Making of an Apple Orchard House
When my father said he wanted to build a house in the orchards, I was surprised. What’s wrong with this one I said? We already had an orchard house. Though the house was a bit unplanned- with no attached toilets or modular kitchen, it was still beautiful. It was in the middle of our apple orchards . It was glazed on three sides and had a spacious lounging area around it. The kitchen was the old pahari-style, complete with a chulla where we burnt firewood to warm our hands and sometimes cook. The house had a huge gable with a spacious living room below it and an attic with splendid views of the apple orchard valley.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the Art of Living it Up.
I am amused by the irony of a man who claims to own nothing, zipping by in a gleaming Mercedes while those who can actually afford one, bumping along the Delhi – Agra highway in the less than comfortable bus. I try to ask the followers about this but I am scoffed at for my `ignorance’. ” You will never understand the ways of our Guru”, they concluded.
Hazrat Nizamuddin and its Monuments
Nizamuddin’s shrine like most sufi shrines attracts not only muslims but a fair share of christians, hindus and sikhs as well. Coupled with its tradition of music Sufi shrines such as Nizamuddin are also on the radar of fanatics who feel music is against Islam.
Anglo Arabic School- Delhi’s Oldest Educational Institute
Anglo Arabic School is the oldest educational intuitions in Delhi and one of the oldest in India. It was established in the 1690’s by Ghaziuddin Khan the deccan commander and general of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. It opened as a madrasa and took the name of its founder. Despite it ancient pedigree , it was as recent as 2002 when the very bureaucratic Archeological Survey of India declared it as a heritage monument.
More a Stud than Slut Walk
But the girls did not oblige. The organisers of Slut Walk Delhi- a motley group of college students, had made it clear. This was India so no revealing outfits. The Slut Walk Delhi was christened Besharmi Morcha and the organisers were at pains to explain that the walk was not just about women’s right to wear skimpy clothes. The only skimpily clad person for miles around was a resting ascetic who sat topless bang in the middle of the Slut Walk route.
Fatehpur Sikri- The Lost Mughal City
I love Mughal Emperor Akbar. I think he was perhaps the first and the last great secular ruler in India. However like most powerful people, he was also given to superstitions. He believed that his wife bore a son because of Sufi Saint Shaikh Salim Chisti’s prophecy. Akbar built his palace in Sikri in gratitude to the saint. He lived in Sikri for 15 long years before realizing it had a chronic water- shortage problem and moved bag and baggage to Lahore.
What’s HAIR got to do with it?
What is it about the female’s hair that makes the male of the human species get so wild and crazy? Going by the Islamic culture that is one of the main reasons why girls are enjoined to cover their head. But its not just a phenomenon of Islamic societies alone. When the debate first erupted after France banned the burka in public places, I realized it was a belief more closer home than I ever realized.
Golden Temple, Amritsar
However a lesser known and a very interesting fact about The Golden Temple is that it receives more visitors than even The Taj Mahal -making it the most visited Monument in India. Maybe the statistics have changed over the years and if anyone has the latest statistics kindly do share.
Taj Mahal – The Eternal Show
Apart from the foreigners its mostly the poor and the lower-middle class that turns up in overwhelming numbers to visit our monuments. Sometimes making long arduous journeys crammed up in train’s sleeper class for days.The upper-middle class and the glitterati are conspicuous by their absence at not only The Taj but at any other Indian Monument. Except ofcourse when a fashionable concert like Yanni’s is organised near it. But then now we have The Malls and The Multiplexes- our new monuments of our times.
Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple’s money belongs to the people
The wealth that some of our temples have is indeed phenomenal. It is not very surprising that such unaccounted wealth is found in temple vaults. Devotees rich and poor make regular donations to temples hoping to bribe the Gods to have some of their sins forgiven. But the immense wealth of this Kerela temple took everyone by surprise. There is a big debate on whom this money really belongs. I think this money belongs not to the temple but to the people and that’s where it should be used.
How to Grow your Business with a Sloppy Lonely Planet entry.
If you are want to make a killing like this man in the picture all you need is one sloppy Lonely Planet writer. The immensely popular travel guide prides itself in employing `credible and unbiased writers’. But every once in a while these travel-weary journos slip up . Ram Kishen ( The man in the picture above) is a man who is making a killing because of one such writerly error of judgement.
Anna Hazare and the Jan Lokpal Bill Movement
On 8th April, the fourth day of the fast the crowds swelled so much at Jantar Mantar that I got only a small glimpse of Anna Hazare between the ears of those before me. Using one of the heads for tripod, I took some shots of the man, being hailed as the latter-day `Gandhi’, fighting for us another `Freedom’.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan: Some people I like
But a dare is what Bhushan is always up for. He has been in the eye of the storm for this crusade for justice whether through his Public Interest Litigations or lending his voice to the marginalized. He openly declares his sympathy for the Maoists who he says have been pushed to the wall by an indifferent State and have no option but to pick up the gun
Virat Kohli in his Den, New Delhi
I told Kohli to be himself which I realized was difficult for a man who is used to being told to bring out the ‘attitude’ for the camera. He tried but it seemed stilted. We tried some more but it was clearly not working. And then his beagle came scampering in and broke the ice. Virat picked up the the little thing and I got the shots I wanted.
Lion kill in Serengeti , Africa.
Then from the corner of my viewfinder a lioness leapt. The zebra freezed and went back on its haunches before breaking into a run. The lioness gave chase. From our distance it looked the lioness almost had the zebra but there was almost 12 meters between them.
Ritu Rawal- The Wheelchair Virtuoso who Taught Dancing
So how did she teach dance to others when she can’t even step out of the wheelchair without help. There were no short-cuts, of course, she says. The road to success was as usual bumpy. But Ritu has phenomenal grit to see her through. I have been fascinated by dance since childhood.
He cycles 100km a day to peddle his 24 Books.
Writing books may be Rao’s passion but it earns him no bread. To made ends meet he sells tea for one rupee a cuppa. And while doing so he has to keep an open eye for the MCD evacuation squad who have displaced his make-shift stall once already. He has been a tea-seller since the last 25 years. Before tea-selling he has worked variously as a dishwasher, a construction labourer and a domestic servant.