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The Hindu : He walks cautiously. He wears a thick kurta-pyjama and jacket to keep himself warm since he is susceptible to cough and cold too often. When he comes from Paris to Delhi, there are a bunch of people who surround him all the time.So much so, that when he signs an autograph or wants to write a few lines for a young and talented artist, they often stop him. And like an obedient child, he takes their instructions. But Raza understands this all. He may have gone physically weak but his mindis sharp as ever.He smiles, cracks jokes, teases young women andhis speech is full ofashar (couplets).“I have grown old physically. But at heart, I am still young,” he says smiling where author Ashok Vajpaye has invited people to celebrate the artist’s 86th birthday.The occasion is celebrated in a unique way. Filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, who has been close to Raza for long, engages the veteran in a tête-À-tête on the stage. A huge cake for the birthday boy is there too.A visibly happy Raza feels like sharing his heart today. “I am missing my wife (Janine Mongillat) who died seven years ago. We led a happy life for 42 years. She was French. She is buried in our family graveyard in Gorbio where I live. It is a small village of 7,200 people. She is my French connection that will never break. I feel lonely without her. She was my support in my bad days. My works were not selling for a good price earlier. It started happening only for last five years – the times that Janine couldn’t see.”The veteran comes to India every year “to see and touch the soil I am made of”. To keep India alive in his heart, he speaks in Hindustani with Indians in Paris. “I read Bhagwad Gita every day to polish my knowledge of Sanskrit and Acharya Vinova…More

The Hindu : Distinguished German music producer Frank Farian brought them together in the mid 1970’s to realize his calculated dream of being in a band. But Farian never envisioned the fact that the four musicians he had roped in through the auditions willslowly turn into the new faces of the worldwide music scene.It was not Farian’s underestimation of his confederates but their style of presenting music which turned the spotlight on them. Bobby Farrell, Marcia Barrett, Liz Mitchell and Maizie Williams with Reggie Tsiboe morphed from being absolute nobodies into global music icons under the name of Boney M.Their jocund music and stage antics had earned them a massive fan following.The extremely catchy “Daddy Cool”, the opening track of their debut album “Take The Heat off Me” was the cornerstone of their musical careers followed by hits like “Ma Baker” and “Rasputin”, which helped Boney M surf the high waves of pop music.After churning out chart busting numbers for almost a decade, Boney M reached their musical shallow grave in 1985 as producer Frank Farian withdrew his finances to start rock music production.This untimely demise of funds led to an unexpected split which started with Liz Mitchell’s departure. Within a few years, and some line-up changes later, the band crumbled into a piece of history, leaving each member as a solo artist.One such solo artist Marcia Barrett, the only remaining member of Boney M was recently in Bangalore to perform with a new set of musicians as part of Amaze 2008. Marcia, who was born in Jamaica, shifted base to England at a very tender age but this change in environment exposed her to a different kind of music.It was after a brief stint as a solo artist that Marcia joined Boney M, which has been the biggest highlight of her career so far. She believes that good music should have good beats and it should be…More

The Hindu : Shobhana, the National Award-winning actor and a Bharatnatya dancer, has now turned into a storyteller. This star has lent her voice as narrator for an audiobook presentation of Kalidasa’s all-time popular Sanskrit classic, “Abhijnanashakuntalam” in English. The story is interspersed with Sanskrit verses rendered musically. The music has been composed and rendered by the Carnatic, Hindustani and Western classical musician Sriram Parasuram.This release is part of the bestselling Charkha Audiobook series for young adults and adults from Karadi Tales Company.With this narration Shobhana too joins the list of eminent persons — Naseeruddin Shah, Gulzar, Usha Uthup, Girish Karnad, Nandita Das — who have lent their voices to Karadi Tales….More

The Hindu : What did you have for breakfast? Orange juice, cornflakes, toast? Healthy enough, do you think? Not really; this yummy continental spread might mean health to a person in those continents, but for us in the tropics, the food that can bestow optimum health is something else.You are what you eat. The philosopher who said this got it absolutely right. Food is one of the three pillars of health, activity and state of mind. What we eat acts at the cellular level, and affects our psyche too.Tasty truthsCalories, vitamins and minerals… we do keep track of them, but one facet we forget to take into account is taste. Yes! Taste does matter.“Not just calories, minerals and vitamins, our body needs arusuvai or the six tastes to function. Sweet or madura suvai (taste) as in fresh curd, potatoes, idly and rice, sour or amla taste as in tamarind, raw mangoes, etc, salty or lavana taste, katu or pungent taste as in chillies and pepper, bitter or tikta taste as in bitter gourd, kashyapa or the astringent taste as in tea and cocoa… a normal person without any complications needs all of them for proper formation and functioning of the various tissues,” says Dr. V. R. Seshadri, ayurveda expert and superintendent, IMPCOPS Hospital.However, too much of a good thing can be bad. Excess madura can cause diabetes and obesity. Likewise, excess intake of sour stuff can weaken teeth, cause hair fall and gastric acidity. Excess salt intake can cause tooth decay, and weaken bones and eyesight. Excess karam or pungency can cause gastritis and hair fall. Excess intake of bitter food can cause nervous disorders. Excess astringent or kashyapa intake can affect your body’s outflows, be it gastric secretions, lactation, sweat, stools or seminal fluids. Sattvic food, which has less of salt, pungency and sour taste, results in a calm and cool state of mind, says Dr. Seshadri.“A…More

The Hindu : Fashion Weeks come like clockwork. Before the dust settles, controversies die slowly and shipments finally sail for destinations, the next season is ready to conquer the ramps. When business rules, designers do not have much of a choice. The brave hearts put their creativity to test every six months.Matching a season’s pre-requisites with buyer demands and yet staying rooted to domestic realities is a dicey game.“It is a tightrope walk. It is important to set a balance,” says designer Payal Jain.However when the ramps light up, everything takes a back seat. The pomp, shimmer and glamour sweep across and the show and personalities take over. The Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2008 will come alive at the Pragati Maidan once again from tomorrow. The Fashion Design Council of India has persisted with the venue after Spring/Summer 07, but Director General Rathi Vinay Jha refuses to see it as a move to make it a permanent location.“We have to make the best of what we have. Pragati Maidan has been booked for three fashion weeks after this,” says Jha, adding that sticking to the venue depends on its availability.Big namesDesigners like FDCI President Ashish Soni are excited about showcasing at the venue for the first time. He is among the many heavyweights who gave the last WIFW a miss. The big names are back on the ramp this time, be it J.J Valaya, Suneet Varma, Ritu Kumar or Manish Arora.Veterans like Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Rina Dhaka and Rajesh Pratap Singh are among the 60 designers who will have models catwalk in their creations. A few debutants at the last show are among the 84 designers who are part of the WIFW now. Going by their “gut-feeling” Lecoanet Hemant, who kept away from WIFW earlier, make their debut.If the venue was the topic of discussion last time, it is FDCI’s decision to divide designers into…More

The Hindu : Wanted, Pintoo-loversAn ad gets Shoba Natarajan thinking about how we can all be just a little more humaneThere is this advertisement which touched my heart like none other, and kept me pondering about love and peace on earth.Remember? It’s the one where mom is shelling peas…and ugh!… a worm pops out of one of the pods. She is frightened and not very pleased at the sight, instantly pushing away the peas and jumping up from her chair in disgust.Her sweet little boy makes a hero’s entry, picks up the hated worm, gives it a new home (a glass jar) and a juicy leaf to feed on. He even names his new pet “Pintoo”. The ad signs off with the words “Different people, different views”. Wow! What a thought. Kudos to the mind that conceived this idea.Now my little mind starts thinking…if a small child can show so much of love to a worm, imagine wouldn’t the world be a better place, devoid of violence and disputes if each and every one of us has the child’s attitude and knows the value of a life.I wish the number of humanitarian acts outsmart the number of massacres, serial killings and bomb blasts.Why aren’t there more “Pintoo”-lovers on earth? Why are there increasing crime rates and acts of vengeance in headlines these days…why? Why? Why?Is humanity, mutual concern and peace talks fit only for the books?Let more peace lovers be born before mother earth loses her patience.Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst? Pen it stylishly and you might get it published.And dash off your piece with your photograph. Email it to bangaloremetro@thehindu. co.in or post it to MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road), Bangalore 1….More

The Hindu : Listening to some of the more angsty songs on “Songs From the Moony Boom”, one is liable to think of Skinny Alley as a young band, new to the stage, and bursting with the enthusiasm of youth. A more careful listen, however, reveals there’s much more thought and maturity beneath the edgy surface than one initially supposed.But a quiet maturity is par for the course in this sophomore album that carries a combined musical legacy of many decades. “We’ve been playing together in different incarnations for nearly 25 years,” says Jayashree Singh, vocalist and lyricist for this “veteran” band of middle-aged but funkymusicians. For those that came in late, Jayashree and her bandmates Amyt Datta (guitars), Gyan Singh (bass, vocals), Jeffrey Menezes (keyboard, vocals) and Jeffrey Rikh (drums, vocals) are one of the longest-lasting bands on the Indian rock music scene.No surprise then that “Songs From the Moony Boom” encompasses as wide a range of musical styles as one coherent album could cover. From rock to reggae, to funk to fusion to pop to jazz to blues, it’s all here on the album. “We like to call our music eclectic rock or melting pot rock,” informs Jayashree. As for influences: “My God, there are so many… Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Steely Dan — a big influence especially in the early years of writing (that influence is still visible in the way some solos on the album play out), Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, John Cheever, Donald Fagen. The list is endless really.”“Songs From the Moony Boom” represents a distinct change in sound from Skinny Alley’s first effort, 2003’s “Escape The Roar”. “The songs we’d been writing in the four years after ‘Escape the Roar’ had become edgier and edgier, a change from our first album which had a more mellow sound,” explains Jayashree. Interestingly, the band chose to highlight that edgy sound…More

The Hindu : Video watchThis fortnight at seventymm.comA Streetcar Named DesireCast: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl MaldenDirector: Elia KazanScreenplay: Tennessee WilliamsDVDBlanche:What you are talking about is desire – just brutal Desire. The name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another.Stella: Haven’t you ever ridden on that streetcar?Blanche: It brought me here.Is it any surprise that Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for this play? Enough has been written and said about Marlon Brando’s performance as Stanley Kowalski, of the raw sweaty sexuality, of how the performance set the template for actors like Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn. Not that the rest of the cast is anything to be trifled with.There is Vivien Leigh who brings a tough brittleness in her incredibly brave performance as Blanche Du Bois. There is Kim Hunter who turns in a finely-tuned performance as Stella caught between the miasma of desire and decorum and Karl Malden as Blanche’s gentleman suitor, Mitch.But towering over the extraordinary performances, Elia Kazan’s intuitive direction and the claustrophobic sets is the screenplay. It is the hero of the film. Maybe it is just that in these times of laconic one-liners amidst a flurry of razor sharp cuts and slam-bang action, a power-packed screenplay like this needs to be treasured and savoured.“A Streetcar Named Desire” opens with Blanche Du Bois coming to visit her sister, Stella, in the French Quarter. The dainty Blanche seems a world apart from Stella’s husband, the rough and ready Kowalski. Blanche tells her sister she came away to New Orleans to recover from a nervous breakdown.Stanley is suspicious and does a bit of digging around and finds out the true story behind Blanche’s leaving her home town. The tension between Kowalski and Blanche culminates in a predestined horrifying climax.The movie, when it was released in 1951, faced a firestorm of protests. It was…More

The Hindu : Vibrant voyagesThe exhibition reveals how books were important mediators of the transfer of knowledge from India to EuropePAGE FROM HISTORY Van Rheed genuinely respected Malabaris, their knowlege and cultureEight years ago, Kerala-born Annamma Spudich left research and decided to direct her intellectual energies to another interest: the history of Indian scientific traditions in natural sciences. She gave up a lucrative career as a cell biologist at Stanford University, where she had carried on research for twenty-five years.In 2003, Dr. Spudich put together the exhibition “From Forreine Places All the Varietie of Herbs” at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University. She has curated yet another show, “Such Treasure and Rich Merchandize”, which is currently on at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore.Dr. Spudich, who is a scholar-in- residence at NCBS, quotes from Prof. Donald Lach’s “Asia in the Making of Europe.”“The remarkable story of knowledge Europeans encountered is often a foot note to the imaginative daring of the European voyages of discovery.”In her introduction of the exhibition catalogue, she explains how the spice trade was the principal context of contact between Asia and Europe in the early modern era; how until the middle of the 18th century, botanicals from India were important ingredients of European life as culinary additives, medicines, and luxury items like perfumes, aromatics and unguents for religious rituals; and how the wealth of botanical knowledge from indigenous medical traditions and centuries-old agricultural practices made its way into several European books.The exhibition revolves around seven European books published during that period. It includes Garcia da Orta’s book “Colloquies on the Simples, Drugs and Materia Medica of India” published in Goa in 1563; John Huyghen van Linschoten’s “Itinerario” published in Holland in 1596; John Gerard’s “The Greate Herball” published by John Norton, London in 1597; and van Rheede’s “Hortus Indicus Malabaricus” (12 volumes) published in Amsterdam between 1678 and 1693.According to…More

The Hindu : Cricket is a treasure house of quirky facts. Gulu Ezekiel wanted to put down some of these aspects in a book. The result is “The Penguin Book Of Cricket Lists”. Which Indian pace bowler fractured his finger when his hand got stuck in a postbox? The answercan be found in the Gulu’s book. “I have tried to bring to light aspects of the lives of some cricketers which give them a different dimension rather than just runs scored/wickets taken.”According to Gulu, the project began during his school days about 35 years back. “For years I have been collecting trivia on players but never in a formal manner. Since I had so much information collated over the years, the actual part of putting it down in a book took just eight months. I did a lot of research from my own vast library of books and magazines.” For this particular book Gulu wanted photographs that had not been published before. He contacted players like Ashok Mankad and Paul Dunkels for their personal photos. “It took many months to get in touch with Dunkels.”The photo of Rahul Sanghvi was taken in a bookshop in Delhi during the release of one of Gulu’s books in 1999. “I was lucky the photographer snapped him while he was browsing the Wisden in which it was first printed.” Gulu says, “I feel the way the trivia has been categorised makes it different from other books of such a genre.”VIJAY LOKAPALLY…More