Red Earth, Pouring Rain
Blessed are those who have a friend to discuss beautiful verses with. Movie-makers, lyricists make it easy for poetry-lovers when they chose to incorporate words from ancient poems into nicely picturized modern hits. In a…
The Greatest Nature cover ever….
After years in our office, someone finally got round to putting up the huge copy of the greatest @NatureNews cover. — Daniel Cressey (@DPCressey) I worked on the Human Genome Project, so I guess I…
The Naming of Things
Recently, Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, was in the news because scientists named a tiny Australian leech after her. “I am thrilled to be immortalized as Chtonobdella tanae,” Tan said. “This humble…
A Library in Jaffna
Shareeq is too young to remember much of the war years. But for another patron, 75-year-old Rajenthiran Selvanayagam, spending time at the library is a peaceful contrast to that era. He lost his wife to…
The Original Angry Young Man
Many boys who went to school in Madras must've worn this costume for the "fancy-dress" competition at school. Draw on a mustache, wear your dad's wedding "reception" coat, memorize a couple of Tamil verses, and…
Mango Mistletoe
That the mistletoe has medicinal properties, shouldn't have been lost on any reader of Asterix comics. Getafix needed sprigs of mistletoe to make magic potion for the inhabitants of that little Gaulish village, we knew…