The Venus Flytrap: Putting The “Bra” In Bravado

The boss of a friend of mine had a business associate visit their office recently. Partway through their meeting, the boss abruptly went over to where his employees were seated, took off his shirt, turned it inside out, and put it back on again. “It was the wrong way round,” he told his gawking workforce. [...]

Manifested Apocalypse

I feared many things as a child: thunderstorms, plane crashes, the bubonic plague come alive from the pages of books, every flea the potential carrier of a manifested apocalypse.
In all these things, a single binding thread shot through. I never feared losing myself. Only others. I wanted them gathered around me, so that if anything [...]

Friends Don’t Deprive Friends Of Frida

How is it that in the dozen trips I have made to Singapore in the last two years, not once did anybody tell me about this place?!
More: 1, 2.
(Thanks, kG. At least you can be counted on to not prize my liver over my spirit. Hmmph.)

The Venus Flytrap: A Toast To Sobriety

This is how we know that the financial crisis has finally hit home: pretty soon, there are going to be multitudes more homeless on the streets of Tamil Nadu. As tends to happen in times of crisis, they will come almost exclusively from one minority: in this unfortunate case, bootleggers. Whereas the impoverished masses generally [...]

Clouds In My Coffee

You’re so vain.
I’ll bet you think this poem is about you.
Don’t you? Don’t you?

After The Affair

I don’t like to judge relationships because they are not two-way mirrors; you can never tell what really goes on just from looking in from the outside. But in all this buzz about Jennifer Aniston “breaking her silence” on her ex-husband’s relationship with Angelina Jolie, something obvious seems to be lost. I admire both the [...]

Talking Books In Tehelka

I did Tehelka’s “The Word” bookmeme for their latest issue. The online link is here. The print one has yet another caricature of me in witch which I look older and pointy-chinned, as I always seem to in caricatures! :)

The Venus Flytrap: For Fear, Or To Overcome It

I have been thinking of my grandmother’s death for most of my life. In the beginning, it was her fault. When we were children, she would laugh about coming back to haunt us when she died, a loose-haired, lolled-tongued cliché. Perhaps this was meant as admonishment, but the heart warms to remember. This was a [...]

Ubud Writers’ & Readers’ Festival 2008, Bali

Some highlights…

With Bernice Chauly. We look like we’re at Zouk, but actually, we’re on top of a gigantic lily pond at the Four Seasons. Preeta Samarasan and Kam Raslan are blurry but present too.

With Jean Bennett, author of 27 books.

With Sharon Bakar, Deepika Shetty and Eric Forbes. Sorry, Deepika, there was no better shot and [...]

The Venus Flytrap: The Matriarch of Mattekalleppu

Not all grandmothers are grand, but mine was. She was magnificent. Nothing shocked me in the last days I saw her alive but how beautiful she was, her illness sculpting her face into the countenance of a warrior – the high cheekbones and strong jaw I never knew were hers before they were mine. In [...]

She Knows

Bless the person who captioned this.

Things I Take To Heart – 1

I am reading old correspondences again, counting my blessings, praying that I can always keep my promises to my grandmother.
A dear, dear friend used to have this for her email signature:
If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy.
If you write for men – you may make some money and [...]

Facebook Fan Page — Official One

Please take note that the only official Facebook fan page for my writing is here.
I could tell you at length how hopeless that assistant I hired turned out to be, but I’m sure karma will do the needful.