Lounge Loves: Rediscovering Wilbur Sargunaraj, loving red bananas and more

BACK TO THE 2010s

A few days ago, while trying to explain the difference between a veshti (dhoti) and lungi to a colleague, I turned to the internet—and rediscovered Wilbur Sargunaraj. A relic of the 2010s internet, Wilbur Sagunaraj was a Tamil YouTuber—always in black tie and a white shirt tucked into black trousers—whose videos explaining Tamil life and culture were plain kooky. “Modern day internet would have cancelled him in a heartbeat,” one Reddit user notes. But back then, his silly videos (Daddy, Mummy, I Want Love Marriage and First Class Meat: Chicken 65) got him performance invitations from around the world. Sargunaraj is still at it, now on Instagram, older but not necessarily wiser. As for the lungi explainer, Wilbur had a demo—set in Times Square, no less. And, this was before the age of AI, so yes, it was the real NYC.

—Shalini Umachandran

DANCING WITH DRUMS

Every year, courtesy the Mahindra Percussion Festival, I’ve got to travel musically to different corners of the country. If the chenda players of the Aatam Kalasmithi band teleported me to Kerala during the festival’s first edition in 2023, this year, Drums of the East, an ensemble helmed by tabla player Bickram Ghosh, (almost) sent me off to a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata. The concert featured folk instruments like the dhaak, srikhol and the Bangla dhol matching the energy of the classical tabla and the sitar. What never ceases to amaze me is seeing the diversity of percussive instruments. Like food and language, every region in India loves to dance to the beat of its own drum.

—Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

GOING BANANAS

On a recent trip to Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, I found myself in thrall to the beautiful hill station, covered with lush greenery and a profusion of flowering plants. The air was crisp and clean, the hikes dreamy like fairy tales. But nothing stole my heart as much as the red banana, which, while ubiquitous in the southern states, isn’t as easily found in the north of India. Unlike the more familiar ripe-yellow variety, this species stands out for its thick red skin, creamy texture, and berry-like sweetness. It was love at first bite—my favourite healthy snack for the duration of my trip. Now that I am back in the plains, my breakfast bowl, with its inferior cousin, doesn’t quite taste the same. I guess this is what they call going bananas.

—Somak Ghoshal

COUNT YOUR STEPS

Here I was at the Kalkaji Metro station, getting off the Magenta line and looking to head to the Violet line. I would have taken the escalator but stopped in front of the flight of stairs leading to the upper level. The first step read -0.21 kilocalories, the second -0.43 kilocalories and so forth. The calorie counter signage was introduced at some Delhi Metro stations in February 2025 but this was the first time I had come across one. It was beckoning and challenging me at the same time. I had to take the bait. While I was not panting at the end of it, I did forget to check on the last step how many kilocalories I had burnt. The signage is a nice way to prompt commuters to get in some cardio. It’s another matter though if you then decide to have a burger or a paneer patty from one of the many food kiosks at the stations.

—Nipa Charagi