Arbitrary Obsessions. Cities. History. Music. Feminism. Maami-isms. Patterns. Halwa. Identities. Free Verse. The Internets.

Khirkee Masjid, the Sultanate and you

Khirkee Masjid. The Mosque with Windows.

When Delhi air spies upon the
faithful (windows), and breath
carries prayers. Inside this closed
(open) Mosque, I find you as I once
knew you.
If every prayer uttered
be carved upon the walls,
graffiti of the bearded Maulvis,
tickle the atheist in me, paaq like
whitewashed walls.
1380, this mosque was built,
in 2000 we met. Six hundred
and twenty times, [...]

gurgaon, birds, city-village and other ruins

Gurgaon. Dust rises from construction site and loam. All my songs have been sung for Delhi. I’ve never lived in Gurgaon. If you’ve been in Delhi all your life, you’re almost whispery about it. That you have moved out to the flashy universe that is lit with neon signs. Where per square kilometre, there are [...]

Release Hao Wu

My colleague at Global Voices – Hao Wu, who blogs at Beijing or Bust, has been detained by the Beijing division of China’s State Security Bureau on the afternoon of Wednesday, Febuary 22, 2006. Hao Wu is the East Asia Regional Editor at Global Voices. A blog has been set up at http://www.freehaowu.org/ to provide [...]

Blogmeets or Remains of the day

Sunday evening in Delhi was well spent with bloggers who have been read for a long time now. Shivam who was the host came rather late, but we forgave him as he organized it in the first place. Monica and I found some time to chat up before Jai made it. Dhiraj showed up, and [...]

Delhi Blogmeet Reminder

Delhi Blogmeet Reminder – 19th March at 1630 hours at Costa Coffee in Connaught Place.
See you there! :)

In which Neha does a podcast

Kamla and I got interacting because of my work with Global Voices.
So here it is – Kamla and I in conversation as a podcast. Among other things I discuss “ME”, blogs, South Asia and blogging etc.
For some time, we have been exchanging notes on nearly everything in the online and offline world. She’s from [...]

Hyderabad remembered in verse

The hunt for home, and
the invisible Musi began all
at once. The same night,
Kohl-ed eyes of Quli
Qutb Shah, danced towards
a particular real estate agent,
Signed. Rented. Curtained.
My mother studied here, I
whisper to the autowalla,
Mahboobia Girls School.
Repeat. Mahboobia Girls School.
Like ice cream at Mauzam Jahi,
rolling familiarity, displaced by
the tongue. Then the melt,
Inside. Banjara Hills. Hardly
for nomads. Spoon of [...]