I realised he was fighting back his tears. ‘Aasif, are you ok’, I asked. ‘Yes sir’, he said, and what followed was a quiet drive up … Continue reading Aasif, the Bhats, and the quietness of a drive

It was just another business lunch on a Friday, at the McCormick & Schmick’s in Bellevue, Seattle. Half way into the lunch, some left for another meeting. Those of us remained agreed for a shot of single malt. After all, it was a Friday afternoon. (And I am going to talk about Gandhi!) I wanted … Continue reading Gandhi, India, and an American girl

Today is Onam (‘n’ as in ‘money’). Kerala’s festival. Kerala (‘keralam’ locally), is the southernmost state of India, on the south-western tip on the ‘Malabar Coast’ of the Indian sub-continent. With a lush green terrain, full of coconut trees, paddy fields, backwaters and a number of rivers flowing west towards the Arabian Sea, the geography … Continue reading Happy Onam!

A free flowing life gives you a maddening sense of lightness. Sometimes a bit unbearable. Is that lightness the ultimate sense of being? Is Peace, as we experience It as that ethereal smile on Buddha's face, a by-product of His free flowing life. Or is That He and others we think as Gods searched and … Continue reading Unbearable lightness of freedom

‘‎Leenham can drop you back to the hotel’, said the manager of DosaHut at Flushing's Ganesh temple. Leenham, the name made me expect a Chinese-American town car driver to show up. I waited. DosaHut is on Bowne Street in Flushing, a New York City suburb full of Asian settlers. It is a tiny restaurant. On … Continue reading Leenham, and the American Dream