Pia becomes a writer

TEN YEARS ago, my niece Pia Marie Ancheta Andrade sat on an easy chair, observing things around her as a one-year-old child. Today, she sits on a writer's chair, discussing things around her as a junior columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer!

Pia has been chosen amongst many candidates after a rigorous wave of interviews and examinations.  As a writer for Junior Inquirer, she is expected to attend events organized by the Inquirer, as well as share her thoughts on issues that may interest the tween and teen segment of Inquirer’s readership.  Her first article was published today—and it’s on the cover page of the Junior Inquirer!

Congratulations once again, Pia! You make your parents, siblings, and the rest of us very proud.

Turning 50

JUST WHEN I finally learned how to act like a 40-year-old man, I turned 50. It actually doesn't feel any different! I'll probably have more people around me listening to stories of the endless, amazing things that I've seen and done (and will probably never see and do again), take longer naps on Sundays, dance like a fool, and really feel like an elder‒a creaking, laughable, opinionated, and boundlessly gorgeous elder on his way to being 60!

SIGHTED SITE : CSIA Terminal 2, Mumbai

THE NEW Terminal 2 (T2) of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai changes the way flyers experience airports. 

The terminal, which opened in January 2014, was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and features over 7,000 pieces of antiquities and contemporary Indian art displayed on the airport’s corridors and hallways.  This is the largest public art in any airport in the world, and is a veritable showcase of Mumbai's proudly organic culture amidst a spectacular use of natural light, which the city has so much of.

T2 has got to be the best-designed airport of our generation. 

EPITAPH : Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015)

WHEN I was growing up, the mere name of Christopher Lee evoked visions of black-and-white horror scenes. He was one of the Terror Triumvirate—Vincent Price and Peter Cushing being the other two—that spooked me as a child watching television. Mr. Price had the terrifying tenor, Mr. Cushing the deathly demeanor, and Mr. Lee—well, he was Dracula, for lord's sake.

But it wasn’t just the creepy cape that he donned. In the span of a very long career, Sir Christopher wore an astonishing diversity of hats, as listed on the infographic below. He was a true Renaissance man, portraying roles of the past in reel life and playing roles ahead of his time in real life.

Mr. Lee has joined the company of Mr. Price and Mr. Cushing in the next world. The heavens must be having a blast with the three unforgettable icons of fright coming together again.

SIGHTED SITE : Kiyan, New Delhi

NOTHING, IN recent months, has ever, ever besieged my taste buds with an army of delightful flavors as the Kiyan has done. This fortress of culinary awesomeness at the Dusit Devarani in Delhi is on top of the hill, literally.

I had lunch at the global cuisine restaurant while attending a strategy meeting with the rest of my colleagues at Biba Apparels.  The fare was wicked, as indelible to my mind as it is to my palate. Without remorse, I thwacked four shameless heaps of those fresh salads—artichokes, feta, spinach, arugulas, slivers of honeyed greenery—before I could even attack the main course.  The beef and poultry are dressed in so many saucy, sassy colors, it was a bit painful to disarrange them on the serving plate! 

The noontime assault on this restaurant's remarkable fare is impossible to resist and impossible to not do again.  This is certainly one of India’s finest.

Seven Baha’is, seven years

SEVEN YEARS ago today, seven Baha'i leaders were unjustly imprisoned in Iran. Their 20-year sentences are the longest ever served to any prisoner of conscience in that country--a severity that is only the tip of the iceberg in what is one of the most serious cases of state-sponsored religious persecution in our time.

Seven years in prison.  It really has to stop. Now.

FOCAL POINT : Barbra Streisand, "50 years and Still # 1"

SIX MONTHS ago this week, Barbra Streisand created new milestones in the recording industry when the new CD Partners became her 10^th Number One album. It made her the only artist to have number one albums in every decade since the 1960s . . . and that's just for starters!

I made this video to commemorate such awesome event; Miss Streisand even posted it on her own website—how cool is that? For those of you who've supported (or suffered!) my love of Barbra in all these dozens of years, well, this one's for you.

Quake in Nepal

IT’S DREADFUL to think that, as the earth shook beneath me here in Delhi yesterday, the trembling mountains further north were subsequently claiming innocent lives. My prayerful thoughts go the victims of this devastation in and around Nepal.

Biba’s layers

TO PARAPHRASE singer David Gates, if a picture paints a thousand words, then one minute of standing in front of a show window is worth a million thoughts. This window represents the new spring-summer range of Biba Apparels—sheer, slim, and light silhouettes to create the brand’s signature layered look for the new season.

What Lee Kuan Yew thought

“FILIPINO PROFESSIONALS whom we recruited to work in Singapore are as good as our own. Indeed, their architects, artists, and musicians are more artistic and creative than ours. . . The difference lies in the culture of the Filipino people. It is a soft, forgiving culture. (Yet they) write and speak with passion. If they could get their elite to share their sentiments and act, what could they not have achieved?”

—Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), Singapore's founding father