Delhi Metro: The New Lovers’ Paradise? - India Real Time - WSJ
Interesting article - after the parks got too many stares, now it is the turn of the Delhi Metro to be the hangout place for lovebirds...
Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Comparison of Coke Studios Pakistan and India
Recipes for jams - Culture - livemint.com:
If you haven't heard Coke Studio Pakistan's Arif Lohar and Misha Shafi's "Alif Allah...", you are missing something - amazing!
And the "Kangna" qawwali is impeccable fusion between traditional vocals and modern instruments...
Compared to some of the Coke Studio India pieces I have heard with Richa Sharma, Sunidhi Chauhan and Bombay Jayashree, they sound far superior - but we have to realize that with the Indian side, the producers are trying to match multiple languages, styles, and beats - so we might be comparing apples to oranges...
If you haven't heard Coke Studio Pakistan's Arif Lohar and Misha Shafi's "Alif Allah...", you are missing something - amazing!
And the "Kangna" qawwali is impeccable fusion between traditional vocals and modern instruments...
Compared to some of the Coke Studio India pieces I have heard with Richa Sharma, Sunidhi Chauhan and Bombay Jayashree, they sound far superior - but we have to realize that with the Indian side, the producers are trying to match multiple languages, styles, and beats - so we might be comparing apples to oranges...
Saturday, June 18, 2011
The king of canvas
The king of canvas:
"...one cannot be happy in exile or in oblivion. One cannot always be a stranger. I want to return to my homeland, make all my loved ones happy. I see no further than this.” - Albert Camus
"Anyone and everyone seemed to know (at least a bit of) Husain. Almost everyone seemed to own a Husain — if not a painting, at least a story, a gossip, an opinion. Celebrities and socialites crooned how they had met him in London or Dubai ‘recently’ and how he had always been sweet, humble, generous, entertaining, loving, caring... and so on. Media, expectedly, went on overdrive. Television channels showed anyone and everyone narrating their stories about the man. Interviews recorded in the past with the artist were hastily retrieved and replayed over and over again.
But why had everyone remained silent when the artist was still alive? Why did the art community not forcefully rise in protest against the senior fellow-traveller’s exile? Why did the government remain generally cool and indifferent about his security concerns? Why didn’t the likes of Raj Thackeray welcome Husain back to Mumbai, and offer him a safe and congenial atmosphere to work?"
"...one cannot be happy in exile or in oblivion. One cannot always be a stranger. I want to return to my homeland, make all my loved ones happy. I see no further than this.” - Albert Camus
"Anyone and everyone seemed to know (at least a bit of) Husain. Almost everyone seemed to own a Husain — if not a painting, at least a story, a gossip, an opinion. Celebrities and socialites crooned how they had met him in London or Dubai ‘recently’ and how he had always been sweet, humble, generous, entertaining, loving, caring... and so on. Media, expectedly, went on overdrive. Television channels showed anyone and everyone narrating their stories about the man. Interviews recorded in the past with the artist were hastily retrieved and replayed over and over again.
But why had everyone remained silent when the artist was still alive? Why did the art community not forcefully rise in protest against the senior fellow-traveller’s exile? Why did the government remain generally cool and indifferent about his security concerns? Why didn’t the likes of Raj Thackeray welcome Husain back to Mumbai, and offer him a safe and congenial atmosphere to work?"
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
India Slums | Dharavi | Urban Poor
India Slums | Dharavi | Urban Poor
"A study by the Center for Environmental Planning & Technology found that Dharavi has close to 5,000 informal businesses, which produce goods worth about $600 million a year, as stated in a report by the Harvard Business School.
What is particularly remarkable about Dharavi is that its residents have managed to build themselves homes and find or create jobs that support them and their families with virtually no support from the state.
“They don’t survive because of the state; they survive in spite of it,” said Kalpana Sharma, an independent journalist in Mumbai who wrote a book on the area, "Rediscovering Dharavi." “Any redevelopment must appreciate the spirit of resilience and self-help and build upon it.”"
"A study by the Center for Environmental Planning & Technology found that Dharavi has close to 5,000 informal businesses, which produce goods worth about $600 million a year, as stated in a report by the Harvard Business School.
What is particularly remarkable about Dharavi is that its residents have managed to build themselves homes and find or create jobs that support them and their families with virtually no support from the state.
“They don’t survive because of the state; they survive in spite of it,” said Kalpana Sharma, an independent journalist in Mumbai who wrote a book on the area, "Rediscovering Dharavi." “Any redevelopment must appreciate the spirit of resilience and self-help and build upon it.”"
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Mumbai Fables: Book Review
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/bookbeat/the-fabulous-myths-tales-and-histories-of-mumbai
Good review of yet another book on Mumbai: "In that Mumbai Fables challenges the very idea of historical inevitability, it leaves us with a history of possibilities etched by Prakash that may in some form emerge again—for example, the radical intellectual culture of the city, eventually fractured by Partition, with its broad and deep political and social engagements. In Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Marco Polo describes all the cities he has visited to the emperor Kublai Khan. In each of these cities, Polo finds something of his beloved Venice. Prakash's Mumbai Fables tell us of one city, Mumbai, and of all the fabled cities that live within. The book magnificently achieves Prakash's stated ambition of rendering Mumbai legible 'as society'—not a final statement but a contested, living record of the failures and aspirations, the exhaustions and social energies of Mumbai."
Good review of yet another book on Mumbai: "In that Mumbai Fables challenges the very idea of historical inevitability, it leaves us with a history of possibilities etched by Prakash that may in some form emerge again—for example, the radical intellectual culture of the city, eventually fractured by Partition, with its broad and deep political and social engagements. In Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Marco Polo describes all the cities he has visited to the emperor Kublai Khan. In each of these cities, Polo finds something of his beloved Venice. Prakash's Mumbai Fables tell us of one city, Mumbai, and of all the fabled cities that live within. The book magnificently achieves Prakash's stated ambition of rendering Mumbai legible 'as society'—not a final statement but a contested, living record of the failures and aspirations, the exhaustions and social energies of Mumbai."
Friday, November 12, 2010
The Emotional Side of Being an NRI
Jaspreet looks vacantly out of the window. Its late morning in Delhi - rains finished recently, and have left the streets muddy. The street is empty, except for a stray dog lapping up water in a puddle. The vendors hawking vegetables are gone by now, and so is her maid, after cleaning her sparse flat and making her lunch. She idly looks at the phone, and thinks of calling her daughter in Mumbai - but its office time, and she might be busy in a meeting. Its too late to call Dallas, where her son lives with his family. Her gaze slips to the photo of her husband, who died two years ago - even though they were not madly in love after 35 years of marriage, they had a comfortable understanding, and she could talk to him about her daily life. She glances out of the window one last time, and reaches for the TV remote...
On the other side of the world, in Salt Lake City, UT, Devenbhai switches off the small TV set in his room with a sigh. Kalpesh, his son, is late again. He had taken his wife for dinner at a friend's house, and asked Devenbhai to watch their son, who had fallen asleep playing with his Nintendo. Devenbhai thinks of his native Ahmedabad, and how he would be out taking an after-dinner walk with his friends at this time. But here in Salt Lake City, with no driving skills, he was confined to this small house, and dependent on his son for the smallest outing. He stretches on the sofa/daybed, and closes his eyes...still dreaming of Ahmedabad...
Fiction? Perhaps, but its true more often than you think. The above situations highlight the other side of the NRI experience - the human factor.
More and more parents in India find themselves in an "empty nest" situation - not only in major cities, but also in villages. A recent article in The Toronto Star talks about the situation in quite a few villages in Punjab, where all the young men have gone to work abroad, leaving behind empty houses..."Left behind are villages bereft of an entire generation of young men, villages where women now fear walking the streets at night because they don’t have male protection, and where seniors fend for themselves in large mansions, hoping to see their children once more before they die..."
On the other side in the US, according to a recent article, "Since 1990, the number of foreign-born people over 65 has grown from 2.7 million to 4.3 million — or about 11 per cent of the country’s recently arrived immigrants. Their ranks are expected to swell to 16 million by 2050. In California, one in nearly three seniors is now foreign born, according to a 2007 census survey". If the parents end up going abroad, unless there is a good support structure, they get sidelined with the daily working pressures, depending on their children and their spouses for help.
So what is the NRI to do? Live with the guilt and constant dread if the parent(s) are alone in India, or try to get them to live with his/her family? Old age homes? Dedicated Indian senior living communities in North America? Weekend Temple visits and Satsangs? There is no easy answer, and no cookie-cutter solution.
The key thing, however, is community and support structure. We at Tribe Desi are big proponents of solutions for issues facing NRIs - be it aging parents or abused spouses. We continue to publicize issues facing NRIs, and pertinent organizations who can help. Join us, and let us know how we can make it easier for our parents...
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
India: Land of many cell phones, fewer toilets
India: Land of many cell phones, fewer toilets
Interesting article...focuses on the rise of mobile phones in India - probably the only real thing which has trickled down to the lowest classes of the society with the telecom infrastructure upgrade here.
Toilet reform is another story...
Related articles
Interesting article...focuses on the rise of mobile phones in India - probably the only real thing which has trickled down to the lowest classes of the society with the telecom infrastructure upgrade here.
Toilet reform is another story...
Related articles
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Author Rohinton Mistry slams Mumbai University after book ban
Author Rohinton Mistry slams Mumbai University after book ban - Telegraph
Mumbai has always been truly cosmopolitan every time I visited - you could hear a variety of languages, see people of all shapes and sizes, and tolerance. It is sad to hear about certain radical elements trying to force Mumbai as the property of people who speak Marathi - to the extent of forcing University of Mumbai to drop a book by a renowned writer...
Mumbai has always been truly cosmopolitan every time I visited - you could hear a variety of languages, see people of all shapes and sizes, and tolerance. It is sad to hear about certain radical elements trying to force Mumbai as the property of people who speak Marathi - to the extent of forcing University of Mumbai to drop a book by a renowned writer...
I have been a big fan of Rohinton Mistry's style, and even though I like his "A Fine Balance" better, "Such a Long Journey" was amazing too - do a search on the Tribe Desi blog to see the reviews on these books I did last year...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
India's richest man Mukesh Ambani moves into £630m home
Image by mihir1310 via FlickrIndia's richest man Mukesh Ambani moves into £630m home - TelegraphWould you really live in this monstrosity? Knowing that when you step out, you will still be driving by people sleeping on the sidewalks?
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Fire in the Hole - Foreign Policy
Fire in the Hole - By Jason Miklian and Scott Carney | Foreign Policy
"But plenty of Indians have missed out. Economic liberalization has not even nudged the lives of the country's bottom 200 million people. India is now one of the most economically stratified societies on the planet; its judicial system remains byzantine, its political institutions corrupt, its public education and health-care infrastructure anemic. The percentage of people going hungry in India hasn't budged in 20 years, according to this year's U.N. Millennium Development Goals report. New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore now boast gleaming glass-and-steel IT centers and huge engineering projects. But India's vast hinterland remains dirt poor -- nowhere more so than the mining region of India's eastern interior, the part of the country that produces the iron for the buildings and cars, the coal that keeps the lights on in faraway metropolises, and the exotic minerals that go into everything from wind turbines to electric cars to iPads..."
"But plenty of Indians have missed out. Economic liberalization has not even nudged the lives of the country's bottom 200 million people. India is now one of the most economically stratified societies on the planet; its judicial system remains byzantine, its political institutions corrupt, its public education and health-care infrastructure anemic. The percentage of people going hungry in India hasn't budged in 20 years, according to this year's U.N. Millennium Development Goals report. New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore now boast gleaming glass-and-steel IT centers and huge engineering projects. But India's vast hinterland remains dirt poor -- nowhere more so than the mining region of India's eastern interior, the part of the country that produces the iron for the buildings and cars, the coal that keeps the lights on in faraway metropolises, and the exotic minerals that go into everything from wind turbines to electric cars to iPads..."
Monday, May 4, 2009
Book Review: Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, made into a movie of the same name starring Roshan Seth and Naseeruddin Shah
This book was Mistry's first novel, but reading through it, one does not get that impression, as the novel is amazingly powerful and gripping - with great attention to detail. Mistry develops the story around an ordinary man and his family - and uses his background to paint such a fine picture that the reader would find themselves knowing the characters intimately.
The story revolves around a Parsi named Gustad Noble , who lives with his family in a Parsi dominated building in Bombay. There are supporting characters, who go in and out of Gustad's life, but the key is that there are several icons in the novel, including Gustad's obsession with covering his windows with black paper, the lame Tehmul, the outside black wall of their building and the tree in the courtyard. Each of these is given enough attention that they stay sharp in the background while the story is unfolding. The idiosyncrasies of the residents of the building, as well as the description of the world beyond the black wall is gripping.
The climax of the novel is well put together, where all the surviving cast of characters congregate at the black wall, surrounded by destruction and death - and the symbolic cutting down of the tree.
Not a light-hearted novel, but it'll be hard to put it down once you start.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)