Here are a few stories about some of the people we have met during our travels through India.
Museum of Kitsch
Over the past 20 years, Dina has collected many items from the obscure to unique. Panning across the haunts of her home lays further evidence of her passion towards this hobby. Dina has devoted a majority of her time not only expanding her arsenal but also arranging its display. read more...
A Rash of Good Behavior
Contradictory to other Indian households, the welcome mat is ushered into the kitchen to continue its ugly discharge. The tea and biscuits are relegated to storage as if a precious commodity on the brink of extinction. Only to be filed out on display for those willing to flash their foreign currency. read more...
The Chor Bizarre
Being that posession is 9/10 the law in India struck great fear in the Irani household. Subsequently, locks were changed and the vicious circle created by the Ahmed's was relegated downstairs.
click on image below to view another in the series.
Goa, a former Portuguese territory, for more than 450 years is often described as 'The Rome of the East'. It has over the past decades, become the dream holiday destination, for many a foreign tourist. More than 40 years after the departure of the Portuguese, Goa is perhaps the most westernized of all the states in Modern India.
The majority of Goans are very bohemian. Easy going in nature, enjoying a typical 'tropical lifestyle'; including the 'siesta', which is usually from 1pm to 4pm, the hottest part of the day. Music, dance, drama, food and feni, are a few of the things most Goans are passionate about.
Though, Goa is a multi-ethnic state, Goans are very tolerant towards each other's faiths; while unfortunately this is not true of the rest of this country. The majority Hindu community and the sizeable Catholic minority have lived in peace and harmony for decades and centuries. They participate in each other's many feasts. Many Hindus attend the novenas during the feast of St. Francis Xavier (the patron saint of Goa), as the Catholics take part in the zagors and zatras. It is not rare to see young Catholics at local Hindu temples during the feast of Dusshera. They consider it auspicious to have their vehicles blessed by the temple priest on that day.
A few days before lent, many colorful carnivals are held, in all the major towns in Goa. Then, a few days later comes the Shigmo (Hindu festival of spring) distinctive parades go along the very same streets, with many kaleidoscopic floats and frenzied dancers. On these occasions both communities participate.
Goans are flamboyant and out going. The women are attractive and in step with the latest trends of the west. The young men bear themselves with a distinct air of machismo; they love football, bullfighting and automobiles, they are quick to smile - or fight. Goa, itself is often stunningly beautiful. The roadsides are bright with cascades of bougainvillea; the forests are alive with iridescent butterflies, and kingfishers so brilliant that they seem to glow from within. Just after the monsoons, in the flooded paddy fields, a horde of workers can be seen preparing for the new crop. Yes, Goa is a beautiful land, with wonderfully hospitable people.
Once a small village with plantations of rice and vegetables, Bandra, today is a posh area of Mumbai. The transformation is not sudden with the coming up of Bandra-Kurla complexes or say fashinable Pali Hill area. Actually it owes its development to a causeway that connected it to Mahim in 1845. Many bungalows were built here in the boom years of the 1860's and 70's.
The suburb of Bandra is the abode of many famous personalities from tinsel world. Aptly referred as 'Queen of the Suburbs',it is largely populated by Catholics and Parsis and is one of the most cosmopolitan areas of Mumbai.
You can shop at Linking Road for footwear and leather goods.Macdonald's located on Linking Road is famous for its fast food. For finest jewellery check in at the jewellery shopslocated on Waterfield Road. The Mount Mary Basilica is located herewhere in September of every year the feast of our Lady of the Mountis celebrated followed by a week-long Fair.
Band Stand is located in Bandra which is ideal for a leisurely stroll in the evening. In fact if you visit this area you will find a lot of families and friends enjoying the fresh air along this seafront and having the famous Indian snack bhel-puri.
Bandra is known to be split by the local railway-lineinto Bandra (West) PIN 400050 & Bandra (East) PIN 400051. Bandra (W), has historically grabbed most of the spotlight, and sits snug between the railway-line (on the East) and the Arabian Sea (on the West). Bandra (East) houses the state government employees' quarters. Due to Bandra's central location,most parts of the city are easily accessible.
Located on the west coast of India, the group of islands which has grown into the city of Mumbai, was probably first recorded as the home of fisherfolk where a group of Buddhist monks established an outpost late during the Magadhan empire.
The islands were tossed from one king to another emperor for two millenia, until the maritime trade empire of the British decided to develop the natural harbour into a city.
In the four hundred years since then, the city has grown by a series of land reclamations which now link the original islands into one mass.
The name Mumbai has been used in the main local languages for as long, and is ascribed to the local goddess Mumba (means mother in Marathi). The name of the city was changed to Mumbai by an act of the parliament in 1997.
Mumbai is called the financial capital of India: the stock exchange is the primary stock exchange of the country; most large business houses have their corporate offices in this city.
It also the primary center for the arts and the entertainment industry. In India it is the city of gold, of dreams. Everyone comes here to make money. However, Bombay does sleep at night although usually rather late and very briefly.
Mumbai boasts more cell phones per capita than any other city on the subcontinent. The city is responsible for generating one sixth of the gross domestic product of the entire country.
But Mumbai is bursting at the seams. The first glimpse of the city, as the airplane hits the runway, is Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, home to 2.8 million people.
According to a 2004 estimate, the population of metropolitan Mumbai was approximately 17 million.
Every year, the city receives more than 250,000 rural-to-urban emigrants. Mumbai could be the world’s most populous city by 2020, with 28.5 million, says the Population Institute.
Bombay is energetic, exuberant, sparkling, and has building stones of many kinds and colours ...on your dyspeptic days you are apt to find Bombay's [architecture] bumptious, even riotous. In your more genial moments you might apply the adjective ... vital. -John Begg
Consulting Architect to Bombay
“With this sizeable number of people, resources are getting increasingly scarce. Buildings are getting taller, with no care for where water and space, children’s playgrounds and parking areas will come from,” says Preeti Gopalkrishnan, Communications Executive of Population First, a sustainable human development program based in Mumbai.
Half of the metropolis’ population lacks running water or electricity, and the smoke from hundreds of thousands of open cooking fires joins with the sooty smoke from two-stroke auto rickshaws, belching taxis, diesel buses and coal-fired power plants in a symphony of air pollutants.
Breathing Mumbai’s inversion-trapped air, experts say, is the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
The water supply situation in Mumbai is critical, reports the UN, with the level of supply so much below demand that water use is restricted and reaches emergency proportions when the monsoon fails.
More than two million Mumbai residents have no sanitary facilities, and much sewage is discharged untreated or partially treated into waterways. Attempts have been made to relocate industries outside the island city, but industrial pollution remains a serious problem.
In addition to this, Mumbai is also one of the noisiest cities in the world, a key factor being the considerable number of vehicles on the city’s streets.
There are more than 500,000 private automobiles on Mumbai streets. Despite a substantial public transit system, congestion in the metropolitan area continues.
As Business Week reports, “After years of neglect, combined with helter-skelter growth, Bombay is falling apart. Its suburban train service carries six million passengers a day, which works out to 570 per train car, nearly three times their capacity.”
“Public transport in Mumbai has reached a point of almost complete gridlock,” says Gordon Feller of the Urban Age Institute. “The emission standards of vehicles in the city are very bad and the local government is shy about talking about alternatives because it doesn’t know when it will implement them.”
Despite the high level of poverty in the city, however, crime isn’t increasing as rapidly as one would imagine.
According to the State of the World Cities Report, 2004/05, of all the world regions, developed and developing, Asia ranks lowest in almost all types of crimes. “I wouldn’t say there is rampant lawlessness; most people are going about their day-to-day life trying to scratch together a living,” Feller says. Yet daily life in Mumbai is extremely difficult. This is especially true of the city’s slum dwellers.
As the BBC reports, Mumbai’s poor build unstable, flimsy huts on any available land. The city’s older slums—such as Dharavi, Byculla and Khar—have houses made of brick and mortar but lack drainage systems and toilets. Many people also live dangerously close to the railway tracks, which cut through the heart of Bombay.
The Times of India regularly reports vehicles backing or barreling over children, or rows of sleeping citizens. “Bombay,” wrote V.S. Naipaul in the first sentence of his India: A Million Mutinies Now, “is a crowd.”
We have chosen 6 classics JUST FOR HER that are very current and should always be part of your wardrobe
We have chosen 9 classics JUST FOR HIM that are very current and should always be part of your wardrobe
For men, luxury that draws insight from the 1950's is leaving its mark on masculine fashion you are also seeing a demand for embellishment. The 'metrosexual', an urban male who is comfortable with his feminine side, likes trendy and expensive clothes and accessories, including jewelry.
The notion of the Metrosexual man is driving a demand for masculine jewelry. Until a few years ago, men wore only an unremarkable pair of cuff links and a wedding band. Today's man is confident enough to enter the female world of adornment, opting for jewelry that is bold, sporty and creative. Rubber, leather, steel and a variety of gemstones are the materials of choice, although traditional materials such as gold and platinum are also appreciated.
Choices cant be counted in case of womens fashion but todays fashion world pays equal importance to both mens and womens apparels. Men have become more fashion conscious and stylish so the designers have a target of this recently emerged market of mens fashion. Many things got introduced for the mens on new and one of the variation is long and short kurta. Long kurta and pyajama was always a part of mens wardrobe in India for occasions but these kurtas are making there mark in foreign countries also and mens have started to look for something different other then there regular trousers and shirts. So the designers have tried to give this kurtas some casual and different look. At first designers have tried to change the colour trends and secondly the design trends. Earlier there were some particular colours worn by mens that includes light shades and very earthy touch ups but now things have changed men does not hesitate to try the bright colours and textures and designs. Zardosi, kantha, kashmiri, Phoolkari these types of embroideries and work like sequence and taara was not the part of mens fashion but now designers are trying every possible combination and decent motifs to create magic for men.
A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, Born into Brothels is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes.
With the help of our readers, we have compiled a list
of what we think are some of the most compelling
and or fascinating movies of our time.
These movies either challenged us in the way we think
or look at the world.
We have also made it easy for you to purchase these movies
by providing a direct link to a sister site
where you may add these titles to your collection
Bollywood movies are in Hindi, which is the main national language of India.Most people speak it to a degree, although maybe not that well in places like Tamil Nadu, which has a big political movement against Hindi,which is seen there as a Northern imposition.
Most people in cities speak some English, but not everyone is fluent.Still, it looks cool to speak English, so a lot of Bollywood movies include English phrases like "Better luck next time" and "Rock and roll, man!"
Since it's in the nature of escapist entertainment to be fascinated with the rich,a lot of Bollywood movies, especially these days, are about Indians who have struck it rich in England or America.
A lot of the time, they come back and realize that they need India,and girls wearing skanky Western clothes often put on a sari or a salwar-kameez and show their true nature as good Indian daughters.
The film industry in Bombay, which is now called Mumbai for reasons which have more to do with regional and religious intolerance than with anticolonialism, is the biggest in the world. It makes almost double the number of movies and sells a billion more tickets each year than Hollywood. There are big industries in other areas of India, producing a lot of movies in local languages, especially Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada, but most of the time, the quality is lower (and Bollywood itself is already famous for making a lot of stinkers) and the number of mustachios higher. The main exception is West Bengal, where the Indian intelligentsia are centered in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and where some art movies are made, notably by Satyajit Ray (d. 1992). The Indian theater and literature scenes are also mostly in Calcutta, although Bombay and to a lesser degree, Delhi and Madras (now Chennai) also have stuff going on.
All these other industries are involved with Bollywood, though. Often, actors and actresses will get recognized because of their work in regional cinema, and sometimes movies are made bilingually. For instance, Asoka was produced in both Tamil and Hindi and despite starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor, both big-name Bollywood stars. Actually, I think the Tamil version of "San Sanana" is better than the Hindi one, but I couldn't download it, and I only have a tape. The most famous composer these days, A.R. Rahman, is Tamil, but now writes the music for some huge number of Bollywood movies, as well as Tamil movies.
Having music by a famous composer like Rahman or the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, who were roughly his '70s equivalent, is as likely to make a movie a hit as having big stars, because of how much Indians love their movie music. Every movie has five or ten song-and-dance numbers scattered throughout its three hours, during which the stars lip-sync and dance, Busby Berkeley-style, to songs prerecorded by famous playback singers. The most well-known are Asha Bhosle, her sister Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar. Supposedly, Lata has sung in almost 20 languages for over 1,825 films, worked with 165 composers, and made 8,000 recordings overall, more than anyone else. Sometimes the songs in a movie are related to the actual action, but not always in any obvious way. Speaking of action, virtually all Bollywood movies contain the same elements, but in different proportions. They all have romance (but you almost never see a kiss), comedy and action, and often overt patriotism, sometimes to the detriment of Pakistan. These days, though, a lot of movies try to be pacifist and promote harmony.
Art has not always been what we think it is today. An object regarded as Art today may not have been perceived as such when it was first made, nor was the person who made it necessarily regarded as an artist. Both the notion of "art" and the idea of the "artist" are relatively modern terms.
Many of the objects we identify as art today were made in times and places when people had no concept of "art" as we understand the term. These objects may have been appreciated in various ways and often admired, but not as "art" in the current sense.
Art lacks a satisfactory definition. It is easier to describe it as the way something is done.
How do we describe art: “The use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects,
environments, or experiences that can be shared with others"
With the help of our readers,
we have compiled a list
of what we think are some
of the most talented painters
in the world of art.
These artists either challenged us
in the way we think or look at the world.
Purchase these books by clicking on
the image that interests you.
Artist Directory
INFO on Rajhubir SinghINFO on Mohan NaikINFO on Nancy LeRoux
Bhangra is a fusion of music, and, most significantly, the beat of the Dhol drum, a single stringed instrument called the iktar, the tumbi and an instrument reminiscent of an enlarged pair of tongs called the chimta. The accompanying songs are small couplets written in the Punjabi language. They relate to harvest celebration, love, patriotism or current social issues. Today the word Bhangra is more associated with the independent style of dance pop music derived from the above mentioned musical accompaniment.The dhol's smaller cousin, the dholaki, is sometimes used instead of or in addition to the dhol. Additional percussion, including tabla, is frequently used in bhangra.
Bhangra has always been popular amongst Punjabi people all over the world, but it has enjoyed a resurgence over the last ten years or so. Its raw traditional sound is often supplemented with contemporary musical styles. In its more recent history, bhangra has been fused with disco, reggae, techno, house, rap, ragga and now jungle. In fact these new styles are so successful that modern bhangra is now being re-exported back to India. Most of this tends to come from desi scene, a subculture found amongst the South Asian diaspora.
Both collegiate and non-collegiate Bhangra competitions are held throughout the world, especially in the United States, Canada, and the UK. Some competitions in the United States include: Bhangra Blowout in Washington, D.C., Bruin Bhangra in Long Beach, California, Bhangra Fusion in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and perhaps the most popular and largest--Dhol Di Awaz in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Museum of Kitsch 
A Rash of Good Behavior
The Chor Bizarre
The majority of Goans are very bohemian. Easy going in nature, enjoying a typical 'tropical lifestyle'; including the 'siesta', which is usually from 1pm to 4pm, the hottest part of the day. Music, dance, drama, food and feni, are a few of the things most Goans are passionate about. 
The suburb of Bandra is the abode of many famous personalities from tinsel world. Aptly referred as 'Queen of the Suburbs',it is largely populated by Catholics and Parsis and is one of the most cosmopolitan areas of Mumbai.
You can shop at Linking Road for footwear and leather goods.Macdonald's located on Linking Road is famous for its fast food. For finest jewellery check in at the jewellery shopslocated on Waterfield Road. The Mount Mary Basilica is located herewhere in September of every year the feast of our Lady of the Mountis celebrated followed by a week-long Fair.
Band Stand is located in Bandra which is ideal for a leisurely stroll in the evening. In fact if you visit this area you will find a lot of families and friends enjoying the fresh air along this seafront and having the famous Indian snack bhel-puri.
The water supply situation in Mumbai is critical, reports the UN, with the level of supply so much below demand that water use is restricted and reaches emergency proportions when the monsoon fails.
The Times of India regularly reports vehicles backing or barreling over children, or rows of sleeping citizens. “Bombay,” wrote V.S. Naipaul in the first sentence of his India: A Million Mutinies Now, “is a crowd.”
