Stick with the starters

Forrest Gump’s mother would definitely have found Rathna Regent’s new menu like a box of chocolates. You never know what you get. Well, for one, there’s so much to choose from, if you aren’t full with the starters.

Nostalgia for the Raj

The 20-hairpin bend ascent to Yercaud is dotted with lovers on bikes, and monkeys. On approaching the top you see the vast expanse of Salem below; the highways lined with amber sodium-vapour lights and the city spotted with star-like white fluorescent lamps. Come here in the morning and you'll see the Stanley Reservoir shimmering in the sunshine, like molten gold splashed in the valley. (got a dozen threat calls after this one)

An immortal musician

“On stage for me was home. I was most comfortable on stage but once I got off stage, I was like very sad.”- Michael Jackson to Oprah Winfrey in 1993

Never say die

I can’t see, so I have no fear.” These were the words of 24 year old Gopalakrishnan, who despite his visual impairment, trekked 62 kilometres up to Beas Kund, more than 3895 metres above sea level.

Welcome to the spice club

“If he was in Hong Kong, he (would) die,” says Chef Hardy Cheung, wiping the sweat off his scalp. His victim, the soup chef, scurries away into the kitchen, before Chef Hardy could start Kung Fu fighting. This is the most entertaining food festival I’ve been to.

Jayaram of the jungles

The house is spotless, without a speck of dust. Identical pots filled with leaf compost surround the bright living room. K. Jayaram is surrounded by colonial era volumes of Fauna of British India, Flora of Nilgiri and Pulney hill-tops and Flora of the Presidency of Madras. He doesn’t have any curtains. He loves light.

Making a metro

A CII seminar on Brand Coimbatore (tripped a bit on this one)

Heart is where the nest is

An excise superintendent and a birdwatcher come out with a seminal work on birds

Symphony of dissent

The last century saw the expression of public outrage against injustice, through music. Pheroze L. Vincent takes some notes

Romancing the tomes

The booksellers of Eswaran Koil Street are a passionate tribe of bibliophiles, subsidising education in their enterprising little way, writes Pheroze L. Vincent