Rohtak domes: an eco-friendly alternative to concrete roofs

A Rohtak dome can be built on square or rectangular rooms also.  | Photo Credit: Master mason Sonu and Sathya Consultants Place-based names are common in India, popularly with food items like Mysore Pak or Tirunelveli Halwa. Much lesser known are in the construction industry; though Mangalore roofing tiles are well known and Athangudi flooring […]

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Why Kozhikode’s Paragon Restaurant is on Taste Atlas’ list of 150 Most Legendary Restaurants in the World

Paragon restaurant in Kozhikode exudes an old world charm and is quite popular even decades after it was founded | Photo Credit: K Ragesh On a ‘festival day’ — Onam, Vishu or Eid — Paragon Restaurant in Kozhikode sells 700 to 1,000 kilograms of biryani. That is high praise from a city that considers biryani […]

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When Cyrus chose fainting over responding to his son’s questions

Satheesh Vellinezhi | Photo Credit: Satheesh Vellinezhi As a young boy, my son once asked me who is God’s mother? This question, I was totally unprepared for. I tried explaining to him, there was no one-word answer. Nothing came to mind. Wars have been fought over this question. Countries were formed and broken up over […]

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What to remember while building a house on the hill

Building in the hills has always posed challenges — the sloped terrain with uneven contours, lack of pucca roads, paucity of skilled labour and materials, and varying weather conditions with unpredictable rains and landslides. Earlier, houses were built of stone and mud, the only local materials available, while clay roof-tiles and ply for false ceilings […]

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DAG exhibition on art from early 20th Century Bengal

One monsoon day in 1757, in the mango orchards of Plassey, a town that stands between Calcutta and Murshidabad, the British established their empire defeating Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula’s forces. And so, to this land stretching from the foothills of the Himalayas to the steaming marshes through which a thousand tributaries flow into the Bay of Bengal, […]

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Plays from South Korea and Chennai feature in this international children’s theatre fest

The cast of The Kooks: Sunny Side-Up | Photo Credit: special arrangement The clang of metal pots, ding of spatulas, and thrum of water canisters seamlessly give way to a foot-tapping rhythmic interlude that gains pace second by second. We are in the kitchen of chefs Sweet Pea, Souffle, Magic Macaroni, Jojo and Capsicum, a […]

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Coimbatore duo undertakes a CNG-powered expedition from Kanyakumari to Kashmir

Krishnakumar Viswanathan and his cousin Mahadevan Rajamani | Photo Credit: Special arrangement When Krishnakumar Viswanathan and his cousin Mahadevan Rajamani decided to go on a cross-country expedition, they were sure of one thing: theirs would be a little different. “I had just bought a CNG powered car and we thought, why not use it?” says […]

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Remembering Coimbatore’s Thiagu Book Centre’s good old days

Thiagarajan’s father Perumal Samy set up the library for him | Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S The shelves are nearly empty. P Thiagarajan is at the far end of the library, trying to keep himself distracted amid a fast-depleting pile of books. Clearly, it is not working. He gets emotional with every passing title, and […]

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