Soul Kudi

    Empress Mumtaz Mahal, in whose memory her grief-stricken husband, Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor of India built the Taj Mahal, is also credited with inspiring that most iconic of dishes from the kitchens of the Mughal dynasty, the biryani. While visiting the army barracks, the possibly apocryphal tale goes, the Empress found the imperial soldiers looking rather weak and undernourished and ordered her chefs to create a special dish combining rice and meat to strengthen them for the stern business of empire building and protecting! Another Mughal empress, Nur Jahan, the all-powerful wife of Mumtaz Mahal’s father-in-law Jehangir is credited with not just creating colorful dishes like rainbow-hued yogurts but also serving them on dishes studded with rubies, emeralds and gold thread to complement the kaleidoscopic cuisine. Her royal husband, like many of his forebearers, was no mean gourmand himself, elevated the ‘khichdi’ the traditionally humble dish of rice and lent...

The donkeys first led me to it!   Patient, disciplined beasts travelling in a single file on the enchanting, narrow, cobble stoned streets of Oia, they were led by minders who were slightly less disciplined though a lot more spirited! Buoyantly calling out greetings in Hindi (they turned out to be Pakistani labourers) they gambolled on the road, cheerfully occupying all of it, so that stepping hastily back (and almost falling headlong down a flight of stairs) I stumbled across this enchanting wonderland of a bookstore, appropriately christened ‘Atlantis’.   Oh Atlantis with your romantic name evoking lost worlds, and your whimsical location inside one of the cave houses carved into the bowels of the earth, how easy it is to lose yourself in your depths and let the world outside sprint along at its relentless pace, while one enjoys a moment (or a few months or years of relative calm)! Clearly others agree as the store is often manned by students and young people from acros...

  “The light at the end of the tunnel could be you.”   The closing words from Aerosmith’s ‘Amazing’ have been running in a loop through my head recently. Most of the year gone by has been a dark, endless tunnel for all of us across the world. People have been soldiering on through illness, the loss of loved ones, unemployment hunger and financial insecurity, all brought about by the kind of devastating global pandemic, we had all imagined was safely consigned to history books. While trying to survive all this and more, one of the most crippling losses experienced by everyone has been the loss of hope . Friends, family and even the voices of strangers on social media have shared how they felt almost guilty to even remember the joys and pleasures of the days of old. Or more frequently, the darkness around us has been so intense that for a while it was impossible for any light to penetrate it, including the memories of things that enrich life: food, shared laughter, the beauty ...