About 4 Kms from the Madras Museum is a very short road called Balfour Road. It is so short, that even local politicians who love ‘indianising’ English street names, have overlooked it! Ah, who was the honourable Balfour? Dr. Edward Green Balfour came to India as an army doctor in 1834 and retired as Surgeon-General of Madras in 1876. This good doctor was more than..

We learnt a little ditty as kids, which I vaguely remember now: For want of a shoe, the horse was lost For want of a horse, the knight was lost For want of a knight the battle was lost All for want of a horse-shoe If shoes can cost you the battle, boots can win wars too. At least one cobbler ardently believed so. In …

Take a guess, what percentage of India is vegetarian? If you answered, 70% or more — congratulations, you are in the majority: but you are HOPELESSLY WRONG! Only about 31% of India’s population is vegetarian. Surely, we must be wrong? Did we not include the people of Tamil Nadu who supposedly eat only Idli, Dosai and Vadai with Sambaar? We did, but only 10 –