To begin with...

I promise nothing, except somewhat irregular posts on (in no particular order) Indian politics, cinema, and anything else that catches my fancy...

Why "Qalandar"? So-called "liminal" religious traditions are a particular interest of mine, and "qalandar" is the sort of untranslatable, ambiguous, yet enormously evocative word that for me touches upon and articulates the experience of the sub-continent's "little" traditions in a particularly memorable way...not to mention the fact that in popular lingo the word has more than a merely religious/spiritual connotation, and can mean a bunch of other things, including a smart alec, wannabe, what-have-you...

[Random aside: according to popular tradition there are 2.5 qalandars: the Sufi saints thus designated are Boo Ali Shah, Lal Shahbaz , and the unfortunate Rabia Basri Qalandar-- unfortunate because as a woman she is, apparently, only half a qalandar. Perhaps I should start a petition for a belated and long overdue upgrade of the qalandars to the status of a full-fledged troika]...