More in Indian Culture
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Beautiful Lohri Song in Punjabi
A beautiful Lohri song by Harbhajan Singh and Jaspinder Narula.
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Why are Indians prudish?
Someone asked this question on Quora in this way: The older codes of Indian law define the following six categories of children (sons) and their legal inheritance rights, excluding adoptions:...
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The Odd One Out – A liberal’s life in an orthodox society!
By Guest Blogger, Meera Imagine a girl who heads to the pooja room every day right after bath to pray; one who wouldn’t dare to go to her orthodox cousin’s...
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The Greatest Indian Dance Performance of this Century
Indian Marriages are a world unto themselves. The behavior is typical and interesting. Bride and Groom are accidental diversions. People actually go to live a fantasy. Many things are common...
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Oprah’s Indian Fascination and Discussion on India as an “Exotic Interest”
Oprah Winfrey went to the Jaipur Literary Fest and had something interesting to share about her experience in India. As interesting as it is, I wish India wasn’t addressed as...
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Jay Leno’s Mitt Romney Joke on Sikhs Golden Temple “not cool”!
American Entertainers are funny but many are pretty darn stupid. In this video, on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, Jay Leno – in an attempt to look funny and...
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Kolkatta Couple Lose their kids to Norwegian “Liberalism”
Scandinavian countries are known to be liberal societies. Well “liberal” is a relative word. In Indian homes you cannot have a meal without eating with your hands. And it is...
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Walmartization of Andaman Tribals by Tourists and Evangelists
India’s tribal people, even those who are at the risk of going extinct, are under threat from Tourists and Evangelists. Throughout history, mindless tourists – seeking exotic joy – and...
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Menaka redux: Rakhi falls for Ramdev
Sometimes it takes a mindless “Savant” to turn a Swami into a “hot dude”.
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Calcutta Chronicles
The long, meandering line of lights blinks, burns and finally stands still at a cross-road.
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Arranged Marriages: Not the way Americans think they are
In my discussions with Americans, I have been asked many times about the practice of finding a partner amongst the Indians.
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Palika Bazaar: A Delhi landmark in Decay
If you have grown up in Delhi in the 70s and 80s, Palika Bazaar would have been one place that you would have surely not missed.
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Symbolic Festivities – Do they make you think?
We celebrate so many festivals throughout the year. some don’t make sense to me, and some… well make me ponder. But this festival makes me feel sad. It’s Dussehra.
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How Indians think?
How do Indians think? As vast and as diverse our nation is, it is nevertheless interesting to get a feel of its pulse.
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ABP Ananda Utsav 2010, Pasadena, USA: A perspective
There is something about Bengali cultural programs in the US. They are my dad’s way of remembering good times of yester years, not mine. There is something else too.
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Man, Woman and the Marriages in Indian context
Recently, I have seen a spate of failed marriages in India and amongst Indians abroad.
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The Chai Story
My day begins with a cup of tea; well actually it begins with the ritual of fixing that perfect cuppa. Out come the tea set and the tea-cosy.
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Why Are YOU In Your Marriage?
Indian Marriages, all over the world, are seen with so much awe.
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Live In Relationships – An Indian Woman’s Perspective
In the last few years, education for the girl child was widely promoted by social and religious groups and also Indian government, in terms of financial assistance, and the result is there in front of
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Bhaai
The first thing I asked when I saw him was, Maa, is bhai a boy or a girl? I was disappointed that he didn’t look like a doll I was expecting. He was thin, gangly and cried all the time.
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Raavana Is In My Soul
I wrote this some time back :
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Ardhanareshwar, Urdu and Masala Chai
Ardhanareshwar (translated as “Half- Man-Woman”) is a unique way to describe the creation and its parts.
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East vs West: Myths that Mystify
A very well done speech and sequence of thoughts. Worth listening to again and again!
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Lost Civilization before us
There is a small possibility that the current civilization can face a complete destruction or annihilation either from a great deluge due to global warming or earth quake, or a nuclear war or even by
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Happy Lohri and its significance
Every year today, in Punjab Lohri is celebrated. Those, who are from Punjab, this is a special occasion when people light bonfires and dance and make merry.
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Love vs Culture and Culture of Love
Pramod Muthalik, of Sri Rama Sene, a Hindu organization has recently been in news for the wrong reasons. He and his men were involved in beating up boys, and specifically girls for going to pub. And if that was not enough, now he and his goons are threatening to hit at the you who are going to celebrate the Valentine’s Day.
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Cultural interaction in India
There was a lot of reaction on my piece on Raj Thackeray and may felt the Biharis will decimate their culture. Here are my thoughts:
Since our independence, North Indians – specifically the Allahabad crowd ruled India. South Indians and the others were almost not welcome.
And majority of this crowd was either with lawyers background or elitist.
Even the business was North based for the most part.
Over the years this has changed.
One of the things that has changed all this is Knowledge economy. Suddenly the education oriented culture of the SOuth had a way to assert itself. Now, instead of SOuth Indians going to north for jobs and becoming the butt of jokes.. the reverse happened.
This is a natural process.
In the last 2-3 decades, a lot has happened because of this migration – for one the lines of demarcation are weaker between the North and South.
I have many friends who are married to SOuth Indians. And the intermingling has helped everybody.
In my personal view, it is a FITTING reply to Max Mueller for his Nonsensical Aryan Invasion theory! What he hoped to achieve with those theories, our generation will annul with a simple tool.. economic migration!
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40% marriages in Mumbai end up in divorce!
Is there something going wrong with Indian marriages? Well, new data and study shows that ~40% of all marriages in Mumbai and Thane are ending up in courts! Pressures of modern day life? Probably.
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Languages and Culture
There are very few blogs across the world, where you see people writing something “original” – something that THEY have researched and come up with. Here is a blogger – Blokesablogin (Meenakshi?) – who discusses the relationship between the languages and culture/civilization. She goes on to look at how Sankrit is different in its structure from English and how it paves way for the world view that people have? A must read!
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Chanakya Cinema passes into history
A whole generation of movie goers have grown up in Delhi watching Hollywood and good Bollywood movies in South Delhi’s Chanakya theater.
This 1076 seat hall with an annual attendance of 850,000 and a turnover of Rs 15 million, started off in 1970 with “Mera Naam Joker” and the screening of the 9-45 p.m. show of “Taare Zameen Par” at Chanakya cinema here on night of December 27, 2007 marked the end of the journey for this cinema hall which marked high of good cinema. The father and son Rajesh and Aditya Khanna have been running this hall since 1970.
The decision to close and vacate the place comes due to a Supreme Court judgment paving the way for the New Delhi Municipal Council to raze the theatre complex and build a multiplex-cum-mall on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis.
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Now, Carnatic Idol – Music reality show in Carnatic Music
After the fantastic success of Indian Idol (finals got 20 million votes) and Saregamapa (finals got 100 million votes) – now, there is a Carnatic Idol – called Carnatic Idol 2007 on Carnatica. It being held on a experimental basis but next year even the Indian living in the US and Canada will be targeted. Here are the details:
Criteria for participation: anybody who has learnt Carnatic music for a minimum of five years with a repertoire of at least 30 kritis, who can sing alapana, neraval and kalpana swaras (vocal and instrumental) and who have the ability to play solo and accompaniment, can participate in the contest. Besides, there is no age limit.
Submission results: The best will be selected for live rounds to be held on the October 27 and 28.
Finals: The finals will be held at Narada Gana Sabha on November 10 in front of the panel of eminent judges. There will also be public polling.
Jury consists of eminent personalities such as T N Krishnan, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, R K Srikantan, N Ramani, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, S R Janakiraman, T V Gopalakrishnan, R Vedavalli, Guruvayur Dorai, Srimushnam Raja Rao and Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam, to name a few.
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Reasons for decline of Bengal
After reading many things on Netaji (Subhash Chandra Bose) and Swami Vivekananda – the two intellectual giants of their own field (and many other!), I constantly wonder at the society which bred such minds!
Bengal has been an eventful place to say the least. Bengalis have the distinction of the highest number of Nobel prizes within India – two. There could have been many others but unfortunately they did not happen – JB Bose and Satyen Bose would be my two candidates. In any case, Bengal had been the hotbed of intellectuals who acted!
If one goes to the Bengal of today – one cannot believe what I am saying would be true. Act part is gone. Only pseudo-intellectual curiosities are left and utter decline in life is clearly visible!
Once the most industrial state in India, Bengal has been shunned by the Industry in the last two decades.
There was a time when Bengal was great. That created a pride in the superiority in the inhabitants. Now the greatness is all but absent – at least in the scenes on the ground. The pride remains. And that is ever more damning.
What is responsible for the decline of Bengal? What has changed the Bengali youth from the first row kid in the Indian theater to the last row loser of the new vibrant and economically upcoming India?
Anyone wants to share their thoughts?
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The 10 Best places to eat in India: Ajit Chaudhuri
One of the alumni of IRMA – my senior from IRMA, Ajit Chaudhuri – wrote this wonderful article on the 10 best places to eat in India. I thought I would share it with the Drishtikone readers. He has graciously allowed me to share it on this blog. Ajit writes his blog at "Kaalu on the Road"
Can you please share your candidates for YOUR best places to eat in India – whichever city it may be – in the comments area for other readers?
To the genuine foodie, there is one and only one criteria by which to judge a restaurant – the food! Whether the Maitre Dei welcomes you in French, whether the waitresses are topless, whether the décor is resplendent, whether the wine cellar is well stocked, whether the view is splendid – these are all irrelevant! The service matters to the extent that it adds to the eating – the rotis need to arrive hot and on time, as do the second (and third) servings.
What follows is my take on the ten best places to eat in this country. I have eaten in each and every one of them many times, and over years, and can personally vouch for consistent excellence. I write this in the chronological order of my familiarity with the restaurant (and not in any order of merit). The list does tend to leave out some fantastic places that I have eaten in only once – may be the subject of another list another time.1. Bukhara – Maurya Sheraton – Delhi
This restaurant is famous! It is in a 5-star hotel, and is expensive. You cannot book a table in advance here – you have to hang around outside and wait for a table to be free – and this takes time, it is always full. And you have to be careful – the place attracts the well-dressed sort of crooks that steal handbags, laptops and whatnot (an attempt was made on my wife’s handbag once – maybe a one off, maybe not). But – the food is worth having to enter a snotty hotel you would not normally be seen dead in, worth the dollops of money you would have to pay, and worth the hanging around with Delhi’s hoi polloi outside the restaurant with your hands on your belongings. The cuisine is from the Northwest Frontier, and the Sikandari Raan, the kebabs and the Dal Makhni makes you think that perfection does exist. I am unable to eat here too often, the leanness of my wallet being the major constraint, and haven’t for some time. But if I get an opportunity (please read as ‘someone willing to take me’) I would jump at it.