An Engineer of Words
This August, 34-year-old Vikas Jhingran, a graduate student in the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bec
Vijaysree Venkatraman
Finding Alwar
The last time I went to Mylapore to buy a book, I was in the eighth grade. The Sanskrit text for our third-language class was available in only one store in all
History Immortalized
The year is 1509. The ailing ruler of Vijayanagara, Viranarasimha of the Tuluva dynasty is on his deathbed. He wants his infant son to succeed him. Appaji, the
M.S. Blues
Every year, on the last day of school, we would take the train to Madurai—where my grandparents lived—excited, but not enthusiastic, about spending the summ
An Unseen Presence
DIVINE ELEMENTAL by Raywat Deonandan. TSAR Publications, Toronto. 194 pages. $18.95. www.tsarbooks.com. The title of the book did not appeal to me. The “divin
Architectural Wonders
“Bad times befall gods same as mortals—that is how I see it,” Selvaraj, our driver for the week, said with some finality. Emerald rice fields rustled in t
A Literary Feast
MONSOON DIARY: A MEMOIR WITH RECIPES BY Shoba Narayan. Random House. April 2003. Hardcover, 240 pages. $24.95. Monsoon Diary by foodie and journalist Shoba Nara
The Mind Has No Sex
Intrigued by a mention of the latest novel by Carl Djerassi in a back issue of the trade journal C&EN—Chemical and Engineering News—I requested my publi
