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Gem of a
Maharaja
Patwant
Singh and Jyoti M. Rai’s book
on Maharaja Ranjit Singh reveals different facets of the
charismatic founder of the powerful Sikh empire. Excerpts:
| THE administration of
Lahore was a model that Ranjit Singh replicated throughout his
extensive territories. He was determined to create an administrative
system undiluted by religious prejudices, political affiliations,
preference for family connections, regional and caste loyalties or
countless other pulls and pressures that made a mockery of just
governance. Despite the disparate and potentially destructive elements
he had to keep in control, he was determined to strengthen his rule
not through intimidation or state terror but by providing good
governance. |
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‘The Renaissance
began in China’
Leonardo da Vinci’s
designs for machines can be traced back to the transfer of Chinese
knowledge, says Gavin Menzies in his latest book, writes Tim
Castle
Leonardo
da Vinci’s
drawings of machines are uncannily similar to Chinese originals and
were undoubtedly derived from them, a British amateur historian says
in a newly published book. Gavin Menzies sparked
headlines across the globe in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors
reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus.
Wrestling
for fame
Chandgi Ram Akhara in Delhi
is home to about 15 girls between 14 and 20 years. In a world where
wrestling has been a male preserve, ‘Guruji’ wants the girls to
make a mark, writes Preeti Verma Lal
IT
is a Sunday evening. A frail man on a parked motor cycle beats a drum
briskly. There is not much rhythm to the beats but the crowd is
milling around Maulana Azad Park, near Jama Masjid, Delhi. An old man
with a beard is guarding the green iron gate. He lets people in only
after they have dropped Rs 2 into his plastic bag.
Much ado about size zero
Shakuntala Rao
DOES anyone remember
Rekha from her early hits of Ganga Ki Saugandh, Khoon Pasina
and Aakraman? I do. As a precocious teenager, I enjoyed
emulating Rekha’s scintillating dance numbers in front of my bedroom
mirror, providing a good laugh for my parents and siblings. Rekha came
across, in numerous Stardust and Filmfare photo shoots,
as the quintessential Indian beauty but no size zero.
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Chinese dancers perform the thousand-hand Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva or Guan Yin, a Chinese goddess, at the Olympic village in Beijing.
— Photo by Reuters
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In Shiva’s abode
While shopping for saris Tanushree Podder
discovers the temple town of Maheshwar near Indore
THE gossamer texture of
the Maheshwari saris, lauded by the hoi polloi, became a reason behind
the visit to an exotic but dusty little town on the banks of Narmada.
"Maheshwar is just an hour’s drive from here," said an
Indore shopkeeper when asked about where the beautiful saris were
being made.
Kasauli’s changing
ambience
Maj Gen Himmat Singh
Gill (retd)
IN the fading light on
the lower Mall as the mist surrounds the hillside, the hill station of
Kasauli finds itself confronted with a noisy and overcrowded present
in vivid contrast to the unhurried ambience of a past gone by. The
past has all but faded with a few exceptions here and there. It still
lives in a painting in the Kasauli Club that shows the first troops
that came to Kasauli.
Singh-King
feeling
Punjabis on screen have
charmed audiences with their exuberance, writes M.
L. Dhawan
Whenever
a filmmaker has
shown a leading man in a turban on the screen, it has always worked
wonders. Besides adding to the intrigue, such characters pay a tribute
to the gregarious and boisterous Punjabi community. While driving behind a
truck on the highway, Akshay Kumar was amused by the slogan
"SINGH IS KING" written on its rear panel.
Bengali cinema goes
global
Shoma A. Chatterji
Antaheen
(eternal)
is the title of a Bengali film directed by Aniruddha Roy Choudhury,
whose maiden feature Anuranan, won the National Award for the
Best Regional Film (Bengali) this year. The film may spell out a
different story. But it points out the eternal possibilities of cinema
as a universal language with a fluidity that transcends barriers of
geography, language, culture and class.
Get
set for space wedding
Getting
hitched in a 17th-century palace might be all super stylish, but from
Japan, comes news of a new wedding venue that will surely score even
higher — space. A Japanese wedding company is to provide a service
that will allow couples to get married in space.
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