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An incident outside the Lulu Mall
By Shevlin SebastianOn a recent Sunday afternoon, I had just got out of the Lulu Mall, Kochi, with my daughter when a young woman, in a white mask, standing next to an auto-rickshaw nodded at me and...
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What’s the future going to be like?
By Shevlin SebastianOne gets the feeling that while India is changing, thanks to its youthful population, its politicians have not. They are still stuck in tribalism, the caste system, fueling...
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Memories of Chandra
Nowadays, owing to the catastrophic Covid pandemic engulfing the country, on some mornings when I open the newspaper, I am reminded of the journalism I had done.That was the case when I came to know...
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A friend dies
By Shevlin SebastianPhotos: George Joseph and his wife Tessy; the Notre Dame Catholic Church at Southbridge, Massachusetts At 7.30 p.m. on Saturday, May 15, I logged on to take part in the funeral...
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A ‘bald’ anniversary
Today, May 26, it is one year since I went completely bald. A barber did the act in 10 minutes. I am happy with my decision. No more depressing thoughts as I looked in the mirror. Earlier, I would...
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Travails of a centipede
By Shevlin Sebastian When I parked my two-wheeler outside a grocery shop, about two kms from my home in Kochi, I saw a thick, red centipede walk across the plastic top of the speedometer, the...
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An encounter with a lizard
By Shevlin SebastianOn a recent morning, when I made tea, I saw this light-brown lizard. It had fallen into the steel wash basin in the kitchen of my home. The basin has a depth of six inches. This...
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Reflections while reading Michelle Obama’s autobiography
By Shevlin SebastianAs I was wandering among the racks of the EMS Cooperative Library at Kochi, I saw a thick hardcover book: ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama (published in 2018). I checked the memory bank...
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Some thoughts about Vidhu Vinod Chopra's book
Pics: Vidhu Vinod Chopra and his wife Anupama at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi; the cover of the bookOn March 23, 2017, I was at the Aspinwall House to see some exhibits of the Kochi Muziris Biennale. As...
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The story of my great-grandfather
Pics: Ninan Xavier; Ninan Xavier and his wife ThresiammaBy Shevlin SebastianWhen my California-based uncle, Siby Sebastian, put up a photo of Ninan Xavier in our family WhatsApp group, it focused...
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The incredible stories of a small town
Sebastian Mathew makes a sparkling debut with his novel, ‘The Solitude of Guilt’By Shevlin SebastianOne morning, a few years ago, when Sebastian Mathew woke up at his home in Kuwait, he recited four...
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Memories of my uncle and the ancestral home
By Shevlin SebastianPics: Mathews Vadakel; the Vadakel family in the 1940s; the Vadakel House; Foliage where the Vadakel House used to existMathew was my mother’s youngest brother. He had come to...
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Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
The Calcutta-born and Bangkok-based journalist Ivan Fernandes has written a memorable collection of short stories called ‘Requiem for Calcutta’Pics: The cover; author Ivan FernandesBy Shevlin...
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An erotic short story set in Kolkata
Thanks to Juggernaut for publishing my short storyhttps://www.juggernaut.in/books/afternoon-visit
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No heart at all
By Shevlin SebastianJust a day before my mother returned to Kochi, after five months with her daughter and son, following my dad’s passing away, my wife went to her ground-floor flat to do a clean-up....
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Some thoughts as I saw myself in a news video
By Shevlin SebastianWhen my sister sent a 6:49 minute video from Nanma 24 Channel, I clicked on it. So imagine my shock, when, at the 2:21 minute mark, I found myself in the video walking in a blue...
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Open Vs Closed Societies
In his thought-provoking book, ‘Open’, published by Atlantic Books, Johan Norberg, a Swedish historian and thinker, has said that a study of human history has shown that societies flourished when it...
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The Chattering Mind
By Shevlin SebastianThe other day I read that, on an average, according to scientists, we think about 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day. I am not sure how they had calculated this. For a while now, I...
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Happy Marriages?
By Shevlin SebastianDuring Onam, on social media, there were many photos of happy marriages and families. Husband and wife are smiling and so are the children. It gives the impression that everybody is...
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The Death of A Rain Tree
By Shevlin Sebastian Just like that, workers of the Forest Department chopped down the massive rain tree at Padivattom, Kochi, near my house, in the name of development. According to news reports, over...
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