Swagata Dutta

The Americans have embraced it. Barack Obama seems to be recommending it to his people. It definitely seems to be in vogue. But what about us Indians, after all this ancient practice of yoga is known to have originated in our country. It’s time we Indians too are reminded about …

Comfortably numb is my favourite Pink Floyd song. The band which produced several psychaedelic rock masterpieces celebrates the fortieth anniversary of its most popular album the dark side of the moon this year. This song is from another popular album of theirs called The wall.The band has a history of …

This novel by Gregory David Roberts is the story of a foreigner, an escapee from a high security prison who makes a fresh beginning in India. Considered to be loosely autobiographical, the novel traces his life in India. Firstly the one thing that stands out is the author’s lyrical quality …

Recently, CNN listed 10 of the most innovative start ups that are sure to make it big in the recent future. Here is a summary of 5 of my favourite ones and what inspired those ideas. Meat for vegetarians: “Beyond Meat” tries to address the age old problem of finding …

Darren Aronofsky’s   Black Swan is a psychological thriller, one that will haunt the watcher for some time.  “I had the craziest dream last night about a girl who was turned into a swan”, says Natalie Portman’s voice-over. The whole movie is, in a sense, that nightmare. The movie begins with …

Many of us had those childhood dreams of saving the world. However as we grew up these dreams slowly faded away. Caught up  in chasing more ambitious dreams, these were sidelined. However for those of us a little less informed a career in an NGO may be just as promising …

They all have it. They all flaunt it.  Be it David Beckham (32 yes that many tattoos) or Rihanna (19) or our very own Akshay Kumar with Aarav (his son’s name) tattooed on his back. The world of celebs and their tattoos scream out loud and clear that tattoos are …

We Bengalis are snobs in terms of our preferences about food. Having been brought up on food which our mothers painstakingly cooked for hours, there  isn’t much of a choice as such. And then there is that obsession which we have for fish, of every form and variety. The combination …

At that time we were second year students of engineering in Bangalore. The pooja vacations were short and to return home by flight was a little too expensive and thus it was concluded we would visit a nearby hill station Coorg. It was an unplanned trip, one that was born …

Its dead they say. The good old Samaritan has long been dead. An incident which took place recently made me come to terms with this fact.  It was a small  unimportant station. The train never stopped there for more than 5 minutes.  I had been unable to get a reservation. …