http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:16:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Tomorrow marks the beginning (for most Muslims) of the holy month of Ramadan. Considered sacred by Muslims primarily because it is the month in which the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, Ramada is also a time of austerity and self-discipline for Muslim people. Fasting from dawn ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/31/time-to-get-chummy-with-muslim-friends/ Montreal is easily among the most happening cities I have lived in. Sure, London is has cool clubs and matchless museums and New York is where most things are at. But in those better-known, better-celebrated cities, you needed to be loaded to make the best of what the ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/24/indian-is-in/ We did it! Three medals, including one gold at the Beijing Olympics. That’s a lot more than we have had in a while and a good deal greater than what we had come to expect. India’s hauls of medals, modest as it is in the overall rankings, is ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/22/olympian-questions/ As you may have seen on the trueroots homepage, trueroots international calling service is turning one this week-end. While you may find this odd, since trueroots has already become an established brand name in the international calling card market (although you don't need a card to make a call!), one ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/21/trueroots-turns-one-and-for-the-occasion-buy-one-get-one-free/ Here’s wishing a Happy Independence Day and Yaum-e-Azadi Mubarak to all Indians and Pakistanis around the world. And here’s hoping that, as two countries in their 60s, India and Pakistan can run their affairs with the wisdom and sagacity that should come with age.   We, who come from these ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/15/happy-independence-day/ I have written in the past of how, in many things, we desis remain unabashedly Anglophilic. Of course, the fascination is mutual, even if it is unequal. From the days of Richard Burton (who introduced straight-laced Victorians to Vatsyayana) and Rudyard Kipling (whose Mowgli and Kim remain the ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/12/an-enduring-love-affair/ Aficionados of the Queen’s English (does Her Maj qualify any longer?) might balk at the news that an Englishman opines that English is now spoken better by ‘foreigners’ than by the English! Poor spelling and grammar are, according to a university lecturer, all too common among native British ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/08/that%e2%80%99s-nang-innit-bredren/ The new ‘resurgence’ of India and the burgeoning of the ‘great Indian middle class’ are phenomena that are written about ad nauseum. The gushing ‘India-is-so-cool’ and the alarmist ‘beware-India-is-arriving’ sections of the media, have both written about how the Indian consumer is fast becoming a force to reckon with. ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/03/courting-the-indian-paryatak/ The Times of India reports that Indian-Americans spend 3½ hours a month on the phone to India. If it was any other group instead of Indian-Americans, the preceding sentence should have ended with an exclamation mark. Given that its American desis we are talking about, it’s a pity ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/07/31/no-surprises-one-mistake/ Not long ago, English speaking classes sprouted up all over urban and small-town India. Many promised to teach an impeccable RP or an easy Southern drawl. Others peddled insights into the Western mind, presenting Euro-American culture (cinema, literature, slang, gastronomy, etc.) in encapsulated, easy to assimilate form. The ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/07/24/namaste-mate/