Have you been on a hot air balloon? I haven’t. (The queues were always too long!) But I would like to imagine that being lifted up high into the air, without actually flying off into space and still being able to breathe in the atmosphere, sounds rather exhilarating. Other than the fact that hot air…
mirror, mirror of the soul
Though the saying that “eyes are the window to the soul” is quite familiar to us, this figure of speech has long existed in other forms. Cicero (born in 106 BC) was quoted saying “Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi” or that “The face is a picture of the mind while the eyes…
pink sky, pink
At times like this, I wonder about our innate longing for travel. For exploration. For discovery. In 4th century BC, Pytheas of Massalia became the first person to be recorded describing the Midnight Sun — a natural phenomenon occurring in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle, or south of the Antarctic…
our fascination with stellar objects
Our fascination with stellar objects began in the time of the cavemen, maybe 40,000 years ago, maybe in Sulawesi, Indonesia, maybe in the Franco-Cantabrian region of Spain and France. But till this day, paintings of hands alongside images of large animals like horses and aurochs survive. Today, scientists claim that some of these animals are…
shadowboxing light streams in the dark
Shadowboxing light streams in the dark. Soporific yawning under sunrays on the porch. Cat logic. But above and beyond there’s still one name left over, And that is the name that you never will guess; The name that no human research can discover – But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess. T.S. Eliot, Old…
every morning, a little cuppa without fail
Every morning, a little cuppa without fail; yet how little we know of the journey our coffee makes before it whets our palates. Its story started somewhere in Yemen, amongst the Sufis, then spread far across the continents, across time even, but still ended up in the coffee mugs of Starbucks, Costa Coffee, McCafe. In…
felines in nature, in the domestic
In the domestic space, felines seem so ensnared, so ensorcelled by our hands, our toys, our mechanical robots, and as T. S. Elliot once said, are always forced to be on the wrong side of the door. But in nature, they’re in their element. Before a Cat will condescend To treat you as a trusted…
the beauty of Central Park is its design
The beauty of Central Park is its design. At first a little lost, we stumbled upon the verdant green of Central Park. A city of delights. A city of friendly expediency. Funky desserts. Such mesmerising Broadway. And who could forget. Dogs. Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly,…