Professionally, I wear two hats. I make my living largely from marine engineering but pursue journalism for passion. On my recent ship, there were two Malayali apprentice engineers: Prakash Muralidharan and Mohammed Nazar. Prakash was a Sanghi. His uncle was in the...
I wanted to prove a point. Too many inquisitive foreigners – mean-minded people, in my opinion – had delighted in quizzing me about the caste system. A Japanese man told me everyone was equal in Japanese society. “Well what about the burakumin?” I countered. He...
Chekka Chivantha Vaanam starts out featuring all the Mani Ratnam tropes. It pays ritual homage to Godfather through a Corleone-like family. There is the don who is shot but survives, and he has three sons and a daughter. The first son is a hot-head and not terribly...
Divya Bharathi laughs often. On the phone, it doesn’t sound like nervous laughter. There is a wide-eyed, innocent quality to it. It is likely the shy giggle of a woman who grew up in a village. But, on Saturday, there is every likelihood that this film-maker would...
Divya Bharathi laughs often. On the phone, it doesn’t sound like nervous laughter. There is a wide-eyed, innocent quality to it. It is likely the shy giggle of a woman who grew up in a village. But, on Saturday, there is every likelihood that this film-maker would...
There was something unusual about the Tamil Nadu political scene on Saturday. Vijayakanth was in the news – it was his birthday – and he had not invited troll attention. It seemed as if they had given him a pass because of his failing health. The trolls had enough...
In many ways, M Karunanidhi was the man that most males would aspire to become. Like most men, Karunanidhi had a personal life, a professional life and a family life. Most men wish that somewhere these three lives would meet and sync, if not coalesce. Their lives...
Jayaseeli is a holdout. A resident of Suveseshapuram near Ittamozhi in Tirunelveli district, she is among the forty in the area who were trained in making organic fertilizer panchagavya some four years ago. Today, she is among the few still making it. A regular...
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NDMA's Press Statement on the Coimbatore disaster drill incident: <a href="https://t.co/7EAGYNMVVG">https://t.co/7EAGYNMVVG</a> <a...
It was not the first time the joke was on Karthik Kumar. He has faced quite a bit of ribbing ever since Mani Ratnam’s Alaippayuthe and began to be typecast as the American bridegroom in Tamil movies. Earnest, professional and serious, Karthik Kumar was the well...
There were only ten people watching Kaala at Carnival Cinemas. It was an 11:30 pm show on a Saturday, and, there were perhaps not too many Tamils in Salt Lake City, Kolkata, who would venture out late night for a movie. A family of five had come to watch the film....
