Amongst the Royals

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. The best-known images of India are probably Bollywood glamour, sidewalk squalor, and British colonial life. We see this in photographs and film. Those lucky enough to visit the Subcontinent will undoubtedly encounter elements of these icons. Yet most South Asians regard roughly twenty-six hundred years of royal … Read more

The New Historians

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. The Internet has long been the bane of parents and teachers observing middle school kids learn to write papers. You can probably imagine how many times I’ve told my offspring to go to the library, because Googling something does not always get you an academically vetted answer. … Read more

India’s History in Bits and Pieces

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Confession: It’s very hard for me to tell a story in less than 100,000 words. A novel provides all the space I need to figure out what’s going to happen. This might happen well after the first half and change focus several times before the final chapter … Read more

Coloring for Creativity

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been spending up to a half-hour every day with a coloring book and a 48-pack of gel pens. The idea of coloring as a way to get writing juices flowing came from a great blog post on raising productivity for writers by Joanna Penn. I don’t know about you, … Read more

From Asylum to Infamy

This blog post originally appeared on the Murder Is Everywhere blog. He was the kind of man who disagreed with his government—and sought to reform its operations. He broke laws to spread his messages of unrest and felt forced to flee, lest he spend the rest of his life in prison. In search of shelter, … Read more

Love, Indo-American Style

Last weekend I took a long flight with my daughter to a fabulous Indian family wedding with all the bells and whistles. It was a four-day celebration. Although we missed the first night’s cocktail party, we rolled in the next night for the sangeet, a dance party with live Indian music, henna tattoos, a costume … Read more