At the tender age of 18, Sonal Mansingh began dancing professionally. In a career of fifty-five years, she has given many mesmerizing performances in Bharatnatyam, Odissi, and Chhau.
Mansingh has travelled the world for her dance and won many accolades. Here are five momentous performances by her that make us want to go back in time and witness them.
Read more about her illustrious dance career in Sonal Mansingh: A Life Like No Other.
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6 Quotes by Amit Chaudhuri that Showcase His Brilliance
The author of six novels, his first major work of non-fiction, Calcutta: Two Years in the City, was published in the UK and India in 2013. His first novel, A Strange and Sublime Address, is included in Colm Toibin and Carmen Callil’s Two Hundred Best Novels of the Last Fifty Years.
Here are 6 quotes by Amit Chaudhuri that’ll enrich every reader’s life.
On the nature of history.
A poet’s view on love.
On the bottomless depths of a woman’s heart.
How class division changes perceptions.
His views on writing.
On a feeling many share.
Amit Chaudhuri’s latest – Friend of my Youth is, like all his previous works, a treasure trove of beautiful moments and glorious quotes that’ll leave you breathless.
5 Ways to Transform the Space in Your House to Eden
Whether it’s a neglected balcony, a cluttered verandah, or a bare stairway, Gardening in Urban India will show you ways on how these spaces can be revived with a careful selection of plants and accessories. Get inspired by a range of styles, layouts, and techniques to create your own green space.
Here are just 5 of the many ways you can transform that extra space into a beautiful area.
Patio and Verandah
An extension of the living area, patios and verandahs are just the right spaces for small gardens. Most patios are made on concrete or stone bases. A raised wooden base, or deck, lends a more warm and natural look to a patio.
Balcony
Give your apartment’s balcony a makeover by using the walls, railings, and the floor for creating multiple levels of greenery. Assess the space available, and factor in the amount of sun and wind your space gets to determine the plants that will do well in your balcony.
Outdoor Space
Be it a moderately sized front lawn, or a small, cosy backyard, outdoor spaces can be designed to reflect your personal style. Experiment with different seating ideas, varieties of foliage, accessories and pathways.
Terrace
Rooftop gardens are excellent examples of breaking away from the traditional ground-level garden. Make sure you place the major weight of your pots along the edges, and keep the middle, the weakest part of your terrace structure, free
Window
Instead of leaving windows bare, treat them as small extensions of your home. Paint them in bright colours, hang plants in pots, or frame them with trailing climbers. For apartment windows, use planters that can withstand strong winds and sun on the outside.
How excited are you to start transforming your home?
Master on the Doyens of Indian Classical Music
Veteran musician and sarod maestro, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, in his Master on Masters, writes a deeply personal book about the lives and times of some of the greatest icons of Indian classical music. Having known these stalwarts personally, he recalls anecdotes and details about their individual musical styles, bringing them alive.
In writing about them, the maestro transcends the Gharana and north-south divide and presents portraits of these great artists that are drawn with affection, humour and warmth.
Have you heard these legends before?
7 Quotes by Perumal Murugan that Describe a Difficult Childhood
Perumal Murugan’s works provide a poignant commentary on the religious and caste practices prevalent in the society. His stories vividly capture the pain a person from the lower strata of society goes through every day.
His novel Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Award, is merciless in its portrayal of the daily humiliations of untouchablility. It also evokes the grace with which the oppressed come to terms with their dark fate. Shorty, the central character of Murugan’s novel is one such young untouchable who is in bondage to a powerful landlord.
Here are a few quotes from the book that will give you a glimpse of Shorty’s hardships:
Being Awakened by a Stinging Whiplash
When You Can’t Wash Off Your Stink
Untouchable and Barred from Touching
When the Bare Necessities Turn into Luxury
A Paid Slave
Not-so-Good-Morning
When Your Days Are Like Empty Bowls
Aren’t they painful yet powerful? Tell us what do you think.
A Peek into a Reader’s World
Books are fascinating! They house many worlds, people, and emotions in them. And people who read them, i.e.: booklovers, slowly begin to embody these worlds. The reader often walks into the world of a book, but have you ever thought about how a book or its story become a part of a reader’s daily life? Has it ever happened to you that a story or character’s words seemed most appropriate in your life situation? (Happens to us every day!)
As the day of books is upon us, we decided to take you through some daily life situations where words from a book seemed to fit in all too perfectly.
When your always hungry colleague announces it’s lunch time during a meeting.
When your BFF throws you a Draw 4 card in UNO. Oh, the betrayal!
Your colleague when you need to stay back late. On a Friday.
When your in-laws decide to stay at your place for some time.
When you stay away from home for the first time and all you can cook is Maggi.
The salesman trying to get you to buy that Rs. 8,000 shawl.
Your dog, when he doesn’t care you are going to punish him.
Can you relate?
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan – A Bio
A distinguished maestro in the field of playing the sarod, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is popularly known as the “Sarod Samrat“. He is the sixth generation sarod player in his family. The credit of modifying the sarod as a classical instrument goes to his ancestors of the Bangash lineage originating from Senia Bangash School of Music.
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan was born on 9th October 1945 at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. His father Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan was a musician in the court of the royal family of Gwalior. Hafiz Ali Khan received training from the descendants of Miyan Tansen, considered one of the greatest musicians produced by India. Amjad Ali Khan was the youngest son in his family. His first tutor was his father and he began playing at a very young age.
Amjad Ali Khan gave his first solo recital at the age of twelve. His love for the instrument and passion for music made him famous and one of the greatest sarod players of all time. Amjad Ali Khan has a unique way of playing the sarod with his fingernails instead of his fingertips. This gives a clear ringing sound but is the most difficult technique to apply on the sarod. Khan has composed many ragas of his own like Kiran Ranjani, Haripriya Kanada, Shivanjali, Shyam Shri, Suhag Bhairav, Lalit Dhwani, Amiri Todi, Jawahar Manjari and Bapukauns. He has acquired international acclaim by composing for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, a piece titled Tribute to Hong Kong. The other musicians involved with this project were guitarist Charley Byrd, Violinist Igor Frolov, Suprano Glenda Simpson, Guitarist Barry Mason and UK Cellist Matthew Barley.
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has given performances in Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Kennedy Center, The House of Commons, Mozart Hall in Frankfurt, Chicago Symphony Center, St. James Palace and the Opera House in Australia. The maestro has received Honorary Citizenship in the states of Texas, Massachusetts, Tennessee and the city of Atlanta.
Amjad Ali Khan is the first north Indian artist to have performed in honour of Saint Thyagaraja at the Thiruvaiyur shrine. He has been a recipient of many awards like Padmashree Award, Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Tansen Award, UNESCO Award, UNICEF National Ambassadorship, Padma Bhushan, International Music Forum Award, etc.
Amjad Ali Khan has two sons who are promising sarod players, hinting that the legacy shall live on.
What does a City Ravaged by War Look Like?
Everyday hearing the news makes war seem like a very real possibility. But do we really know what happens to a city when it is hit by war?
In Exit West – a heartrending story of love in the time of a refugee crisis – Mohsin Hamid paints a searing picture of a city torn by war and the destruction that the people go through.
Here are some of heartbreaking moments from Mohsin Hamid’s new novel.
Do you, too, have a war-time experience to share? Share with us!
The Woman Jinnah Fell in Love With
The news of Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s marriage to Ruttie Petit in 1918 shook pre-partitioned India. Everyone wondered about this woman who had made the serene yet strait-laced national leader fall in love with her.
Sheela Reddy in her exhaustive Mr. and Mrs. Jinnah paints an interesting portrait of the enchanting Ruttie Petit Jinnah.
Wasn’t she enigmatic? Tell us how you perceive Ruttie Jinnah.
STAR: The Mantra to Develop a Caring Mindset
Subir Chowdhury has helped numerous corporations to climb up the ladder of success in the course of his career. However, he has observed that while some companies benefit only marginally from the training others do exponentially well.
Chowdhury credits ‘a caring mindset’ as the difference in the performance of the two companies. Furthermore, he states that a caring mindset contains four facets.
The four facets make up a useful and memorable acronym: STAR. Here’s what it stands for:
Do you agree with Subir Chowdhury?
