I love coffee. I grew up to its smells and sounds. Based on some first hand but dim childhood memories, and others reinforced by stories told by family elders, I figure my childhood home must have been a house of coffee snobs. Packets of unroasted coffee beans would be purchased…

Electronic Jazz from Jaga Jazzist — Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? It is a question that has been debated intensely. Perhaps, art needs the constituents of life to be authentic, but life too needs the idealisation of art to aspire to. It is not much different with music. Music is made from…

Remarkable as it may seem, it was from Trilok Gurtu, the legendary fusion musician and percussionist, that I first heard about the song “Take Five”. It was the late 90s when as a college student I had gone to Planet M at Powai, to attend a lecture cum demonstration by…

It may be sad, but it’s true. Indian cities are not great for walking. This is despite a significant proportion of people getting around on foot — a number estimated to be as high as 22% in 2009, in cities larger than 8 million. Delhi is no exception. So, the…

“Photography is an indulgent hobby!” I remember telling a friend in college. She smiled. Then she turned to her camera, peered into her viewfinder and clicked another picture. Soon, some others from our group caught up with us and we continued onwards in one of our hikes in Maharashtra’s Western…

Time is unidirectional or if not, at least we feel it is. This gives rise to memories since we can reconstruct the past but not the future. If memories were merely information, it should be possible, in principle, to digitise and preserve them completely. Indeed, there can be no doubt…

Time only moves forward. What happened a moment ago, is in the past, and so are your experiences from yesterday, last month or the last decade. This is, of course, obvious. Our understanding of this is reflected nowhere better than in the human desire to travel back in time. Let…

It is often said that nothing is permanent except change. Pragmatic and profound at the same time, this quote attributed to the Greek philosopher of the late 6th century BCE, Heraclitus, has inspired countless people to accept and confront their realities. Now if there is one thing that embodies constant…

The musical life of Emily Remler — Who can deny it? From time to time, we all worry whether ours is a life well lived. Almost as proof that this is not an uncommon worry, there is no dearth of advice on how we can make our lives better and more fulfilling. For some, it is by…