:::The Desi Flavor:::

Exploring 150 years of Anglo-Sikh Heritage

The UK Punjab Heritage Association has launched a major new on-line exhibition exploring 150 years of the Anglo-Sikh relationship. Empire, Faith and Kinship online exhibition explores eight key events, from the rise of the Sikh kingdom of Lahore in 1801 to the settling of the Sikh Diaspora in Britain in the 20th century.

Related:
: Sikhs and the British Empire

: Trail of Anglo-Sikh Heritage around London

: From Sikh Encyclopaedia on the Anglo-Sikh relations

: Sikhs in Britain - The Making of a Community by Gurharpal Singh / Darsham Singh Tatla. Book examines the complex complex Anglo-Sikh relationship that led to the initial Sikh settlement and the processes of community-building around Sikh institutions such as gurdwaras. It explores the nature of British Sikh society.

: The Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photographs by Peter Bance. "Peter Bance's new and fascinating book is a lavishly illustrated portrayal of the social history of the Sikhs in Britain and their contribution to British society. He captures their struggles and successes through the stories of individuals; from early Sikh immigrants and labourers brought over on colonial ships by wealthy nabobs to travelling salesmen at the turn of the century, from rich visiting maharajahs to the modern Sikhs of today"

Late blooming a national trend?

More and more urban Indian women are turning to fertility treatments:

Hrishikesh Pai, gynaecologist and infertility specialist at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, and Batra Hospital, Delhi, agrees, having seen a 30 per cent annual increase in the number of patients coming for IVF.

There is a realisation now that late motherhood or even infertility is not a stigma. As Imogen Edwards-Jones, who wrote The Stork Club, chronicling her battle to conceive with IVF, said in The Guardian: “Until recently, fertility treatment was barely discussed, like some embarrassing secret that one was incapable of having a baby. Many people on IVF still keep it a secret because they feel they have failed, and to be seen to fail, and to do it so obviously, is not part of our culture. Neither is waiting—today, if you want it, you buy it, but with IVF, you need enormous patience.”

Fighting for Identity

Ethnic Indians in Malaysia demand for a fair share of the nation's wealth:

Malaysian Tamils, descendants of 19th-century indentured labourers from Tamil Nadu, last showed their anger in 1941 when thousands of rubber plantation workers downed their tools in the district of Klang, some 30 km east of the capital Kuala Lumpur, to protest against hardship and low wages.

Now nearly seven decades later, an estimated 20,000 Tamils protested in a big way again on November 25, condemning official discrimination, inhumane treatment and demanding a fair share of the nation’s wealth. “Official discrimination and neglect has severely marginalised us,” says Uthayakumar Ponnusamy, a lawyer and the man behind the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), the organiser of the protest.

BBC turns to Bollywood for CGI series

"BBC is set to launch a £10m animated series featuring musicians Jamelia and Justin Hawkins that has been made in India. Freefonix is being coproduced by the BBC and indie Cinnamon Entertainment, which has effectively outsourced the animation to Trivandrum in Kerala.

The series has been written by Magnus Fiennes, brother of actors Ralph and Joseph, and is set 50 years in the future in the city of Los Bosmos.

It features three exceptional musicians from different sides of the tracks who come together to form a band called Freefonix. Together, they must safeguard the most powerful force in the universe - the 13th note - from the 'forces of evil'. Source - Broadcast Now

links for 9th April 07

• Farm suicides are a rise in India as a result of "free market" reforms
• Reality TV hunt for students - A reality TV show is to give Indian students a chance to compete for five scholarships to British universities, worth up to £45,000 each, with the winners taking up their places this autumn.
• India to host Formula 1 in 2009?
• Business Week cover story on The Mittals
• Coins from the Mughal era found in Rajasthan – "These items of historical value were then handed over to the archaeological department, which brought them to Jaipur for detailed study. According to experts, the coins were in circulation during 12th to 15th century AD. "These coins are dotted with Arabic script. They will undergo chemical treatment after which the inscriptions on the coins would be easily visible," an archaeology department official said"
• Asian women flying to Pakistan for discount plastic surgery – "A growing number of well-educated, British-born Asian women in their 20s are combining annual visits to relatives in Pakistan with cut-price, nip-and-tuck operations. Ambarina Hasan, the health and beauty editor of Asian Woman and Asian Bride magazines, said the growth could be linked to a career-oriented lifestyle in which Asian women had higher levels of disposable income and were getting married later. Bollywood actresses, the icons of beauty on the sub-continent, are becoming more like sex symbols in the West, she said"

Mumbai Traffic Police become media & tech savvy

From MeFi:

The Traffic Police of Mumbai (formerly Bombay, India), one of the most densely populated and traffic-ridden cities in the world, are becoming media savvy. They post billboards, answer traffic complaints sent via sms and have even started a scare campaign against drunk driving that places bloody drink coasters in bars. They are definitely taking their jobs seriously. And so far, some Mumbaikars seem pretty happy with their work.

Tumeric good for keeping away Alzheimer ’s disease?

From Alzheimer's Notes:

Did you know that Alzheimer's Disease is less common in India than any other part of the world?

Some researchers think that this is because of the everyday use of the spice Turmeric. Tumeric is a powerful antioxident which also has anti-inflammatory powers.

Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine have been using it for centuries to treat inflammatory disorders. But it is only in recent years that scientists have been studying it's effects on the brain.

Resources:

- Tumeric Shows Promise in Treatment of Alzheimer's
- Popular Curry Spice is a Brain Booster
- Out of the Spice Box, into the Lab
- Chemical found in Curry may help immune system clear amyloid plaques found in Alzheimer's Disease

 

links for 8th April 07

• Barbers are in demand in Punjab as Young Sikhs abandon long hair in favor of Bollywood type haircuts – "Alarmed by the trend, Sikhism's leading religious group, the SGPC, has declared the April 13 harvest festival of Baisakhi as International Sikh Turban Day. In addition, two turban-tying schools have been founded in Sikhism's holiest city of Amritsar, and a competition to select "Mr Singh International", is expected to attract widespread participation.

  Every region in Punjab has its own distinct style of tying a turban, with each claiming theirs to be the best, and Mr Singh contestants are to be judged on how stylishly their headgear is tied."

   

• Why Indian Entrpreneurs succeed in US? – Business Week profiles two Indian immigrants on why Indian Entrepreneurs ard doing really well in the US.

  "One-quarter of the U.S. publicly traded, venture capital-backed companies started in the past 15 years were founded by immigrant entrepreneurs, according to American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness, a 2006 national survey commissioned by the National Venture Capital Assn. The current market capitalization of these firms exceeds $500 billion, and they employ more than 220,000 people in the U.S. and 400,000 internationally. Immigrants have had the greatest impact in the fields of IT, life sciences, and particularly in the high-tech manufacturing sector, where 40% of publicly traded, venture-backed firms operating in the U.S. today were founded by immigrants. "

   

• Killing female fetuses in the womb is becoming more of a problem in Punjab, India. "In the last one year in [Dhanduha village], against 12 boys only three girls were born, and in the last five years, 34 baby boys were born as against only 18 girls. A sex ratio of just 529:1000!" (via 3qd)

   

• The recent Abel prices goes to Srinivasa Varadhan US mathematician of Indian origin for his work on probabilities

   

• Made in India: Contemporary Art in India - John Elliot explores the rise of contemporary art in India driven by new wealth and talks to some key collectors. "Alka Pande, an art historian and curator of the Habitat Visual Arts Centre (HVAC) in New Delhi, says that domestic sales are being driven by younger members of big business families at the top end, followed by young company executives working for multi-national corporations who spend up to £24,000 on a single picture, and by others in India's booming software industry. Unlike earlier generations, these professionals have their own money to spare in their 30s, without having to rely on their parents' largesse."

   

• Banning sex education in Madhya Pradesh – "India Daily reports on children being denied sex education, because, well, apparently it's too graphic. "The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to ban the sex education provided under the adolescent education program in its present form in the schools."

   

• Grand Designs in Delhi – "Mughal tombs converted into palatial mansions, lighthouses built in city gardens and pavilions floating on water. William Dalrymple explores the eccentric architectural legacy of colonial Delhi"

BAFTA Awards for Bradford Riots director

From Asians in Media – "Writer and director Neil Biswas has been nominated for a Bafta award, it was revealed last week, for his drama Bradford Riots.The feature length programme, broadcast on Channel 4 last year, recreated the events of 2001 through the eyes of British Pakistani youths involved in the riots."

Related:

: In depth coverage of the riots from the BBC

: Wikipedia on Bradford Riot

: Channel 4 site on the Bradford Riots     

Localised Archie comics for India

Iconic US comic-strip hero Archie is all set to go desi and woo sweethearts Veronica and Betty in Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Bengali, playing cricket instead of baseball and driving a Tata vehicle instead of a Ford.

the company planned to localise stories and use local brand names, holiday spots and festivals in the story-line. "We will integrate Indian holidays or festivals in the stories and plan to use familiar Indian brands. For example, Archie can drive a Tata instead of a Ford; Veronica can wear a saree," Herman said.

The company is also set to publish the comics locally instead of importing them from the US. "Localisation will make the comics very cheap in India, maybe below Rs 25 against the current price of around Rs 80," he said.

The company has also signed an agreement with music and home entertainment major Sa Re Ga Ma, which will distribute Archie DVDs from the middle of this year.

An Indian Influence

From Yorkshire Post:

"A BOLD use of colour and striking designs are trademarks of the stunning glass Kate Jones produces with her partner.

But she says a brief but intense immersion in Indian culture has swept away her "English reserve" to make their new pieces the most colourful and elaborate yet. When the artist and her partner, Stephen Gillies, started making glass together more than a decade ago, they worked in black and white.  Now a new cross-cultural relationship has resulted in large, intricately-patterned bowls after a trip to India."
Source: Gillies Jones Glass

Cyberworship

Interesting piece on how the Internet is enabling Indian people to offer prayers through Saranam.com a site based on Chennai that sells Hindu rituals and products. (via Washington Post). The site is set up by Mahesh Mohnan and for a fee ranging from $4-£300 Indians can perform virtual complex religious ceremonies in any temple in the country. :

Balaji, a Hindu priest, stood before the reclining god and offered a plate of coconut and bananas. His chest bare and his face adorned with red and yellow sacred paste, he set the food at the foot of a statue that Hindus regard as an embodiment of the powerful god Vishnu.

Following ancient tradition deep inside one of India's oldest and holiest temples, he chanted Vishnu's names 108 times to beseech health, wealth and good fortune -- not for himself, but for an Indian emigrant living in London who had purchased the prayer with her credit card on a Hindu Web site.

"If you wish to make an offering, the god will accept it -- even if it's on the Internet," said Balaji, standing barefoot in the hot sand of the South Indian temple compound.

The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web sites to pray, meditate and gather in "virtual" houses of worship graphically designed to look like the real thing. Some sites offer rites from baptism to confession to conversion to Judaism."

Related:

: BBC on "India's youth hit the web to worship"

: IndiaGames introduces Ganesha Aarti on your mobile

: Dial a Prayer

How India developed the space station

Interesting brief post on How India developed the space station (via !dea):

In the early 1960’s …India was slowly awakening to the Space age….Although rest of the world was preparing to reach for the Moon…we were making our humble beginning…a small rocket took off from Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, announcing the birth of the modern space age in India. That was when the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) formally came into existence. Over the years, TERLS have given birth to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)…

Related:
: The History of India in Space

: History of Indian Space Program

: Wikipedia entry on Indian Space Research Organisation

India to market female condoms

The Tamil Nadu central government, in collaboration with the Hindustan Latex and the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) began a nationwide initiative in October to provide female condoms at just Rs.3 to NGOs working with female sex workers.

“It is for the first time that a government (the Tamil Nadu government) is supporting such a pilot project,” TANSACS project director Supriya Sahu told IANS.

“We are looking at the reproductive rights of women directly. Most women do not have this right to choose. This is a HIV-AIDS prevention tool under a woman’s control,” she said. “For the first time, a woman will have a preventive tool in her own hand.”

“We will monitor and make public our findings on acceptability, usage and efficacy by April in a report,” said Sahu. TANSACS will also reach female condoms to another 800,000 women through self-help groups, she added.

Indian police to wear fragrance to fight crime

Indian police smell pretty. Police in an Indian province are airing a new strategy for crime fighting and community relations: "Police in India’s Western state of Gujarat are to wear new uniforms impregnated with the fragrance of flowers and citrus to help improve their image." via MeFi

"The Inheritance of Loss" wins Book Critics Circle Award

"Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss," a narrative of global discovery and displacement that has already won the Man Booker Prize, received another literary honor - Thee National Book Critics Circle fiction award" - Source: Washington Post

Related:
: NY Times Book Review

ALTHOUGH it focuses on the fate of a few powerless individuals, Kiran Desai's extraordinary new novel manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence. Despite being set in the mid-1980's, it seems the best kind of post-9/11 novel.

"The Inheritance of Loss" opens with a teenage Indian girl, an orphan called Sai, living with her Cambridge-educated Anglophile grandfather, a retired judge, in the town of Kalimpong on the Indian side of the Himalayas. Sai is romantically involved with her math tutor, Gyan, the descendant of a Nepali Gurkha mercenary, but he eventually recoils from her obvious privilege and falls in with a group of ethnic Nepalese insurgents. In a parallel narrative, we are shown the life of Biju, the son of Sai's grandfather's cook, who belongs to the "shadow class" of illegal immigrants in New York and spends much of his time dodging the authorities, moving from one ill-paid job to another.

: Wikipedia Entry

Kal Penn Interview

From Mefi:

Filmiholic interviews Kal Penn. The interview begins with a discussion of his new film the Namesake, but covers a lot of interesting topics. There is an also an interview with Jhumpa Lahiri, who wrote the book the Namesake is based on.

Related: The Namesake' Redeems Kal Penn:

In "The Namesake" actor Kal Penn goes from a disturbingly unfunny comedic presence to a solid dramatic one. It isn't a perfect performance, but this isn't a perfect film. "Namesake" is rough around the edges, but radiates a poignancy that's impossible to shake.

Stepping into an arranged marriage, Ashima (Bollywood superstar Tabu) follows her husband Ashoke (Irfan Kahn) from India to New York City, where she's overwhelmed by the loss of traditions and cultural personality, clinging to her husband for guidance and love. From their marriage comes baby Gogol (Kal Penn), who grows up caught between the heritage of his family and the fast lane of life in America. When tragedy snaps Gogol to attention, he searches his complicated life to discover what's most important to him and his family.

Other:
: Namesake is a classic immigrant saga

: Kal Penn: Hot, sexy and Indian-American

Mughal Emperor's Koran found in India

From BBC:

Police in the Indian city of Bangalore have seized a copy of the Koran they believe may have belonged to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb over 300 years ago.

The book was discovered after a raid on a hotel in the city. Police arrested a man who was trying to sell it and an antique painting for more than $1m.

The gold-embroidered Koran, written in Persian, has more than 1,000 pages. Experts are checking if a signature on the back belongs to Aurangzeb, who ruled India from 1658 to 1707.

Bangalore police have sent the Koran to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to see if its experts can verify how old the book is and if markings found on it were made by the emperor.

Bollywood only theatre in Spain

Maldakistan becomes the first theater in Spain to show only Bollywood movies. Barcelona plays host to a cosmopolitan population, including 3,500 folk of Hindi and 13,000 of Pakistani extraction. Most live in El Raval, the neighborhood, where the Maldakistan is located. But owner Kishnani has his sights set on a wider audience than that.

"We are counting on (attracting) not only Hindi and Pakistani audiences but also Catalan and African people, who are very fond of this type of cinema," he told Daily Variety.

All movies will have Spanish subtitles.

How many bidi's are smoked?

According to this site

> More than 700 Trillion BEEDIES or BIRI are smoked annually

>  Indians smoke more than one trillion bidis every year

>  An experienced worker can roll 2,000 a day.

Via MetaFilter

Related: : Wikipedia Entry on Bidis : Are bidis are more dangerous than cigarettes? : Bidis Fact sheet from CDC

Discover your roots programme - Fiji

As part of the Discover your Roots programme, the Indian Tourist Office will start promoting spiritual pilgrimage and Bollywood in Fiji, where Indian origin people constitute almost half the population.

Related:
: Indians in Fiji

Indian manuscripts online

From Cronaca:

The [Indian] government has created an online database of 1.8 million ancient texts to promote them as treasures of the country and to preserve millions of neglected manuscripts. . .

On the occasion of its fourth anniversary, the [National Mission for Manuscripts] has planned a host of events, including the launch of the database for which a software was developed. The National Electronic Catalogue of Manuscripts, Kritisampada provides information of individual manuscripts, manuscript collections and printed catalogues.

It will be available to the public, in both Hindi and English, and they could search on the basis of title, author, script, language, subject and material.

The database may be found here.  Previous post on the manuscript mission here.

Swastika Ban Debated

From  Hindus Oppose  for Swastika Ban in Europe:

Hindus in Europe are stood together to oppose Germany’s calls for a law in European Union to ban the display of Nazi symbols. Nazi symbol is actually stolen by Hitler, the actual name of this symbol is Swastika, which according to Hindus stands for peace and not for hate. Germany has recently taken the presidency of European Union and it has been told that it has planned to launch an initiative which could lead to common laws all over in Europe to apply it as a crime if someone denies the genocide and displays Nazi symbols.

From Cronaca:

Hindus in Europe have joined forces against a German proposal to ban the display of the swastika across the European Union, a Hindu leader said. Ramesh Kallidai of the Hindu Forum of Britain said the swastika had been a symbol of peace for thousands of years before the Nazis adopted it. He said a ban on the symbol would discriminate against Hindus. Germany, holder of the EU presidency, wants to make Holocaust denial and the display of Nazi symbols a crime. . . The swastika is already banned in Germany. A previous attempt to ban it across the EU in early 2005 failed after objections from several governments, including the British.

From the BBC. The debate over the last ban attempt had also encompassed the proposal to include Communist symbols as well.

Nike Cricket Ad

Nike's first ever cricket ad based on the concept of "Gutsy Cricket". Definitely worth watching!!!!! Background score is a Konkani song.  Here is an interview with the ad creative team lead by Dhunji Wadia and Rajesh Gangwani.

Firefly - A Fairy Tale by Ritu Beri

 

Celebrated fashion designer Ritu Beri recently completed writing her first book titled Firefly: A Fairytale. The book deals with topics like architecture, history, women and their beauty. It also talks about her experiences in Paris which were important in shaping her career. The book’s price tag is Rs. 100K will be sold in Paris at the new Louis Vuitton flagship store and through Beri's own store. That's some price tag!!!
Related - French applause at Ritu Beri's fashion show

What a glamorous wedding!

From Metafilter:

70 private cars, 50 000 kilos of flowers, 3000 candles, 65 000 yards of fabric. Those are just a few of the figures from the wedding of New York playboy and (wait for it) hotel heir Vikram Chatwal to model Priya Sachdev. Last year, Lakshmi Mittal (the world's third-richest man, according to Forbes) spent over $60 million for his daughter Vanisha's wedding.  What kind of wedding does $60 million buy?  A song-and-dance by Aishwarya Rai, among other Bollywood luminaries; ceremonies at the Tuileries and Versailles; and top chefs and designers at your beck and call. In 2004, the Sahara Group's Subrata Roy built three mock palaces on the edge of a lake in Uttar Pradesh; his sons' double wedding had 11 000 guests.  Mr. Roy's company paid for the weddings of 101 couples (numbers ending in '1' are considered auspicious) who couldn't afford to get married, and also fed 140 000 poor people across the country (all as part of the festivities). All of this sound like idle gossip? The wedding business is huge in India; it's a $10bn business (and growing at 25% annually), and the demand for gold wedding jewelry, according to analysts, "helped lift the metal's price to a 25-year high last month." Appliance retailers offer discounts during weddings season; there are personal loans available for weddings; and there's even an entire mall devoted to weddings. As the Christian Science Monitor notes, the minimum a middle-class Indian family will spend on a wedding is $34 000. (The average American wedding? $26 327.) And who makes up the Indian middle class? "Those making $4,545 to $23,000 a year." More on Indian wedding traditions here.

 

Bollywood News

: From Observer – “India's glossy and glamorous movie industry wants to capture the mass audiences of Europe and the US - and is seeking investors”

 

: Bollywood gets sensitive to disability

 

: Bollywood bringing India and Australia together

 

: Deepa Mehta interview on her latest film – Water. The movie won the best film award at the Bangkok International Film Festival last month and portrays the trials and tribulations of widows in the 1930s.

 

: Catholic Church goes Bollywood with new film on AIDS in India

 

: South African Tourism (SAT) appoints Anil Kapoor as the global brand ambassador for South Africa.

 

: Outsourcing Hollywood animation to India with recent blockbusters including Shrek 2, Spiderman 2 and The Chronicles of Narnia benefiting from Indian based animators and visual effects specialists

 

: Bollywood crazy Poles heading to India – “There is an increasing craze among Polish youngsters for Indian films and songs, which can be seen and heard on television and radio. A growing number of Indian companies too are investing in the Polish economy or scouting for opportunities.”

 

: Indian designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla designed hand-embroidered aquamarine sherwani, a long formal coat dress, for Judi Dench. This is the fourth time she wore one of their creations on the Oscars red carpet.

 

: 'Bollywood Reservoir Dogs' to be filmed in Harrow

 

: Portugal’s biggest film festival kicks off with Bollywood in focus featuring films like Devdas, Deewar and others.

Festivals in India

Interesting site about forthcoming festivals in  India. Worth a read!

The Asana Index

From Metafilter:

The Asana Index. There are literally 1000s of asana variations in Hatha Yoga. We are attempting to collect the most descriptive pictures of these asanas from all over the Internet, published materials, and individual donations, listing them in an alphabetical index.

Black Noise Project - Countering Street Harassment

Blank Noise Project calls for a blog-a-thon to build testimonials and opinions on the issue of street harassment of women in India. (Via Global Voices Online)

 

Cartoon Theme parks planned for Delhi

India’s first ever American style themed parks are to be constructed in Delhi. At a cost of 5.5bn rupees (£70m), the two parks in Delhi will be based around children's channels Cartoon Network and Pogo, which are operated by Turner International.

Turner's operations in India contribute 10% of the company's revenues, with 26m homes receiving its Cartoon Network channel. The country's children appear to have an insatiable appetite for US characters, a sign, say some, of the Americanisation of the country. Sales from distributing cartoons alone are rising at more than 20% a year.

"Family entertainment centres", as they are dubbed by economists, are a fast-growing business in India, with sales doubling every year.

Analysts say that for companies such as Turner the centres are a way of selling cartoons beyond the screen: encouraging children to spend their parents' money on branded clothes and games in the "sealed" environment of a theme park.

Source: Yabadabadoo: cartoon theme parks planned for Delhi

Smoking ban to hit UK shisha clubs

Smoking ban will hit shisha clubs - The UK government has released plans for a partial smoking ban effecting clubs and pubs that serve food.

Such a ban would hit Asian club owners. In particular, shisha club owners, who took advantage of sudden demand from Asian teenagers in the past couple of years. It will hit Muslims worst of all because they use shisha as alternative to drinking alcohol which is forbidden in Islam. And it will ruin the cultural appeal of Asian and Arab areas of Britain.

The partial smoking ban is not in practice as yet, though Spain became the first EU country this year to ban smoking in public places - restaurants, community centers, shopping malls.

Ancient temple discovered after Tsunami

From Cronaca (via BBC):

Archaeologists say they have discovered the site of an ancient temple in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

It is the latest in a series of archaeological discoveries in the area struck by December's tsunami, which desilted large areas of the coastline.

The brick temple dates back more than 2,000 years to the late Tamil Sangam period and was discovered on the beachfront near Saluvankuppam, just north of a famous World Heritage site at Mahabalipuram. . .

"The Pallava structure was destroyed by waves some time in the 13th Century and evidence suggests that beneath it, we are looking at the remains of a brick temple that was destroyed by a tsunami approximately 2,200 years ago," said Badrinarayanan S, a retired director of the Geological Survey of India.

East Meets West, and Art Emerges

From ArtsJournal - "Natvar Bhavsar is a world-renowned painter from India whose huge, colourful canvases hang in more than 1,000 private corporate collections and museums, including the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York." But it took a while for the Western world to warm up to the American educated Bhavsar's work, which lean heavily on traditional Indian techniques blended with American abstract expressionism. These days, however, Bhavsar is one of New York's most respected living artists, and his professional journey serves as a perfect allegory for the city's legendary diversity."

Related:

: Artnet profile of Natvar Bhavsar's work

Kapoor Named to Tate Board

Sculptor Anish Kapoor has been chosen to replace Chris Ofili as one of three working artists on the Tate board of directors. Kapoor, who was born in India, is one of Great Britain's leading young sculptors.

He fills a vacancy created when Ofili - whose Upper Room was controversially purchased by the Tate in March - came to the scheduled end of his reign there last month. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is in charge of re-appointments, is believed to have chosen Kapoor from a shortlist of two given to him earlier in the year.

Related:

: Profile of Anish Kapoor on Wikipedia

: The Royal Academy of Arts profile of Anish Kapoor -

Kapoor’s first solo exhibition was held at Patrice Alexandre, Paris in 1980. His international reputation was quickly established, with a string of one-man shows being held annually in countries throughout the world, including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy and Spain. He represented Britain, along with Stephen Farthing and Bill Woodrow, in the Paris Biennale in 1982, and again in 1990 at the Venice Biennale, for which he was awarded Premio Duemila. The following year he won the Turner Prize Award. Kapoor’s work has also been included in many key international group exhibitions since 1974.

: Anish Kapoor: Drawings, forthcoming book coming out in March 06. Other recent books include - Anish Kapoor: Whiteout, Anish Kapoor: My Red Homeland.

E-Marriage in India

Thanks to Matrimony sites like Bharatmatrimony and Shaadi.com, Indian parents are using the Internet to find a bride, match horoscopes and target their requirements. Here is a scoop from The Economist:

Online marriage-broking is one of the successes of Indian e-business, used by the single looking for “love matches” as well as by their parents and siblings. So complex are the requirements of Indians seeking a partner that the internet might have been designed to meet their needs. Bharatmatrimony's boss, Janakiram Murugavel, says that language is the biggest criterion. His site is divided into 15 linguistic sections. Then comes status and caste, which divides Indians at birth into thousands of groups. About 70% of his customers want to marry within their caste. Most still also use astrology. Bharatmatrimony offers an online horoscope service.

Bollywood News

: Film Festival of India in Israel (FFII) kicks off this week in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The festival organized by the Indian Embassy and the cinematheques, runs from January 5-18 and will present eight recent Indian films, three of which have just been released. This will be a treat for Israeli’s since Indian films are a rarity for them.

: The Hindustan Times on nudity in Bollywood and India

: Bollywood music targeting India’s Generation X

: Black in Time’s Top 10 Films of 2005

: Bollywood set to embrace digital cinema – “About five local film distribution companies are in the process of converting about 1,000 movie halls or screens throughout the country say industry sources, and in the next "three to four years close to 4,000 movie halls would be converted for screening through the computer-based projection system" involving an investment of nearly $2 billion.”

: Book on “The Kapoors” of Bollywood – “The book is a comprehensive compilation of the life of legendary actor Prithviraj Kapoor and his family. It begins with Prithviraj and his unyielding passion for cinema that brought him all the way from Peshawar to Mumbai in 1928 with just 100 Rs. in his pocket.”

: Promoting Bollywood film with McDonalds – “Mahesh Manjrekar has tied up with McDonalds to create a retail partnership for his forthcoming entertainer ‘Vaah! Life Ho To Aisi’. This is the first time that the world renowned food chain McDonalds has tied up with Hindi cinema in India. The tie-up lends itself naturally to the target audience of kids of all ages and their family. We are planning to have promos of the film being played out in every television sets in the McDonald outlets. Besides the film merchandise like CDs, Music Cassettes, T-shirts, Labels, School Books and paper bags will be distributed with the film branding. Additionally a Mcdelivery contest will be held with the contest form branding the film too”

: Bollywood Goes Global

: Lenovo to piggyback on Bollywood by sponsoring movies to create awareness about its brand and logo – “The company has tied up with director Madhur Bhandarkar to sponsor his forthcoming movie Corporate, where actress Bipasha Basu will be seen endorsing Lenovo's product portfolio, said Mr Rahul Agarwal, General Manager, Marketing, Lenovo (India) Pvt Ltd.”

Indian Cricket Team - Top Sports Brand?

From Guardian:

Sponsorship of the India shirt brings in $27.12million a year - outstripping even the Brazil football deal with Nike ($16million a year) and top clubs Juventus ($22.2m), Chelsea ($17.5m) and Manchester United ($16.8m). The BCCI have completed several major deals in recent weeks, with bidders clambering to be associated with their brand. The biggest is with Air Sahara for $70m over four years.

It is estimated Indian cricket generates £90m a year overall.

A Pakistani Festival Of Change

Sufi’s Choice - In Pakistan, dancing was banned for many years, and some clerics would like to do the same to music. A new festival is changing things. (via ArtsJournal)

For Lahore, the 10-day festival was a huge, at times startling cultural event. The music ranged from pop to classical but the finest show was the pure Sufi night. Festival president Faizaan Peerzada runs an event that aims to transform Pakistani life. By promoting Sufi music he hopes to 'counter the extremism of the mullahs who use the mosques to spread ill-will against the west'.

The Economist on India

Here are some interesting articles ran by The Economist on India in 2005: 

: Deepa Mehta's “Water” - An Indian film stars at the world's biggest festival of Asian film

: Saving India's tigers - Can tigers and people co-exist?

: Indian property  - Why foreigners are so keen on India's property market

: Microcredit in India - More loans for India's poor

: Vijay Mallya, India's high-flying liquor king - Can he repeat his success in the drinks market in the air?

: India's posh poachers - Police hunt an endangered species

: Ismail Merchant, film producer - As handsome as the Bollywood idols he sometimes cast in his pictures, he could sweet-talk a budget out of the hardest financial hearts

: Private equity in India - Is India big enough for the industry's heavyweights?

Bollywood related news

: From BoingBoing – Bollywood film posters as t-shirts. Also check out this piece on Custom-painted Bollywood posters

: Bollywood fashion goes global with actor Sunil Shetty and producer Prakash Khubchandani launching a chain of Bollywood inspired designer wear.

: Pakistan Culture Minister not keen on screening Bollywood films. However despite the ban, Bollywood movies are crazy in Pakistan

: Metrosexual Indian stars are rocking ad world, with Shah Rukh Khan shedding his macho image to endorse a women’s beauty shop. I wonder if Jose Mourinho with his aggressive brand image, endorse female products. Bollywood stars are promoting more brands as the brand image of Indian cricketers diminish.

: Bollywood, Mr. Bean battle in Afghanistan – “In the city that spawned Afghanistan's Taliban, music and TV were crimes punishable by beatings and jail just a few years ago. Now, India's Bollywood and its raunchy song and dance numbers and wet saris compete with Mr. Bean and women's wrestling in the Sadat music and film market, a chaotic cacophony of sound where it's always night inside and it's always packed.”

: BBC on the real Shah Rukh Khan

: Asha Bhosle teams up with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet to produce a valentine to the music of Bollywood, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R. D. Burman's Bollywood by Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle

: Austrian Airlines woos Bollywood - European airline major Austrian Airlines group is negotiating with Bollywood production houses for transporting film crew at international shooting locations and launched direct services from Mumbai to Vienna

: Indian & American film makers fighting piracy, with Bollywood pressing authorities to create a separate police and judicial system to enforce existing copyright laws, because even though some offenders are caught, India's judicial system moves too slowly to be effective.

: Bollywood is being used to create fitness classes in a bid to entice more Asian women into the gym. The hour-long sessions are similar to traditional aerobics but use music and moves from Indian films. Trained dancer Aanika Chopra, from New Delhi, will take beginners through their paces at classes in Birmingham, Coventry and Leamington Spa.

Competing with foreign music channels

Pakistan Music Channels competing with foreign music channels - Globalization has enabled Pakistani’s to lose interest in local channels because of the glitz and glamour of the foreign media. Viewers prefer Indian music, soaps, films and Hollywood movies, thus resulting in local channels being relegated to the background.  Inspite of all that, the local music channels like Indus Music, The Musik and G Channels are able to match up with foreign music channels, because of their witty, educated presenters and colorful sets.

Foreign Universities targets Indian students

What forces hundreds of Indian students to go abroad and seek higher education? Abi of nanopolitan on what could be achieved for a similar amount in India, and an estimate of what education is a student-funded research university would cost. [Global Voices Online]

 

 

The New Heroes

The New Heroes is a PBS series hosted by Robert Redford on social entrepreneurs, who are making the world a better place. On their website you can watch a clip of two Indian social entrepreneurs - Inderjit Khurana and Dr. V:

Inderjit Khurana - Teachers Teach Poor Children at Train Stations (wmv)

India is home to nearly half a billion children, many of whom live in extreme poverty. The Indian government has not been able to find a way to educate children who spend their days begging, stealing and selling their bodies to survive. Inderjit Khurana, a teacher in a town 300 miles south of Calcutta, noticed that the children of the slums spend their days begging on the train platforms, rather than going to school. So she decided that if the children couldn’t come to school, she’d bring the school to them. With teachers to guide and care for them, the children develop hope for their future. Because the government refuses to help her, Khurana has to rely on charitable donations to raise the $12,000 a year that funds all 12 schools she now operates.

Dr. V and David Green - Affordable Eye Surgery Prevents Blindness in India (wmv) 

Southern India has one of the highest rates in the world of unnecessary blindness caused by cataracts. And, as a saying in that desperately poor region goes, “the blind man is a mouth without hands.” Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, an eye surgeon better known as Dr. V, founded a hospital specializing in cataract surgery based on a combination of Eastern spiritualism and Western capitalism. A young American businessman named David Green who met Dr. V realized that the high cost of buying lenses from commercial manufacturers – at $300 a piece – was limiting the number of patients the doctor could assist. Surmounting tremendous obstacles, Green built a factory right next to Dr. V’s hospital, where he manufactures lenses for $1 each and sells them for $4. Today, every two paying patients enable Dr. V to do four surgeries for free.

 

You can help social entrepreneurs around the world by making a donation and sign up for the House Party DVD.

Arranged marriages for Indian Americans

[NYM] Anita Jain - A Modern Indian Woman's Struggle with Arranged Marriage - A look at arranged marriages for Indian Americans. 

Indian Modern - Michael Freeman

India Modern reveals in the latest Indian style and highlights how Indian design has become a fascinating mixture of local styles and modern interpretations. With over 250 unpublished color photographs by the renowned photographer Michael Freeman, this book will show the modern side of India that has not been seen before. Michael specializes in travel, architecture, and Asian art. He has been the principal photographer for the Smithsonian magazine and has been working for Life Books, Reader’s Digest, and the BBC. He has worked as a photographer or writer on over 30 books, including Oriental Style, Savouring India and Japan Modern.  Michael will be launching his book at the Indian High Commission, London on the 14th October, 7.00pm.

Related:
: Reviews of the book - Akademika & Asiannouveau

Offering village life for Tourists

India has a new tourist attraction on offer – The Villages. The India's tourism minister is repacking the villages as exotic destinations where tourists can enjoy rural pursuits such as drawing well water and churning butter. 

Although tourism has boomed, with 3.4 million visiting India last year, few visit the villages, where water, electricity and roads are considered luxuries. Under new plans, tourists in 50 carefully selected villages can live in the heat and dust for a couple of weeks learning local art, crafts and customs. The minister described it as a "return to the roots" experience far from the grand palaces and Raj extravagance that the country has sold for decades.

The more adventurous tourists can sample the army camps of Kashmir, a state that has been wracked by an insurgency since 1989 and where more than 80,000 people have died. A peace process with Pakistan has seen violence fall slightly, and domestic tourists have returned. "We can have the army open adventure camps for youngsters where they [will] live as the army does, look at historic sites and go trekking," Ms Chowdhury said.

Add a yoga or a bollywood bhangra aerobics class whilst you are at it.

ITC e-Choupal wins global award

 ITC has won the prestigious Development Gateway Award 2005 for its trailblazing ITC e-Choupal initiative that has achieved the scale of a movement in rural India, becoming the first Indian company and the second in the world to win the $100,000 award. A company release said ITC e-Choupal won the award for its contribution to development priorities like poverty reduction, its scale and replicability, sustainability and transparency.

Last year, Grameen Bank-Village Phone won the Award (then known as the Petersberg Prize) for helping women entrepreneurs start small businesses providing wireless phone service in rural areas of Bangladesh.

The Development Gateway Award 2005 is sponsored by T-Systems, of Germany. The Development Gateway Forum 2005 has been co-h osted by the Government of China, Development Gateway and the World Bank.

Other Indian award finalists included:

Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT): For empowering Indian farmers, traders, and government through accurate and timely information for effective decision-making. With smart cards and online access to text and video information, the “E-Agricultural Marketing” system run by MAP_IT benefits 6 million farmers and 70,000 licensed traders.

Related:

: Amy Waldman on e-Choupal

: Serving the World's Poor, Profitably by Prof. C.K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond

: The ITC eChoupal Initiative - HBS Case study by Prof. David Upton and Prof. Virginia Fuller.

NRI floats $250 million fund for India

From Rediff:

American entrepreneur Raj Vakharia has announced the launch of a private equity fund, which will invest $250 million worth of United States institutional capital into India's booming real estate market.

The former assistant state treasurer of New Jersey -- who has worked in senior positions on Wall Street and is presently the co-chairman of Uni-Mart, a former American stock exchange company and the nation's 30th largest store chain with sales in excess of $550 million annually -said the fund will aggressively capitalize on the rapid growth and opportunity in India's real estate market.

The fund will invest in a broad range of commercial and residential real estate, including hospitals, educational institutions, single-tenant properties, retail real estate, apartments and infrastructure. It will target its investment into high-growth markets throughout India like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Delhi. 

Vancouver Goes Bollywood

Vancouver Goes Bollywood - British Columbia has been luring Hollywood films to shoot in the province for years. Now the Canadians are going after Bollywood movies. The attraction? Same as for Hollywood. Great tax breaks and beautiful scenery. One of the first films is directed at Indian audiences, and probably not suited to the tastes of mainstream Western moviegoers.

This is not really a satire of Indians living abroad. I wanted there to be a certain reality to the film, which will set it apart from many Bollywood films. But I didn't want it to be an ethnic comedy in the same way that 'Bend It Like Beckham' or 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' are.