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Spring at our doorstep
Holi, the festival of colours, comes at
a time when the winter chill is receding and the torments of summer
are still some distance away. This is the ideal time to tickle the
palate and take delight in a myriad foods — sweet and savoury
Pushpesh Pant
 origins of Holi are
traced to millennia-old Madanotsva — a popular celebration
heralding the advent of spring. This was the season when the mango
trees sprouted blossoms and desire stirred in young hearts. It was a
time to get rid of shackles of inhibition, indulge in fun and frolic
with gay abandon. Miniature paintings in the Rajput-Mughal style or in
Pahari kalam depict enchanting scenes of Radha-Krishna indulging in
Holi sports with their respective entourage.
Many flavours
& tastes of Holi
FESTIVITY
Colour me sweet
Indians love to cook,
celebrate and savour food. Festivals are a good time to indulge in
this favourite pastime
Renu Manish Sinha
Holi, the festival of
colours, doesn't just last a day. It heralds a season of colours. The
northern parts of India shake loose the shackles of bone-chilling
cold, fog and heavy woollens and eagerly welcome the spring in its
full glory. For the urban winter-weary eyes, jaded with the dreary
landscape of the cold season, colourful flowers are a refreshing
sight, while for the rural brethren their harvest-ready fields are a
sight to behold.
Recipes by
Sanjeev Kapoor
'Art
& SOUL
From
earth and fire
Ceramics is among the oldest
of arts. It is fascinating to get close to an insider’s view of the
way the process takes place — the mixing of clay, kneading, beating,
the delicate act of throwing on the wheel, scraping and rubbing,
besides adding glazes and colourants
B.N.Goswamy
I
do not know much about ceramics: neither about clay and porcelain, nor
glazes and fretwork, nor, of course, about faience and celadon. But
occasionally, this world — ancient and complex, amazingly vast and
visually exciting — swims into my awareness. As when, years ago, I
happened to read through the report of a research project funded by
the Crafts Museum in Delhi on contemporary pottery produced in Khurja
in Uttar Pradesh.
Broad
brush
Society
Time
that we swore off verbal violence
At best we don’t understand
the swear words we use. At worst, we measure women’s worth by what
is spoken of them
Mallika Kaur
The
satisfaction of having walked the course of the Sukhna Lake on a
particularly cold and damp evening begins to set in during those final
meters as one is bid farewell by the venerable banyan, always reliably
bear-hugging the path much taken.
SOUL
TALK
TraveL
India’s
strawberry fields
Located in the lush Western
Ghats, the erstwhile capital of the Bombay Presidency during the
British Raj, Mahabaleshwar is a delight to visit anytime. March,
however, is special as it is the season of luscious strawberries
Kavita Kanan Chandra
The
red juicy strawberries are one of the biggest attractions to be in
Mahabaleshwar during February and March. However, there are more
reasons you would get drawn to the largest hill station in Maharashtra.
Located in the lush Western Ghats, the erstwhile capital of the Bombay
Presidency during the British Raj, is a delight to visit anytime
except perhaps the rainy season when torrential rains virtually shut
it down.
Globe
trotting
Entertainment
Return
of the bad boys
The line between good and
evil has begun to blur once again in Hindi cinema as a bunch of gunday
hit the highway in search of salvation
Saibal Chatterjee
In
Vishal Bhardwaj’s Mumbai underworld thriller, Kaminey,
released in 2009, Shahid Kapoor played two identical twins. One was
the likeable Guddu, the guy with a stutter. The other was the crooked
Charlie, a racecourse punter, who spoke with a lisp. The latter won
all the plaudits.
Ali’s
Safarnama
Actor, singer, composer and
painter from Pakistan, Ali Zafar is back in Bollywood with his latest
film Total Siyappa. The actor talks about his family, films and
his future
Swati Rai
He
broke into his own in 2003 as a pop singing sensation, ruling the
musical roost with the release of his single ‘Channo’ which
sold half a million copies in just the first week and ended up selling
more than five million copies of his first album Huqa Paani.
Ali Zafar, who debuted in Bollywood in 2010 with Tere Bin Laden,
is back with his latest film Total Siyappa.
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