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Blissfully Baul
Singing soul-stirring songs that speak in simple language of love and human bondage, this 29-year-old Baul has really broken free from what we all struggle to — the self. YOUNG REBEL Parvathy Baul: `City people are scared to talk to me because I have a spiritual inclination. But in our whole nation, everything is spiritual’. Sixteen. A [...]
Continue reading...Ancient Media – Craft above Creed
15. October 2008
They came as refugees from Bangladesh in 1949 with nothing but some scrolls tucked under their arms. Now settled with their families in East and West Midnapore districts of West Bengal, these Muslim women continue to earn their living using the very scrolls they had brought along with them. The scrolls, or patachitra, are part of [...]
Continue reading...A Modern Devotion to a Sacred Indian Ritual
4. October 2008
In southern India, about 35 kilometers from the bustling city of Bangalore, heavy with traffic, sounds and smells, sits a 10-acre retreat dedicated to one simple vision: the preservation of a traditional Indian dance form.Protima Gauri Bedi, a legendary classical Indian dancer who died recently, had long been concerned about the rapid decline of India’’s [...]
Continue reading...No points for Brownies
1. October 2008
The presence of Caucasian models in Indian advertisements has grown in the past three years, industry analysts say. The trend reflects deep cultural preferences for fair skin in this predominantly brown-skinned nation of more than 1 billion people. But analysts say the fondness for “fair” is also fueled by a globalized economy that has drawn [...]
Continue reading...The DISNEY of India
30. September 2008
Although the comics and the magazines found a following among Indian children, the books authored by Indians took longer to find acceptance. Most children were by then so totally hooked on the wonderfully limited world of Enid Blyton that it was impossible to wean them away. And so we continued to pay homage at the [...]
Continue reading...The Yoga Dancer of Calcutta
28. September 2008
It’s a lazy late-winter morning, but the second floor of Indira cinema in Bhowanipore is a whirl of frenetic feet. “Taka, dimi, taka dimi…. Hold it, I want more energy and power in the steps and movement…. We are not merely playing Lord Krishna here, we are becoming the Lord himself,” Pandit Chitresh Das bellows [...]
Continue reading...The Jazz, Rock & Blues Greats of India
19. September 2008
Pam Crain The nicest thing about Crain is her sincerity. Although she keeps travelling — her daughter has moved to the UK and her mother lives in Las Vegas – Crain returns to the city of her birth,Calcutta,India, where she feels her roots are. “I chat with them on the Internet. They seem to be quite scared. Here, I [...]
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16. October 2008
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