“Give up chocolate for March!” said a cheerful female voice-over during a radio commercial. As I drove along I became increasingly furious. I don’t want to give up chocolate for March. What’s March got to do with anything? And what were the ad men thinking when they came up with that line? Not offending “other

‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for… I agree with the second part,’’ says the ageing detective in Seven, paraphrasing Ernest Hemingway as the movie reaches its grisly conclusion. The 1995 film starring Morgan Freeman explored the concept of the seven deadly sins as a frightening exemplar of the worst excesses of

Calcutta As I try on sparkly shoes in downtown Calcutta, I can’t shift the feeling that I am in the wrong place. I usually try to ‘‘find myself’’ in India, in a temple or by a lily pad-covered lake. But here I am getting lost in retail therapy, and in a city I was brought

If I had known the way the evening would turn out, I would not have gone on a blind date with an atheist. But in many ways that would have been a shame, because my attempt at romance with a former Catholic turned aggressive secularist probably taught me more about myself than anything else that