We are familiar with the word, bibliophile. It describes a person who loves books and possibly also collects them. However, it’s only this morning that I discovered what describes a person who loves words. Upon reflection, it’s a no-brainer: of course it is ‘logophile’, from the Greek

Every once in a while, comes time to revisit shelves overflowing with books, some read, mostly unread, purchased for various reasons: because the jacket looked inviting, because this is just the author I’m looking for, because it is highly recommended, and sometimes just on the whim of

Before Ponniyin Selvan was a film, it was a book in five parts, and before it was a book, it was serialised in a Tamil magazine called Kalki, starting October 29, 1950, concluding May 16, 1954. Kalki was a magazine started by Kalki. And Kalki was the

My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky: / So was it when my life began; / So is it now I am a man; / So be it when I shall grow old, / Or let me die! / The Child

I am not a writer. I don’t know why I am here.’ That’s how Gita Ramaswamy began her conversation onstage. At the end of the session, she received a standing ovation from the audience. She, clearly, was the star of this year’s edition of the Ooty Literary

Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo’s stories gently lead the reader deep into a world of real experiences — multilingual, multicultural, multireligious — laced with irony. If you are looking for a quick read that’s easy yet mindful, pick up The Wait and Other Stories by

Yes, Tomb of Sand is utterly, butterly original, all 700-odd pages of it. It’s no wonder that Geetanjali Shree, whose novel has won the International Booker Prize this year, has infused the Indian literary scene with new energy. This is the first time that a novel originally

We are constantly admonished never to judge a book by its cover, yet I often catch myself doing precisely that. Mmmm, too dull. Uff, so boring. Naa, not interesting. Oho, so unsmart, the book must be even less smart. These and a whole lot of other similarly

While mindless debates over national language, loudspeakers and uniforms distract and raise temperatures in an already overheated environment, the only sensible thing to do appears to be to soak in the fine thoughts of fine minds. In books, of course. Kavery Nambisan is known for her solid

When the centre cannot hold, as W B Yeats warned in ‘The Second Coming’, things fall apart, and ‘mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’. This is where we seem to be today. Where do we go from here is the tormenting question. While drowning in despondency, I

December 16 of last year was a milestone in the history of Bangladesh. This was the day, 50 years ago, that the people’s rallying cry of ‘Joy Bangla’ metamorphosed into the reality of an independent nation. For a variety of reasons, it seemed a good time to