Archive by Author
The World of Indian Sweets Posted by Rachael on Feb 21, 2018
Although many Westerners complain that Indian sweets are “too sweet,” I have luckily never had that problem. With a sweet tooth stretching back generations in my family, when I discovered Indian sweets, my culinary world expanded tenfold! Below I’ve curated a list of five of my favorite sweets with short descriptions accompanying each. Enjoy! Peda…
HindiVAALE! Posted by Rachael on Feb 13, 2018
While learning Hindi, you may have noticed the ubiquitous presence of the vaala/vaale/vaali (वाला/वाले/वाली) suffixes––by the way, a suffix is any word or particle that comes AFTER another word and changes its meaning. From Merchant and Ivory’s film Shakespeare-Wallah (or “Vala”) to the chaivaala (चायवाला) on the street corner who brews up just what you…
Padmavati Posted by Rachael on Feb 1, 2018
As many of you may be aware, the recently-released film, Padmaavat (पदमावत), by well-known director (निर्देशक/nirdeshak) Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has kicked up a bit of controversy (विवाद/vivaad, masc. noun). Without going too much into the controversy, I wanted to devote this blog to the text that inspired this film: the epic poem (महाकाव्य/mahaakaavya, fem. noun) Padmavat…
For the Love of Coffee: कॉफ़ी के प्यार में Posted by Rachael on Jan 23, 2018
I’m sure most of you have heard countless times about the obsession India (mostly North India) has with “chai” (चाय) or tea. But, as an American who LOVES coffee, I must desist from rehashing a trite discussion of the various forms of “chai” and instead devote this blog to India’s time-honored and burgeoning fascination with…
More Reading Comprehension in Hindi Posted by Rachael on Jan 17, 2018
This week, let’s continue to work on our reading comprehension skills with the third part of Mahadevi Varma’s (महादेवी वर्मा) short story, “Sister-in-Law” (Bhabhi/भाभी) from her collection of stories in Glimpses of the Past (अतीत के चलचित्र) (read parts 1 and 2 here). Like last time, try to read only the Hindi text first and…
Reading Comprehension in Hindi Posted by Rachael on Jan 15, 2018
This week, let’s return to where we left off last time with Mahadevi Varma’s (महादेवी वर्मा) short story “भाभी/Bhaabi” (“Sister-in-Law”), from her collection of memoirs entitled अतीत के चलचित्र/Ateet ke Chalchitra (Glimpses of the Past). If you haven’t yet read Part 1, you can do so here. Even if your priorities in learning Hindi do…
Mahadevi Varma, Revisited Posted by Rachael on Jan 8, 2018
जैसे आप लोगों को शायद याद है, कई महीनों पहले मैंने महादेवी वर्मा, एक बहुत मशहूर भारतीय लेखिका और कवि, के बारे में पोस्ट लिखा था (आप लोग इसे पढ़ सकते हैं, यहाँ) । लेकिन, महादेवी जी इतनी मशहूर हैं और इतने अच्छे तरीके से लिखती हैं कि एक ही ब्लॉग का पोस्ट उनके लिए…