All posts in Uncategorized

AND NOW TOMORROW–AT FANTASY LAND By Vengrai Parthasarathy The guide at the San Diego Wild Animal Park was in an expansive mood as all tour guides are. He was introducing the bird EMU,a large, flightless bird of Australian origin. –somewhat like the ostrich. He wanted to say something special about the habits and habitat of…

LOST AND FOUND Vengrai Parthasarathy The elderly, tufted gentleman next to me in the bus to Triplicane had his eyes closed and seemed to be either snoozing or in deep meditation. After a while, he opened his eyes turned and I was the first person to meet his eye. “Thank you”, he said. I was…

KRISHNA DROPS A BRICK–By Vengrai Parthasarathy Krishna, our hero, was a ‘Made in USA ’ guy, born and educated in Texas . This fourteen-year old liked to be called Chris, the name given by his American friends.Chris had a Western accent and a slight drawl which sounded funny when he tried to speak in his…

. Posted on October 8, 2017 in Uncategorized THE TRAM–A DIFFERENT ERA By Vengrai Parthasarathy 07th September 2011 10:53 PM Those were the days which only Chennaites in their seventies will remember. In the Thirties and Forties the rumblings of trams were heard in all the main arteries of Madras. Those were leisurely days when…

                          VAISHNAVA JANATO                              by Narsingh Mehta  ( English Translation by Vengrai Parthasarathy )    ______________________________________      This  song in Gujarati language was composed by Narsingh Mehta,       a 15th century poet.…

Rabindranath Tagore I wrote this article some time back…in the Helium. _______________________________________________ Annotations By Vengrai Parthasarathy Rabindranath Tagore (aka Gurudev) was the first poet of the Indian literary canon to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1915 for the collection of his poems, GITANJALI- ( Prayerful Offering of Songs). Tagore, was an…

MADRAS, NOW CHENNAI            Vengrai Parthasarathy   The laid-back  city of ancient traditions, orthodox people, old-world courtesies. Well, it is not there, not any more.       The Cooum is there but not much water is flowing in it. Metaphorically speaking, much water has flown under the bridge, in the past decade.  It used to be said that good, old Madras was…

LITERARY ODDITIES Proper words in proper places’ was how Jonathan Swift defined style’ in literature. That is something not hard to find. There are countless illustrations if one only looks out for them in classics by master-writers. On the other hand, some hold the opinion that it should suffice, if, depending on the effect that…

  A Name , An effect By Vengrai  Parthasarathy There is a romance attached to names, names like Juliet, Cleopatra and Helen They demand attention and conjure up visions of their romantic escapades.There are of course names like Heidi (the madam), and  Monica Lewinsky the errant intern of Clinton fame, which straight away  put you off. though some have  romance…

Krishna Drops a Brick Vengrai Parthasaraaaaaathy Krishna  our hero, was a ‘Made in America’ guy, born and educated in it,  This fourteen-year old liked to be called the name given by his  American  friends. Chris had a Western accent and a slight drawl which sounded funny when he tried to speak in his mother-tongue Kannada.. It  appeared it was mostly in…