India, July 24 -- Depending on who you ask in Bengaluru, the summer holidays are April-May, May-June, or July-August. Even for international schools that match their holidays to the American summer that ends in August, this is the tail-end though. Kids are home, driving parents nuts. I remember this phase with my own kids - when the urgent and only question was: how to keep kids busy all summer? To that, I say, with the wisdom of hindsight: why not teach kids to be a tourist in their own city. Let me explain.

Today, there was a traffic jam in my neighbourhood. Nothing new about that in Bengaluru. But for a change, I wasn't furious. It was a riotous and beautiful procession for the goddess Mariamman, complete with a white-uniformed band, ...