The Officer and his Batman

When my friend told me the story of the bench warmer tradition in his erstwhile battalion, I was somewhat surprised, though not astounded. The British implanted some queer customs during the buildup of the Indian armed forces, and if you search you can find many. This one comes from a station some…

Once the Promised Land

The Anglo Indians and McCluskiegunge The Portuguese Mestiços had established precedent, when they congregated in Goa though a few remained in little enclaves at Mattanchery at Cochin and Bandra in Bombay. The Moplahs (many claiming Arab descent) attempted to obtain support in creating Moplistan in …

The Chatans of Malabar

Driving lazily last weekend, en-route our local desi grocer, I passed by the Chatam street. We do have several towns and places in the East Coast of America named after locales of old Britain, and Chatam must have come from the ancient Chatam port in Kent. That set me thinking about the name, but …

The story of HE 842, a B24 liberator

I started out writing a fictional story set in our village at Pallavur starting with an object falling out of the skies and crashing into our paddy fields. The much consternation it subjected the villagers to, the investigation of the fallen object and the general furor it created would form the h…

Letters in Post

I am sure many of you will remember a time when we used to wait patiently for the postman to deliver a much-awaited letter. The post was always capable of evoking strong feelings, at times it was a job interview or an appointment letter or it could be a distasteful invoice or bill to be paid, a lo…