Not that I blog too frequently anyway, but do check out these links while I am gone for a week.

My friend Leo's slightly strange but hugely entertaining blog. He's just become a respectable member of the working public by joining Time Out Mumbai, which, by the way, is also online now. Do check out to know what to do, where to go, what to eat, etc.

Arts and Letters Daily, my fix of 'ideas, criticism and debate'.

My former editor's fine essay on the Indian sense of independence. And another on partition. A powerful economy of words is what one must learn from these.

One of my must-reads of the season, which I will buy soon is M J Akbar's Blood Brothers. Read a rousing piece on the author by another of my former editors, and an exceptional writer. Scroll down the page to Tailor of Telinipara by Sankarshan Thakur.