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Feasts to remember
One need not have oodles of money to splurge on food at a wedding. Instead, a dash of creativity and out-of-the-box planning can help you shun caterers and offer a mouth-watering fare to your guests, writes
Pushpesh Pant
Marriages
and memorable meals are inseparable like Siamese twins. Well, things
may have changed more than a little with times, shaadi ka khaana
is often not what it is supposed to be but there is no denying that
bridal banquets are a major, indispensable part of the ritual.
Mevon ka pulao, (left) the staple of shaadi ka khaana. The way food is served and cooked with a personalised touch adds to the taste.
— Photos by the writer
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Booty from war
When members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to Lhasa in 1903-04 picked up or acquired souvenirs as booty or at nominal payment, none could have visualised their worth in terms of “intellectual property rights”, writes
Lt General (retd) Baljit Singh
On
November 18, 2006, there was an endearing pen-picture of the Lhasa
Apso supported by two charming photographs in the Saturday Extra supplement
of The Tribune. The male dog showcased his tawny-golden, fleecy
coat at its luxuriant best. There is nothing quite to match his pelt
in any other dog breed of the world. And in the other photograph, the
puppy, of course, was a lovable bundle of mischief.
Though the Himalayan Blue Poppy was discovered by Lieut Eric Bailey, the credit for collecting its seeds for propagation in England goes to Capt Kingdon Ward
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The good old kangri
Kiran Narain
A
small terracotta
bowl set in a wicker basket and filled with charcoal and live embers,
kangri is the most innovative and unique shield of Kashmiris against
biting cold. It has become a part of day-to-day Kashmiri life. So much
so that Kashmiri Brahmins have the custom of giving Kangris with live
charcoal to the priest on the first day of Magh (Jan-Feb) in the name
of their dead.
How to honour the dead
With vultures disappearing from India, the Parsi practice of disposing of the dead is in danger.
Ashalata Samuel on 65-year-old Dhun Bharia’s single-handed campaign against this ancient death rite, which is guarded zealously by most Parsis
As
is well known, the Parsi way of disposing of the dead is by keeping
the corpse on serrated platforms on terrace of the Towers of Silence
(known as the dokhnas) to be eaten away by vultures and other
carnivorous birds. |
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Tower of Silence — Malabar Hill, Bombay, where the Parsi dead are placed (Illustrated London News, 1875)
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Desert charm
A trip to Al Ain, an oasis in Dubai, where underground water comes up through aquifers, is a must if one travels to the UAE, write
Asha and Ramesh Seth
Since
when as a child I came to know about the existence of oases in the
deserts I had always wanted to visit one. A visit to Dubai gave me a
chance to visit Al Ain oasis, the most famous of all the oases. It is
merely 135 km from Dubai. So, one day my friend drove my wife and me
to Al Ain. It was only 90 minutes drive on a first class road in a
powerful car, often cruising at 160 km per hour. |
Channel feeding water at Al Ain, which means “the spring” in Arabic. The oasis derives its plentiful supply of fresh water from underground sources |
Legend called James Brown
Andrew Gumbel
Funky, James Brown once said, “is about the injustices, the things that go wrong, the hungry kids going to school trying to learn.” Funky is about what Brown was. The consummate showman, a performer who didn’t just own the stage so much as seem possessed by it, a singer and a dancer who seemed to defy defied gravity and the laws of ordinary musicology with his crazy rhythms, vocal inflections and, above all, his boundless energy.
Diaries of the road
Road movies belong to a special category where a journey often takes on metaphorical meanings.
Shoma A. Chatterji explores the nuances of this genre of films
Road
movies are a cinematic genre in which the action takes places during a
road journey or a vehicle-based film. The genre name is also taken as
the title of the 1974 film Road Movie by Joseph Strick. The
road movie has its roots in earlier tales of epic journeys such as
Homer’s Odyssey and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
‘Acting is the most miserable job’
Subhash K. Jha
Naseeruddin
Shah, who gets a "bigger high" from direction than acting,
confesses his adoration for Hema Malini with whom he is paired after a
long gap.
"She’s still gorgeous, isn’t she? Iadore her. I
think we’ll make a good couple," Naseer said.
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