Jodhpur: soaring high!

Jodhpur: beating the blues... contd... As mentioned in the previous post, Jodhpur is famous for its textiles, arts and crafts. Even today, its woodcarvers create some of the most popular contemporary furniture that are found online - just Google for 'Jodhpur furniture' and check the results! You have to walk around the old city to...

Jodhpur: beating the blues

Jodhpur. It is not just another city. It is an offering. Of everything stunning in nature: desert, sunrise, sunset, mist, flora and fauna. All beautifully entwined in the local history, arts, architecture, crafts, textiles, design, and cuisine. Much loved by its inhabitants. Jodhpur is a treasure. History: Jodhpur was established by Rao Jodha in 1459,...

“People who love to eat are always the best people.”

  "People who love to eat are always the best people." Julia Child An American chef, author and very famous TV anchor, Julia Child established French food in the American palate. If you haven't seen Meryl Streep play her in the film 'Julie & Julia' then you ain't seen nothing! Every festival in India has...

Water! We will always need you but we treat you bad :(

Delhi was the hottest ever on 10th June, 2019 - parts of it was 48 degrees!!! This will go down in history. In the 21st century, our generation has managed to make it to the global historical timeline with the most atrocious events, including the world heading towards a huge water scarcity. According to the...

How Accessible is India?

Back to India’s realities: In India, post my London return in 2015 November, I was upbeat about creating accessible and inclusive spaces but everything changed with the research here. I became extremely disappointed that I was not able to find visitor surveys or statistics here. Most of our museums do not even know how many...

What makes Indian Textiles so exquisite?

    A wide variety of beautiful textiles ranging from embroideried, woven, printed and painted comprise India’s rich textile heritage. For most of us, there is a familiarity with most of the textiles coming from all parts of India – like Banarasi, Baluchari, Chikankari, Kalamkari, Kanthas, Kanchivaram, Ikat etc. The skill of Indian weavers is...

Ganesha: the Elephant God

Lord Ganesha or ‘Ganapati’ denoting the Lord of the Ganas, is also known as Ekadanta, Gajamukha, Lambodara. The eldest son of Lord Shiva and Parvati, he is considered the ‘manas’ or mind if Shiva is ‘atman’ or the soul. He is worshipped for his various qualities in the beginning of all religious rituals as he...

Love, Pyaar, Amor @Bombay to Barcelona Library Café

The World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen 1995) declared that an inclusive society is a “society for all in which every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to play”. 13 years later, this definition was changed by the Expert Group Meeting on Promoting Social Integration, Helsinki, to: “An inclusive society is...

Am I “sic” enough for History classes :)

This is part 1 of my History class posts - no, don't worry, I won't teach History 🙂 I'll just share with you my experiences of teaching History to a very, very futuristic AR, VI & AI oriented generation. To the less initiated, like I was at the beginning of these classes, AR is Augmented...

The Santiniketan Express: to melody and peace

I took the train Santiniketan Express from Howrah at 10.10 am to go to Santiniketan, my parents' present home. It is a place where my parents shifted to nearly 20 years back from their earlier home of nearly 25 years, Jaipur. They decided to spend the rest of their life at this idyllic hamlet called...