Augusta National Golf Club just admitted two female women into its ranks.  But why are so many people hailing it as a victory for women?  Did women and the so-called Women’s Movement really need authentication by an effete old boy’s network of stodgy businessmen?   On the surface it would appear that they have finally put…

The Olympic motto has always intrigued me because across so many disciplines it seems to be honored more in the breach than the observance.  Faster, Higher, Stronger is a clean set of aspirations for athletes all over the world—beautiful in its simplicity and crystalline clarity, with no room for doubt (now that electronic photo-finishes are…

A dozen years ago I became a US citizen, joining my children and circle of friends in this grand experiment. It wasn’t easy dealing with the INS and a battery of incompetent petty bureaucrats who forced us to take our fingerprints four times on four separate occasions spread over two years (for a variety of…

I love the game of golf.  I love the paradox of its simple complexity.  I love the way it challenges my inner demons.  I love the fact that the golf course is the one place where I am extremely patient with myself (not so patient when idiots ignore the etiquette of the game).  As an…

Obviously most college students would know Kal Penn from his role as Kumar on the Harold & Kumar movies or from the TV show House. Personally, I remember him from the wonderful adaptation of Jhumpa Laihiri’s incandescent novel The Namesake, a story about Indian immigrants and the constant struggle to assimilate. But, as I’m sure…

At the risk of offending my employers and colleagues I cannot wrap my mind around online teaching. I realize that it’s a modern version of the old “degree by correspondence,” but I even found that to be problematic. So am I just a fuddy-duddy traditionalist” mired in the past, unable to come to terms with…

Every morning at 6am, as the city raised its sleepy torso under a humid blanket, I would set out for a brisk walk on the campus of Srinakharinwirot University (try rolling that on your tongue), the fragrance of spices from nearby canteens and cafeterias wafting towards me on day-breaking slivers of light. Ah, it felt…

Ever since The Dionysia in ancient Greece, competitions have been part of the artistic landscape—theatre and music competitions, painting and sculpture prizes; novels, poems, short stories, etc., all judged so that one may be deemed better than the rest; the list is endless. We have just entered the arts competition season—Golden Globes, Oscars, Grammys, Emmys,…

The agony of time and distance is sometimes unleashed furiously upon the soul.  I was browsing through some news reports when I read this phrase: “the late Chetan Datar…”  Late???  How? When?  I knew this man; met him on my last visit to Mumbai in 2001, when I was making a documentary about theatre in…