URB Scribbles

Image: News Republica The United States (US) Pacific Command reported on March 22, 2017 about a failed North Korean missile launch the very day. The launch came merely four days after North Korea (NK) had tested a rocket engine capable of being used for a long range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The failure has come up as a greater relief to the US given the speculations that NK is working on an ICMB capable of delivering nuclear warheads to US. South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “South Korea and the US are aware of the missile launch and to their knowledge NK’s missile was not successfully launched”. Although it is not explicit as of now about the type of the missile or the reasons for failure, the matter however has drawn immediate international engagements. What is crucial at this point is not the failure, if at all, to launch the missile but the clandestine engagement of NK with weapons of mass destruction for quite some time – of whic...

Svetlana Alexievich English Translation: Bela Shayevich Juggernaut Books, New Delhi, 2013; ISBN- 9788193237243 Introduction In this splendid work of oral history the noble laureate, Svetlana Alexievich ties together the lived experiences of what she calls the Homo sovieticus. “Seventy-years in the Marxist-Leninist laboratory”, claims the author, “gave rise to a new man” – the Homo sovieticus. “ Homo sovieticus isn’t just Russian, he’s Belorussian, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Kazakh” (p-23). He is in a way rooted in soviet values, attitudes and behaviours. Second-Hand Time, is thus the story of people coming out of socialism. The book traces the myriad and sundry details of a vanished way of life and rests on the narratives of the “miniature expanse: one person, the individual” (p-24). In this polyphonic, yet systematically tied volume, the author blends literary extravagance with careful and critical observations making it perhaps an archetype of what one gets out of a season...

I have usually been choosy and confined when it comes to eateries. Taking that giant step out of the zone of comfort and deciding on a new place has always been a challenge. After the last review, an old friend notified of this new place that has come up in the very locality of the previous destination, Humayunpur, New Delhi. “The Belly Giggles”, offering Naga, Tibetan and Chinese food is yet another place in New Delhi serving escape from the humdrum of quotidian gastronomy. For a foodie who also is a tea person like me and longs for peace over meals, TBG is the place to be given its extended menu serving few varieties of tea. For eating out is an exercise not merely of eating but also of going and being out the ambience of TBG is something worth talking about. Being born and brought up at a place endowed with utmost greenery and open spaces I have forever had this pull for less claustrophobic zones of existence. TBG, above all provides this at once. Stuffe...