Our Funarena!

  We literally chase the sun for the warmth of its sunlight during the winter season, particularly in the northern, eastern and north eastern regions of India. In most places of the western and southern regions real winter has always been rare. Of course, in some years there are days in the months of December and January when we get the chill, and the question of considering this as real winter depends from which region you come from: for the people of the wintry regions we just mentioned don’t consider such weather as winter, but only as pleasant; however, the local people welcome the ‘winter’ heartily, drying up their woolens and wearing their sweaters, jackets, mufflers and shawls outside even if after some time the sweat forms inside. On such days we realize the importance of having flats that allow a lot of sunlight. This season in Mumbai we are having such pleasant or cold days following the cold waves in the north and we loving the morning sunlight filtering through the windows

In the Paleolithic age humans survived on edible plants and hunting of wild animals. They lived in small groups, made rough stone weapons and killed animals for food. The use of fire in the Lower Paleolithic age revolutionized the act of eating as they began to cook their foods finding wonderful ways of having vegetable dishes or mixing vegetables with meat. The survival instinct of eating got gradually replaced by the gourmet approach. The point to note here is that vegetarian and non-vegetarian ways of eating existed on planet earth since pre-historic times. - Please Click to See more Here:   (This article was first featured in newskarnataka.com's print publication 'Karnataka Today' Volume 1, Issue 1) 

From Shillong Peak Shillong---a city of the North Eastern India we have grown up with. Because, this beautiful hill station had been the capital of Assam till January, 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state. And because the music legend of Assam, Bhupen Hazarika composed beautiful songs on Shillong and Meghalaya during the 50s, 60s and 70s. These songs have been our great favorites from our childhood days. So it hardly mattered that I visited the city only twice—once in my childhood days with memories getting blurred and one very brief visit in the 90s. When Shillong suddenly became my workplace I went there with all familiarity and with an unspoken bond of love. Ward's Lake I must mention the three evergreen Assamese numbers by Bhupen Hazarika on Shillong that always haunted me. ‘ Shillongore Godhuli’ (Evening in Shillong), ‘ Shillongore Monalisa Lyngdoh ’ (‘Hello, Monalisa Lyngdoh from Shillong’ with Jayanta Hazarika) and his Assamese