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Cars’
Day Out
At
Auto Expo 2012, it was party time for auto manufacturers as well as
car buffs. It rained variety as many cars were ‘unveiled’ and
launched, reports H Kishie Singh
 For
an auto aficionado, Auto Expo is the Mahakumbh of the
Indian automobile industry. The car, no matter how big or small, no
matter which make or who makes it, has always been an aspirational
object of desire. The car, any car, is beautiful if not gorgeous. It
is sensuous, it is exciting, it promises speed, it promises freedom.
To satiate this desire, there is a tremendous upsurge of demand for
this personal mode of transport. Ironically, the sales figures for the
last three months of 2011 were quite dismal.
Black-necked
crane spotted
Utpal Boruah
Black-necked
crane, a rare bird species found in high altitude, has been
spotted at Zemithang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh by the Indian chapter
of the World Wildlife Fund for the first time. So
long, there were only reports of the bird’s sighting in the valley
in Twang district, located at an altitude of 2000 metres above sea
level near the China border, but no photographic evidence.
Epic
treasure trove
The Pandava cave in Karol
Mountain, which takes tourists back to the times of the Mahabharata,
has a mystique that is yet to be unravelled, writes Roshni
Johar
Nestling
in Himalayas is Himachal, the abode of gods, which is virtually
a treasure-house of mythical secrets. Towering high on the
Kalka-Shimla NH 22 at 7,000 ft above Karol Mountain, highest in the
region. What makes Karol Mountain unique is that hidden in it, is the
Pandava Gufa, a 28 km-long cave, one of world’s longest and oldest
one in the Himalayan ranges. Karol Mountain invites global attention
as there’s a baffling mystery of cave’s existence, apart from its
magical herbs, (including the mythical life-saving sanjivini buti),
lost in mazes of antiquity that’s yet to be unravelled.
 India
is a sensory overload
Eugenie
Drake, a leading South African handicrafts promoter and
designer, is in India with a crafts showcase from her country.
Madhusree Chatterjee visits Dilli Haat to get a feel of African crafts
She looks at the shimmering piles
of Gujarati shawls, embroidered with coloured thread and mirrors, in
awe. "India is a sensory overload. We don't have so many
textiles, not to this extent, in Africa as one finds in India. The
tonalities of colours are wider and the textures are so
different," says Eugenie Drake, a leading South African
handicrafts promoter and designer.
Postcards
from Pushkar
Home to the only Brahma
temple in the world, Pushkar has many other hidden delights that can
enchant many a jaded traveller, writes Angad B.
Sodhi
Pushkar
— is the quintessential cliché of everything that is Indian,
and which the Indian tourism portrays to the world in all its
promotion campaigns. Gorgeous sunsets over rolling sand dunes with
camels and turbaned men silhouetted in the foreground, narrow winding
streets lined with blue-tinged whitewashed houses and quaint little
stores selling brightly coloured jholas, kurtas and bangles.
Rajasthani ladies clad in ghagras of bright hues, sadhus
with matted hair, snake charmers and cows wandering wherever they
please. Pushkar has it all.
Wanderlust
& Backpacking
Travelling alone is
fun and can be a good way to self exploration, writes Nikhil Walia
It’s
10 a.m. and an eatery at the New Delhi Railway Station is bursting at
the seams with travellers. Nishant Sinha, 23, is sipping his morning
cuppa, thrilled as he sets out on his maiden sojourn to the mighty
Himalayas — all by himself.
Indians
in Hollywood
Anil Kapoor’s bit role in
the latest Mission Impossible sequel prompts Ervell
E. Menezes to dig up other Indian actors who starred in western
movies
In
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Anil Kapoor looked dapper,
no doubt, but the Mumbai sequence is pathetic, an insult to this major
metropolis. Apart for a couple of authentic shots (one of Bori Bunder),
the scenes could have been shot anywhere. At best, it is only lip
sympathy to India as a developing film market.
A
different romcom
Joginder
Tuteja catches up with Karan Johar, who reveals that his latest
release Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is inspired by Woody Allen films
Director-producer
Karan Johar, whose Kareena Kapoor-Imran Khan-starrer romcom Ek
Main Aur Ekk Tu is creating a buzz, says the film is inspired by
Hollywood director Woody Allen’s style of filmmaking. The movie is
directed by debutant Shakun Batra and produced under Johar’s Dharma
production.
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