The crazy good Christian of Cornwall
England is full of good-natured nutters who do amazing things for their community in their own quirky ways. I got to know one such by the name of Robert Stephen Hawker when I walked into Cornwall from Devon.
Strangers, together, for New Year
There were 20 of them at the Little Chef for New Year’s lunch. Outside, it poured. Inside, under the electric mist that hung from red lampshades, it was warm, the red tabletops smooth and shining.
The village that ends with an exclamation
Who wouldn’t want to live in a place that ends with an exclamation mark?
Like actually
The girl was cute, the guy, not. They sat by the door, at a table for two, and talked non-stop.
The nation that got rid of all evil overnight
And I travelled 4,000 miles, over land and sea and river and forest to the land of my birth, the land blessed by the Virile Yogi, the brahmachari, the karmachari.
The easy truth about English
Tthe air hostess has severe doubts about a shalwar-clad young mother’s capability to comprehend the language. So much, in fact, that she asks, not once, not twice, but three times the question, “Do you speak English?”
The mindless agility of ill-controlled tongues
There are all sorts of expressions the clever and the wannabe clever amongst us chuck at the world — sometimes to clarify, sometimes to obfuscate, and sometimes to come across as clarifying while actually obfuscating.
The village that died for England
I went to Tyneham because of its history. I wanted to see a village ‘frozen in time’ with my own eyes.