The author wishes to assert that all facts in this story are completely true — IT WAS HIGH NOON and scorching when I rode into Oatman. “Feed and water him,” I told the boy who came running to take the reins. “Curry him down with the saddle on.” “Not planning on staying long then?” “Long as it takes to whet my whistle in this god-darned…

Introducing I Think. Let’s listen. To us — It is difficult to escape news of rape and sexual violence today. Much happens across India; much is reported in the news media. What do Indians make of this reportage? How do we, the citizens, respond to the stories of sexual offences that filter through to us every day? What…

How do you capture the sea? How do you capture her sight, her sounds, her smells with words, in mere strings of alphabets? Can you? Keats spoke of “eternal whisperings” and “shadowy sound”, but that’s only half of it. …

If you were to describe the sea, what would you say? — How do you capture the sea? How do you capture her sight, her sounds, her smells with words, in mere strings of alphabets? Can you? Keats spoke of “eternal whisperings” and “shadowy sound”, but that’s only half of it. …

On New Year, through the lands of Walter Scott and John Buchan — It did not snow where we live, not one tiny bit, so we drove north in search of the fluffy stuff. We saw it the next morning. It spread from our host’s doorstep in Midlem and we walked around the village listening to it crunch underfoot. Afterwards, we drove six…

In worrying about the big things, are we forgetting the little things that could make a tangible difference to our lives? — Do small things matter? The tiny, little everyday irritants in our lives that we can fix but never get around to because there are more important things to fix, do they actually make much of a difference to our lives? I think they do. Perhaps more than I realised. My…

They wear dark shades even at midnight. They chew gum furiously. They swagger. — Anyone who has ever passed through an airport anywhere in the world has witnessed the swagger of the pilots and the sashay of the stewardesses. There is a certain rituality to this exercise that you cannot fail to notice anywhere you go. The stewardesses always sashay in threes, lipsticked and…

It’s nice to be reminded of values such as friendship and loyalty and kindness — My overriding memory of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped is of David Balfour paused on the edge of the ruined tower in his uncle’s house, saved from a fall and certain death by a blink of summer lightening. I had not thought of David for a long time till this week…