Lit Notes

  Handbags and purses are very important accessories for women. Most of us carry purses and bags for their utility value. Brand consciousness and brand identity are usually secondary for ordinary Indian women. Most brands are expensive and do not meet our requirements. Most of us look for bags into which we can fit in just about everything under the sun. The same goes for purses also. These are indispensable objects for most women. I, for one, am not very brand conscious. But my personal experience with the Lavie handbag made me want to share this piece. This is not intended as a marketing piece or a brand support piece. This is recommendation of a brand that has really delivered the service that we paid for it and it has not disappointed us. I swear by the Lavie handbag that my husband bought for me four years ago. We bought it from an upscale mall in Trivandrum and I was skeptical about its durability and its lasting potential. But I am happy to say that my doubts have been prove...

 A Gentleman Passes Away Tribute to a Gentleman       Sometimes we don't realise how much we love someone, until that person leaves us forever. The passing away of my father's elder cousin, Madhavan Kutty Valliachan has left me bereft. Never realised that he meant so much to me.       He was a veterinary doctor who was passionate about books, people, corals and the Padmanabhaswamy temple.       I first got to know him properly when I landed in Trivandrum to do my degree in English in one of the city colleges. I was one of the many country bumpkins who had arrived in old world Trivandrum, from a small town in Odisha, sometime in the 1990s. College was intimidating, bus travel was terrifying, and I was very lonely. I stayed with my grandmother  and my family was far away in erstwhile Orissa.         Life in a co-educational college was terrible for someone as shy and self-conscious as me. Ragging in ...