Once upon Avon, there was a big bad bard…

I think I figured out why Stratford upon Avon is so famous. Towns or cities with 3 words in their names are extremely popular. Port-au-Prince. Rio de Janeiro. Salt Lake City. West Palm Beach. Also, Stratford upon Avon must have… Continue Reading →

A Stratford by any other name

This is just my opinion, but I think the best Stratford in the world is the one that’s upon Avon. Of course you might disagree. You might prefer one of the other 27 Stratfords that are not upon Avon. If… Continue Reading →

Air Suvidha – Part 2

Just when you thought it was safe to fly again… We are in an online era. We do a lot of tasks on the internet, from buying unneeded things to paying overpriced bills to protecting our identities from hackers. So… Continue Reading →

Coffee, Tea or Air Suvidha

Passport? The airline employee at the check-in counter looked irritated and impatient. In contrast, I was probably looking tired and confused. I hurriedly searched the overfull side pocket of my travel bag, but my passport was playing hard to get…. Continue Reading →

Lockdown Booze Blues

Liquor prices more than double in Puducherry
Puducherry will no longer be a tipplers’ paradise serving quality liquor at an affordable price as the special corona fee imposed has hiked the price of all liquor products at par with Tamil Nadu.
– The Times of India, May 26, 2020

The likeable kind of ‘moving around’

One favourite ritual of some book lovers is taking books off the shelves to re-arrange them. Mainly, you look forward to putting them back — “you remove them in haste but you labour over the rearrangement.” That familiar moment Walter… Continue Reading →

eBooks: With a charm of their own

And here’s the best part: you can just dip into an eBook here and there, a few pages or a chapter, minimise it and feel you’ve sort of read it. You won’t feel guilty about buying more because the unread… Continue Reading →

Blast from Blaft

“Facing Problems in Personal life, Marriage, Love?? Want to speak ur heart out! We are here to help U free of cost. Email…” Next to it is a photo of a red post box saying “No Clearance on Sundays and Postal Holidays” and, beside it, a photo of a filmy couple in an embrace behind barbed wire. In another classified ad: A naked yogi wearing only a striped silk tie next to an ice cream sundae. “Yogalacious Provide yoga and meditation services for Corporates/Embassy/Foreign nationals/models/home individual/group ph: …”

9.50 from Paddington

Suddenly, when the two trains seemed to have stopped because they were both moving at the same slow speed, a blind flew up and Mrs McGillicuddy looked into the lighted first-class carriage that was only a short distance away.

Then she gasped and stood up.

Standing with his back to the window was a man. His hands were round the throat of a woman, and he was slowly strangling her. Her eyes were wide open and her face was purple. As Mrs McGillicuddy watched, the woman’s body collapsed. At the same time, the other train began to go forward faster and a moment later, it had passed Mrs McGillicuddy’s train and disappeared.

Then the door of her carriage opened and a man said, 'Ticket, please.

– 4.50 From Paddington

Blook, from the looks of it

I’m sure you must have at some point in your bibliophile life come across an object shaped like a book. It looks like a book but when you examine it, it serves some other purpose, like a miniature book that… Continue Reading →

Want a good film script editor?

Alongside overseeing land administration, revenue collection, health, education, disaster management and other goings-on in the district, Madhya Pradesh collectors will henceforth judge ‘entertainment’ as well.
– Times of India, Dec 8, 2021

The Pleasure of the Pursuit

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why we collect at all? Not just books — why do we collect anything? The theorist Jean Baudrillard undertook to answer this in several essays. His conclusions are not the cheeriest. The impulse to… Continue Reading →

Freud And The Bard

Translation of Letter from Professor Freud of Vienna to Mr. Percy Allen
VIENNA XI Berggasse 19, 7 November 1935

Dear Sir or Madam:
I can only confirm what Mr. Bransom has told you of my correspondence with him. I wrote to him that Lear could only be understood psychologically on the assumption that Oxford is the author, and that I believe Edward de Vere to have been the creator of all the other genuine Shakespeare plays.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316848162_%27An_unpublished_letter_by_Sigmund_Freud_on_the_Shakespeare_authorship_question%27

Hsppy Birthday Mr Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564. The exact date of his birth is not recorded, but it is most often celebrated around the world on 23 April.

The first-class collector

Working at an antiquarian bookshop can at times be life-changing. Before I turned to the profession of teaching, I worked for a brief time in an antiquarian bookshop in Kundapur. Back then, antiquarian bookshops were rarer to find than the… Continue Reading →

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