Old Monk beer review: Does the beer live up to the legend of the rum?
It appears that Old Monk beer has been around for a little while, but for me this was a revelation and apparently for many others too.Continue Reading →
My school leaving certificate spells my name as Soumyadip Choudhury (সৌম্যদীপ চৌধুরী), some call me The Chaiwallah. I work and live in what is generally referred to as Delhi NCR (work in Noida, stay in Ghaziabad).A part of my work profile labels me as a journalist (of the Internet kind) and my areas of specialisation includes technology. The Internet is the primary area of personal and professional interest and I also build products for the Web. I am currently with Network18 as Technology Editor and Product Manager at IBNLive.com. In over nine years of employment, I have worked with HT Media, Career Launcher, The Times Group, NDTV and Network18 in various capacities. As a chronicler of popular culture via advertising, movies, photos and more, I maintain a popular blog, Cutting the Chai, since 2005. The blog also doubles up as a digital archive of India's popular culture.Have been hard-wired to everything tech since childhood, I have a penchant for making and repairing (and occasionally breaking) things. My wife and family suspect that I am secretly married to my laptop.Was born and brought up in Shillong and that is the place I still call home (in the physical world).
It appears that Old Monk beer has been around for a little while, but for me this was a revelation and apparently for many others too.Continue Reading →

If we look at the news and what the news media tells us, we would be under the impression that…

At around 4:15 PM on October 22, 1979 a scuffle broke out in a Shillong locality and it didn't end…
A brief history of the Bengali Calendar and why India and Bangladesh celebrate the Bengali New Year on different days.Continue Reading →

An ad for a lesser-known Bullet - Enfield 200 - The Mini Bullet.

Google, it appears, cannot just stop itself from googling new names for its products.
At a time when an anglicised creole is the new lingua franca and I am identified and counted as a Bengali, I remain a Sylheti, from Shillong.Continue Reading →

Another attempt at reimagining iconic Bollywood scenes as a critique of contemporary issues in a comic book format.

The 'deewaar' of Aadhaar has people on both sides of the wall (and also many sitting on it)
Recreating a fading Makar Sankranti tradition from East Bengal and Assam.Continue Reading →

Interesting trivia on why the city of Shillong has been named so. Part four in the series of Shillong Stories…

Shillongites were basking in the sights of the snow-capped Himalayan peaks 250 kilometres away.