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 Firangis
in
Ranjit
Singh’s
Durbar
The Lion’s Firanghis:
The Europeans at the Court of Lahore traces the journey and
lives of foreigners in Ranjit Singh’s court. An excerpt…
THE
Sikh Kingdom under the benevolent leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
(1780-1839) known as ‘Sarkar-e-Khalsa’ and the ‘Lion of the
Punjab’ was considered a hegemony amongst all the Indian princely
states that were under the jurisdiction of the East India Company in
the early part of the 19th century.
Court chronicles
Bobby Singh Bansal
chose to explore a path less explored when he started working on the
manuscript that became The Lion’s Firanghis: The Europeans at the
Court of Lahore. The following are excerpts from an exclusive
interview with Roopinder Singh:
Shahryar’s world of words
Shahira Naim chats up the poet, who has won the 44th Jnanpith Award for his contribution to Urdu poetry
FAME
rests easy on his shoulders, as Shahryar, in his own words,
regrets not being able to change with the times. Leaving his native
place of Chandera Sharif in Bulandshahr, Akhlaq Mohammad Khan, who was
to be known as Shahryar, had come to Aligarh not to be associated with
its literary luminaries teaching at Aligarh Muslim University and
dominating Urdu poetry.
Visionary
educationist
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad realised
that education could not only eradicate poverty and illiteracy from
the country, but could also be used as an effective tool for social
change and economic growth, writes Arun Kumar
Sharma
THE
celebration of November 11 as National Education Day — which
commemorates the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad — will
go a long way in understanding his profound educational ideas and
philosophy.
Jacket
of authority
The Nehru jacket today
is becoming a symbol of those who are in power, says Pheroze
Khareghat
FOR
the opening ceremony of the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, as the
300-member British team strode into the huge Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,
a gasp of pleasant surprise went around the spectators.
Cool
in the 60s
Shobhaa De lays great
emphasis on family values and ties, and underlines the importance of a
spiritual quest
WHAT
does Sonia Gandhi, Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Azim Premji and
Shobhaa De have in common apart from being successful in their own
fields and inspiring as ever? All belong to the vibrant 60s’ club,
which also has Jayalalitha, Hillary Clinton, Hema Malini, Tom Alter,
to name a few, as members.
In pursuit of mighty
mahseer
Nestled along the Cauvery are some beautiful fishing camps, world-renowned as home to the great mahseer — the finest and the largest tropical sporting fish known to man, writes
Sumitra Senapaty
ANGLERs
speak passionately about the ‘one’ that got away. The
life-giving Cauvery is probably the only place on earth where the
mahseer, king of fish, is found in plenty.
Spiders
prefer virgins
A
new study has revealed that
male spiders that get to have sex only once or twice in their lives
are far more interested in a female spider’s virginity than in her
size.
34
years of Ank
Founded in 1976 by
Dinesh Thakur, Ank is the largest Hindi theatre group, writes V.
Gangadhar
ON
a recent weekend, the people of Mumbai, undeterred by the
traffic and crowds of the festival season, flocked to Juhu Prithvi
theatre for a wonderful double theatre delight —the record breaking
1,060th show of zany comedy, Hai Mera Dil and the 200 plus
staging of the heart wrenching play on Partition, Jis Lahore Nahin
Dekhya.
A
world transplanted
NRI and Indian filmmakers,
who make films in English, Hindi or any regional language, generally
present a myopic picture of the Indian diaspora that does not go with
the reality. Shoma A. Chatterji explores
this unrealistic projection of ‘desi’ life abroad
POPULAR
cinema is in the business of selling dreams, not the truth, they say.
But do dreams need to be so distanced from the truth that it gives not
only a warped and distorted image of reality but also projects an
image that is stereotyped and fake?
FRUIT FACTS
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