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FOLK
For Future
Our soul-stirring folk songs are often born out of struggle. Now, these folk music traditions, like Punjab’s
Jugni, are being reinvented to connect them to GenNext and how!
Nirupama Dutt takes a look
Music
is indeed the food for love, as Baba Shakespeare indicated. It is
played on not just for love but also for struggle, messaging and
change, as the SMS generation would put it. Folk music, a part of the
collective consciousness, has the power to connect thousands by just
the striking of a few notes or singing out of a verse and it has been
a vibrant medium always for the songs of struggle.
The Jugni fusion number by Arif Lohar and Meesha Shafi has been on top of the charts for over a year
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Kabirvani plays the role of connecting people even today
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Princess who refused to pay taxes
Princess Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh was one of the prominent figures in the movement to secure women’s right to vote in Great Britain, writes
Dr Kanwarjit Singh Kang
Princess
Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh, who emerged as a champion in the cause
of women’s rights, was born on August 8, 1876 at Elveden in England.
She was the fifth of six children of Maharaja Duleep Singh and his
first wife, Bamba Muller. She was named Sophia after her mother’s
mother and at her christening Queen Victoria became her godmother.
Sharks in trouble
Sharks
are in big trouble on the
Great Barrier Reef in Australia and worldwide, according to scientists
who claim to have developed the world’s first way to measure rates
of decline in shark population. "There is mounting
evidence of widespread, substantial, and ongoing declines in the
abundance of shark populations worldwide, coincident with marked rises
in global shark catches in the last half-century," said lead
scientist Mizue Hisano at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef
Studies.
Frog jumps back from extinction
Jeffrey Heller
They
thought it had croaked. But missing for a half-century and listed as
extinct in 1996, the Hula painted frog has been spotted again in
northern Israel, its only known habitat. "The species now
has another chance to survive," Israel’s Nature and Parks
Authority have said, reporting that one of its inspectors had come
across the frog in the Hula Valley and that it had been placed in a
protective facility.
Brain – storming session
The study represented the first direct evidence of how the brain combines multiple sources of sensory information to form as accurate a perception as possible of its environment
Have
you ever wondered how we make accurate perception of environment out
of smell, taste, hear, view and touch. Now, a team of scientists at
the University of Rochester, Washington University in St. Louis, and
Baylor College of Medicine has solved the mystery.
Style over tradition
Haryana has seen a major transformation in dress and culture. The new generation is following the pattern set by filmstars and models, writes
Bijendra Ahlawat
There
has been hardly a doubt about the fact that vibrancy of the people of
Haryana finds expression in their lifestyle. Their simplicity and
spirited enthusiasm for life is quite evident in their way of
dressing. While the dress of the people has been generally simple, the
way of dressing and clothing appears to have undergone a sea change
over the past few decades, and the residents of the state have been
very much a part of the ongoing transformation due to urbanisation.
Yoga in America
For over 50 million Americans today, yoga has become a part of their routine, says Pheroze
Khareghat
Historically,
Americans have been characterised by acquisition, capitalism and
materialism, action and achievement as opposed to, say, contemplation
and introspection. Thus, even from the standpoint of psychological
makeup, the inward qualities of`A0yoga go against the grain of many
Americans.
Romancing the Rann
The unforgiving environment of Kutch brings out the best in the people who live there. Their colourful thatched, bhungas (huts), and bright and intricate embroidery are expressions of their soaring artistic spirit, write
Hugh and Colleen Gantzer
They
were high-stepping in their own reflections like timorous ballet
dancers. This was on a drive on the road from Gujarat’s Bhuj to
Hodka in the scrub and saline wildernesses of the Banni lands of the
Rann of Kutch. In an unexpected stretch of marsh, a flock of
flamingoes foraged fastidiously. The more shellfish they found, the
more they plonked.
Sunderbans out of wonders race
Sunderbans, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is the single largest block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest. It was recently voted out of the provisional list of the ‘New Seven Wonders of Nature’, writes
Pradipta Tapadar
With
Sunderbans voted out of
the race for the ‘New Seven Wonders of Nature’, tourism industry
insiders say the world’s single largest block of mangrove forests
may have lost a golden opportunity to become a global destination for
wildlife tourism.
Akshay’s gurudakshina
Very
few know that it was TV actress Pratima Kazmi, popular for her role as
the waspish-tongued Nani of Uttaran, who taught struggling
Akshay Kumar Hindi, and after two decades the star offered to give her
gurudakshina. At the first edition of Colors’ Golden Petal
Awards here recently, Akshay made this revelation. "I have
something to tell you all about this lady," Akshay said as he
spotted Kazmi at the awards function.
AN uncommon
life
Biopics on the lives of film stars often underline the theme that despite their stardom, these superstars have little control over their lives, writes
M. L. Dhawan
In
the formulae-ridden film world, only a handful films have been made on
film icons so far. Most of these films took up issues like financial
mismanagement by actors, how they got cheated or exploited, their
string of broken relationships; and how behind the pomp and show of
the tinsel town, they lived lonely lives and met with tragic ends.
Often their heart-breaking affairs and dwindling career graphs took
them towards the path of self-destruction. The common theme in such
films is that despite their stardom, these superstars had no control
over their lives.
Veena Malik’s horror act
Subhash K. Jha
Pakistani
actress Veena Malik is
busy shooting a 3D horror movie in a jungle in southern India. Though
the destination is being kept a secret for security reasons, Veena
says she is having a lot of fun and adventure shooting the film.
FRUIT FACTS
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