My dreams, my reality
As a woman, she can convince you that the dream world exists as much as the real world and as an artist she will take you there — the confluence of reality and surrealism. And, one got an opportunity to float in there as Anjolie Ela Menon shared her creative journey at the Government Museum and Art Gallery-10 auditorium. Showing the slides of her paintings that spanned over 55 years!

Objet D’ ART
Horse power
It’s not only M.F. Husain who likes to paint horses. Our homegrown artists are not lagging behind
If wishes were horses, then everyone would paint them and earn something between $ 2000,000- 250,000 at Sotheby’s or Christie’s. Well, the fact is wishes are horses as far as artists are concerned, and not though many have gone as far as M. F. Husain while it comes to fetching that kind of a price or going to Sotheby’s or Christie’s, they are not doing so poorly either. Only recently a week-long exhibition of paintings at All-India Fine Arts and Craft Society gallery in New Delhi drew heavily on Biswajit Das Horse Power in which Das focused on horse tales, depicting the horse as special identity, as a metaphor for the labour class.

Body beautiful
Man is the only creature in the entire cosmos blessed with a body and mind. It is this, which makes him the crown of creations. While a healthy body is essential, fashion adds to his existence. In fact, it adds flavor to our life. It releases the creative urge in us on trying out a novelty and improves our life style. This is the age of fashion, which is not only restrained to our dress, but also the way we speak, behave, decorate our body and our lifestyle in general. So fascinated are we by the ‘me too’ concept, we do not even bother of whether it goes with our personality or not.

Go Fida
Representing the new generation of ghazal maestros, Agra-based virtuoso Laik Khan has earned a name both in Hindustani classical music and ghazal singing. Having trained under Ustad Akeel Ahmed Khan of Agra Gharana, Laik, with great efforts secured the blessed tutelage of ghazal supremo, Ustad Mehdi Hasan of Pakistan. A graduate from Saint Johns College, Lucknow, with more than a passing interest in music, he once listened to Mehdi Hasan’s intoxicating classic Gulon mein rang bhare.

Side Lanes
Population control
The media screams murder, rape, incest, accidents, robberies and get-rich-quick-scams. It also bombards us with advertisements of deemed universities, international schools, semi-international schools, Saint Something Schools and Public English Medium Schools, where not only do the tutors not speak English but also teach a pardesi language in the vernacular. To add to this excitement, we have teachers who beat children and cause lifelong traumas to their psyche and not-so-irreparable damage to their eardrums, heads and bodies.

Partner deal
Come on everybody, pay attention! The news in one line goes-the International Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD)-8, is now the official knowledge partner to Lakme Fashion Week. And, no tuxedo-wearing power-point presentations, to bring home the point.
Photo: Parvesh Chauhan

No horsing around
Mumbai's ‘Dhannos’ get a champion in Hema Malini
Over three decades after her role of 'Basanti', the horse-carriage driver with her mare ‘Dhanno’ in Sholay, actor Hema Malini has sought a ban on horse carts in this city, saying the horses that pull these carts lead a miserable life. The Bollywood actor has written to city municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak seeking a ban on the horse-carts that ply on the city's roads. Writing on behalf of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Hema Malini said in her letter: "In Sholay, I had a terrific co-star named ‘Dhanno’. Luckily, this affable character will never know the misery that her cousins, who are forced to pull joy-carts, endure."

Praise worthy
Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, who recently launched her spa in Mumbai, was really touched when Sushmita Sen attended the event to pass on her best wishes.