This compilation of the late M Krishnan’s Statesman column is a worthy companion for your evening tea on the balcony as you watch that little winged fellow hop around

The grand old bird man of India had no problem eating chicken, or any fowl for that matter. And even when he was well into his eighties, he would take a rifle into his garden to shoot crows. Rauf Ali introduces his grand uncle Sálim Ali the way he knew him, a man who was completely deaf in one ear, yet mortified by snorers

Doctors diagnosed filaria, typhoid, gastroenteritis, and even advised a shrink. But having had malaria so many times, Rauf Ali, far from dreading the disease, now finds that it is ‘not bad at all’.