Culturama September 2012 by Rohini Manian

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India's Only Cultural Magazine for Global Citizens

Brought to you by Global Adjustments

hands free happiness Capturing the colour, the verve, the spirit of India's festivals

VOLUME 3, iSSUE 7 september 2012

culturama | september 2012

D e a r

R e a d e r s

A THOUSAND apologies to mother India and to all our readers, advertisers and contributors for the misprint in our Festivals of India page of the August issue, where the date was wrongly carried as August 19 in lieu of August 15. It was honestly a typo, but what a terrible one it was for the huge impact it had on our Indian sentiment. My whole team felt remorseful about this error as we have worked hard for 17 years to promote Indian understanding with expatriates who come here to do business, temporarily adopting our country as theirs. The overwhelming feedback we received showed us that our Indian readership is growing for ‘Culturama’ and is reading every detail we print; we promise to take our responsibility seriously. As a result, this September issue is dedicated to the wonderful festivals of India. Most are festivals celebrating Gods like Ganesh, Krishna, Ram and so on. An expatriate asked me the other day, “You Indians are such a study in contrast – on one side you are so conventional with arranged marriages and on the other, your gods have multiple wives, how come?” Initially I was embarrassed but now I know better. The wives represent a philosophical symbolism. For example, when mythology talks of Krishna and his 16,008 wives, Krishna stands for our pure Real Self and the wives stand for the multiple desires associated with us. Let’s take the Hindu Trinity of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer of Evil. To create, Brahma needed knowledge, so he married the Goddess of Wisdom, Saraswati; to Preserve the universe, Vishnu needed money, so he married the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi; and to Destroy evil, Shiva needed energy, so he married the Goddess of Energy, Shakti (also known as Durga and Parvathi). See how intelligently arranged marriages have always worked in India! Celebrating life is India’s way and there is always an overt meaning and a symbolic one. We attempt to bring these out in the various pages of this issue, like our comprehensive Feature story on the different festivals of India that impact Indian thought and ethos culturally and geographically; Devdutt Pattanaik’s eloquent article on the origin of pujas in the Myth & Mythology column; Sri Eknath Easwaran’s poignant message on the war within of good over evil in the Bhagwad Gita series; five-time World Chess Champion Vishwanathan Anand’s simple but brilliant philosophy on winning, his game and belonging to the world; and practical experiences by expatriates from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi that celebrate everyday living in India. Ranjini Manian Editor-in-Chief E-mail: globalindian@globaladjustments.com

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culturama | september 2012

contents 8 Present tens

Lord of the Squares

12 Past Tens

Swami Vivekananda THIS picture perfectly captures the spirit of Indian festivals – you can almost hear the beat of the drums and feel the rhythm of this boy’s impromptu dance of revelry! But that’s what Indian festivals do to you. They take you along in a wave of camaraderie and give you what we think are the three most important things in life – spontaneous laughter, delicious food and spiritual peace. Photo Andre Alphonso, Australia Editor-in-Chief

Ranjini Manian

Consultant Editor praveena shivram creative head JayaKrishna Behera Associate Designer

Prem Kumar

Advertising Chennai trishla jain, pallavi roy choudhury Bengaluru mukundan T Delhi-NCR preeti bindra, ruchika srivastava Mumbai & Pune

Vijaya subramaniam

E-Culturama

Samyuktha Sunil

Advisory Committee N Ram, Elaine Wood, G Venket Ram, Marina Marangos,

Suzanne Mcneill

Chennai (Headquarters) 5, 3rd Main Road, R. A. Puram, Chennai 600028, India Telefax. +91-44-24617902 E-mail: culturama@globaladjustments.com

14 Short message service

18 A-Z of INdia

The Wild Bunch 50 seeing India

20 Feature

Timeless Power

Joy de Verve 28 in your kitchen

Rich Repast

34 Look who's in town

Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai

46 picture story

Cast in Iron

48 Thought Leaders

Medicine Man

culturama | september 2012

Beautiful India Expatriate Photo Competition 2012

54 GLOBAL CITIZEN

Fists of Victory

Will & Grace

58 Holistic living

Behind the Mask

60 MYTH AND MYTHOLOGY

Guest of Honour

62 CHILD FRIENDLY

Through the Lens & Pallanguzhi

63 FESTIVAL OF THE MONTH

Ganesh Chathurti

64 POSTCARD FROM INDIA

Colour in Austerity & Day Break

65 iseries

Mumbai/Pune Rustom Court, 2nd Floor, Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai 400030. Tel.+91-22-66104191/2 E-mail: mum@globaladjustments.com

52 at global adjustments

56 Rhythm of life

40 Calendars

Bengaluru - We've Moved! 7/2, Edward Road, Off Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560 052. Tel.+91-80-41267152 E-mail: culturamablr@globaladjustments.com Delhi-Gurgaon Level 4, Augusta Point, DLF Golf Course Road, Sector-53, Gurgaon - 122 002. Haryana. Tel.+91-124-435 4236. E-mail: del@globaladjustments.com

Published and owned by Ranjini Manian at #5, 3rd Main Road, Raja Annamalai Puram, Chennai – 600028 and printed by K Srinivasan of Srikals Graphics Pvt Ltd at #5, Balaji Nagar, 1st Street, Ekkattuthangal, Chennai – 600032. Editor: Ranjini Manian

Snippets of Indian Culture

Book, Movie and Music Review

66 Tell us your story

The House Whisperer

68 & 71 space and the city

Property Listings

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culturama | september 2012

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, You say that this edition of ‘Culturama’ is dedicated to the 65th Indian independence and you say that the Indian Independence Day is on “19th August” (Refer to Page: 65). It’s a disaster and a shame too. I am not sure if there is anything much you can do cover this blunder. (I would not call it a mistake). — Kusuma Venkatesh, CEO-Assistant, Reliance-Vision Express Pvt. Ltd Dear Editor,

Dear Editor, “I just received the August 2012 issue of the magazine. The product is not known for its presentation to the extent for its matter! The error on Page 65, Festivals of India! Not that old as yet to not recollect that India’s Independence Day is on 15th and not the 19th as mentioned in the above issue! This is inexcusable. The top person has to take this blame for not having ‘an eye for detail’”. — Rahul Kumar, Lt Col (Veteran)

“I would really like to congratulate you for bringing out a really informative magazine. I am a new reader and for the very first time grabbed a copy of Culturama. Really liked the Feature story, Seeing India column, the Global Citizen column, and ‘Short Message Service’. I would really like to bring it to your notice that on page 65, ‘Festivals of India’, surprisingly Independence Day is mentioned as 19th August. I know now the copies have hit the stalls, but such an error is beyond repair. It’s not just a festival, it’s a question of national importance. I apologise if I have written something harsh, but at 29 years, I felt that our country needs the youth to realise and respect what India has given them. Having said that, I would definitely grab the next issue, really loved your articles.” — Dr. Krishna Prasad

Dear Editor, “I would like to begin by telling you how much I enjoy browsing through 'Culturama'. I especially enjoy the article about the various regions and cuisines in India with a traditional recipe in each issue and the mythological tale as well. However, I am writing this to point out an error in your magazine. In the Festivals of India page, the date of India's independence has been given as 19th!! Just thought I would give you a 'heads up'. I wonder if you could do anything about this amazing error now though.” — Priyanka.S.J

Dear Editor, “What a lovely August Indian independence issue, as always! How could we awaken the young that “freedom” is not just a “political” term, but it is what we need to strive for every day? Seems thanks to the West, the focus is on “Artha” (Wealth) and “Kama” (Desire), while “Dharma” (Values) and “Moksha” (Freedom) are forgotten, or do I have it wrong?” — Charles Savage, Germany Dear Editor, “Must congratulate you on a superb edition of Culturama August 2012. Truly a collector’s item. God bless you all.” — Arundhati Menon, Founder of Shilpi, and sister of noted TV personality, Siddhartha Basu

culturama | september 2012

Present Tens pRAVEENA SHIVRAM

Lord of the Squares 8

culturama | september 2012

CHESS or shatranj is believed to have originated in India. If that is true, then there could have been only one person who invented the game, only to come back now and claim mastership over it. Vishwanathan Anand, the reigning World Chess Champion and fivetime winner of the title, among a host of others, is like the Phoenix, rising with resplendence each time he sits facing the black and white board, and then quietly descending into his unassuming, reticent self. Anand’s tryst with chess (in this life) began at the age of six, when he would play the game with his mother, who was also his first teacher of the game. His rise in the world of chess can only be described as phenomenal, when at the age of 14 he won the National Junior SubChampionship and within four years, became India’s first and youngest Grandmaster of chess. Having recently won his fifth World Chess Championship, Anand caught up with Culturama for an exclusive interview on what makes him who he is, on the board and off it. First of all, congratulations for winning the World Chess Champion title for the fifth time! How different is it receiving accolades today, as against, say when you were 18? You never get used to winning. It always feels like the first time. In your career as India’s chess Grandmaster, and with the wide international exposure you receive, has there been a moment when you distinctly and consciously felt proud to be Indian? I would say at the end of the World Championship, when the Indian national anthem is played and you stand there as a World Champion. I can just feel a lump in my throat and somehow the months of hard work and tension melt away as you see the tri-colour flag in front of the podium. For all the praise, there has been an equal amount of criticism coming your way, especially during your lean period. How do you deal with the pressure of criticism and the pressure of success? Sometimes the criticism is correct and others don’t have to say it. You know yourself and will always be your harshest critic. Generally, when I’m preparing, I try to shun the external noise and media reports. I try to focus only on the preparation. When you succeed, you have to constantly keep looking back to move forward. As all the other chess players are constantly learning from your games, you can’t just stop working if you have a victory; sometimes you have to work very hard to just stay where you are. What are the three most important things

a chess player needs to carry with him/her at all times? And the three things that they need to learn to let go? The three things to carry are a laptop, databases and a calm mind. Three things to let go are absentmindedness, laziness and pride. During a game, against a former World Champion, for instance, how significant does on-the-spot innovation become? How do you walk that thin line between innovation and preparation? Novelty is the single most important thing in chess. The power of surprise is very important. Preparation has reached a point in chess where a novelty would be backed by preparation of the next 50-60 moves. So on-the-spot innovation is important, but that can only come with very good preparation. In an interview, Vladimir Kramnik (World Champion 2000–2007) said about you: “Each champion has had some sort of speciality, and Anand’s is creating counterplay in any position out of absolutely nowhere. He’s got an amazing ability to constantly stretch himself…” Is it important for sportspersons to always be conscious of their strengths and weaknesses? Even those of another player’s perspective of your strengths and weaknesses? Of course it’s very important to know what your opponent thinks about you. It gives you an idea as to what kind of game they would want to play against you. If they know you have a particular strength, they would try to avoid positions where you play to your strengths. You have maintained that chess requires a lot of mental stamina and there’s a lot one can do psychologically with a calm mind. Is there an example you could share with us from one of your matches where during a crunch situation, a calm mind led you to that winning title? In my last match against Gelfand, after a loss in the seventh game, I was devastated. I approached the eighth game with an attitude to enjoy the game and stop worrying about the results. At a point I made a move and went backstage. I kept thinking if my opponent made a certain move he would fall into a trap and lose his queen. But since I was quite upset about the previous game, I thought it might not happen. From the corner of my eye I saw Gelfand play the exact move that I thought may not happen. I then drank a glass of water, calmed myself down and played out the winning move. Within two moves, my opponent resigned and I won what is now the

culturama | september 2012

Anand strikes a pose with his wife, Aruna, at Baden Baden, Germany

shortest victory in the history of World Championships. During the event, Chess Mate, a simultaneous play for charity event held at Global Adjustments in 2009, you mentioned that when you knew you were going to lose the game, you would make sure you don’t let the opponent win without a struggle. How much of your chess strategies (this is just one example) do you use at home? Well, at home it’s different. You can take back moves! What would your words of advice be to your son, Akhil, who will face the inevitable pressure of following in your footsteps as he grows up? I want Akhil to enjoy growing up, to enjoy whatever he would like to do. When I took to chess, my parents never really forced me to play chess or win; maybe that’s why I am still passionate about the game. I would like Akhil to be exposed to a lot of interests like astronomy, wildlife and mathematics, and hope he chooses something he likes and enjoys doing. If you were a stranger and someone asked you, “Who is Viswanathan Anand”, what would you say? A cool guy.

culturama | september 2012

Check Points • At the age of 15, Anand earned the title of International Master, the youngest Asian to have ever received it. • At the young age of 18, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award. He was subsequently also awarded the Padma Bhushan (third highest) and Padma Vibhushan (second highest). • In 1991, Anand won his first major International Chess Tournament, finishing ahead of world champion Garry Kasparov, and former world champion Anatoly Karpov. • In 1991-1992, he became the first recipient of India's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. • In 1997 and 1998 consecutively, Anand won the Chess Oscar, an award given to the best chess player of the year, chosen by leading chess critics, writers, and journalists conducted by the Russian chess magazine, ‘64’. He won the award again in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008. • In 2000, Anand won his first World Chess Champion title, only to win it again in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. Information source: www.ndtv.com

culturama | september 2012

Past Tens S usan P hi l ip

The ‘orange monk’ who brought ancient Indian philosophies and Yoga to the West, Swami Vivekananda holds an indelible place in the hearts of millions across the world

Swami Vivekananda

Rabindranath Tagore at his painting desk, Government School of Art, Calcutta 1932 photo courtesy www.oldindianphotos.in

What’s in a name? His parents named him Narendra Nath Dutta. The world knew him as Swami Vivekananda, the third name conferred on him. Earlier, when he became a monk, he had assumed the name of Swami Bibidishananda. Oh Teacher, my Teacher: He was born on January 12, 1863, into a Bengali family with a leaning towards asceticism. Having studied subjects ranging from philosophy, through fine arts to logic and social sciences, Narendra searched for something more. He found it when he met Sri Ramakrishna, who taught him Advaita Vedanta or the non-dualism aspect of Hindu philosophy, that truth has many angles and that service to man is the best form of worship. He started the Ramakrishna Math, took monastic vows and set up the Ramakrishna Mission.

culturama | september 2012

Travels through India: As a monk without ties, the Swami traversed the length and breadth of India, armed with a mendicant’s bowl, a staff and two books – the Bhagavad Gita and Imitations of Christ. India Vision: Although his primary focus was spiritualism, he was also a nationalist. He advocated efforts to erase poverty and the caste system, spread the knowledge of science and technology and industrialise the country. His ideas greatly influenced leaders of the Independence movement. Member of Parliament: September 11, 1893, was the day when Swami Vivekananda, representing India and Hinduism, addressed the Parliament of World Religions at Chicago, USA. The ‘orange monk’ got a standing ovation and was voted ‘the most popular and influential man’. Indian Abroad: He undertook lecture tours in many Western nations like USA, England, France, Italy and Germany, and visited Japan as well. He met and influenced many men and women of note, and gained loyal followers around the world. Death of a Saint: On the evening of July 4, 1902, Swami Vivekananda passed away while he sat in meditation at the Belur Math, West Bengal. His disciples described it as Mahasamadhi – consciously separating from the body in death, an act the greatest sages are believed to be able to perform. Global Footprints: Swami Vivekananda popularised Yoga and Transcendental Meditation in the West and is credited with winning for Hinduism the status of a World Religion. In Memoriam: A section of Michigan Avenue, Chicago, is named Swami Vivekananda Way. At Kanyakumari stands the Vivekananda Memorial. In Chennai, Vivekananda House, where he stayed during a visit, is preserved as a museum, worth a visit for the princely sum of Rs. 2 per ticket! His statue stands near the Gateway of India, Mumbai. A temple marks the spot where he was cremated at the Belur Math. Words of Wisdom: Each soul is potentially divine. I do not come to convert you to a new belief… I want you to keep your own belief… I want to teach you to live the truth, to reveal the light within your own soul. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free.

culturama | september 2012

Short Message Service S aritha R ao

Marathi g Showcasin aspects of re in Indian cultu tible easily diges snippets

Molela Clay Plaques

marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi marathi

MARATHI (Ma-raa-tee) is spoken predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The word ‘Marathi’ itself is presumed to be derived from ‘maharashtri’ meaning ‘the language of the great land’. It is written in the Devanagari script, just like Hindi. However, as compared to Hindi, it has a heavy influence of Sanskrit-derived words. The most fascinating literary traditions in Marathi language is the contribution of philosophers and saint-poets like Moropant, Dnyaneshwar, Eknath, Namdev, Chokhmela, Samarth Ramdas, and the prolific Tukaram, who composed thousands of abhangs – Marathi devotional poems in praise of the Hindu god, Vittal, sung during an annual pilgrimage called Warkari. According to the 2001 Indian census, there are 71,701,478 speakers of Marathi in the country with as many as 42 dialects.

Narsapur Crochet

Photo courtesy CraftCanvas http://www.craftcanvas.com/blog/

IN MOLELA village, near Udaipur, Rajasthan, a community of traditional potters creates handmade wall plaques or votives. Traditionally, these depict gods like the mother goddess Durga and Dev Narayan, a warrior deity presumed to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. A typical plaque is created by first kneading together locally available clay with donkey dung and husk. This is patted down to form the base and the outlines of the plaque are cut, with the top edge curving like a traditional arch. The deity’s form is moulded free-hand as hollow clay relief and sun-dried before firing. This ensures that the plaques are sturdy and will not crack or warp. Some plaques are painted in colours mirroring the vibrant attire of this arid region, while others are simply painted a rustic terracotta colour. Molela plaques of deities are much sought after by tribals who travel great distances to source them for their temples. More recently, the craft is being adapted to depict contemporary and rural scenes for use in interior design as well as building facades.

culturama | september 2012

photo Saritha Rao, India

NARSAPUR is a town in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, and along with neighbouring villages like Palakol, it is home to a rather unlikely industry – crochet. In India, crochet evolved over a hundred years ago as a cottage industry, primarily due to the efforts of Christian missionaries to help destitute women and orphans earn a livelihood. For the women, the income from crochet is not the only means of sustenance, it is a hobby, usually done while watching television. Products include home accessories – like doilies, pillow covers, cushion covers, tablerunners, bed spreads and table cloths – and apparel – like skirts, blouses, children’s frocks and so on – and trims. Other than the commonly available white and grey colours, export houses have innovated Narsapur crochet with vibrant colour-fast yarn in shades like yellow, blue and maroon.

culturama | september 2012

Short Message Service

Streetside Fortune Tellers YOU will find them near places of worship, beaches and tourist hubs in India. Streetside traditional fortune tellers, men and women alike, claim to offer expertise to interpret your destiny from the arrangement of lines on your palm, the alignment of stars or even the fortune card-choices of a wise bird. The fortune tellers themselves are flamboyant personalities, sometimes wearing elaborate headgear or sporting distinctive insignia on their foreheads. Some of them also double as witchdoctors and shamans, selling the means to reverse negativity through amulets and potions. Kili-josiyam (‘fortune by the parrot’) entails an arrangement of symbolic cards, much like the tarot deck, laid face-down on a mat. From its cage, the parrot is let out and prompted to pick a card that will symbolise the fortune of the seeker, which is then interpreted by the teller. Palm-reading women sometimes carry a basket and a small stick to point out the destiny written on your palm. There is also a type of fortune teller who does house visits, usually beating a ‘damru’, wearing an elaborate turban and dressed in a coat over his more traditional and humble attire.

Archery

photo Philip james clegg, UK

Trained to Perfection THE Indian Railways runs around 11,000 trains across the country, of which 7000 are passenger trains transporting 13 million passengers. It is not uncommon, then, to find as in the picture, an entire wall listing trains that pass through a particular station. This saves the bother of waiting in queue for standardised information like train number, train name, the origin and destination, time at which it passes this specific station and frequency during the week.

photo courtesy L&T Construction

ONE only needs to skim through Indian mythology to understand the reverential place that the ancient sport of archery holds in India. Whether it is Arjuna’s shooting the fisheye in the Mahabharata or Rama’s breaking the unbreakable bow in the Ramayana, the bow and arrow are more than just tests of strength for a prospective warrior groom of yore. Tribal communities that have been traditionally skilled at archery hail from many Indian states including the North East and interior regions of Odisha, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. One of the most notable names in the world of modern Indian archery is Limba Ram, who hails from a tribal community of Rajasthan and was one of the coaches for the Indian archery team at the 2012 Olympics. Some of the other Indian archers who have represented India in the sport include Tarundeep Rai, Satyadev Prasad, Jayanta Talukdar, Dola Banerjee, Rahul Banerjee, L. Bombayla Devi, Chekrovolu Swuro and Deepika Kumari, who, at the time of going to print, is ranked world No. 1.

culturama | september 2012

photo Enric Donate Sanchez, Spain

culturama | september 2012

A to Z of India S usan P hi l ip

Medal of Honour The Olympics has been on everyone’s mind (and TV screen). In the aftermath of the world’s greatest sporting event, let’s take a look at India’s fingerprints on the Games – past, present and future.

Grappling or wrestling is popular in rural India, but hadn’t been considered a sport till recently. K D Jadav did win a bronze at Helsinki in 1952, but it took another bronze from Sushil Kumar at the Beijing Olympics and a silver at the 2012 London Olympics, to make the country sit up and realise that the mat has the potential to yield metal.

Abhinav Bindra has the distinction of being the first Indian to win an individual Olympic Gold during the 2008 Beijing Games, in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle event. It was also the first time in 28 years that India struck gold, the previous win being for Hockey at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Belgium, specifically Antwerp, in 1920 was the first Olympic venue that played host to an Indian contingent, although the country had a lone representative in the Paris Olympics 20 years earlier. Since then, India hasn’t missed a single summer Olympics.

Hockey was India’s star turn at the Olympics, netting eight gold medals in total, six of them in a row from 1928 onwards. London holds particularly sweet memories, as in 1948, the team in which every player was making his Olympic debut, brought home the gold for the fourth successive time. Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the body responsible for selecting and preparing participants in the Olympics, was set up in 1927. It was the brainchild of Sir Dorabji Tata, who, incidentally, was the first Indian representative on the International Olympic Committee.

Chintamoni Kar, a renowned Indian sculptor, was an Olympic medalist. Art competitions were once part and parcel of the Games. These competitions were organised from 1912 till 1948, and in that final episode, Chintamoni’s Skating the Stage bagged a silver. Dhyan Chand, known as the ‘Wizard’, worked magic for India with a hockey stick instead of a wand. He starred in the shocker of the final against home team Netherlands at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, and gave India her first Gold in the Games.

Kombat Queen – read Mary Kom. This five-time World Champion Boxer and mother of two made India proud by winning the bronze at London this year, the first time Women’s Boxing became an Olympic event. Well done, Magnificent Mary!

Entertainment at the Olympics has always been an international affair. In London, 2012, India had a lot of visibility, with world-famous musicians A R Rahman and Illayaraja, as well as Chennai's MMA Choir and Staccato Band, giving performances.

Judo saw a lone Indian representative in the 2012 Olympics – Garima Chaudhary. Sadly, the judoka did not advance past the elimination round, going down to Japan’s Yoshie Ueno.

Football team from India made its Olympic debut in 1948, at London, and in Melbourne, 1956, gave their best Olympic performance so far – becoming the first Asian nation to reach the semi-finals.

Lifter Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to lift an Olympic medal when she was placed third at the Sydney Games in 2000. The sport in India subsequently came under a cloud because of doping charges, but has now emerged from the shadow of this indictment.

culturama | september 2012

Milkha Singh, otherwise known as the Flying Sikh, showed great promise in the pre-final 400 m event in the 1960 Rome Olympics. He was unlucky to miss a medal by a whisker in the final, clocking an impressive 45.6 seconds in a photo finish.

Norman Pritchard has the honour of being the first Indian to take part in the Olympics. In fact, he was the only Indian on that occasion – Paris, 1900. Of British origin, but born in India, he became the first Asian athlete to be an Olympic medalist when he came second in both the 200m and the 200m hurdles. Olympic torchbearers at the 2012 London Games included some famous Indian names – iconic Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, Pinky Karmakar, a 17-year-old social activist and Assam schoolgirl who helps implement the UNICEF’s Sports Programme in her village, and 101-year-old health guru, Fauja Singh, among them. P T Usha, one of India’s greatest athletes, finished first in the semi-finals of the women’s 400m hurdles in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, sending Indian hopes soaring, but sadly, lost the bronze by 1/100th of a second in a photo-finish at the finals. Quick Cuppas from India – that’s what the Indian High Commission offered at the Festival of Flavours it organised in connection with the 2012 Games at London. Visitors could taste the many varieties of tea from India. A stall selling wines from India was a surprise crowd puller!

Saina Nehwal, ace Indian shuttler, did the country proud at the 2012 Games, and brought home the bronze. She became only the second Indian woman to win an individual Olympic medal.

Tennis is an Olympics event that has seen Indian participation beginning from 1924. Since then, Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes have earned notice at the Games. However, London dreams were soured from the start by an unsavoury selection row. Universality quota, a little known provision under the International Federation of Swimming Rules, gave India a lone representative in the pool in 2012. This provision, which allows an otherwise unrepresented nation to send an entry provided he has participated in the last World Championships, opened luck’s door for Gagan Ulalmath.

Vijender Singh created boxing history for India at Beijing in 2008 when he won the bronze medal. He promised himself and his country a better medal in London, but alas, it was not to be. Women’s Relay Team, 4X400m 1984, Los Angeles. It was a dream team, which brought India’s women athletes into the limelight. P T Usha, Shiny Abraham, Vandana Rao and M D Valsamma not only made it to the finals, but also set a new Asian record despite finishing last among the seven finalists. X-ellence or rather Operation Excellence is the name of the Indian Sports Ministry’s efforts to train sportspersons for the London Games. It was a comprehensive programme and demonstrates the growing importance given to international recognition on the sports field. Yohannan, a long jumper who represented India at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and attributed his failure to collect a medal despite his record-making performances at other meets, is one of those advocating the need for concerted efforts to identify and train sports talent in India.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore made Olympic history as the first Indian (not counting Norman Pritchard) to bag an individual medal – he won silver at Athens in 2004 in the Men’s Double Trap (shooting) event.

Zindabad – that’s an Urdu word meaning ‘Long Live!’ – Gagan Narang, Vijay Kumar, Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom, Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, who won medals for India in the 2012 London Olympics.

culturama | september 2012

Feature S uzanne M c N ei l l

Joy de Verve!

Photo: Lucia Nodari, italy 20

culturama | september 2012

A large part of India’s identity is defined by the rich tapestry of festivals, each celebrating the very essence of life, the universe and everything else in it!

THE great festivals of India form a cycle of celebration throughout the year that marks the births of deities and the advent of spring, the richness of the harvest and devotion to the gods, the banishment of evil spirits and the victory of light over dark at the onset of winter. Festivals are at the heart of people’s spiritual lives but they are also colourful and vibrant celebrations that offer a unique view of Indian culture. India’s festivals follow the lunar calendar and their dates, which are determined by astrologers, vary from year to year. At the heart of each festival is the ritual of prayer and the seeking of blessing, and all share common elements including decoration, new clothes, music and dancing. It is customary to offer food to the gods during festival pujas, and feasting with family and friends is integral to the celebrations. Several festivals are marked across India, whilst others may be celebrated with gusto in some regions, observed in others, and almost unknown elsewhere, so here is a guide to the most flamboyant of India’s festivals, and where best to experience them.

Eid (August)

There are many cities in India with a rich Islamic heritage, such as Lucknow, Delhi and Hyderabad. Head to these metros to witness Eid-ul-Fitr, sometimes called Bakrid, the Islamic festival that marks the end of the 30 days of Ramadan and the dawn-to-dusk fast observed by all adult Muslim men and women. One of the five pillars of Islam, the fast teaches discipline and subservience to the laws of Allah. In India, the night before Eid is called Chaand Raat or ‘night of the moon’ and, with the festival in sight, Indian Muslims visit bazaars to shop for Eid, buy new clothes and jewellery, particularly bangles, and mingle with friends. Young women will often apply the traditional mehndi, or henna, on their hands and feet. Eid itself is a great feast and celebrates the Prophet Ibrahim, who showed his obedience to Allah by willingly agreeing to kill his son at Allah’s behest – at the moment of sacrifice, Allah placed a sheep under his hand instead. To celebrate the event, Muslims sacrifice one animal per family or group of families. Communal prayers are held in mosques, and special food such as Biryani, a dish of rice, spices and meat, is served.

Photo: basia kruzewska, usa

culturama | september 2012

Onam (August/September)

We’re heading west now, to the lush, green vegetation of Kerala where the ten-day harvest festival of Onam is the state’s biggest festival by far, and is a stunning showcase of Kerala culture and heritage. The events include stage shows of drama and classical dance, folk art, food stalls, and handicraft fairs. The origins of the festival celebrate the annual return of King Mahabali, banished to the netherworld by the gods but permitted to visit his people once a year, who are determined to give him a rapturous welcome. Celebrants start the festival days in typically ritualistic fashion with an early bath and prayer, temple visits and the buying of new clothes. Women create pookalams, floral decorations on the ground in front of their houses, which are judged in local competitions, and prepare an elaborate feast called onasadya in which up to 20 different curries are served on a banana leaf. The main day of the carnival sees street parades of decorated elephants, floats and musicians, and the pulikkali or ‘tiger plays’, which feature hundreds of men painted and dressed as tigers and dancing to the beat of traditional percussion instruments: it takes up to four hours to decorate each individual dancer. Synonymous with the Onam festival are the snakeboat races, the most famous of which is the Nehru Trophy boat race held at Alappuzha with long boats crewed by 150 rowers.

Photo: Coralie Gonzalvez, france

Ganesh Chaturthi (September)

Head to the western state of Maharashtra, and to the city of Mumbai in particular, for Ganesh Chaturthi that celebrates the birth of the popular elephant-headed god, Ganesha, worshipped for his ability to remove obstacles and to bring good fortune. For months in advance, artisans mould from clay huge statues of Ganesha in various poses. These are installed around the city in pandals or special structures erected by local people and decorated in preparation for the deity. It is said that there are up to 10,000 statues on display in Mumbai during Ganesh Chaturthi. Life is invoked into the statue by a priest chanting mantras and the statue is worshipped for the next ten days. Sweets, flowers, rice, coconut, jaggery and coins are offered to the god, who is anointed with red chandan powder. The biggest spectacle takes place on the eleventh day, one of huge public celebration, when the statues are paraded through the streets in huge processions, accompanied by singing and dancing, and taken to the sea to be immersed. Here, the statue dissolves back into the earth symbolising that everything in life is impermanent except the divine self within.

Photo: elmarie blignaut, south africa 22

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Photo: thomas valero, france photo Alan Dougans, usa

Navratri, Durga Puja and Dussehra (October)

Navratri, the festival of the nine sacred nights, is celebrated around India, but travel south to Tamil Nadu for the unique celebration of the golu or doll display, which is central to the social celebrations. The festival honours three manifestations of the Mother Goddess: Durga, the warrior, who destroys negative tendencies, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, who brings good fortune, and Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and music, who instils wisdom. The mornings are devoted to worship and fasting, and in the evenings guests are invited to one another’s homes to view the golu display, which is made up of tiered steps and arranged with figurines of humans, animals and the gods. The dolls depict Hindu mythological stories as well as everyday street scenes and represent the belief that the gods live among us. Many of the dolls have been handed on through the generations and are greatly treasured. On the ninth day of Navratri is Ayudha Puja, when all implements of learning and tools of trade (including computers and cars) are venerated with special pujas. Dance is integral to the celebrations of Navratri elsewhere in India. In Gujarat, the nine nights are given over to a traditional dance form called Garba, performed in rings around a lamp or an image of Durga to symbolise the cycle of time, from birth to life to death and to rebirth. Only the goddess remains constant and unmoving within these rings of infinite movement. Both men and women wear brightly coloured and decorated costumes with heavy, ornamental jewellery. Raas Garba, a high-energy fusion of the dance, is hugely popular amongst young Indians. For the Hindu Bengalis of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tripura, the final five days of Navratri are celebrated as Durga Puja. This is the biggest and most important festival of these states, particularly in the city of Kolkata where drama, dance and cultural performances are held. The festival celebrates the slaying by Durga of the buffalo-headed demon named Mahishasura, who had unleashed terror on the heavens and the earth. The festivities are similar to those of Ganesh Chaturthi: clay figurines are moulded into idols of the goddess, elaborately decorated, and placed on pandals all over the city to be worshipped every day during the festival. The fourth day sees a great fire festival or maha aarti, and on the final day, the

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idols are paraded through the streets with chanting and ritual drumbeats, and then immersed in water. In northern India, particularly in Delhi, the festival culminates on the tenth day with Dussehra, which commemorates the victory of Rama, the courageous hero of the epic Ramayana, over Ravana, king of Lanka. Re-enactments of the story through plays, called Ramlila, culminate in the burning of effigies of Ravana and his accomplices, rejoicing in the victory of good over evil.

Diwali (November)

Diwali, the Festival of Lights, marks the start of winter and is the major pan-Indian celebration of the year. The name of the festival is supposed to be a corruption of the word ‘Deepavali’, the literal meaning of which in Sanskrit is ‘a row of lamps’. Little clay lamps are filled with oil and wick and lit in rows all over the house as a greeting to Lakshmi to usher in prosperity. Fireworks and firecrackers are let off in every street and garden, a phenomenal sight (and sound!) in the large metros. People clean and decorate their homes with rangoli patterns on the floor (a popular design is the lotus, associated with Lakshmi), buy new clothes and jewellery, and exchange gifts and sweets during the five-day festival. Legend and spirituality are woven into the meaning of the Photo: gitte anderson, sweden

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festival. Diwali is celebrated in honour of the return of Rama and his wife Sita to their kingdom of Ayodhya after 14 years in exile. It is said that it was a dark moonless night and the couple couldn't see where they were going. People placed little lamps outside their houses so that they could find their way, thus beginning the tradition of the festival of lights. Lakshmi is believed to have come into being on the day of Diwali during the churning of the ocean that conferred immortality on the gods. Both stories celebrate the victory of light over darkness, and call Hindus to reflect on the atman, the inner light that transcends the physical body. The custom of lighting earthenware lamps is indispensable to the ancient Tamil festival of Karthikai, which takes place across southern India a fortnight after Diwali. This festival possibly holds more significance to Tamil Indians, but both Diwali and Karthikai share an essential meaning: amidst the frenzy of shopping, eating and socialising, the steady, burning lamp is a constant symbol of an illuminated mind.

Pongal (January)

Pongal, celebrated throughout southern India but particularly in Tamil Nadu, is another festival marking the harvest, and is celebrated over four days. On the first day, Bhogi, houses are cleaned and all unwanted things are symbolically burned on bonfires. On the second day, Pongal, people offer thanks to the sun god and decorate the courtyards of houses with huge stalks of sugarcane. It takes its name from a sweet dish of rice and pulses mixed with jaggery and milk. The milk is allowed to boil over as a reflection of plenty, meaning that the harvest has been good. The third day, Mattu Pongal, is dedicated to the cattle that have helped reap the harvest with their labour. The cattle are bathed and their horns brightly painted. They are garlanded and vermillion and turmeric applied to their foreheads. Bullockcart races are held in several villages in southern Tamil Nadu. The fourth and last day of the festivities is Kaanum Pongal, a day of visiting, socialising and picnicking.

Photo Sylvie Poultney, france

Holi (March)

Joyous, exuberant, even rowdy, northern India is the setting for the vibrant celebration that is Holi. This festival of colours is held at the advent of spring, a time of revival and new beginnings. People are at their most extrovert, smearing each other’s faces with coloured powders and paint and bombarding each other with water fired from water pistons called pichkaris. It is a day when no one expects polite behaviour, and when social norms of age, gender and status break down – by the time everyone’s covered in paint, it’s hard to tell who’s rich and who’s poor! Even the prime minister is shown on television happily covered in coloured powder. Holi has long been recorded in history: the Ratnaval, a 7th-century Sanskrit drama refers to pichkaris seized by young girls, and heaps of scented coloured powder blowing around. Sculptures and paintings show Lord Krishna playing Holi with his gopikas or cowgirls, and many ancient palaces were built with special areas and pools designated for the celebration of Holi. The Nilmata Purana, an ancient Indian scripture, states that people were aggressive in their celebrations to frighten away the demons in the belief that joyousness kept evil away. One word of advice: don’t go out wearing your Sunday best! This isn’t a definitive list: there are music festivals in Chennai, the literature festival in Jaipur, and ranks of bejewelled and decorated elephants star in the temple festivals in Kerala. Massive spectacles such as the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan take on a festive air, whilst in every village, town and city in India small, intimate ceremonies take place at local temples and sacred places to mark a local deity or special day. Large or small, all will leave visitors with memories of a truly exceptional experience.

Photo laurence pont, france

culturama | september 2012

In your Kitchen H arini S ankaranara y an

Rich Repast The Sindhi community of India might have left behind their land post-Independence in Pakistan, but they show us that the aroma of their rich flavours is beyond borders and boundaries RAJNI Ganglani might have spent most of her years in Chennai but there is a special place in her heart reserved for food from the region she calls home. Rajni’s family come from the fertile land around the Indus River called Sindh, now in Pakistan. During the Indo-Pakistan partition, many of the people in Sindh were displaced. Those who moved to various regions of India continued to be called Sindhis, after the land which nurtured them. “Many people confuse Sindhi food with Punjabi food,” says Rajni, “but when you are familiar with Sindhi flavours, there is no mistaking the taste.” Both cuisines have the same exotic spices that Indian food is famous for the world over. They use an abundance of sweet cinnamon, spicy cloves and fragrant cardamom; combined with the lingering flavours of ginger and garlic, the food keeps you wanting to go back for more. “While Punjabi food is very rich with butter, cream and ghee, Sindhis keep it simple. The rich flavour of our food comes from browned onions and simple cooking techniques.” Sindhis believe in starting off the day like a king. A traditional Sindhi breakfast like Dhal Pakwan is a perfect way to start off a long day. The fried flatbread, made with all-purpose flour, accompanied by a thick yellow lentil dish is a favourite. Sometimes you find a double-cooked whole wheat flat bread called Koki, studded with morsels of crunchy onions, coriander leaves and cumin. For those who prefer something simpler, Bhaat, cracked wheat porridge, is the answer. Lunch at a Sindhi house usually consists of roti bread accompanied by a simple dhal cooked with ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes. A similar lentil dish is served, almost like a watery soup, along

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with rice. Two vegetable dishes are a must – a dry one and a vegetable with gravy. The carnivore does not need to feel left out. Sindhi cuisine has a lot to offer for those who like mutton and chicken. They also adore freshwater fish, probably a reminder of the time they could get a fresh catch from the Indus River. If you look closely at the gravy, you will discover that the dark brown colour and the sweet flavour of the Daagh come from browned onions. The red gravy is due to the ripe tomatoes and the green coloured gravy from the green of the coriander leaves. Those who have tasted the Sindhi Kadhi, a tangy soup to be relished with rice, believe that there can be no better combination. There are others who swear that the Saibajji, a melange of spinach and various vegetables, epitomises Sindhi cooking. The pinnacle of Sindhi cuisine, however, is their biryani. Alternate layers of rice and fragrant curry combine to form a heady mixture. Rajni clearly states the difference between the Sindhi and the more famous Mugalai biryani is the use of browned onions. Unlike the Hyderabadi biryani, where the raw rice and meat are cooked together, in the Sindhi version, the meat curry is cooked separately before it is added to the cooked rice. The recipe may call for a lot of ingredients, but once assembled the process is not very difficult. It is as complicated as making a curry and rice. The prunes add a little sweetness to the dish. Feel free to substitute with dried apricots or any other variety of plum. While you browse through the recipe see if you can lay your hands on some Sanna Pakoda, a Sindhi deep fried snack of onions and gram flour to munch.

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Sindhi Biryani (Serves 4) Ingredients

Did you know? Hinduja, the famous Indian industrialist, is a stickler for vegetarian Sindhi food. When he travels, his secretary e-mails his dietary and culinary preferences to the chefs of the hotels he is likely to stay at, so that they can have his favourite vegetarian Sindhi food ready! The Indian Institute of Sindhology, set up in 1989 in Gandhidham in Kutch, acts as a nucleus of art, culture, literature and language of the Sindhi people, boasts of a unique library with rare books, manuscripts and music, and is the only place where a scholar can manage a fully guided PhD in Sindhi.

For the Rice 2 cups basmati rice (soaked in water for at least 1/2 an hour) 1/2 tsp salt 1 bay leaf 1/2 cinnamon stick 1 black cardamom pod 1 tablespoon mint leaf (chopped) For the Gravy 1/2 kg mutton 100 gm potato (cut into large chunks) 1/3 cup oil 1 medium onion (sliced) 1/2 tsp garlic paste 1/2 tsp ginger 100 gm tomato (chopped) 4 to 5 prunes 1 tsp salt 1 tsp red chilli powder 2 cloves 3 green cardamoms 3 pieces black pepper 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 cinnamon sticks 1 black cardamom pod 1 bay leaf 75 gm yoghurt 2 green chillies (slit) 1 tbsp coriander leaves 1 tbsp mint leaves

Method

For the Gravy • Slice the onion and fry it in oil until it is golden brown. Keep aside one quarter of the fried onion.

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• To the remaining three-quarter fried onion, add garlic, ginger, tomatoes, chopped prunes, salt, red chilli powder, cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, cumin seeds, cinnamon, black cardamom pods and bay leaves. (Set aside a bay leaf, a cinnamon stick and a couple of black cardamoms to flavour the rice) • Fry this mixture with a little oil until the tomatoes are tender and the water has nearly evaporated. • Then add meat, yogurt and water (if desired) to this mixture and cook on medium heat until the meat is tender and the water has evaporated. Keep aside. • Parboil the potatoes. • Now, add green chillies, mint, coriander leaves and the half boiled potatoes to the meat. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Your meat curry is done. For the Rice • Boil the rice with salt, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and black cardamom and drain the water when the rice is half done. Assembling the Biryani • Alternately layer the curry with the rice in a pot. Sprinkle fried onions, and chopped mint leaves on top of the last layer. • Close the lid tightly, making sure no steam escapes out of the pot and cook on low heat until the rice is done. • Gently mix it before serving. • Garnish on top with a few prunes. • Serve with yogurt and sliced raw onions.

culturama | september 2012

Look who's in Town benga l uru

Fit & Fine

Charles with his favourite mode of transport - the humble cycle!

American Charles Hayward, Marketing Director of Citrus Ventures, talks about what the city has to offer for fitness enthusiasts AS A US Navy veteran, if there was one thing Charles Hayward sorely missed on moving to India twelve years back, it was the lack of physical activities. “There were no pick-up games of basketball in the park or softball and jogging or cycling was seen as crazy. The only game in town was cricket!” he says. Having lived in Delhi, Coimbatore and now settled in Bengaluru, Charles feels he couldn’t have chosen a better city for him and his family. “I vividly remember Bengaluru as a sleepy large city when compared to my experiences in Delhi and feel in love with the gentle climate and hospitable residents,” he says. And in the process, he has found ways to make the city fitness friendly too! City Options for Expats For most people, finding time to exercise is key and I, like many people, use the early morning hours to exercise. Enrolling in a gym, either one in their complex or a private facility, jogging and my personal favourite, cycling, are the three fitness activities I feel suit most expats. Fitness Tips Don’t be afraid to continue your sport, whether jogging, cycling, soccer or even basketball. Ask around and search the web for groups and venues that cater to your activity, and you will be surprised at the number of like-minded people who like to rock climb! Be flexible

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when taking up a new activity like yoga or venturing off the beaten path with a mountain bike. Experiential Moment I cycle a lot, around the city, commuting and for general exercise. One Saturday, I was riding on the outskirts of Whitefield heading towards Sarjapura. I was about 30 km into an 80 km ride and my tyre punctured. Of course, I hadn’t brought my patch kit, pump or anything but luckily for me I was helped by a generous old man named Sunil, in a village called Kallunkunte Agrahara. The man who may have been nearly 70 years old refused any tip I offered, demanding only 15 rupees. To cut a long story short, the patch didn’t hold and after 5-6 km I was walking my bike down desolate village roads, but I will never forget Sunil's kindness and humility. States Unbound I would ask Indians in the United States to try something new if you can, as the sporting options and infrastructure are generally more accessible. Try baseball; although similar to cricket it is a different game. Or American football because it is kind of the antithesis of Indian character with its violence and aggression and ice hockey, since many Indians have not seen snow in real life and certainly not played on an icy surface.

culturama | september 2012

Look who's in Town de l hi

Capital Cheers

Tina raises her cup for the good times in Delhi at a local expat do

British-Indian Tina Patel Delhi is home to the best of entertainment and she tells us why TALKING to Tina Patel is like talking to a Lonely Planet guide – there is nothing that Tina doesn’t know about Delhi, or even the UK, her home country, for that matter. With information on just about anything, that is well-researched and to the point we might add, Tina exudes the charm of her multi-cultural upbringing – an Indian born in Uganda, Africa, brought up in England, and now living in Delhi for the past six years, working, quite naturally, as a life coach. “Entertainment in the UK is about clubs, movies, restaurants and family get-togethers. One opportunity for me in India now, is that I can easily frequent Champagne Sunday Brunches at the various luxury hotels, which I would not do back home,” she says, before giving us the low-down on what entertainment means in the capital city. Where to go in Delhi Definitely must try the Culture Gully at Kingdom of Dreams in Gurgaon, India’s first 4D live entertainment theatre. Go to the Striker Bar, Shroom and The Blue Frog, all fun and entertaining places with live DJs, and try the Ice Skating and the Bowling Alley at Ambience Mall. Do watch a movie there as well in Gold Class – Lazyboy chairs make

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it worthwhile! I would also recommend the expat event, Melbourne Cup, the annual event organised by ANZA (Australia New Zealand Association). Also visit the Select City Walk Mall, DLF Promenade Mall and DLF Emporio Mall in Vasant Kunj, Khan Market, Sarojini Market, and Lajput Nagar for the fabrics. Where to go in the UK UK entertainment is about clubs, restaurants and shopping malls. You will also find a lot of street entertainers, especially in Covent Garden, Central London. Explore the heritage of UK in her architecture, museums and historic places. Try the array of international cuisine on offer as it is a multi-cultural city. You must go to the Ice Bar. Be open to walking a lot, the best way to explore Central London. A walk from Borough Market along the South Bank, past the London Eye and The River Thames, is a must. Afternoon tea at the Ritz Hotel to unwind, and of course, shopping on Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street! Expat Tips in Delhi Try something new and be experimental. Go by recommendations from expats and locals in the area. The Gurgaon Connection is a great source of information.

culturama | september 2012

Look who's in Town chennai

Fully Booked! Britisher Peter Newbould, Deputy COO, Landmark, gives us a glimpse of India and the written word

“WHEN I landed in Chennai at 4 a.m., my first thought was, god, it is actually very hot and there are thousands of people,” says Peter Newbould with a laugh, obviously referring to Chennai’s sweltering heat and actual crowds a little later in the day. Having arrived in April 2011, Peter loves his job at Landmark, one of Chennai’s best-known book stores, and the city with an equanimity that can only come when you make something your own. “Chennai, I feel, is very different compared to the other metros. People are friendly, hospitable and welcoming. And whatever it might lack in being less cosmopolitan than, say, Bengaluru, it more than makes up for it with its warmth of reception,” he adds, before heading down the aisle of books. Here & There The most obvious difference between the United Kingdom and India is the Indian publishing industry, and the huge readership that is now developing for Indian writing here. There are clearly Indian writers who are global, but also domestic writers who have a huge market in India. As for the bookstore experience itself, and I can speak only for Landmark, I would say we need to move away from merely stocking to promoting and recommending, as recommendation is a powerful way to buy and sell books. Stores to Visit You have to visit all the Landmark stores in Chennai! You have to visit the Apex Plaza as it is the oldest Landmark (it is 25 years old

this year) and shares a certain sense of history with the city. You have to visit Spencer Plaza, because as a mall, Spencer’s is an experience in itself. I believe it was the largest mall in all of Asia when it was built. You have to visit Citi Centre Landmark because the team there is fantastic, and finally, Ampa Mall, as that’s Landmark’s newest store. Books to Read Ashwin Sanghi’s ‘The Rozabal Line’, Amish Tripathi’s ‘The Shiva Trilogy’ and Rashmi Bansal’s ‘I Have A Dream’. Home Reads In the United Kingdom, you will find fewer staff at bookstores. It’s more about self service. You might have to hunt around for yourself to find the book you are looking for. My favourite store is Daunt Books at Marylebone High Street in London. What’s brilliant about them, and I haven’t seen this in any other bookstore, is the way they merchandise travel guides and travel writing, together with books about the country and place. Book Memory I have two favourite bookstore memories. In my first three or four weeks, I went to the Apex Plaza bookstore and overnight, with 20 people, we worked at relaying the store. The store is below ground, there was no air-conditioning, and we literally sweated our way through the whole reshuffle. It was great to have the store so much better the next morning.

Peter stops by the aisle at Ampa Skywalk's Landmark

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events CALENDAR MUMBAI

Stories of Golden Horizons – Art Exhibition September 5 to October 3 | 1100h onwards

Jamaat Art Gallery, National House, Tulloch Road, Apollo Bunder, Mumbai – 400 039. Tel: 022-22820718 Paintings on canvas and sculptures in fibre by artist Vinita Karim will be on display. Cities, strange and beautiful, teeming with life and paradoxes, are a source of inspiration for her. Within the broad strokes and large changes of flyovers and skyscrapers, there are smaller constants that define her work: the details of our lives, the colours of the market, the persistent flow in and out of the city and the rivers.

Gnosis by Akram Khan Dance Company

September 11 | 1900h St. Andrews Auditorium, St. Andrews College Campus, Domnik Road, Off Hill Road, Bandra West, Mumbai – 400 050. Tel: 022-26513224/25 ‘Gnosis’ is a recent creation by Akram Khan, which combines his classical Indian and contemporary dance roots. It pursues the idea of the ‘knowledge within’, an exploration of the inner and outer battles of the human and the godly. For tickets, call 09243777970 or log on to www.indianstage.in

Symphony Orchestra of India – An Indo German Celebration

September 20 to 30 | 1900h Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point, Mumbai. Tel: 022-22824567 The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will present Symphony Orchestra of India’s 13th Celebrity Season, featuring some great German masterworks, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut and the German Chamber of Commerce. For more information, contact NCPA.

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For a slice of culture in Mumbai through Culturama’s pick of events this month

Classical Indian Fusion with Shankar Tucker

September 9| 2100h to 2230h The Blue Frog, Mathuradas Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai – 400 013. Tel: 2261586158, 2265251716, 2265251718. Email: info@bluefrog. co.in, reservations@bluefrog.co.in Shankar Tucker blends classical Indian music, jazz and popular music to create a unique and original fusion sound, both in solo recordings and with some of the most talented and accomplished young Carnatic and Hindustani vocalists and instrumentalists. For more info, visit www.bluefrog.co.in

Wine Dinner at San-Qi

September 15 | 2000h onwards San-Qi, Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai, 114 Dr. E. Moses Road, Worli, Mumbai. Tel: 022-24818000 www.fourseasons.com/mumbai In the heart of the Gigondas appellation, the Château de Saint Cosme is an exceptional estate, with its Gallo-Roman fermentation vats perfectly preserved. Joelle Marty Javelle, the experienced wine maker, takes you through five of their best titles, with a culinary journey designed by Clinton Cooper, Executive Chef at Four Seasons Hotel. Limited seats available.

Exhibition of Indian Arts, Crafts and Textiles

September 4 to 15 | 1030h to 1830h Coomaraswamy Hall (former Prince of Wales Museum), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghrahalaya, M.G. Road, Mumbai – 400 001. Tel: 022-22844484, 022-22844519 Paramparik Karigar was formed to preserve and promote the traditional arts and crafts of India, and to create an environment conducive for the craftsmen to craft their exquisite pieces of art. More info at www.paramparikkarigar. com or call 2265811059.

events CALENDAR DELHI

Delhi Book Fair 2012 September 1 to 9 | 1100h to 2000h (Entry to the Fair will close at 1930h)

Hall Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12A (airconditioned), Pragati Maidan, New Delhi The Delhi Book Fair has come to be recognised as the biggest annual cultural event and book bonanza. The last edition of the Delhi Book Fair attracted over three lakh visitors from India and the overseas. Tickets are priced at Rs. 20 for adults, Rs. 10 for children and Rs. 10 for students. For more info, call 011-23371337 or visit http://www.delhibookfair.in/

The Magic Festival

September 15 to 17 Dilli Haat, Pitampura, New Delhi. Tel: 011-26119055 Be a part of this exciting threeday show that showcases the best of magic! The event will feature more than 30 magicians from India and abroad. There will be several activities conducted at the festival as well.

Epicentre Art Mart IV

September 21 to 23 |1000h to 2130h Epicentre at Apparel House, Sector 44, Gurgaon – 122003. Art Mart IV celebrates Indian art in all its colours and forms. The threeday art extravaganza is a meeting ground for all artists, gallerists, collectors, art connoisseurs, the general public and the media, and will host discussions, workshops, press meets, an art appreciation course, a painting competition for children, and much more. For more details, contact Aditi Chauhan at 9990303802 or 124-2715200/5000

For a slice of culture in Delhi through Culturama’s pick of events this month

Lucky Ali – Live in Concert September 13 | 2000h Hard Rock Café, M 110, Multiplex Building, 1st Floor, DLF Place, Saket District Centre, New Delhi

Meet the man who made simple, ballad-style singing a true sensation. His voice is soulful, leaving an indelible impression ever since he made his debut in 1996. With numerous awards and great hits to his credit, he is certainly one of India’s best singers. For tickets, call +91 09243777970 or visit www.indianstage.com. He sings primarily in Hindi with a few English words thrown in.

Gnosis by Akram Khan Dance Company September 17 | 1900h

Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi ‘Gnosis’ is a recent creation by Akram Khan, which combines his classical Indian and contemporary dance roots. It pursues the idea of the ‘knowledge within’, an exploration of the inner and outer battles of the human and the godly. For tickets, call 09243777970 or log on to www.indianstage.in.

Trek to Beas Kund, Himalayas October 7 to 10

January the Fourteenth, www. januarythefourteenth.com A place of historic significance, Beas Kund is one of the most beautiful places in the Dhauladhar range (literally ‘the white range’) of the mighty Himalayas. This is one of the most popular short treks through the Solang valley and is suitable for people of all age groups. No prior trekking experience is required to join in. Priced at Rs. 7,900 per person, call +91-9711010888 for more details.

culturama | september 2012

events

CALENDAR BENGALURU

Bengaluru International Arts Festival (BIAF)

August 31 to September 16 | 1100h onwards Find the schedule and venues here: www.biaf.co.in The BIAF will bring in a global perspective and in the process create a platform and opportunity for local artistes and guest artistes to interact and perform together. The goal is to provide a unique environment to build bridges between society and the artistes, through a public–private partnership.

Korn – The Path of Totality Tour September 9 | 1600h onwards Clarks Exotica, Swiss Town, Hollywood Junction, Sadahalli Post, Devanahalli Road, Bengaluru

Korn, widely hailed as the pioneers of nu-metal, have won two Grammy awards, sold 35 million records worldwide and are known for continually redefining modern music. Their latest album, ‘The Path of Totality’, is their attempt to change the face of metal music. Korn are headed to India for the first time, on a three-city tour across Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bengaluru to promote their latest album. Book your tickets at www.bookmyshow.com.

50th Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava September 19 to 29 APS College, College Grounds, DVG Road, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru. Tel: 9448457200 Website: http://www.facebook. com/BengaluruGaneshUtsava

The Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava is one of the city’s largest cultural festivals. To celebrate its Golden Jubilee this year, the annual event will focus on Indian culture and the performing arts, through magnificent presentations of music, dance, drama and art by some of the finest artistes in the country. ‘Aromas of Karnataka’ will add richness to the event by bringing together some of the bestknown cuisines from across the state.

culturama | september 2012

For a slice of culture in Bengaluru through Culturama’s pick of events this month

Bengaluru Bazaar by Dastkar Delhi

August 31 to September 9 Palace Grounds, Gayatri Vihar, Near Mekri Circle, Bengaluru To help communities living around the demarcated forest area of the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, the Ranthambore Foundation was formed, and together with Dastkar, a Delhibased NGO involved in promoting artisans across the country, they began to train women in these villages in block printing, tie and dye, leather craft, pottery and more. An exhibition cum sale of their products will be on display. For more info, contact +917462252051.

Weekday Basic Theatre workshop September 18 | 1030h

Yours Truly ALMA, No 1, 17th E Main Road, CMH Road, Bengaluru The hugely successful nineyear-old ‘Yours Truly Theatre Basic Theatre Workshop’ conducted for participants with no prior theatre experience is now open on weekdays. The workshop focuses on experiential learning with an environment that is highly non-judgemental and open. For more details call 9845853093 / 9845243051 or visit www. yourstruly-theatre.com.

Interface – Jagriti Season 2012

September 28 | 2000h Jagriti Theatre, Ramagondanhalli, Varthur Road, Whitefield, Bengaluru. Tel: 080-41248298 Rabindranath Tagore’s ethereal work, ‘Fireflies’ is adapted into a presentation of dance and music. It has been conceptualised by Courtney Sato, a dancer from Hawaii. This will be followed by an international co-production between musician and composer, Mayook Bhaumik, Israeli choreographer Idan Cohen and dancers Ran Ben Dror and Noa Shiloh. For tickets, log on to www.bookmyshow.com.

culturama | september 2012

events CALENDAR CHENNAI

Camera Exhibition

Up to September 10 | 1100h to 1900h Art House India, #41, Kasturi Rangan Road, Alwarpet, Chennai – 600018 Artist AP Shreethar displays his spectacular collection of cameras that number over a 1000 and features the smallest to the biggest camera from the pre-digital era! With a set of unique photographs of film personalities complimenting this collection, it is a treat for camera lovers and the layman alike. The exhibition was inaugurated by legendary cinematographer, PC Sreeram.

Solo Artworks by James Chedburn

Up to September 11 | 1100h onwards Apparao Galleries, # 7, 3rd Street, Wallace Gardens, Nungambakkam, Chennai. Tel: 044-28332226/28330726. Website: www.apparaogalleries.com James Chedburn’s sculptures are a poem of contrasts. He draws in three dimension reducing form to its basic anatomy. Yet his sculptures always exude a sense of fullness and balance. His works link sculptural practice with drawing, as his sketch books are the starting point for his enquiry into form. Mythology, the follies of man, and the animal world inspire him.

Mika Singh – Live in concert

September 9 | 1900h Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Raja Muthiah Road, Periyamet, Chennai Mika is a singer, composer, performer and song writer. His songs, from Bollywood films and his private albums, are repeatedly at the top of the charts. He has sold-out concerts all over the world. He is the brother of Punjabi singer, Daler Mehndi. His songs are in Hindi and Punjabi, and are known for their fast-paced beats. For tickets, contact +91-9243777970 or visit www.indianstage.in.

culturama | september 2012

For a slice of culture in Chennai through Culturama’s pick of events this month

Hyderabad Mumbai Food Festival

Up to September 10 Cream Centre, No 45, College Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai and Cream Centre, # 55, 2nd Main Road, RA Puram, Chennai The taste of two cities on one plate! Hot-spicy biryanis from the land of Nizams (Hyderabad) will meet sweet and sour Chaat from the streets of Mumbai. Savour this delectable adventure. Contact 044-43561777 for reservations.

By Hand, from the Heart

September 7 to 8 | 1100h to 2200h Ispahani Centre, 123&124, High Road, Nungambakkam. Tel: 044-43434848 Chennai’s handmade market is here again with a fantastic mix of handmade, handcrafted, handwoven and homemade products. Wonderful collection of art, craft, home decor, jewellery, accessories, clothes and food! More info at www.facebook. com/byhandfromtheheart.

Kailasa – Featuring Kailash Kher and his band

September 11 | 1900h Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, No. 7, Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai – 31. Ph: 43561198 Are you a fan of Indian music? If yes, then this concert is not to be missed. Kailash Kher, one of the most soulful singers in India, is coming to Chennai to enthrall you with his music. Tickets are priced at Rs. 1500, Rs. 1000, Rs. 750, Rs. 500, and are available at Landmarks Nugambakkam (044-64523150), Citi Centre (044-64523500) and Ampa Skywalk (044-64523101). More details at www.indiavarta.com/ kailasa or call +91-9962890512.

culturama | september 2012

Picture Story

P ra v eena S hi v ram

Culturama’s fiction series continues, capturing the quotidian of everyday life in India through stories behind the ordinary, the mundane, the forgotten and the invisible

Cast in Iron IF IT had been any other day, you wouldn't have given Rani a second glance. She would have been the regular iron-lady – the one who would diligently come every morning and knock on your door to see if there were any clothes her husband could iron for the day – flitting in and out of your life like a housefly; there one minute and gone in the next. But today was different. Today she stood out, like the towering temple spire reaching out to the setting sun. Today, she lived up to her name and almost held the regal aura of a queen walking down a carpet of fresh jasmine flowers. Almost. Because, even if she was wrapped in that glittering sari, in untamed shades of violet and orange, the skin underneath was still hers, and she could feel it aggressively assert itself with every step. She had sneaked out of her house in the middle of the afternoon, while her husband took his 30-minute siesta. That was all the time she had to quickly step into the spectre of a borrowed reality. She could be like Mrs Mehta, couldn’t she? Mrs Mehta the rich (rumours of bank notes stuffed under the mattress thrilled Rani no end); Mrs Mehta the fair, with skin so smooth that even the sun was gentle with her; Mrs Mehta the generous, who gave all her three servants and two gardeners three meals a day, in ceramic plates no less!; Mrs Mehta, her new idol, who shimmered even in the plain cotton saris she wore during the day; Mrs Mehta, who won all their hearts within just six months of moving into the only independent bungalow left on the street where Rani and her husband worked. Her kind eyes and radiant smile caught the sunlight reflected off her diamond nose ring and earrings, creating the effect of a demi-goddess in

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their midst. How Rani worshipped her! Rani had certainly aspired before – dreams of running a tailoring unit in their locality, of moving from their slum to a proper housing society, of being fairer, of being able to speak English, of eating out every month instead of once a year on their anniversary, of going to the movies more often, of the many things that peep out of half open doors in every home she visits – but in the forty years of her life, she hadn’t aspired like this before, where everything seemed so close she could touch it, where if she jumped high enough and stayed in the air long enough, she could reach the ugly head of longing that waited for her. If only she had the courage to take that chance. So when Mrs Mehta sent for her and gave her a sari that was heavy with promise, soft with desire, and sparkling with temptation, Rani succumbed. She decided to wear it once before her husband had to iron it. It was just the magic wand she needed to wish away the dreariness of her life and feel, even if for a moment, the silky splendour of another reality. She desperately wanted to see how she looked, not bit by bit with the little hand mirror they had, but properly, like a lady; she wanted to see a full-length reflection of herself. The afternoon sun was strong, she had another fifteen minutes left, if she could just quickly slip out and walk along the clear glass walls of the department store on the main road behind her house. She went as fast as she could, tripping over the unfamiliar fabric slapping against her clumsy feet, and careful not to break into a sweat. When she reached the store, she was out of breath, more with anxiety than physical fatigue, but one look at her

Photo Bernadette Baars, Denmark

photo ian watkinson, UK

reflection was enough to take the weariness out of her soul. It was as if Rani had temporarily stepped this dimension to allow a new and improved photoout leeofwebb, usa version to take her place. She didn’t care that her dark skin didn’t necessarily complement the vibrant colours of the sari, or that her hair was unkempt, or that her feet and hands were heavily calloused. This one sari seemed to have the power of transforming every sordid detail of her life into a fairy tale with a happy ending. Rani stood rooted, not moving when a little girl stood to stare from the other side. Not even when a familiar face joined the little girl, who was now pointing at Rani. When she did register the face, she felt like an actor cheated who had missed her cue. For a few seconds, Rani couldn’t move, till reality came thundering into her consciousness like a stampede threatening to crush her. She turned around and ran till she reached her house, but for days after that, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being constantly on the run. She felt it when she went in the evening to return the ironed sari and Mrs Mehta didn’t say a word. She felt it when Mrs Mehta continued to use their services, unmindful of Rani’s transgression. She felt it when Mrs Mehta still smiled at Rani when she saw

Photo alejandra montanaro, Italy photo ingrid ritter, UK

her, though the sun in Mrs Mehta’s eyes never seemed to rise again for her. She felt it the day Mrs Mehta gave her a parcel wrapped in brown paper, just like the ones she gave the other servants, to celebrate the silver jubilee of Mehta Industries. When she opened the package she found the same sari she had worn in a fit of insolence inside. As she burst into tears of sheer exhaustion, she heard the gentle click of Mrs Mehta’s door closing.

culturama | september 2012

Thought Leaders team cu lturama

Medicine Man

A finalist at the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2003, S Abhaya Kumar, Managing Director, Shasun Pharmaceuticals Limited, is known in the industry for being a serial entrepreneur, a businessman who has a finger in every pie and manages them all with panache and finesse. DID you know that the world’s largest producer of Ibuprofen (an anti-inflammatory drug) is actually Shasun Pharmaceuticals Limited, a company headquartered in Chennai? And that Indians often stock up on their Advil and Motrin, a popular trademark of Ibuprofen, when on a trip to the United States? “What an irony, right? We sell all the way from here. The world’s entire Zantac, the anti-ulcer drug, comes from our facility,” says S Abhaya Kumar, Managing Director of Shasun Pharmaceuticals Limited, adding with the same nonchalance that his company is now the largest producer of about five different drugs, apart from being the only producer of a new American drug approved only last year. Abhaya Kumar entered the pharmaceutical industry very early. Back then, the Indian export market was still very nascent and India did not have a place in the global arena as a quality manufacturer. “The biggest challenge for Indians to do business with foreigners was availability of foreign exchange. Till 1990, getting foreign exchange even for travel used to require permission from the RBI (Reserve Bank of India). It used to be so difficult to travel abroad,” he says. All that quickly changed as India began to export in a small way in the 1990s, and in the last two decades, Abhaya Kumar has been travelling around the world. The wide exposure and cross-cultural experience he enjoyed early on led to successful forays in the animation industry

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(Director of Imageworks India) and stem-cell banking (cofounder of Lifecell). In fact, it was through his initial interactions that he learnt how to present himself to the world and what India looked like outside her borders. “I learnt that handkerchiefs belong to the left pocket only after a German friend pointed it out to me. It makes sense, especially in cultures like India where you use the right hand to eat. I learnt that some people considered Indians to be unhygienic. And I learnt that you don’t need to wear the most expensive shirt, but your shirt needs to be ironed and clean,” he says. Having worked with different nationalities from across the world, Abhaya Kumar finds resonance with his personal philosophy in the American work culture. “Personally, I am very comfortable dealing with Americans because they like to be honest and straightforward and that is the best way of doing business.” Today, when the entire world is your workspace, it would be natural to credit international business success to understanding of cultural differences and backgrounds. Yet, Abhaya Kumar says, “The major reason is economic benefits. It is a win-win situation. Business relationships are also based on adherence to environment and safety standards of the company. Having said this, however, values like honesty and transparency that are heavily impacted by culture also play an important role.”

culturama | september 2012

Seeing India E l aine W ood

timeless power If you imagine the map of India as an ice-cream cone, Ladakh is the cherry on the top! Set deep within its snow-covered peaks and icy glaciers is the warm heart of the cheerful and goodnatured Ladakhis immersed in spiritual peace and beauty

culturama | september 2012

IS THERE anything worse than a flight that’s delayed for hours and hours? There is. It’s a flight that’s not just delayed, but cancelled with no hope of being rescheduled for two, three, maybe even four or five days. Our flight from Leh was cancelled due to rain. Rain! Ladakh receives only 10 cm of rain a year, unlike the two-and-ahalf metres my daughter and I had left behind in Mumbai. “Will it clear?” I asked Yussuf, our driver. “It never rains in Ladakh,” he answered. His sense of humour, it seemed, was the only dry thing around. “Actually, I don’t think so,” he continued, looking sombre, “The monsoon has got over the mountains.” We were welcomed back to our guest house with a sympathetic laugh and breakfast of piping hot ‘khambir,’ a homemade pita-type pocket bread served with butter and local apricot jam while plans were made for a 15-hour drive across the mountains to Srinagar where there was a plane. If you imagine the map of India as an ice-cream cone, Ladakh is the cherry on the top. It sits in isolation, closed to foreigners until 1974, cut off from the south by hundreds of kilometres of snow-covered peaks and glaciers and from the north by the sniper-lined borders of China and Pakistan. For half the year the land freezes with temperatures dropping to –40ºC, but the Ladakhis are used to extremes. “We work like yaks for six months and we sleep like marmots for the other six,” is the local saying. Cheerful and good-natured, everyone greets tourists with a smiling “Jhullay” (hello). They don’t want to sell you anything and there is no “one pen, one chaclat” from the children. The strong influence of Buddhism accounts for much of the people’s good humour. Buddhism reached Ladakh centuries ago and it must be like how Tibet was before the Chinese took over. The land and the people are immersed in a spiritual peace and beauty handed down through generations. Remote monasteries or gompas (meaning a place of solitude in the local language) dot the high, barren countryside. A typical gompa is built on a steep hill, as if half way to heaven. The terrace looks out over wide valleys where the only sounds disturbing the profound silence are prayer flags snapping in the breeze. Hidden behind heavy doors are huge golden Buddhas and ancient thankas painted in colours glowing with powdered rubies and turquoises. The prayer halls, thick with the smell of incense and centuries of

melted yak butter, are decorated with a riot of energy and colour, a perfect contrast to the browns, greys and purples of the empty landscape. It would take years of study to fully understand the detailed symbolism of the intricate murals. But it’s not too complicated to realise that the buddhas, demons and spirits are a map of the landscape within us all. Wheezing and panting in the thin air, we would climb the hill past row upon row of mani stones and crumbling white stupas to attend the morning devotions. Sitting quietly listening to the guttural chanting, everything seemed very solemn until we realised that several of the monks were watching our reaction to the taste of salted butter tea with benign amusement. It’s an acquired taste! Many tourists visit Ladakh for trekking but we chose rafting on the Indus and a jeep safari. The area boasts of many of the world’s highest: the world’s highest golf course, gas bottling plant, battlefield and polo field. Khardung La, at 5,602 m is the world’s highest motorable mountain pass. The huge army presence ensures that the roads are kept in reasonable condition despite the extremes of weather and landscape. We crossed this pass on our way to the Nubra Valley, which lies on the old Silk Route. The road is alarmingly narrow with numerous hairpin bends above precipitous cliffs but we had total confidence in our driver who dutifully followed the cheerful road safety signs: “Driving with safety means safe tea at home” and “Gentle with my curves, I like it slow” and our favourite, “Be Mr. Late rather than the Late Mr.” As we descended from the snowline into the valley, the sunlight caught the colours of the minerals in the rocks: iron red, deep-purple, copper green. Dry riverbeds cut across the emptiness. In the midst of this desolation, there was a flash of green where a stream of glacial snowmelt irrigated tiny fields of barley and apricot orchards amidst wild roses and lavender. Ladakh belongs to an earlier, unspoilt time. The irony is that in seeking old world charm, silence and simplicity we tourists bring modernity, noise and complexity. Concrete constructions, river banks littered with plastic bottles, winter festivals moved to the summer, the list goes on and on .... But the Ladakhis are famous for their resilience and as part of the former Silk Route, trade and commerce are surely in their blood.

The writer is Australian and has lived in the cities of Chennai and Mumbai for a total of six years. culturama | september 2012

at Global Adjustments

1000s of Entries .. One Exhibition 15th Beautiful India Expatriate

Photo Competition 2012 Global Adjustments is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its Beautiful India annual photo competition for expatriates. It is special for us. And we would like to make it special for you. This year, we will host one mega exhibition in Chennai (where we are headquartered), bringing together entries from all over India. The photo competition is divided into four categories â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Culture and Festivals, Faces, Places and Into India. Marriages could be the theme of the last category, though of course other themes are equally acceptable. Entries, both for the photography competition and from expatriate couples for the ramp walk are welcome from every nook and corner of India. The last date for entries is 3rd November 2012 The theme for our cultural event on the day of the awards ceremony would be Traditions of

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Marriage. The concept seeks to showcase the immense diversity in culture, ethnicity, traditions and beliefs that is part and parcel of this vast country, as well as the strong threads that bind these disparate facets into a homogenous, united entity. A ramp walk based on the wedding costumes of 15 states of India will be one of the highlights of the event. The event will be held at the Hyatt Regency, Chennai, on Sunday, November 18th, 2012. Apart from the ramp walk, the agenda will include an exhibition of entries for the photography competition. Winners will be invited to the prize distribution/ awards ceremony to be held on that day. Expatriates from Chennai will be admitted, by invitation, to the Beer and Brunch Morning.

FlashBack

The Annual Beautiful India Expatriate Photo Competition organised by Global Adjustments is all about photographs. Quite an obvious fact, you might think, but as we enter the 15th year of the competition this year, we realised that it is much more than the entries submitted. It is about winning moments, warm memories and much bonhomie. We present some of those snapshots captured over a decade and a half.

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Global Citizen N ei l M i l l er

Fists of Victory

The recent London Olympic Games were not just about nations competing against each other but also the perfect example for building an effective rapport at the workplace

WHILE watching the opening days of the Olympics, there seemed to be a different feel to the London Games. More of a sense of camaraderie, more of a spirit of athletes competing together instead of nations trying to assert their authority and dominance over each other. At first I thought this could be due to my experiences living in India as an expat, increasing my awareness of the global village. While it might be true, I then zeroed in on something different that was pulling me towards this feeling of harmony and friendly competition ... the fist pump. Not just the fist pump but all sorts of mannerisms that have become associated with success in athletics. The high five, the hug, the tears, the elated screams. As an American, these are the ways that I expect athletes that I connect with to celebrate and act. The difference in this Olympics for me was that everyone was doing it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Chinese, the Russians, the Japanese, and so on. Many of these cultures value keeping a straight face in the light of pressure and not showing these kinds of emotions in a public venue. To other cultures that are more expressive at these events, these athletes come across as cold, robotic, and emotionless. Conversely, those countries that are more stoic view the expressive athletes as arrogant, flamboyant show-offs. This puts up a mutual wall between us and them and makes each one want to beat the others.

At these London Games, there were more images like the one at the top. More and more athletes were adopting similar behaviours and mannerisms. A strange effect of this convergence was that when I watched Sun Yang beat my countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best and then celebrate like this, I didn't feel so far away from him. When I saw him high five and hug his competitors as though they are old friends, I was suddenly less concerned that we missed out on the gold. One skill that we teach in our training programmes is the ability to build a rapport with foreign clients and colleagues. One of the main principles of building a rapport is that people enjoy being around others who are similar to them. When you can talk intelligently about the same topics, dress similarly, and perhaps even learn some of the same body language and mannerisms, you build an invisible connection with the other person that makes them more comfortable around you. So whether it is Olympians competing on a global stage, a remote manager visiting his team, or a young salesman making his first international trip, pay attention to your mannerisms and body language. It may earn you more rapport and connection than you thought.

The writer is Head of Business Strategy for Global Adjustments (GA). He is American and has been living in India for the past two years. For a copy of GAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Training Catalogue featuring all of our courses and modules, contact courses@globaladjustments.com. 54

culturama | september 2012

tamil nadu Let your spirituality soar

Best for August & September: Drive the temple trail along the Cauvery and Vaigai Rivers in Southern Tamil Nadu

milesworth holidays india • srilanka • maldives • and beyond

visit: www.milesworth.com Milesworth Travels & Tours Pvt. Ltd., 39 R M Towers, 108 Chamiers Road, Chennai. Tel: +91-44-24320522 / 24359554 Fax: +91-44-24342668 E-mail: holidays@milesworth.com culturama | september 2012

Rhythmof Life A l arme l Va l l i

Will & Grace

“O Body swayed to music, O Brightening glance! How can we know the Dancer from the Dance?” — W.B.Yeats

Photo Courtesy: From the book, “Tamil Nadu” by renowned photographer Raghubir Singh. Published by D.A.P/Distributed Art Publishers

culturama | august september 20122012

MY FIRST memories of learning Bharatanatyam, when I was barely seven years old, are of being woken up by my mother at the crack of dawn and of going, sleepy eyed, to an old ramshackle classroom, where two great Gurus, Pandanallur Sri. Chokkalingam Pillai and his son Sri. Subbaraya Pillai, conducted dance classes. There, in that hardly aesthetic ambience, they gave me the key to the radiant, magical world of dance. In the hands of lesser Gurus, such a venerated tradition could well have become a strait-jacket. On the other hand, these masters gave me the most precious of gifts – the soundest of foundations in dance grammar and technique and also the freedom to soar and fly – to be my own dancer. Though dance became an integral and vital part of my daily life and I learnt the importance of a meticulous and uncompromising practice routine and discipline, it did not ever figure as a career option. In those early years, Bharatanatyam was still a far cry from the much coveted career it is today. But my life took an unexpected turn, when at sixteen, I had an invitation to perform at the prestigious Theatre de la Ville in Paris. The dates unfortunately clashed with my pre-university exams and I had to choose between the festival and missing a year at college. It was during this year at home that my priorities changed and Bharatanatyam became the central reality of my life. Hindu thought encompasses all the creative arts as expressions of the divine and dance was considered the most beautiful manifestation of the rhythms of the Universe, with the process of evolution powerfully symbolised in the cosmic dance of Siva as the Lord of Dance – Nataraja. It was in the great temples of South India, with the enlightened patronage of kings, that Bharatanatyam, amongst the most ancient of the Indian classical dance forms, flourished, preserved in the temple precincts as sculpture and painting, and nurtured not only as part of the daily rituals of worship but as a means of education through entertainment. During the British rule, however, the Victorian morality was outraged by the vibrant sensuality of the dance and it coloured society’s perception of this art and its practitioners with the taint of immorality. During this dark phase in our cultural history, dancing in temples was banned, leaving the traditional temple dancers or devadasis, in dire straits. We are fortunate though that thanks

to the unremitting efforts of some visionaries, Bharatanatyam was once again restored to its lofty status, making the successful transition from temple to theatre. Today, there is a tendency to relegate contemporary and traditional dance to two opposing ends of the artistic spectrum, with the underlying implication that the latter is a kind of exotic fossil. On the contrary, tradition (Parampara) in Indian thought is perceived as a continuous process of growth and evolution that is rooted in the past, shapes the present and reaches out to the future. The origins of Bharatanatyam go back some thousands of years, but when interpreted by creative dancers, this ancient dance becomes a dynamic, continuously evolving art, contemporary in its scope and appeal. The forms I inherited from my dance and music gurus are but the foundations on which I build structures, both in time and space, drawing from my own contemporary experience of dance, music, literature and life. Over the years, whenever I perform to audiences the world over, their overwhelming response reiterates my conviction that classical dance can transcend linguistic and cultural barriers. With globalization, however, there is an increasing tendency for dancers to focus on the overt and the sensational. But our dance is more than just the sum part of leaps, stretches and lines, infinitely more than mere geometry and breathtaking physicality. Bharatanatyam has distinctly Indian tints, a perfume and flavour all its own, a unique allure, grace and beauty, a rich and intense musicality that can be at once profound and playful, sensuous and delicate. Its magic lies in the interpretation of subtexts, in subtle shades of meaning that are suggested in the turn of the head, the twitch of an eyebrow, the glance of an eye, the flick of a wrist, light and shade in footwork…It would be a great pity if these were lost to us. For me, the greatness of Bharatanatyam lies in its inherent ability to harmonise the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual dimensions of life, giving the dance the power to touch and to communicate at all levels. Being a composite art, it synthesises melody and rhythm, painting and sculpture, poetry and theatre. Ultimately, the dancer is the seeker, whose dance becomes a transcendental, transforming experience – an ecstatic prayer that celebrates the beauty, the wonder and the mystery of life..

The writer is one of India’s leading dancer-choreographers. She is the recipient of two of India’s highest civilian awards – Padma Sri and Padma Bhushan, and the Chevalier of Arts and Lettres from the French Government. For more information, visit www.alarmelvalli.org. Look out for her live performances in India, especially in Chennai in December. culturama | september 2012

Holistic Living E knath E aswaran

Behind the mask In the last issue of Culturama, the second part of Chapter 2 introduced us to the varying concepts of reality and consciousness. Sri Easwaran takes that one step further this month, ending Chapter 2 with a powerful message of oneness behind the mask of human existence

IN THE Bhagavad Gita, we encounter Sri Krishna in virtually all these aspects: as the divine incarnation who is Arjuna’s friend and guide and charioteer; as a form or aspect of God as Vishnu, the sustainer of the universe; and as the impersonal divine essence in all things. But this cosmic form – God as all that is – is not an abstraction to be expressed in poetry. It confers a terrifying vision, for it embraces the entire universe in its eternal cycle of creation and destruction. Sri Krishna: I am time, the destroyer of all; I have come to consume the world. (11:15–32 passim) The supreme reality is all these things, and more and none; it is both formless and has forms, and yet is beyond both; it cannot be limited in any way. It is our human understanding – the state of consciousness with which reality is viewed – that gives apparent form to what is formless. Changing the level of consciousness changes the way we see: it is as simple as that, yet on this simple observation hinge virtually all the insights of the Gita into how to live. In the Gita’s view, then, the world has really two layers – two levels of reality. The first level is what we see around us. This is the surface layer of reality, the skin, so to say. Yet underlying this is a deeper level that is invisible, beyond time and change, beyond the senses yet supporting what Photo beth noute, france

culturama | september 2012

they present to us, from which they draw their reality: the noumenal layer, the “world within the world.” This gives us a criterion for reality: only that is ultimately real which never changes. Anything that goes on changing is never the same, so it cannot be real; to be real, it should be constant always. These levels give a glimpse of our potential as human beings. We can actually move upward – or down – on this scale of reality; we become more real as we move closer to the Atman, our real Self. Life on the surface – living for the moment, living only for ourselves – is unreal because we are constantly changing, pushed and pulled in different directions by our disparate desires. So far as the Gita is concerned, this is the ultimate in unreality. But when, through meditation, we change to a higher level of consciousness and see the same Self in all, we move towards the other end of the scale of reality, marked by men and women like Mahatma Gandhi or Thérèse of Lisieux whose lives endure long after their bodies have fallen away. A Compassionate Universe In a beautiful verse, speaking now as a divine incarnation, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna simply, “There is nothing beyond me.” The entire universe is only one of the manifestations of God. Even if astronomers discover billions of clusters of galaxies beyond the billions already known, they would all be within the realm of Brahman: There is nothing that exists separate from me, Arjuna. The entire universe is suspended from me as my necklace of jewels. (7:7) What then is our place here, tucked away on a small planet orbiting a second-rate sun on the edge of one galaxy among billions? On the physical level, of course, the answer is familiar: we’re not much to write home about. But if we take the Gita’s view, that God has become the world and mind and matter belong to the same field, we get a much loftier view of evolution: the eons-long rise of consciousness from pure energy until the simplest of life-forms emerges and the struggle for increasing self-awareness begins. In the Gita’s view, we can look on life as a play with the world as a stage for learning who we are – moving closer and closer to reality until we realize our identity with the Self. To put it dramatically, the whole cosmos is a setting for us to rise above it and go beyond time, place, and circumstance into the supreme reality that is God. That is what the Gita is trying to convey. We are not petty, separate creatures subject to birth and death; we are sparks from the divine fire from which the universe came billions of years ago. And it’s like the theatre: we are necessary for this play. Without actors and actresses and the audience, there wouldn’t be any theatre at all. We shouldn’t press this image too closely. Life as we know it, with its joys and tragedies, is terribly real. But we are here to learn, and that includes to help. In any situation we can learn to grow, passing from lower levels of reality to the highest. Each of us, the Gita says, contains all of life; in each, as consciousness, is contained the entire universe. The proof comes when we see

Photo Brock Whittaker, Germany

everyone in ourselves and ourselves in all, which is the basis of universal love: This brings the vast cosmology of the Gita back home and down to earth. After all, in a personal sense, we – the observer – are the center of the universe as we experience it. Far from leaving the human being isolated in a pointless existence in a far corner of a lackluster galaxy, we live at home in a compassionate universe that is part of us, with the capacity to live in a way that benefits the rest of life. – End of Chapter 2

Join us every Saturday India Immersion Centre in Chennai facilitates a weekly spiritual fellowship group following Easwaran’s Eight Point Programme of Meditation. E-mail us for more information at globalindian@ globaladjustments.com. If you are in other cities, visit www. easwaran.org for e-satsangs.

Reprinted with permission from Essence of the Bhagavad Gita: A Contemporary Guide to Yoga, Meditation & Indian Philosophy by Eknath Easwaran (Nilgiri Press, 2011). Copyright 2011 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, P.O. Box 256, Tomales, CA 94971, www.easwaran.org. culturama | september 2012

Myth and Mythology D e v dutt P attanaik

Greetings of the Light

In this season of festivals, we asked Devdutt what was the significance of prayer or puja and this is what he had to say

Photo Enric Donate Sanchez, Spain

culturama | september 2012

THE word ‘puja’ probably comes from the word ‘pu’, meaning flowers in Tamil. The generally accepted hypothesis is that the cattle herding nomads, who dominated North India around 1500 BCE (formerly BC), who called themselves the Aryans, preferred invoking divinity through the ritual of yagna where ghee was poured into fire, accompanied by the chanting of hymns, to invoke God. The settled agricultural communities of the Indian subcontinent, conventionally identified as Dravidians, preferred making offerings of flowers and fruit and incense to gods and goddesses. What was older, what was preferred, is not known. But by 500 CE (formerly AD), the yagna practices had died out, mainly because of Buddhist influence, and the puja became the cornerstone of Hindu ritual practices, elaborated greatly in temple texts known as Agamas. The puja-ghar in the house, or the Mandir outside the house, may be a religious structure like a Catholic church, a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque, but its purpose is very different. It is seen not as a prayer room or a meditation room or a gathering room for the faithful; it is seen as the residence of God. God can take residence temporarily in clay images, or permanently in stone images. This emerges from a careful analysis of the ritual called puja. In North India, the temple is often called durbar, the royal court. In the South, it is referred to as the deity’s house. The puja is essentially a choreographed protocol of hospitality to welcome a guest and make him comfortable until it is time to depart. The number of steps varies from six to sixty-four, with the average being sixteen, being fewer at home, elaborate in temples, and most elaborate during festival time. The first step is Avahana, invocation, which involves inviting the deity to arrive and reside in the image of metal or stone in the puja-ghar. During Durga-puja in Bengal or Ganesh-puja in Maharashtra, this is the literal arrival of the clay image into the shrine. This ritual sometimes involves painting the eyes, or uncovering the eyes, of the deity, thereby making the otherwise inanimate form of the deity into an animate form of God. The guest is then offered a seat. The seat is usually designed like a throne and it has to be made special. An umbrella may be placed over the head to shade the guest from the sun and also to indicate his high status. The third step involves washing: the feet, the arms and the legs, maybe a complete bath, the Abhishekha, with milk and water, and oils. Water is given to rinse the mouth and drink. Thus the guest is refreshed fully, been cleansed of the dust that may have covered his body and hair after the long travel. The guest is then given clothes and ornaments, usually made of silk or cotton. The body is anointed with sandal paste and other fragrant unguents. A garland of flowers is placed around the neck, sometimes hanging just over the shoulder, its two ends free. Incense is lit. Then the guest is presented with food or naivedya, which may include fruits, butter, sugar, honey and cooked rice. The last to be offered is the betel leaf

illustration Devdutt Pattanaik

with the areca nut, which is to aid digestion. This is not offered to Shiva as he is a hermit. Finally, it is time for the aarti, the waving of lamps. This is when the deity’s face is highlighted. And everyone bows to the deity. Bhajans are sung praising the appearance and deeds of the guest. Bells are rung, drums beaten, for the sound is said to ensure that the deity’s attention is aroused. This is followed by offerings, almost like petitions being offered to a king, along with gifts of flowers and fruits and incense. A portion is given to the deity and the rest is given back to the devotee. Flowers and food that has been touched by the deity are considered to contain the power of the deity; this is called contagious magic. Sometimes devotees seek the ash and sandal paste of the deity. This is a physical manifestation of the deity’s divine grace. Offerings given to the deity must not be mixed up. What I give, I must receive. What I receive contains grace that is meant for me. What another person receives contains grace meant for him. That is why, when people visit temples, and make offerings, they ensure they pay from their own pocket. If someone else pays, he is promptly repaid. The idea is to keep one’s debts to oneself and not make other people one’s debtors or creditors. Often, the priest who brings the aarti or the offering back to the devotee is paid a small fee; thereby, the middleman is paid off and the transaction of offering in exchange for grace remains between deity and devotee. The deity gets exhausted by the blessings it has to give and so the temple doors are repeatedly shut, giving the deity time to rest and replenish his energy. When the deity wakes up, once again he is bathed, dressed, fed and adored, before it is time for him to be seen, receive offerings and grant grace. The last ritual of puja involves bidding farewell to the deity known as udvasana. Either the deity is put to sleep, symbolised when the doors of the temple are shut, or in the case of clay images, they are dissolved in water, an act known as visarjan, or immersion, a reminder that nothing lasts forever. Everyone has to end. And all that ends comes back the next day, or next year, with a new invocation.

The writer is the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, and a writer and illustrator of several books on Indian mythology.

culturama | september 2012

Child Friendly

Pallanguzhi

Through the Lens THROUGHOUT my life, I have travelled across the world and have visited places I can’t even pronounce. My experiences internationally have been quite fascinating: from zorbing in New Zealand to scuba-diving in the Maldives to kayaking on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, my home. It’s been a blast. It wasn’t until I came to India that I saw an extraordinarily different way of life. I found many things quite frenetic and overwhelming, like the crazy traffic, street vendors on the sidewalks, the colourful streets, the variety of amazing food, crowds everywhere I turned … the list goes on. After a year in Chennai, I thought it would be a great time to start learning about photography. I took a year-long photography course and thought it was so cool. It became a hobby. Since then, I have taken thousands of photographs of India and its people. I found India so diverse in its culture and landscape from region to region … it felt like 10 different countries in one! There are festivals celebrating every aspect of life … and the number of deities is astonishing! What I enjoy most is capturing the cultural life of India. To me, it’s more appealing than the landscape. It’s what makes India ‘Incredible’, giving photography enthusiasts like me a myriad of opportunities to capture the essence of what India is all about. Since the start of my interest in photography, I’ve been keen to learn more and more about the elements and principles of taking stunning pictures. I found that the most effective way to fully understand how to take a good photograph is to switch from using a digital camera to a film camera. This helped me understand exposure, aperture, f-stops, different modes, and so on. Well, at least, it gave me a strong basis to help me understand the digital world even better. The writer is 16 years old and son of a Canadian diplomat.

culturama | september 2012

PALLANGUZHI (pa-lan-gu-zhi) is a traditional South Indian board game played on a wooden plank with fourteen pits (two rows and seven columns). The game uses shells or seeds as counters. Here’s how you play the game: Fill up the pits on your side of the board with twelve, six or four counters each. Pick up counters from any pit on your side and drop one counter in every successive pit in a counterclockwise direction. When you drop the last counter in a pit, pick up counters from the next pit and continue the round. When you reach an empty pit, skip that pit, and the counters following the empty pit are “captured” by you as part of your “store”. Continue the game by picking up counters from the following pit. Your round ends when the last counter is followed by two empty pits and the next player continues in a similar fashion. After having dropped a counter, if a pit contains four seeds, those seeds go into the “store” of the player who dropped the seed. The first round is over when no seeds remain. Players will then have to take the counters from their store and fill up as many of the pits on their side with twelve, six or four counters. Surplus counters remain in the store, and unfilled pits are marked as “rubbish holes”. Play continues as before, without the rubbish holes being included. During the game, if a player has enough seeds to fill any of their rubbish holes, they are again used during play. The game is over when a player is unable to fill any pits at the end of a round.

Photo courtesy: Karthick Ramalingam, India (www.flickr.com/karthick)

Christopher Wedick

SEPTEMBER

Festival of the Month

Ganesh Chathurthi

GANESH Chathurthi, also known as Vinayak Chaturthi, is one of the most important Hindu festivals. It is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed God of prosperity and new beginnings. Ranging from anywhere between one to eleven days of festivity, there are colourful processions of various sized idols on the streets and these are all then traditionally immersed in water. As a run-up to the festival, many Ganesha clay idols, priced from Rs. 25 upwards, will be on display in temporary street stalls. You could buy a colourful paper umbrella along with it and decorate the idol at home, something like a Christmas tree. Offering food, such as placing an apple or a banana in front of the deity, pleases Him and all obstacles are removed from your home. The set up, display and food start on September 19, and three, five, seven or ten days later, you immerse the idol into the ocean or a lake or any other water body, as a reminder that everything in life is temporary and cyclical. Where to buy Chennai: Mumbai: Delhi: Bengaluru:

the idols South Mada Street, Mylapore Matunga Market Dilli Haat, Cottage Industries Emporium - Janpath Jayanagar, Malleshwaram, Rajajinagar, JP Nagar

Where to see Chennai: Mumbai: Delhi: Bengaluru:

the display Venkatnarayana Road, T Nagar Shivaji Park Dilli Haat, Cottage Industries Emporium - Janpath Jayanagar, Malleshwaram, Rajajinagar, JP Nagar

Where to immerse the idols Chennai: Marina Beach Mumbai: Chowpatty Beach Delhi: Yamuna River Bengaluru: Lalbagh, Ulsoor Lake, Madivala Lake and Sankey Tank Where to eat traditional sweets For modaks (kozhakattai in South India) or peda (milk sweet) head to: Chennai: Grand Sweets, Gangotree, Suriya Sweets and Shree Mithai Mumbai: Brijwasi, Chandu Halwai Wala, D. Damodar, Haiko Market - Powai Delhi: Haldiram, Bikanerwala Bengaluru: Anand Bhavan, Arya Bhava, KC Das, Kanthi Sweets, Krishna Sweets What to chant "Ganapathy Bapa Moriya!" Learn the song at http://www.savetubevideo. com/?v=VU5TDdyMsZw

Also this month: September 1-15: September 2: September 5:

Ladakh Festival Aranmula Snake Boat Race, Kerala Teacher's Day

culturama | september 2012

Postcards from India

Day Break

colour in austerity

THIS photograph was taken in a village called Hodka in Kutch, in the north-western state of Gujarat. The village is situated at the edge of the great salt desert – Rann of Kutch. Much like the rest of the country, what appealed to me the most was the suffusion of colour all around. I thought their traditional dresses and jewellery were very pretty, and the embroidery work on the traditional attire worn by the ladies was beautiful. Coupled with their friendly and welcoming demeanour, it redefined my perception of the dry, arid landscape. For it might be a desert, but it certainly doesn’t lack colour, be it literally or metaphorically!

culturama | september 2012

MY HUSBAND and I were visiting Udaipur and we were touring the famous city palace. It was a fairly hot day, and this was after lunch. We came upon this scene upstairs in the palace, and for a moment, I just enjoyed watching the two guards taking a brief break. I tried to imagine what they were talking about – their boss, the weather, their families, or the latest cricket match? Clearly they were enjoying each other’s company and this spot was a good one for not only resting, but looking out over the city. With them smiling and framed in the window, it seemed like a small vignette of life in Udaipur.

iseries

What is it about? At the heart of the story is the quirky, irreverently funny Imelda Mendes, also called Em, who is suicidal when in the throes of bipolar disorder. Her husband, Augustine, also called the big Hoom, is the bulwark of the family. The children – Susan and the narrator son, who stays largely unnamed – are given free access to their beloved Em’s letters and diaries wherein we discover more of her story. Somewhere in the midst of Em’s flurry of words and the big Hoom’s quiet presence, we sense the deep love and regard they have for each other. Who is it by? Jerry Pinto is a poet, writer and journalist and has edited several anthologies of essays and poems. He is especially known for his pieces on Bollywood and his book, Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, that studies the roles played by Bollywood actor Helen to draw a study of morality and sexuality, particularly in the 1960s, as perceived in Indian cinema and society. Why should I read it? This defining account of mental illness in a family is written with such lucidity, humour and great affection that it could only come from a deeply personal space.

i see

Album Traveller by Anoushka Shankar

Book Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

What is it about? Traveller traces the route of ancient Indian gypsies from Punjab and Rajasthan in India to Andalusia in Spain. It attempts to find synergies between Spanish Flamenco and Indian folk and classical music traditions, while also highlighting the distinctiveness of these genres. Who is it by? Anoushka Shankar is a composer and Sitar player, who has followed in the footsteps of her father, the internationally acclaimed composer and musician, Pandit Ravi Shankar. Why should I listen to it? The compositions place the Sitar instrument in the midst of the Flamenco structure, accompanied by the sounds of palmas, cajon, ghatam, tabla and vocals from both traditions. The title track is a celebration of the two percussive traditions, with the Sitar and the Shehnai providing a melodic thread through the composition. In the feisty Buleria con Ricardo, the Sitar and the piano represent the sounds of the East and West, accompanied by the palmas (a hand-clapping typical to Flamenco). Boy meets Girl is a delightful melding of the Flamenco Granaina and the Hindustani Raaga Maanj Khamaj.

What is it about? An unemployed youth (Kamal Haasan) comes across a room key of the luxurious Hotel Pushpak in the pocket of an inebriated millionaire. The youth assumes the millionaires’s identity and moves into the lavish suite of Hotel Pushpak. He also falls in love with a magician’s daughter staying at the hotel. Meanwhile, a hitman fails repeatedly in his attempts to kill the youth. The youth realises that the real target is the millionnaire and decides to set things right. Who is it by? Pushpak was a reinterpretation of the silent film genre written and directed by the renowned South Indian film director, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. Why should I watch it? Pushpak is a black comedy that, in the absence of dialogue, deftly uses background music and symbols to convey meaning. The Pushpak Hotel with its winged halo logo is an allegory for the lavish life on board the Pushpak, a mythological flying machine mentioned in the Ramayana. In 1988, Pushpak won the Golden Lotus among the National Awards for the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

i hear

i read

S aritha R ao

Film Pushpak (Silent film, 1987)

Visit www.flipkart.com to buy the book, movie or CD featured in this column. culturama | september 2012

Tell us your Story

The ouse Whisperer We are evaluating options between a service apartment and a hotel. As we have a pet dog that we are bringing along, what would you recommend? – British relocating to Delhi In India, most service apartments and hotels do not have facilities for hosting a pet within their premises. There are service apartments and hotels, however, which facilitate temporary accommodation for pets on request, a practice most prevalent in all major cities of India. We are happy to share this list with you. In addition, we recommend that you research your pet’s compatibility with the local weather, food and living conditions, before relocating with your pet to India.

Anita Krishnaswamy, President of Global Adjustments and relocation expert, will answer all those niggling questions you might have on housing and realty in India. Anita comes with many years of experience of working with expat clients across the major metros in India to help them find their perfect home. She can be reached at anita@ globaladjustments.com

Do most houses/apartments come with a servant’s quarters (extra rooms) or do we need to use one of the bedrooms for live-in servants? – French tenant in Chennai To answer this question, we need a little background on Indian community living. Live-in servants and helpers always have separate accommodation, which would include a small room and restroom (Indian-style water closet) facilities separate from the main household. In fact, in ancient times, entrances and paths for servants and helpers were also separate. This tradition, however, is no more in practice. With major cities in India expanding, apartment living, gated communities and row houses have become more prevalent. Therefore, separate servant’s quarters with complete facilities in each apartment are not a common feature. The alternative is to provide common rest areas and restroom facilities for helpers and servants within the apartment block. In large bungalows and houses, which are still common in Chennai, Delhi and parts of Bengaluru, separate servant’s quarters do exist, but these are few and far between. Having given this background, if you have a room to spare, you could give one to a live-in servant, though no Indian family ever does this, so be aware your Indian friends will consider it strange, and the household help may not get this treatment after you leave. Alternately, you could do as the Indians do, where the staff use one of the bedroom toilets and bath, but might use the living or dining area for bedding down at night. Nannies are known to bed down in the children’s room on a rollout ‘chattai’ or mattress. Our advice, however, would be to refrain from hiring a live-in servant.

culturama | september 2012

Space & The City

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Owners, list your property with us for MNC clients. Renters and buyers, we are your one-stop shop for all real estate needs.

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For the above sample and many more such properties call 91 124 435 4236/9811111759 or email: del@globaladjustments.com Please note that any changes to the information above are done at the property owner’s sole discretion. Global Adjustments assumes no responsibility for such changes.

culturama | september 2012

Global Adjustments Easing your passage to and from India

Owners, list your property with us for MNC clients. Renters and buyers, we are your one-stop shop for all real estate needs.

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• 4,000 sq.ft. • 3 bedrooms + family room • Luxuriously furnished • Lovely pool and garden

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For more such properties, call Global Adjustments at 91 44 24617902/9551695968 (Chennai), or e-mail: realty@globaladjustments.com Please note that any changes to the information above are done at the property owner’s sole discretion. Global Adjustments assumes no responsibility for such changes.

culturama | september 2012

RNI NO.TNENG/2010/32752

culturama | september 2012

REGISTERED No. TN/CC(S) Dn./396/10-12