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	<title>around the fireplace</title>
	<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog</link>
	<description>Come let us talk about stories, and the stories behind stories.</description>
	<pubDate>Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:42:55 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>My Grandfather</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/11/06/my-grandfather/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/11/06/my-grandfather/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:31:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Memoirs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/11/06/my-grandfather/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

I was ten years old when my grandfather passed away. I remember that May morning as one remembers a particularly vivid dream – in a flashing series of disconnected sounds and sepia images. Neighbours milling around, someone carrying a large oxygen cylinder, Ma hurrying, anxious, and then a deep silence. I was whisked away to [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Come walk with me&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/06/06/24/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/06/06/24/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:14:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/06/06/24/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



  

Paris. How should I describe her to you? Her wide, sweeping boulevards, the grand elegance of her palaces, the perfect lines of her domes and spires and Gothic towers that rise gracefully against a cloud-flecked sky, her plane trees along the Seine whose black waters ripple gold in the spring sunshine, her sudden, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/06/06/24/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Best of All Possible Worlds</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/04/12/the-best-of-all-possible-worlds/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/04/12/the-best-of-all-possible-worlds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:38:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[London]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/04/12/the-best-of-all-possible-worlds/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



  

Friday evening – which, in England, is another way of saying ‘Let’s hit the pub!’ It took me many years to appreciate the glories of an English pub. You may ask, as I once used to, why anyone would want to spend a perfectly good evening in a dark and smelly room in [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2010/04/12/the-best-of-all-possible-worlds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>In a Railway Carriage&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/11/18/in-a-railway-carriage/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/11/18/in-a-railway-carriage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:15:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Journeys]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Women]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/11/18/in-a-railway-carriage/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was a student, studying in far away Ahmedabad that summer. The term ended, and I boarded the train home to Delhi. That summer, instead of the fast, overnight train, I chose to take the long slow train that wound its way leisurely through Gujarat and the deserts of Rajasthan for a night and a [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/11/18/in-a-railway-carriage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>&#8220;Listen to me…listen to me good! This is Bachanal! This is Carnival!&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/08/31/listen-to-me%e2%80%a6listen-to-me-good-this-is-bachanal-this-is-carnival/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/08/31/listen-to-me%e2%80%a6listen-to-me-good-this-is-bachanal-this-is-carnival/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:09:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Festivals]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[London]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/08/31/listen-to-me%e2%80%a6listen-to-me-good-this-is-bachanal-this-is-carnival/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have just returned from a day at the Notting Hill Carnival. And what a day it was – full of music, colour, dance and laughter. Here it is, in pictures.

The main parade winds slowly through the streets, the floats followed by dancers in spectacular costumes twirling, shaking, stamping. 
&#160;

More than a million people throng [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Lake District - Vignettes and Views</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/04/15/the-lake-district-vignettes-and-views/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/04/15/the-lake-district-vignettes-and-views/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:09:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[England]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[The Lake District]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wild places]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/04/15/the-lake-district-vignettes-and-views/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Lake District lies in Northwest England, in the county of Cumbria. It is my favourite holiday getaway in all of England, a place we have visited again and again, and which I know we will continue to visit. It is difficult to describe the beauty and the attraction of the area without recourse to [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/04/15/the-lake-district-vignettes-and-views/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Visit to Mughal India</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/20/a-visit-to-mughal-india/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/20/a-visit-to-mughal-india/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:47:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Agra]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Delhi]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[The Mughals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/20/a-visit-to-mughal-india/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The story of the Mughals of India is a story so exciting that it is difficult to know how to tell it. How should I begin? Should I begin with Babur&#8217;s invasion, the two great battles that he fought and won against all odds and which led to the establishment of one of the greatest [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/20/a-visit-to-mughal-india/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Great Banyan Tree</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/10/the-great-banyan-tree/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/10/the-great-banyan-tree/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:38:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Calcutta]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/10/the-great-banyan-tree/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I love December in Calcutta. It is a cool, pleasant month that I associate with childhood memories of picnics, and visits to the horticultural gardens or the zoo without fear of broiling in the hot, tropical sun.
It had been many years since I had spent a winter in Calcutta; in fact, ever since the children [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2009/01/10/the-great-banyan-tree/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Thoughts continued&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/29/thoughts-continued/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/29/thoughts-continued/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:24:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Mumbai]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/29/thoughts-continued/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ Eleven months ago, I wrote ‘Thoughts&#8230;&#8217; in response to a question asked by a friend: ‘Do you call yourself a Hindu?&#8217;
After much introspection, I had answered that question: ‘Yes, I do call myself a Hindu, when I do call myself anything.&#8217;
Today, my answer is different. I do not, will not identify myself with any religious [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/29/thoughts-continued/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Mumbai, November 26 - 27</title>
		<link>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/27/mumbai-november-26-27/</link>
		<comments>http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/27/mumbai-november-26-27/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:48:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rohini Chowdhury</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Mumbai]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.longlongtimeago.com/blog/2008/11/27/mumbai-november-26-27/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I don&#8217;t quite know what to write, what to say. The events in Mumbai have left me bereft of words. Mumbai is a city I love, where I have spent some of the happiest years of my life, some of its most fulfilling moments. The Taj. Hey! We used to hang out there! Remember the [...]]]></description>
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