|
|
Spirituality solitude & safaris
From spiritual holidays to noise-free vacations away from the party circuit, youngsters in the region are seeking out something different this
winter, writes Mehak Uppal
Just when we think that we know the young brigade well, they take us by surprise! With the year-end approaching, we were all set to listen to the plans of incessant partying, loud music and huge get-togethers. But it seems like a different flavour has caught on with the youth this season, as they talk about spiritual holidays, spending New Year’s Eve alone under an open sky and much more!
A matter of faith
Born Michel Jean Louis Rudel and now
Darshan Singh Rudel, a baptised Sikh, this Frenchman does organic farming
near Anandpur Sahib, writes Charandeep Singh
Born in Montpellier,
South France, he is currently residing at Anandpur Sahib. Born as
Michel Jean Louis Rudel, he is now known as Darshan Singh Rudel. Born
as a Roman Catholic, he is now a Sikh. Is it some kind of a paradox we
are talking about? Or is it destiny? "No, it is Waheguru da
bhana", says a smiling Darshan Singh at his organic farm
in Anandpur Sahib, which is popularly called as Angrez da farm.
Exquisite gems
Coral jewellery can be adapted by the contemporary Indian woman to fit both her modern and traditional needs, says
Banalata Bipani
They aren’t precious
stones and they are most certainly not in the family of precious
metals, but, nevertheless, they are regarded as exquisite for
ornamentation and are prized by those who use them as jewellery. Haven’t
guessed what we are talking about yet? Well, it is coral!
No free run for monkeys
The marauding monkeys of Himachal Pradesh are all set to face the gun following official orders, writes
Vishal Gulati
Himachal Pradesh takes pride in temples dedicated to Lord Hanuman, but the tale is about to turn grim for thousands for monkeys in the state. The government has now backed a farmer outfit’s plan to shoot monkeys at sight as the simians have been causing huge damage to crops.
“Operation Monkey” has already received the consent of the government, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said.
A green haven
On a trip to Vancouver, Sudha Mahalingam visits Stanley Park and Lions Gate Bridge, two famous landmarks of the city
As our ferry from Victoria, an idyllic town in Vancouver Island just across the bay, glides unhurriedly towards Canada’s mainland, thickly forested islands, with occasional smoking chimneys peering out of the foliage, line up on both sides. This seems quintessential Pacific Northwest, untamed and unharmed by modern civilization or so it appears.
The yoga of sound
Brij Khandelwal
Holland-based Indian origin
filmmaker Rishi Chaman, who had earlier made Bollywood Blues,
is making a telefilm on Nada Yoga in Dutch and English. He says it is
a modern, spiritual and musical version of the wellness technique
where East meets West.
My mom is my biggest critic: Ragini Khanna
Television actress Ragini
Khanna, popularly known as Suhana of Sasural Genda Phool,
reveals that her mother is her biggest critic when it comes to acting.
Ragini is the niece of Bollywood actor Govinda. She started her career
on small screen with Radha Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhaengi and
later went on to do Bhaskar Bharti, which was about a man who
turns into a woman after being cursed by one of his spurned woman. She
is currently working in Sasural Genda Phool being aired on Star
Plus.
I am game for Bollywood
In a chat with Jyothi
Venkatesh, Freida Pinto says that she would like to be a part of new-age Indian cinema
Freida Pinto, who plays a key
role in Woody Allen’s latest film You will Meet A Dark Tall
Stranger, which is scheduled for release on December 17, is a
beauty with brains. "The character of the musicologist Dia that I
play in the film is a very troubled character, who does not know what
she wants out of life. I was very troubled when I set out to play the
character. I did not feel mystified when I played the character with a
different bent of mind," Freida tells me at the outset when I
interview her at Goa.
Train of mayhem
Geoffrey Macnab
takes a look at disaster movies that have been successful at the
box office
Did they really panic? It’s
one of the best-known stories about early cinema. The audience members
at the first screening of the LumiEre brothers’ The Arrival of a
Train at La Ciotat in early 1896 were so terrified at the sight of
a steam train rumbling toward them on the big screen that they were
thrown into convulsions of terror. Whether it’s true or not, it’s
one of the defining moments in early cinema history. Ever since,
movies about trains — especially runaway trains — have been made
at regular intervals.
Timeless classic
Devdas, which marked the blossoming of Indian cinema and revolutionised filmmaking, continues to inspire even after decades, writes
Pran Nevile
Recently, I saw Saigal’s
Devdas on the TV that virtually transported me to 1935 —
three quarters of a century ago when I had first seen it at Lahore as
a schoolboy. An all-time classic Devdas, the first superhit
after the advent of the talkies was the rage of that period. Its
unprecedented box-office success immortalised the producer, New
Theatres, Calcutta, of B.N. Sircar, director P.C. Barua and
singer-superstar Kundan Lal Saigal. I have vivid memories of the
packed cinema hall at Lahore and the thunderous clapping that followed
Saigal’s haunting number "Balam aye baso more man mein".
In tune with the customary practice, some onlookers even exhibited
their applause by throwing coins on the stage.
FRUIT FACTS
|
