A visit to the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid Apr 7, 2019 We were in Madrid last week. It’s a 2½ hour flight from Amsterdam. The wife and I mused that it’s the same duration as the Delhi-Bangalore flight A day in Pisa Feb 17, 2019 After a couple of leisurely days in Florence, we1 started looking for nearby places we could visit. Pisa stood out - not only for a chance to see The bathroom drain Jan 12, 2019 The tiles around our bathroom drain are asymmetric: I am severely myopic but I don’t bathe with my glasses on. So even though the edges are 2018: My year in music Jan 1, 2019 When I shared a list of my favourite songs from 2016, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a one-off exercise or if I’d be able to repeat it every Pictures from a foggy day in Amsterdam Dec 22, 2018 On foggy days, some quarters of Amsterdam remind you of fairy tales while others feel like you are wandering through a post apocalyptic dystopia. London Redux Dec 6, 2018 More pictures from the trip to London. London Nov 18, 2018 From time to time, Pathé Tuchinski in Amsterdam screens plays live from the UK. A recent production of King Lear, with Ian McKellen in the lead Autumn Light Nov 10, 2018 It’s been an unusually warm and sunny Autumn in Amsterdam. Still, the shortness of the days is now quite noticeable. The sun stays quite low in the A personal history of video games Oct 7, 2018 I still vividly remember the first time I saw a video game. I was in grade 6 or 7 when the whole class of 40 or so pupils was ushered into the newly A very warm July Aug 26, 2018 Like many parts of the world this summer, The Netherlands saw temperatures break old records and set new ones. I plotted the historical temperature Day Calendar as a plot device Jun 10, 2018 On a flight recently, I finally paid heed to the wife’s advice and tempered my selection of mainstream Hollywood movies with some world cinema. The The tiled façades of Porto Apr 21, 2018 It’s impossilbe to visit Porto and not notice the colourful, ceramic tile-adorned façades of houses there. On our trip this week, I took pictures Two Hong Kong trips seventeen years apart Mar 13, 2018 My first visit to Hong Kong in the year 2000 had left quite an impression on me. I was there again last year. Visiting a country after seventeen 2017: My year in music Jan 1, 2018 Kurt Vonnegut in Timequake: I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. Man and machine Nov 26, 2017 We all experience moments when it seems like the whole world is out to get you. You can issue and return books from the public library in Amsterdam The photos in the corridor Nov 4, 2017 The corridor of our apartment floor would sometimes feels a bit gloomy. Except for a large black and white photograph - taken from the North Exit of Spoke too soon? Oct 16, 2017 Me a week ago: We packed away the fan last weekend and I’d be surprised (and worried) if it needs to be assembled again before May. The Summer is over Oct 8, 2017 . Second week of October is pretty late in the year to be saying this, but I wanted to be sure. We packed away the fan last weekend Zippers Oct 1, 2017 Despite years of wearing jackets with full-length zippers, the wife and I found ourselves struggling with zipping and unzipping while trying on new My top three favourite movies Sep 26, 2017 Some movies manage to become the staple of in-flight entertainment. I discovered Edge of Tomorrow on a flight and it became an instant favourite of