Cutting Chai With Arun Krishnan

One of the best ways to discover a foreign country is to read a crime novel by a local writer.  Bloody murder has a way of bringing to life the sights, sounds and smells of residences, office buildings and alleys of a foreign city in a manner that a Lonely Planet can only hope to achieve. 

I was fortunate enough to run into a brilliant novel by Shalini Flint: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder. 

Philippines has one of the most vibrant movie industries in the world. The movie industry in Philppines generates ₱2 billion revenues annually and employs over 250,000 people. 

Maynila Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag directed by Lino Brocka is considered one of the greatest Filipino movies of all time. I haven't seen many Filipino movies and can't make an educated judgment, but will say that this movie is pretty, pretty good. 

Had the extremely (and I do not use the word "extremely" lightly) good fortune to run into Thierry Cohen's Darkened Cities exhibit in the Danzinger gallery in New York. 

To quote from the press release: “Villes Eteintes” (Darkened Cities)  depicts the major cities of the world as they would appear at night without light pollution, or in more poetic terms: how they would look if we could see the stars.

The city of Angkor Wat in Cambodia is twice as large as Manhattan (with buildings that have more responsive superintendents). 

Angkor was renowned for its elaborately constructed system of dams, canals and irrigation systems. Engineers changed the courses of the Puok, Roluos, and Siem Reap rivers as they looked to water their crops well after the monsoon season had passed.

However, the technology that nourished the city might have led to its very downfall. 

The 1960s were the golden age of pop music in Singapore - and indeed much of the world.  The "SINGAPORE 60's POP MUSIC HALL OF FAME" blog does a great job of chronicling the popular hits of the times. 

The Quests were one of the most popular groups in Singapore in the 1960s. In 1964,the Quests' song "Shanty" toppled "I Should Have Known Better" by the Beatles off the charts. 

Here's a great playlist, the original recording of Shanty and I Should Have Know Better. 

Indeed, I should have known better and be born in the 1960s.

If I am ever on death row (innocent people often end up there) and they ask me as to what I would want for a final meal, I would ask the jailor for Roti Canai and Nyonya curry with rice. (That's technically two dishes - but the curry is the same, and I am on death row remember, so easy on the quibbling). 

I have tried to make this dish on many occassions - and the results were disastrous.  Sometimes, the dish was too spicy, and at others it was inedible for other reasons. 

In 2010, a disillusioned Indonesian football fan named Henri Mulyadi ran on to the field and made one of the most amazing attempts on goal. 

“I know what I did was wrong, but I was so disappointed with the team,” Hendri said after being questioned by police. “I can’t stand it. Why is it so hard for them to win? It’s always either lose or draw.”

Inspector Vinod breathed in the cool morning air in Thimpu, Bhutan. The air was fresh, even fresher than Namka Lhamo had sounded when she released her first album.

He heard shrill voices wafting along with the breeze. They were raised in argument. Inspector Vinod became tense. Arguments lead to sticks and stones. Eventually, bones got broken. People died. He got worried, worried enough to ignore the cow that was being carried along helplessly by the currents of the Wang Chu Dude River. 

Inspector Vinod stepped on an orange peel. He was sure that it was a peel from an organic orange. It had to be.  This was Brooklyn. Inspector Vinod knew that Brooklyn was one of the most diverse boroughs of New York. However, it wasn’t very accepting of two things: food items laced with pesticide and non-ironic sentiments. 

It was seven in the evening on a wintry night in Manhattan. Inspector Vinod heard his cell phone ring in the darkness. He fumbled to snap it open, as he found it difficult to see through his sunglasses or "goggles" as he liked to call them. He didn't feel ashamed that he did not have one of those new smartphones. "Smart people," he liked to say "did not need smart phones."

​Smart people don't need smartphones