Lalita Iyer

 HECTIC DAYS...... Returned from a ten-day holiday to Masai Mara and Dubai, wild jungle to concrete jungle, so to speak. Returned to several rounds of washing. Must learn to pack less most definitely. And carry less luggage. I am planning to do that in real life too, starting with my hair, cutting it so short that sometimes the scissors just snip at the air. It is difficult to give up things, but koshish jaari hai..... Even as settling down was happening, there was a workshop I had to attend. A much planned event, it was a workshop with Creative Bee. The founders of this beautiful place are Bina Rao, the head of design and her husband Keshav Rao, the dye master. Together they design for various labels, keeping their principle intact of producing handmade textiles with the help of their rural partners including hundreds of women. In this direction they also conduct a lot of rural training programmes, teaching the populace about their eco-friendly production processes. And this is pr...

NILOUFER CAFE AND THE BUN MASKAA Each time I have coffee, I am reminded of the cold coffee I had at the Niloufer Cafe in Himayathnagar. Went there the other day with a bunch of girl friends. Busy place, but we found seats for the seven of us in one cozy corner which remained so for exactly 33 seconds, till the table next to us with 20 women started talking. All at once.  A request later we were shifted some 10 feet away and we started stretching our legs while reading the sumptuous menu when we realised we were not alone, once again. There were a bunch of women in a glass cabin, where our chairs were and they too were loud.  We needed distraction and so placed our orders. And when the food started arriving, amidst the chaos of being served and serving ourselves, we started eating and then we started talking.😊😊😊😊😊 When we decided to visit this cafe, I seriouusly thought I would get my bun maskaa and maybe a vegetable puff or two along with the parde wali chai. But the menu...

 MY MIND IS NOT MADE UP....... My latest writing project just got over and so I am at a loose end. Well, not really. I have a couple of projects in my mind but that also means the rains can't have a mind of its own. Brilliant sunshine in the morning and there I am singing with the finches (do they sing?) and then it gets cloudy, humid and pours incessantly for 15 minutes and then stops. I seriously have nothing against the rains. So what if our CM, KCR garu has got us both the Krishna and Godavari waters to our taps. It is the rains which puts the smile back on the farmer's face, at least for a period of time. It is only then that greenery takes on a new hue.  (A poet friend the late Prasad wrote, `pacche rang ki pacche essi nattu').While I will not deny that there is a certain charm in this season, of having a roasted corn, even as the warm embers of the coals dry up your face. Or having a hot cup of ginger tea from a roadside stall while you are inside the car. Or having ...

SOMETHING ABOUT GODSE After I saw `Samadhame' and `Ante Sundaraniki' I felt a bit dull. The first film was definitely nice but lacked vim and vigour, while the second one went in so many directions, poor Naani probably did not know he was suckerpunched. Directors and also script writers do not know where to stop and so there is unnecessary khincha khinchi......till you as an audience on the OTT platform, change the movie. Samadhame has some cute songs, reminicent of circa 80s, musical and full of tamasha. And then Netflix announces Godse. Must say the name is very intriguing. And the hero, Satyadev Kancharana, known popularly as Satya Dev, not much seen but boy is he good! He is among those who makes a few films and with fairly meaty roles. While the name of the movie makes us recall Mahatma Gandhi, there is one shot to connect to the name the hero has got. Otherwise the movie is based on a Korean film called The Negotiation. Aishwarya Lekshmi, the ACP from the negotiation team...

NEW SHOPPING SCAPES Every day events excite me quite a bit and I like to write about it. Like the state of roads in and around Srinagar Colony and there are such dangerous pot holes in certain turnings and corners that if a car gets stuck, it would take a long time for it to get back on the road. So, while Hyderabad wins prizes for being the best city, it is only on the main roads and probably the ORR. But with guys brandishing guns and young idiots zooming at high speeds, that is also losing its charm, especially after dusk or pre-dawn.  I do not want to complain, because how much can the municipality guys do or MAUD do. They are probably busy wondering when they will get their salaries. And look at all that construction happening abutting the ORR. My God, and I am left wondering if there are enough people to buy the apartments. And all of them have smooth facades and elevations, for all the pipings, ACs are centralised, including the bin chute. God help the occupiers if one of th...

ROMANCE IN THE AIR Saw Viratta Parvam.... While romance is relit by the poetry and the literature, the cause for naxalism or who and what they were fighting was lost. Before I write a little about it met some old pals at Amar Devulapalli's home. He makes you climb two flights of steps but being the perfect host, makes up for it.  Then there were the boys including Sattibabu, Madhu, Divakar and Tiger, aka Srinivas Reddy, aka Seenu. When Amar and Tiger get together you must be there with your filled glass and 'listen', which is a skill, believe me. You can only learn.  Between the two of them they carry an era of reporting, colourful, informative and full of dates and names. And it is always filled with beer, nights filled with drinks, afternoons of scooter rides into forests. Fascinating and I come away awed each time by the sheer depth of information these two guys have.  I am going to be quick about this, because my friend said I was too long in my previous blog. I was d...

A LITTLE MOPING AND LOTS OF TV WATCHING I have been moping around today because I have a cold and cough and no fever. Murali has been going through the same since he returned from Mumbai and I have been nurturing him back with vetha khozhambu and molugu rasam and the likes. Today morning I complained of exhaustion and he reassuringly tells me to stay at home and not even go for my daily chakkar. Let me digress. If you do not go out everyday you lose track of new roads, new cafes, new restaurants, new sari shops. They all seem to be sprouting overnight. Like new flats. You would have crossed some sand traps, workers carrying on their heads and little children running between their legs and of course the ubiquitous blue sheet and by the time you are checking out the other parallel road, the flats are ready, the sand traps are still there and in fact there is also a truck unloading something. I have heard of pre-fab but this is something else. So if I am not working on an idea or a story,...