Vijee Venkatraman

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Growing Mushrooms in New England

“The lion’s mane does not like to be dripped on,” Julia Coffey informs me, “so it sits on the top shelf of this greenhouse.” The founder of Mycoterra Farm, a leading small-scale, year-round mushroom farm in Massachusetts, knows exactly what makes her edible fungi tick....

Annaya’s Anthropology

Annayya's Anthropology by A. K Ramanujan Annayya couldn't help but marvel at the American anthropologist."Look at this Fergusson," he thought, "he has not only read Manu, our ancient law-giver, but knows all about our ritual pollutions. Here I am, a Brahmin myself, yet I...

The Young Indian Scientist’s Dilemma by RKN (1966)

(From an old essay of R. K. Narayan's -- from 1966. Not sure where it was published.) A young scientist from Madras, who arrived in New York only a week before, met me at my hostel and introduced himself as one longing to hear an...

From Jejuri by Arun Kolatkar

Makarand Take my shirt off and go in there to do pooja? No thanks. Not me. But you go right ahead if that's what you want to do. Give me the matchbox before you go will you? I will be out in the courtyard...

Give, Eat, and Live

Thanks to the movie Iruvar -- I revisited this verse of Avvaiyar. ஆண்டு ஆண்டு தோறும் அழுது புரண்டாலும் மாண்டார் வருவரோ மாநிலத்தீர் வேண்டா நமக்கும் அது வழியே நாம்போம் அளவும் எமக்கு என் என்று இட்டு உண்டு இரும் . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWQ__mqY9RE Here is the book the verses are from.

A.K.R.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am huge fan of A.K.Ramanujan's writing -- be it his translations from Tamil, his academic writing, his poems, essays .... just anything. So I was delighted to learn that he had written his own memoir in Kannada --...