by Vijaysree Venkatraman | Nov 28, 2007 | In Focus, Profiles
This August, 34-year-old Vikas Jhingran, a graduate student in the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became the first Asian to win the World Championship of Public Speaking, an annual International Toastmasters...
by Vijaysree Venkatraman | Jan 16, 2007 | Desi Voices, Perspectives
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 of Madras and for a T. Nagar kid like me, getting to that established store near Kabali temple was like a...
by Vijaysree Venkatraman | Aug 10, 2004 | Lifestyle, Travel
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 prime minister, has been given secret orders to kill Krishnadeva, the king’s able step-brother, who might...
by Vijaysree Venkatraman | Jul 12, 2004 | Desi Voices, Perspectives
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 summer there. Madurai was much hotter than where we lived, there was no beach to go to in the evenings, no...
by Vijaysree Venkatraman | Jun 15, 2004 | Books, Entertainment
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 “divine” had me worried. Was it a Deepak Chopra-style new age book on holistic wellness? The “elemental” was no help...
