These days, more than ever, artistic performances are not just creative, they seem to have a message to convey.
ANJU MAKHIJA
In my columns, I’ve often mentioned that in India, culture ‘happens’ on the streets. Be it the Ganpati or Holi festival, every lane vibrates with art, music and other activities. In Mumbai’s old local [...]

‘Braveheart.’ That’s one name which refuses to go away from our minds.  Newspapers in Mumbai, and almost every Indian city, are relentlessly writing about the horrific incident. ‘Braveheart.’  She was brutally gang-raped in Delhi and later died despite all efforts to save her.  There was great hue and cry all over the country. Candle vigils, [...]

Indians have always celebrated their traditional festivals be it Diwali, Holi or Navratri. In the past years, this festival spirit has gripped the contemporary cultural scene in a big way.

I wonder if it is a good – or bad – sign that British tears have become fashionable in public. The first such spectacle was late in the 20th Century, (1997), when grown men bawled openly and unashamedly on hearing about the sudden tragic death of “The People’s Princess”.

By Chitra Sundaram
“Blessed Ramadan”
Appearing all on its own, on a quotidian New Jersey highway billboard, with no context of mosque or masjid, the unprecedented gold-on-green signage was out of place, confusing, and even provocative: it was nearly September, the month of the tenth anniversary of “9/11″, and it seemed a seriously hard enough time to [...]

By Chitra Sundaram
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow,
Bloom and grow….
Forever.
Edelweiss, edelweiss,
Bless my homeland forever.
Thus sang Captain von Trapp at the Kaltzberg Festival in Austria before he escaped across the border to Switzerland with his large family in tow. Or, so we learned from the blockbuster film The Sound of Music - an adapted [...]

A Series of Eight inter-disciplinary lectures at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
Conceptualized by Alok Bhalla;
co-ordinated by Alka Pande and Malashri Lal
The India Habitat Centre (IHC) in collaboration with Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi presented an innovative series titled “Word and Image: Ramayana and Visual Imagination in India” (March to May 2011) offering illustrated talks or [...]

IMF/WORLD BANK sanctimony exposed
Palash Kamruzzaman
The World Bank and IMF have proposed the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) framework for all poor countries as a condition of receiving unconditional debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. The PRSPs will also be the key vehicle for the World Bank and IMF and other donors for various assistance packages, [...]

By Chitra Sundaram
Sringara – A Journey of Desire: Seeta Patel/Mavin Khoo June 14th ROH
When, instead of vocalised thavil syllables, the svara-s of a mallari composition fill the air, we know that the evening’s presentation of Bharatanatyam will be different. At the far end of a diagonal corridor of muted light, the dancer comes into soft [...]

By Chitra Sundaram
So who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? A slumdog millionaire? No cheers? Not in India, not quite.
The Indians are ambivalent in praise, or protesting the film: “The ones who love the film are all outside! Even the ‘Indian’ hero is British! They’ve exposed, exploited and appropriated our poverty! They think they are [...]