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Banda Bahadur:
From ascetic to warrior
Fascinating, colourful and larger
than life, Banda Singh Bahadur was a follower of Guru Gobind Singh. He
started his life as an ascetic, distinguished himself as an
administrator and is celebrated as a great warrior. A new work of
historical fiction attempts to flesh out the story of this enigmatic
person
Harish Dhillon
 The
journey had been a long and difficult one, long not so much in
terms of distance as of time. He had taken almost a year to cover
1,700 kilometres. These were deeply troubled times and there was
turmoil in the area between Nanded and Delhi. Banda and his group had
followed the guru’s advice and done everything possible to avoid
suspicion and confrontation with representatives of the Mughals. They
had broken up into smaller groups and leapfrogged from one destination
to another, getting together and regrouping at intervals of three or
four days. They studiously avoided the highways and used circuitous,
rarely used tracks deep in the arid areas of Rajasthan. Banda with his
group of four, after a long and tiring journey, had found shelter for
the night in the ruins of an old fort that was now used as a serai,
an inn.
Arts
The
etchings of Solvyns
Balthazar Solvyns, the Flemish
painter who lived in India more than 200 years ago, documented in his
works the infinite variety of castes and professions, modes of
conveyance and religious ceremonies besides flora and fauna, fakirs
and sadhus
It
was with Professor Robert Hardgrave Jr., a colleague at the
University of Texas at Austin where I was teaching, that I saw my
first Solvyns ‘in the flesh’, so to speak. I had some familiarity
with the name and had seen some images in books but this was
different. Here, there were slews of Solvyns etchings, and Hardgrave
was the man to speak about the painter, for it was he who had brought
him out of undeserved obscurity.
Fitness
Foods
for moody you
Headaches, body aches,
lethargy, mood swings and irritability are common to most women
suffering from premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Some foods can help you to
control these symptoms
The
fairer sex is the stronger
sex. This is true from a purely biological standpoint as well.
Statistics show that not only do women live longer than men; the
premature female infants also out-survive the premature male infants.
We all know that females handle stress better than their male
counterparts.
Health
Capsules
Society
Kakar
off the couch
Aruti Nayar
Meeting
Sudhir Kakar, the psychoanalyst and writer who has the
distinction of viewing Western Freudian psychoanalyst techniques
through the prism of Indian myths and socio-cultural matrix, is a
unique experience.
Travel
A
walk back in history
The medieval city of Nizwa
was the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries. The city looks
like an Arabian night fantasy with its pastel pink houses and mud-coloured
fort as well as domes and minarets
Kalpana Sunder
Handsome
men in their flowing dishdashas and embroidered skull
caps and turbans, potter around the stalls looking for a good bargain.
Rows and rows of shops display pottery of all shapes and sizes, made
from clay baked in the fierce Omani sun — water containers, urns,
cups, utensils and incense burners. Visitors walk through the souk
drooling at metal-studded dowry chests and chunky silver fashioned
into rings, anklets and necklaces. The traditional Omani dagger with
intricate filigree work, called khanjar is a popular souvenir.
Nizwa is a medieval city in Oman, located just 165 km from the capital
Muscat. Nizwa was the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries —
and one of the first towns to receive Muslim emissaries. It was ruled
by the Ibadhi sect of Islam (most Omanis belong to their sect). The
city still has a majestic fort which looks straight out of a foreign
legion movie. Gracing the skyline are also some of Oman’s oldest
mosques. For a long time Nizwa was at the crossroads of important
caravan routes that linked the interiors with the port of Muscat.
Globetrotting
Entertainment
Mumbai,
not India in Cannes
For the Cannes festival, India
has shrunk to represent the output of just a small part of Mumbai. It
may be good for filmmakers in the short term but can only have a
deleterious effect on Indian cinema as a whole in the long run
Saibal Chatterjee
The
66th Cannes Film Festival was special for India, at least in
numerical terms. It was even more so for one individual —Anurag
Kashyap. All four Indian films that played in different sections in
Cannes this year — Monsoon Shootout, Bombay Talkies, Ugly and
The Lunchbox — had him as director, producer or co-producer.
Nothing
great about Gatsby
Baz Luhrmann’s The Great
Gatsby, which opened the 66th Cannes Film Festival, dazzles but is
not quite as moving. It could have done with a little more soul
Saibal Chatterjee
Baz
Luhrmann’s isn’t one to hold back. The Moulin Rouge director
is probably closest in spirit to the Bollywood idiom than any other
non-Indian has ever been. His new film, The Great Gatsby, which
was the opener of the 66th Cannes Film Festival, is yet another proof
of that.
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