On a cold winter evening in December 1919, the PL Vaidya household at Naya Bazar, just outside the walled city, north of the Lahori Gate, was abuzz with activity. Around 20-25 Marathi families from the area had gathered to form the ‘Maharashtriya Sneh Samvardhak Samaj’. As the new Capital was being built—in 1911, a few years ago, the Capital of British India had been shifted from Calcutta to New Delhi—people from across India came here for jobs. Educated Marathi families came here from what was then the Bombay Presidency.

After railway finances separated from general finances in 1925, around 150 Marathi families—employees of Great Indian Peninsular Railways (now the Central Railways) and Bombay Baroda and Central India Railways (now the Western Railways)—came to Delhi. They too rented places at Naya Bazar, mostly near the erstwhile Novelty cinema. “My father Balwant Wasudev Paranjape was transferred here in 1927,” says Madhukar Paranjape, 81.

Initially, they faced language problems. “But slowly, the community picked up the language and adjusted to the extreme Delhi weather,” says Paranjape, who after initial education at the school run by Samaj, studied at Ramjas High School and then at School of Planning and Architecture (SPA).

In 1937, the Dilli Maharashtriya Samaj Building Trust collected donations for a new building—Brihan Maharashtra Bhavan opposite Paharganj police station. Then in 1952, Maharashtriya Shikshan Sanstha was formed to run Nutan Marathi Shala at Aaram Bagh nearby.

Around the same time, scores of Marathis joined administration and made Karol Bagh their home. They formed the Maratha Mitra Mandal in early 1950s. “My husband Shrikrishna Sathe cleared UPSC and joined the railway ministry. Like him, most of his friends living in Karol Bagh joined different ministries,” says Neela Sathe, who came here after marriage.

With increasing population, a kindergarten was set up, which is now the Chougule High School. People came together to celebrate Club Day at two places, at the Maratha Mitra Mandal for the entire family and the ladies-only Rani Lakshmibai Samaj.

Dattatreya Mahadev Joshi set up Bombay Stores at Karol Bagh in the early 1950s. It was taken care of by his two sons. “They kept all the typical items for a Marathi house. Be it Maharashtrian goda masala, Diwali goodies or Ganapati idols for Ganesh festival,” says Leena Shahane, 63, Joshi’s daughter. The brothers home-delivered Marathi newspapers and ‘Diwali Ank’, the Diwali special editions of newspapers and magazines. The Joshis ran the shop till 1992.

Things began changing at a fast pace after the 1970s with increased amalgamation of the community with Delhi. Observes Prasanna Sathe, son of Shrikrishna Sathe, “My son and my brother’s children are third generation Delhi Marathis. We feel ours is a good mix of Marathi and Dilli culture.”

It is evident from the fact that for many families, along with the puran poli and shrikhand (Maharashtrian sweet dishes), rajma chawal and chhole bhature are a regular fare. Adds Joshi’s grandson Shyamkant, “We speak Marathi at home and are equally at ease with Hindi. We eat food prepared in typical Maharashtrian way. But otherwise we are pucca Delhiites.”

Hindustan Times, 8th July 2011

Sambhaji Rajah Bhonsle stands beside a magnificent, antique 6ft X 4ft Thanjavur art portrait of his great-great-great-great grandfather Maharaja Serfoji Rajah Bhonsle (1798-1833) under whose patronage the famous Thanjavur style of painting reached its apogee of excellence.

Serfoji himself was a painter of the art form as is his direct descendant, Sambhaji. He is a State award winner whose use of colours and expressive faces give a special focus to his frames. Sambhaji's resplendent, bejewelled Gajalakshmi against a lotus ‘malai' as well as Sita caught in a Thai pose with Thai facial features and costume are indicative of his artistic, innovative streak. The portrait of Chandramouliswaran is yet another compelling piece while there are many portraits of Radha Krishna, Muruga, court scenes, etc., on display at the exhibition currently on in the city.

Sambhaji uses both herbal and poster colours to create his paintings. For the base cloth he uses a tamarind seed paste and hard rock powder mixed with gum. Over this base he does freehand sketching, embedding kundan stones and embossing work, both time consuming processes. Detailing of jewellery such as etching, etc. will be done next, along with sticking of 25 carat gold foil. After three layers of colouring and more detailing of face and form the picture is complete.

Family ties
What led this scion of Maratha royalty to wield the paint brush? “Thanjavur art is our heritage,” says Sambhaji Bhonsle. “Both my grandfather and father took up painting as a hobby. So from a young age I was exposed to it. I learnt the nuances from palace painter Kuppuswamy and have been painting for the past 25 years. I got the Tamil Nadu State Government award for my depiction of Bhoomadevi, Andal…” He trains students in this art form free of charge.

Along with Sambhaji's work, ‘Ovia Kalanjiyam 2011' also has on view some exquisite, antique Thanjavur art pieces executed in a bygone era by palace artists. Mellow, gilded with old gold charm and wonderfully delineated figures, some of the huge frames have protective doors. These include a stunning 5ft x 4 ft Ramar Pattabhisekam executed in a distinct style and presentation, and a Sivalingam with Siva etched on it, again a mélange of mellow loveliness. Also on display are Orissa's palm leaf craft done by master artisans, silk paintings of birds and flowers and ‘Phad' paintings from Rajasthan. Realistic reproductions of Ravi Varma's paintings in big sizes compel attention with their soft colours.

Srushti's ‘Ovia Kalanjiyam 2011' exhibition of traditional paintings by award winning artists is on view at Srushti, Sudarsan Building (Ground Floor, Opposite Park Sheraton Hotel) Alwarpet, till June 22.

The Hindu, 8th July 2011

The idea of heritage walks is not new to the Capital. While several groups, organisations and individuals have been organising such walks, which usually cover a certain area of the city at a time, there has been a lack of sustained effort to involve people across all ages and income groups to take interest in their city's heritage.

The Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation (SRDC), the autonomous agency engaged in promoting conservation of built and natural heritage in the National Capital Region, is planning several new initiatives to promote heritage as an inclusive exercise. One of these is heritage walks that the Corporation has organised over the past few months in different areas of Delhi.

According to SRDC heritage consultant Navina Jafa, the idea of heritage walks that usually take place in the Capital is limiting. “Most of these exclude the non-English speaking people at the very outset. Therefore, walks organised by SRDC are largely conducted in Hindi or are bilingual,” she says.

The “walking exhibits”, as Dr. Jafa refers to these walks, are free and open to all. They are distinct as they try to involve people from all age-groups and classes in the city.

The SRDC works with students through its association with the Central Board of Secondary Education, resident welfare associations (RWAs) through sub-divisional magistrates, locals engaged in the trades in the heritage area and senior citizens through special programmes.

It is also looking at creating jobs as a way of involving more people. The Corporation recently invited applications for training “walk leaders” who would lead groups through the heritage of a specific area. “Twelve potential candidates were chosen out of 83 applications to be trained as walk leaders. Jobs will be created for them by SRDC and we also hope to engage them with Delhi Tourism's Ho-Ho bus service,” says Dr. Jafa.

Dr. Jafa also plans to tie up with the Delhi Government's gender resource centre component of Mission Convergence to cater to tourists keen on knowing the history of the city. “Since there are no RWAs in unauthorized neighbourhoods, we will train six to nine girls who speak different regional languages and employ them in places frequented by regional tourists,” she says, adding that if the pilot project works well, their numbers could be increased gradually.

The SRDC has been promoting itself largely through word of mouth and social networking platforms. The SRDC heritage coordinator and programmer Pooja Trehan handles the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts of SRDC.

“We have a following of around 50 people on the Facebook page. In addition to RWAs, we have also tied up with around 200 schools in Delhi and trained around 165 teachers for heritage-related programmes,” says Ms. Trehan.

The response, she says, has been encouraging since the last two walks considering the number of people who attended the walks held in Mehrauli Archaeological Park and Hazrat Nizammuddin Dargah Complex last month.

The Hindu, 8th July 2011

How one man can contain two opposite creative sensibilities — and creative strategies — has been an old puzzle. As a poet, writer of novels, short stories and songs, Rabindranath Tagore not only celebrated nature and all things within its realm, but also made a pantheistic creed out of it that typecast him (not incorrectly) as high priest of lyrical romanticism. And yet the man, who entered the world of visual arts in earnest at the age of 63, was an artist in love with pure form, creating shapes that didn’t have equivalents in nature.

Tagore’s Paintings is essentially a collection of essays on Tagore’s art by the late historian of art and artist Sovon Som that charts Tagore’s movement into art and then from abstraction to figurative images. With superb lucidity and providing examples, Som underlines how different this trajectory was from that of other contemporary modern artists such as Kandinsky, Miro and Jackson Pollock who took the usual direction of starting from representative art and moving into unfettered abstraction.

Som puts Tagore’s ‘radical’ journey as an artist in the context of his being an outsider in the world of visual art. Tagore’s art emanated from doodles that were corrections and deletions in the manuscripts he was writing. As Som states, “...but for these corrections and deletions, these self-referential and self-generated forms would not have appeared.”

Tagore himself saw his art as a rejection of — or at least an escape from — the real world under nature’s thrall. “A rose is a rose and nothing else. It does not express any emotion or keep concealed any philosophy; it has no words but only cadence of lines and modulation of colour... it does not instruct or inform, or represent anything further than what it contains in itself,” he wrote in 1932, two years after his debut exhibition at the Galerie Pigalle in Paris. As Som points out, Tagore almost echoes Andre Breton’s 1924 manifesto of surrealism that underlined the importance of art as an antidote to the real world outside.

This slim book has great colour reproductions. But it is Som’s scholarly and convincing text that provides the images with context — despite an ugly typo (“A strange face uninvited/hovers before my brush...” has horrifically become “hoovers before my brush”.)

Hindustan Times, 9th July 2011

The collection being unearthed at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram principally comprises contributions from the Travancore kings over a long period, say researchers.

Several kings of the Travancore dynasty, from Anizhom Thirunal Marthanda Varma (regnal years 1729 to 1758 CE) to Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma who passed away in 1991, would have contributed handsomely to the treasures that have been discovered at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, say scholars knowledgeable about the history of the dynasty and the royal family. An inventory of the fabulous collection, kept in secret subterranean vaults near the sanctum of the temple, is under way on orders from the Supreme Court.

Anizhom Thirunal would have made the most significant contribution, assert scholars.

Anizhom Thirunal, known as the architect of Travancore state, was a far-sighted ruler. It was during his rule that the temple got its present shape. In her book Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple (1995), Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi, a member of the Travancore royal family, calls him “the maker of the modern Travancore.”

Those who hold the view that Anizhom Thirunal made priceless gifts to the temple include M.G. Sasibhooshan, author of several books on Kerala's arts, history and culture; T. Satyamurthy, former Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (Chennai Circle); K.K. Ramamurthy, former Superintending Archaeologist, ASI (Thrissur Circle); and S. Balusami, Associate Professor of Tamil at Madras Christian College in Chennai. Dr. Satyamurthy was Director of the Kerala Archaeology Department from 1988 to 1993, on deputation from the ASI.

Every Travancore king would have made priceless gifts to them: this was their consensus. The kings' commanders, merchants and other devotees would also have made donations.

Foreign donations
Another important contributor to the wealth was Bhoothala Veera Marthanda Varma of the 16th century CE. He belonged to the Venad dynasty, a forerunner to the Travancore dynasty, said Dr. Balusami. Bhoothala Veera Marthanda Varma expanded Venad territory by capturing the area around the Tamiraparani river belt in southern Tamil Nadu, and his rule extended up to Kayal village near present-day Tuticorin. He built palaces for himself at Padmanabhapuram and Kalakkad, in what is now Tamil Nadu. There is a sculpture of Bhoothala Veera Marthanda Varma in the Satya Vagisvarar temple at Kalakkad near Tirunelveli.

Even Admiral Eustatius De Lennoy, who led the Dutch East India Company's forces which Anizhom Thirunal's forces defeated in 1741 in the Colachel war, made donations to the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple. “That's why you have Dutch coins, Belgium cut-glasses and Portuguese coins in the vaults,” said Mr. Ramamurthy. Admiral Eustatius De Lennoy ultimately became the Valiya Kappithan (commander-in-chief) of the Travancore forces of Anizhom Thirunal.

Colonel Munroe, who was the British Resident in the Travancore kingdom during the 19th century, had made gifts to the temple. In Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi says that Colonel Munroe, in gratitude for a favour done, “submitted to the Temple, along with a gaily decorated horse, a big circular gold-plated umbrella with green glass stones suspended all around the frame. This accompanies the Deities during the Siveli processions at the time of the festivals, even now.”

A number of researchers are unanimous in their opinion that the riches were kept in the temple because “the temple was the safest place to do so.” The Travancore rulers were great devotees of Padmanabha Swamy and they offered their entire kingdom to him. They took pride in calling themselves “Padmanabha Dasas.” Their Hindu subjects were equally devoted to the deity. Since the temple was well-guarded, “royal property was also hoarded there,” said Dr. Satyamurthy.

Babu Paul, a former Chief Secretary of Kerala, said: “It is probable that at least over the last 300 years, whatever surplus the State had could have been kept in the temple because it was the safest place to do so.”

Fear of fire
Fear of fire guided the decision to keep the riches in underground vaults lined by granite blocks. Fire had broken out several times in the temple, destroying parts of it. “It is only natural that fire will break out because you have the ‘vilakku madom' and ‘deepa madom' [areas to light lamps] where hundreds of lamps are lit,” said Professor Sasibhooshan.

“There is a clear-cut inscription in Vattezhuthu in the Ottakkal mantapam area” in the temple, said Mr. Ramamurthy. “This speaks of renovation after a major fire engulfed it.” The sanctum, the vilakku madom and the deepa madom were rebuilt after the fire. Everything was rebuilt on instructions from Anizhom Thirunal, circa 1729/1731 to 1734 CE, the former ASI officer said. There was another fire on October 28, 1934.

Items in vaults
The priceless items in the vaults include a one-foot tall idol of Vishnu, of solid gold, a 10-foot long gold chain, gold pots, bags of diamonds, hundreds of kilograms of gold trinkets, hundreds of Roman gold coins and Napoleonic era gold coins.

Other riches include, authoritative sources said, gold kasu mala (necklace made of gold coins), ‘sarapalli mala' also called ‘avil mala,' gold waist bands called ‘udyanam,' poothali necklace, kolusu vala (anklets), chandra padaka and a big, gold sarapalli mala called ‘Bheeman sarapalli mala.' The crowns, necklaces and waist band do not have inscriptions.

The treasure also includes a Sree Krishna idol in solid gold; three crowns studded with diamonds, pearls and rubies; gold staff and plates; Belgium diamonds and emeralds. Other items include a golden ‘anki', or full-length dress, for the reclining Padmanabha, made in 16 parts; an ornament studded with diamonds for the deity's chest, two coconut shell replicas of pure gold, and Vijayanagara period coins.

There are French coins and the Dutch East India Company's coins, Roman gold coins called Aureus, Roman silver coins, Venetian ducats, drachmas, and so on. “Five head-loads of Roman gold coins were found in 1858 at a place called Kottayam near Kozhikode. The hoard of Roman gold coins found in the temple vaults may belong to that discovery,” said Dr. Satyamurthy.

Researchers agreed that virtually nothing found in the vaults would be war booty. If all the Mathilagam records (in Tamil, Vattezhuthu, and in Malayalam, Kolezhuthu, on palm leaves), which are royal records dealing with the Padmanabhaswamy temple, are transcribed, details of the period to which the riches belong and who gifted them to the temple will be available, they added.

The Hindu, 9th July 2011

Why would anyone settle here?" asked the bemused anchor of DD Jalandhar’s episodic show Aaja mera pind dekh ja, which features different villages of Punjab. He was talking of Lehroon — a village in Gurdaspur district that lies on the state’s border with Himachal Pradesh. Till a bridge was constructed a couple of years ago, the villagers generally remained cut off from the rest of the world. In order to go to other villages, the people had to cross a choe, which claimed many lives annually, including that of the village sarpanch and a bridegroom.

But things are better now. The bridge has brought several modern amenities to the place — a dispensary, private and government schools, electricity etc. Strikingly, men from every house here are either in the Indian Army or the paramilitary forces. Although proud of their achievements, the villagers point out that not a single person has ever been employed in the state’s civil services — "not even as a chaprasi." They feel aggrieved on this count.

Although the term phulkari literally means flower work or flower craft, this traditional form of embroidery displays prominently other rural motifs, too — wheat and barley, stem and ear. On June 21,DD Jalandhar telecast a documentary on phulkari in its Virasat slot. There were young women in shawls and odhnis — the richly embroidered head-scarves — decked up in the best of traditional finery meant for wedding-related celebrations. They performed giddhaas and tappaas, too.

Although the accompanying commentary dwelt upon phulkari’s close association with Punjabi culture, rituals and traditions, many details were left out; or, perhaps, they escaped my attention. For example, several experts claim that phulkari has roots in Iran’s gulkari art of embroidery, which has flowery motifs. According to several scholars and folklorists, this craft came from Central Asia when tribes from there migrated to the subcontinent. Consequently, Pakistani Punjab’s northern regions of Hazara and Chakwal boast of some of the best phulkari designs and products. Moreover, phulkari embroidery is generally sparse. Its richer version — used on garments that cover the entire body — is called bagh, or garden, wherein the embroidery covers the entire fabric. Originally, phulkari used to be done by hand on khaddar fabric with silk thread; shades of red and gold predominated, while black and blue were avoided.

Today it is done by machines on other fabrics, too, and the thread may not necessarily be silk.

Talking of women in the region, Haryana Speaks on PTC News compared the socio-economic conditions of Haryanvi women with that of their sisters in Punjab — to the former’s disadvantage. Several reasons were trotted out like Haryana’s belated economic progress, prevalence of medieval customs and practices that tend to keep women in Haryana educationally backward and economically dependent on their men-folk. However, there is the upside, too. Women in Haryana are firmly on the path to emancipation despite the rather violent backlash from the society’s patriarchs epitomised by the Khaap Panchayats.

Nonetheless, an absorbing debate wherein Randip Surjewala’s well thought out and reasoned comments proved to be the show’s highlight.

The Tribune, 9th July 2011

AS Byatt’s 1990 Booker-winning novel Possession represents the literary apogee of the dual-track, metafictional detective story, which follows modern-day characters as they discover a historical period, as well as taking the reader directly to that very period. Attempted by writers like Alan Hollinghurst and Mario Vargas Llosa, this technique makes perhaps its first appearance in Indian fiction in Priya Vasudevan’s debut novel, Middle Time.

For a first-time writer, Vasudevan is to be admired for undertaking such an ambitious project. The two tracks in the novel follow the lives of a dizzying array of characters in 16th century Vijayanagara, and 1990s Chennai where Maya, a public interest lawyer, unintentionally encounters the world of Hampi after the mysterious death of one of her clients. ‘Middle Time’ is also the name of a text within the novel, a battered old Tamil paperback that contains a story of the last days of the Vijayanagara empire.

The latter tale chronicles the brutal murder of a young mother and the search for the culprit, as well as the rise of Achale, a courtesan whose talents and charms elevate her to a position of power in the Vijayanagara court. As in Byatt’s Possession, of primary concern to Vasudevan are the parallels, real and imagined, between her contemporary and historical narratives. The novel is evidently the product of considerable research. But the scale of the project and the accuracy of the historical detail are not matched by novelistic skill.

Despite the great pace at which the action unfolds, there is none of the narrative thrust a detective novel depends upon: the plot consists of an endless series of events, new characters, and surprises, without the genuine building up of suspense. The characters do not possess any vivid interior life; the one exception is the enigmatic Achale, a genuinely fascinating fictional creation who is both charismatic and fragile.

Above all, the novel is let down by its language. In the contemporary sections, the narrative is often ornate without being elegant, filled with mixed metaphors and clichés. At other times, however, particularly in the final chapters, the writing is much more taut and effective. Yet throughout the Hampi narrative, Vasudevan is unable to find a voice to fit the period, and both narration and dialogue relapse into an anachronistic diction that is, at times, absurd. Thus the advancing Muslim invaders are greeted by a town crier yelling, “The Mohammedans are coming!” An abundance of such moments characterise this original and ambitious, but ultimately, unsuccessful first novel.

Hindustan Times, 9th July 2011

Punjabi’s grand dame of letters Amrita Pritam had willed that her house in the Capital should be preserved as a memorial to her and that her partner Imroz should live there. However, just five years after her death, it has been sold by her son to builders, who have lost no time in razing it to the ground. While writing an ode to the house that Amrita built, Nirupama Dutt recounts the insensitive attitude we, as a nation, have to our cultural heritage 

The month of May was not a merry one, certainly not for the lovers of art and literature, for it marked the sad end of a dream, a dream turned into reality by one of the most celebrated poets of our times, who enjoyed a cult status in her lifetime and continues to do so even now. It took almost a month for the sad tidings to reach out to the literary world.

A couple of weeks ago, Surinder Sharma, a Patiala-based literary buff, was on the telephone. Sharma has a fetish for calling up friends and telling jokes from his vast repertoire. But this time, he was not joking. He was almost sobbing as he said: "K-25, Hauz Khas, has been sold and already demolished. Imroz went to see it being bulldozed." I was not shocked because the news had come to me from another Amrita-Imroz fan, but I shared his grief, as do many others. 

"This is so terrible, we have seen great edifices come up and then be destroyed within our lifetimes," Sharma lamented. Thinking of Imroz (86), who has been like a boat without anchor ever since he lost the woman who was his world, one wondered that could not this last blow have been delayed by a few years. However, a Hindi poet, lamenting this loss, says: "The market waits for none. See what it does to human beings. Lakhs don’t matter anymore, now the human mind yearns for crores. In such a scenario, what is the value of memories, or wishes for that matter?"

London-based Punjabi poet Amarjit Chandan says in anguish: "I feel awful, outraged and ashamed about our neglect of our heritage. I have been to many homes of Western writers, like Johann Goethe’s in Frankfurt, John Keat’s in North London and William Wordsworth’s in the Lake District. Great men belong to the whole mankind. Having visited western writers’ well-preserved homes makes me think what an ungrateful lot we Punjabis are." Deeply affected by this demolition of dreams, the song that comes to mind is in the voice of legendary singer Kundan Lal Saigal: Ik bangla bane nyara, Basse kunba jis mein saara (The bungalow should be unique/And the whole clan should inhabit it). Alas! This is the melody that has caused pain whenever an old house has been sold, including the house our late father built.

All know well that Amrita Pritam (1919-2005) began her poetic journey when just 12. Married at 16, she won critical acclaim for her book Thandian Kirnan in 1935 and there was no looking back. Author of over 100 books, she was widely published in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and also translated into English, Russian, French and several other languages. In a literary career spanning seven decades, she did Punjabi proud by bringing it the highest of national and international awards and honours. Not only was her contribution great in poetry and prose, she also provided a platform to young Punjabi writers in her magazine Nagmani, which she edited for 33 long years. Among the awards she received were the Jnanpith, Sahitya Akademi Award, Cyril and Methodious Award from Bulgari, and the Ordre des Arts des Lettres from France. The Delhi Government declared her the Poet of the Millennium at the turn of the century. Interestingly, the same title was bestowed upon her by the Punjabi Academy, Lahore. In short, she reached a status that no other Punjabi writer has reached so far.

Beautiful, charismatic and a romantic to the core, the story of Amrita’s life is one of amazing courage, resilience and achievement. What set her a class apart from others was her very romantic search for freedom and the desire to live life on her own terms. Walking out of a loveless marriage (she was given away in an arranged marriage at 16), she made her home with artist Imroz and the relationship lasted over four decades. If Virginia Wolf had spoken for the need of a room of one’s own for a woman writer, Amrita took it forward to a home of one’s own. She had lived in her father’s home, then her husband’s home, but K-25 was all her own. This was made possible by a plot allotted to her, and other prominent artists and writers, who were ravaged from Lahore by Partition, by then rehabilitation commissioner M.S. Randhawa. Amrita’s neighbours included Bhapa Pritam Singh, Kartar Singh Duggal and painter Jaswant Singh. But K-25 was different. It was also the love nest of Amrita and Imroz with her two children, Kandla and Navraj, growing up in it and living there for many years. It was willed to Navraj, on whom the mother doted and she felt he would honour her wish and will of retaining the first floor, where she and Imroz lived, as it was. The house was full of art, poetry and memories. There was the Harshingar tree that the two had planted together, the bougainvilleas that trailed into windows, the painted dining table, portrait after portrait of Amrita by Imroz, her poems written out by him on lampshades, pen stands, clocks and what not. He had made it a memorial to her well within her life.

Poet Parminderjit, who edits Akhar at Amritsar, recalls: "The doors of K-25 were always open to Punjabi writers. She nurtured two generations of writers in her magazine". Frequent visitors to this haven were Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Dalip Kaur Tiwana, Gurdial Singh and a host of others. Writers from Pakistan would come specially to see her and she had hosted a mushaira for Faiz Ahmad Faiz on her terrace. Sahir Ludhianvi, even when their romance had ended, visited Amrita and Imroz here. I have memories of Gulzar and Deepti Naval sitting by her bedside when the latter was planning her debut book of poems in Hindi. I have spent ever so many nights in her library, which also served as a guest room during my visits to Delhi from Chandigarh.

And Imroz? Where is he now? Well the inheritor of Amrita’s estate and her only son has been thoughtful enough to place Imroz and the Amrita memorabilia in a small anonymous builder’s flat in Greater Kailash I. He did not spare himself the pain of seeing the edifice bulldozed and he tells with his usual childlike glee: "I brought away the nameplate and now I will frame and keep it." A brave lover, who willed his life to Amrita, Imroz retains his sanity by outpourings on paper and his humour by letting society climbers, who are wannabe Amritas, pamper and cheer him. This too shall pass.

But Amritaji, how does one come to terms with one of the greatest ‘Punjabans’ caught in the eternal tussle of ‘sons and lovers’. And what about the make-believe that surrounded her? Perhaps, she knew that the real memorial will be her poetry. Adieu K-25, and we let your poem guide us to your true home: Today I have erased the number of my house / And removed the stain of identity on my street’s forehead / And I have wiped the direction on each road / But if you really want to meet me / Then knock at the doors of every country / Every city, every street / And wherever a glimpse of a free spirit exists / That will be my home
 

The Tribune, 10th July 2011

Though the Ajanta caves were created for celibate monks, there is nothing austere about them, write Hugh and Colleen Gantzer 

In the heat of a Maharashtrian summer, we climbed a cliff, trudged into caves, and stepped into a challenging ancient world.

The quandaries of the Ajanta caves are complex, contradictory and very creative. Were they monasteries, which became art galleries? Or were they art galleries designed as monasteries? Or did they serve an entirely different purpose, originally? According to the Archaeological Survey of India’s booklet — the caves are cut out of amygdaloid trap rock.

In other words the rock is hard, solidified lava which, when condensing formed amygdales, which are small bubbles and balloons lined with amethyst, chalcedony and other beautiful quartz crystals. Scholars, however, contend that gem mining was not the reason why the caves were made. They believe that these 30 caves were designed as monasteries and prayer halls for Buddhist monks, and that they cover a period from the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD, with a four-century gap in between.

Even more impressive than their age, however, is the fact that they are virtually, an art gallery revealing the lifestyles and attitudes of Indians at least on-and-a-half millennia ago.

The strange thing is that though the caves were created for celibate monks, there is nothing austere about them. On both sides of the entrance to one of the caves, we saw sculptures of affectionate couples. Today, they would certainly have attracted the attention of our self-appointed ‘moral police’ claiming that such public displays of affection went against our ancient cultural heritage!

Interestingly, however, the typical, horseshoe-shaped, chaitya window showed a strong traditional streak. It had been sculpted as if it had been made of wood though it had been carved from living rock. The monks were probably used to living in wooden buildings and would feel more comfortable with this mock-wood design!

In the early days of the religion, Buddha was depicted symbolically. Later, however, he was shown as a human. There are some statues of him placed at focal points in Ajanta, but the majority of the paintings and sculptures are based on the Jataka Tales: a rich collection of beliefs about the previous incarnations of the Buddha and the miracles associated with his birth. There is the tale of his mother dreaming that a white elephant had entered her body. A court soothsayer interpreted it as a prediction that if the child was born in a palace, he would be a king. But if he was born in a jungle, he would renounce the world and become a great spiritual teacher. His mother hurried to return to her father’s palace in Nepal but the child was born when she was journeying through a forest.

Floral designs are a repetitive theme on the ceilings of the verandahs and residential halls, or chaitya-grihas.More than that, however, is the amazing depiction of everyday, secular life. Voluptuous women gossip, traders buy and sell, beggars importune, children gambol. When we first visited Ajanta, years ago, we had been told that the caves had been carved and painted by the monks and we wondered how such ascetic people could infuse so much passionate vitality into the paintings. But now that we learn that it had all been done by professional artists and sculptures, it becomes clearer. Nevertheless, we still wonder why a group of monks who had renounced the world should surround themselves with such alluring worldly scenes.

Why did the artists, for instance, paint the crowned and bejewelled, portrait of the famed Black Princess?There is the belief that she was the dusky Andhra Queen, who was the favourite of the ruler. But if that is true, they why was her portrait painted on the wall of a monastery? Then there is the strange fact that, originally, the caves were not linked to each other. Each had its independent flight of steps down to the Waghora River as if every cave had been excavated independent of the others. Moreover, the floor levels of the caves vary. If the caves had been created by a single authority for the specific purpose of providing facilities for a unified body of monks who worked and prayed together, logic would dictate that they would not have been segregated and excavated at different levels.

Or, were the caves of Ajanta first excavated by individual gem miners who chose their sites depending on the richness of the yield? Ajanta is on the ancient trade route, so the export of the mined gems would be easy. When the mines were exhausted, were they, then, converted into cool summer retreats for the rulers? This would account for the massive and ornate chaitya gateway, the sensuous sculptures and the floral designs on the ceilings. Finally, when the authority of the rulers was being threatened, did they have the caves redesigned for the monks in order to earn spiritual brownie points?

It’s a thought that will raise the hackles of many experts, but then virtually all reputed scholars of his age ridiculed Galileo when he defied conventional wisdom and said that the earth moves round the sun!

The Tribune, 10^th July 2011

Why would a mosque be called ‘lentil mosque’ or ‘Masjid Moth’, a name that often figures on many signboards on roads, as well as a bus stand in South Delhi? Legend has it that the masjid was built by one Miyan Bhoiya, who was a wazir, or prime minister, to Sikander Lodi, one of the sultans of the Lodi dynasty. Sultan Lodi is said to have picked up a grain of lentil dropped by a bird at the majestic Begampuri Masjid. He gifted that to Bhoiya. Touched by the gesture, the latter decided to dedicate the lentil gift in the service of god. He sowed the lentil in his garden, and over time, grew enough lentil to be able to sell a large harvest and fund building a mosque, which he called “Moth Ki Masjid”. He dedicated the mosque to his king.

Today, Moth ki Masjid — built out of respect for a king in 1488 — seems to be crying for attention from authorities, if not royal treatment. It is nestled in a rundown urban village, also called Masjid Moth, in the midst of well-kept upscale colonies such as South Extension and Neeti Bagh. The only way to reach Moth ki Masjid from outside the village is a path that is lined on one side with the rear wall of the mosque and on the other with an MCD garbage dump. As you walk past dogs and crows feasting on the overflowing garbage, and past a small park, you reach the entrance gate of Moth Ki Masjid, which stands on an elevated platform.

Though most of its roof has collapsed, the remaining part of the gate, which still stands, is a graceful testimony to what must have once been a grand passage. Quranic inscriptions etched in marble strips adorn the red stone gate, even as the intricate, detailed carvings on the granite brackets supporting the doorways give it the touch of a Hindu temple. The door, though, seems to have been planted recently; it’s white-painted wood.

Inside, the courtyard is not very big, if you compare it to, say Begampuri masjid, and has three large, overgrown neem trees occupying a lot of space, besides what looks like and must have been a large well in the middle of it. The well is dry, but the water that must have once filled it would have been used for ablution by the followers. There are also three unmarked small tombs. There are no prayers held in the mosque; instead of devotees filling the courtyard, children from the nearby village play cricket here. The mosque has no minarets; instead, there are four Rajasthani-style chattris at each corner of the mosque, reinforcing the element of symmetry integral to Islamic architecture. The inner chamber of the mosque has five arches, topped by three domes.

Detail is an outstanding feature of the masjid. The inner chamber, for instance, has arched niches. In her book, Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi, Rakhshanda Jalil says such “painstaking craftsmanship” is “evidence of the passing of an age of frugality that had descended upon the citizens of Delhi after waves of Mongol invasions of the preceding century.” Prabhas Roy, who shot the photographs of Jalil's book, shows us the fine, thin lines on a floral motif inscribed the gate. “Such a thin line looks so incredibly sharp and unbroken or cracked even after many centuries,” he says.

The most pitiable sight, though, is the degree of encroachment around the mosque. Several homes are so close to the mosque that it seems quite easy to climb down from the balcony of a home and jump straight into the courtyard. Tek Chand, an ASI attendant at the mosque for the past decade, points at a home, which has come up at the site where garbage broomed out of the mosque would be dumped every day. “The ASI had demolished the house last September, but a few days after that, the residents built it again,” he says. So, where does the garbage go now? “In the MCD garbage dump, behind the masjid. Some time ago, it would be dumped in the ablution well, too,” he says.

Besides its architectural remnants, one aspect of the mosque still thrives: a lot of lentil grains are strewn inside the mosque for birds to feed on. The legend of the lentil lives on.

Indian Express, 10^th July 2011

Brinda Suri immerses herself in the artistic milieu of Raghurajpur in Odisha even as she explores the many distinct art forms the traditional artisans of the village have kept alive over the centuries.

Raghurajpur is a notable exemplar on India’s remarkable cultural map. A village quietly preserving artistic traditions, it’s creditably managed to keep winds of change at bay to a large extent from affecting its creative output.

Walk down the parallel twin lanes of the village and inside every residence an artist can be seen busy at work.

In fact, almost all homes boast of a national award winner. This, despite the niggling struggles of everyday life and decline in patronage.

About 14 km from the coastal pilgrimage town of Puri, Raghurajpur has been in tourist limelight for over two decades. The village, nonetheless, has for several centuries been a keeper of Odisha’s time-honoured form of painting, the Pattachitra or cloth scrolls. 

Conventionally, cloth or patta, after special treatment with natural material, transforms into a canvas for painting episodes from Lord Jagannath’s life, representations from the epics and assorted mythological legends. The patta, which adorns homes these days, is customarily used as a backdrop to the deities.

The village also specialises in the skillful art of Tal-Pattachitra or engraving on palm leaf. Among other unique expressions nurtured here are painting the ‘Jagannath’ triad on tender coconut and making wood idols. Artistic license and the need to cater to a new clientele regularly give birth to innovations which are further honed with encouragement from handicraft promoters. The past few seasons have seen these village studios experimenting on a variety of medium, some attention-grabbing ones being glass bottle and betel nut.

Besides craft, Raghurajpur is also considered the centre of excellence for the Gotipua dance form. Its most celebrated son, though, is Odissi maestro Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

I returned to the craft village recently after a long gap. Traveller friends had mentioned that commerce and competition had lowered standards and corrupted its atmosphere. So, I expected a decline in artistic brilliance, but was happy to be proved wrong.

Yes, the village is aware of self-promotion and artists chase visitors who they see as prospective buyers; the artisans will ‘manufacture’ as per demand; the youth here is updated on technology; and unfortunately the glory days of ‘model heritage village’ seem to have evaporated as a sense of degradation meets the eye. But scratch the surface and the real wealth shines through.

They say the world is about the survival of the fittest. What I felt after my visit was that the fittest had survived. And the survivor was Raghurajpur’s art. It was matchless! Definitely a class apart from all I had seen in its genre. And the most endearing was the simplicity of lifestyle artists still maintained.

The sheer variety of art here has remained stupendous and every visit can throw up a discovery. This time around I learnt about the Badhia painting, amongst the most primitive forms of Pattachitra. It was at the homes of award winning artists Sasmita Moharana and Brandhaban Swain that I got to view the Badhia. Swain in fact had a Badhia mural which he claimed was painted by his late father.

The Badhia is essentially a grid depiction of the Jagannath Temple and its numerous customs. The painting’s most distinctive element is its central image — the main tower of the Puri temple housing the sanctum sanctorum of its three presiding deities: Jagannath, Subhadra and Balabhadra. The Badhia’s mast has the dashavatara or the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu while mythical scenes and temple festivals, as the rath yatra, dominate other sections.

Only classically traditional colours of red, saffron, green and black dominate the Badhia, which is always bordered by a floral pattern. A little fish at the corner of the painting signifies the Bay of Bengal. What appealed was its compellingly unrefined style of depiction as opposed to the finesse seen in other forms of Pattachitra.

I was keen to add a Badhia to my collection and typically began bargaining. A few minutes into the haggling jargon and I cringed. Why was I trying to bag a discount of Rs 50-100 on art works that had been quoted at Rs 500?

A few hours back I had shelled a similar amount on a restaurant bill for an ordinary meal. Here was an artist who had laboured for four days to produce a piece of tradition. If it were not for people like him, we would have lost a rich legacy, something we crow about to the world, but shrink when we need to spend a little on it. I offered him his due and hoped his little daughter, shyly standing on the doorway with a few paintbrushes in hand, would continue to preserve the inheritance.

Deccan Herald, 10^th July 2011

In what could be termed as a major breakthrough in exploration of early human history in the Himalayan mountain ranges, geologists have discovered geo-archaeological evidence of the Early Human occupation from the Wakha river valley in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

This significant evidence, which would now pave the way for further research on related theme by scientists, were discovered recently by a team of Archaeological Survey of India, led by Mr SB Ota. Regional Director, Central Region, ASI, Bhopal and Professor RK Ganjoo, University of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, who were carrying out detailed geo-archaeological investigation of the Wakha river valley near Mulbekh recently on Leh-Kargil National Highway.

Located in between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent, Ladakh already has rich rock carvings or petroglyphs which throw light on the prehistoric history and cultures of Ladakh and clearly show that the area has been inhabited since Neolithic times. These widespread rock engravings/petroglyphs reported from the Ladakh region and believed to be the early evidences of human occupation, post-date the present findings. The material studies of these sites in the Upper Indus Valley have ascribed them to transhumance camping sites.

Prof. RK Ganjoo, Professor of Quaternary Geology, University of Jammu said a number of hearths in the natural slopes of the mountains were unearthed during the exploration. Samples from the hearths and its surroundings were collected by the team for further scientific studies to investigate the type of wood used for burning fire and remains of food material consumed by the early man.

“Preliminary geological investigations of the site strongly suggest that the slopes on the foothills were formed as a consequence of para-glacial processes under arid to semi-arid climatic conditions,” said Prof. Ganjoo, adding Early Man occupied the valley and exploited the slopes to settle down and carry out its routine activities under the large rock falls.

What is the most interesting fact is that flat blocks of limestone were used by Early Man as floors around the fire places. The valley preserves gallery forest that sustains the life even today. Early Man also did exploit the gallery forest and camped on the slopes near the river.

Amazingly no habitation or occupation have been noticed on the mountains beyond the slopes that substantially prove that Early Man never ventured into the high mountains that were and are barren even today,” said Prof Ganjoo who is also Director, Institute of Himalayan Glaciology, Department of Geology, University of Jammu, adding, on the contrary, Early Man preferred to remain near the river and exploit the gallery forest.

Similar sites have already been reported by Mr SB Ota. Regional Director, Central Region, Bhopal earlier from Upper Indus Valley that has been dated back to nearly 3,000 years before date. Joint investigations by the Archaeological Survey of India and University of Jammu, in the area shall continue in future to establish the antiquity, migratory routes and subsistence pattern of early transhumance population in the Indus Valley.

The investigation was a part of collaborative research programme between Archaeological Survey of India and University of Jammu and the other members of the team included Mr RK Dwivedi, Mr Chandrakant Bhandarkar, Mr SK Goswami, Mr Tsering Phunchok and Ms Sonam Spalzin Bangkolok, said Prof Ganjoo.

The Statesman, 11th July 2011

The Lavasa Hill City project is stuck in a cleft stick. The only way it can move forward and get clearance from the environment ministry is if the Maharashtra government files a legal case against it for green violations. The environment ministry has decided to wait and watch whether the state government meets its condition and files an affidavit before the Bombay High Court.

For Lavasa's promoters, who have been lobbying in Delhi, this places them in a piquant position. It would require an admission of guilt – violation of environmental regulations – from its board of directors besides getting rapped on its knuckles by a state government that has traditionally favoured developers. While the penalty itself is not high for violations under green laws, it will taint the project.

The environment ministry in its January 2011 order had asked the project developers to agree to stringent conditions and also share all its records – financial and others – before it gave the nod. The order had come with Lavasa going to the Bombay HC against the showcause and stop work notice given by the environment ministry.

The ministry later passed the final order, saying the project had come up in violation of green norms and while it was willing to consider the case for clearance, it would insist upon penalties under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

Sources in the government said while Lavasa has agreed to other conditions, a response from the Maharashtra government is awaited. The state government is empowered under green laws to take action against erring projects in its domain. But the state government has been running shy of doing so.

Times of India, 12th July 2011

The menace of thorny weeds that has marred the beauty of Sukhna Lake, is likely to end shortly. Experts from National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) at Lucknow, during their study have identified five types of the weeds that grow in Sukhna Lake.

In an initial analysis report submitted by the NBRI, these weeds have been identified as Vallisneria spiralis, potamogeton crispus, hydrilla, ceratophyllum and typia.

The Potamogeton Crispus is a curly-leaf and noxious pondweed. Another weed - Hydrilla is common pondweed, while Ceratophyllum is a genus of a flowering plant found in ponds, marshes and streams in tropical and temperate regions.

Similarly, the Vallisneria spiralis is a common aquarium plan that prefers good light and a nutrient-rich substrate.

Recently, the UT Administration had commissioned NBRI to conduct a study on the weed menace in the lake. The NBRI is to submit a final report on the types of weeds, reasons of their growth and suggestions to deal with the same in next few months.

In a preliminary report, submitted on the basis of their first survey at the Lake, the NBRI experts have suggested the UT Administration to expedite the de-weeding work carried out manually in the lake.

The rain-fed Sukhna Lake, spread over 148.28 hectare metres, has been combating the weed menace since past few years. The task to clear the lake of the thorny weeds has been undertaken several times but the weeds to no avail.

The weed menace mars the beauty of the lake and presents a dismal picture of the major tourist spot of Chandigarh. Besides hampering the oars and boats movement, the weeds under the water also cause skin allergies if touched.

“The expert from NBRI has submitted a preliminary report to the UT Administration after their first survey of the Sukhna Lake. The NBRI has named five types of weeds that grow in the lake,” said Santosh Kumar, UT Conservator of forests-cum-wildlife warden and director environment while talking to The Pioneer.

“The NBRI has taken water samples from the Lake and would analyse the pH factor (acidic or alkaline properties) in water. The scientists from NBRI would suggest permanent solutions to the weed problems in the lake,” Kumar said.

“The experts would submit a final report with recommendations to deal with the weeds in the lake and to end their frequent growth,” he added.

Recently, in a meeting with senior officials of the UT Administration, the Union Home Secretary GK Pillai had suggested that the Administration seek help from authorities in Srinagar who have the experience and expertise to remove weeds, a frequent exercise conducted in Dal Lake of Srinagar where high-tech machinery is used for automated weed removal. Though the UT Administration mulled upon bringing the machinery from Srinagar, but the idea could not be actualised due to high cost of the machine.

The Pioneer, 12th July 2011

Daryaganj was virtually a fire trap with the dangerous tangle of wires hanging like ugly cobwebs from electricity poles. A small spark was enough to trigger a blaze in the congested locality. But now, the skyline over the Walled City is changing. The deadly maze of wires has gone underground.

The dangling wires on the main Netaji Subhash Chandra Marg were just not an eyesore, but also a hazard during the rains. A live wire touching a soaked wall or puddle would lead to electrocution.
Though the plan to lay the wires underground to improve aesthetics of the area had been on for over a year, it was only recently that the task has been completed. The project was overseen by the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation and the laying of cables was carried out by power supplier, BSES Yamuna and MCD.

Savitur Prasad, managing director of SRDC, described the Daryaganj project as a Herculean task. "We are focusing on improving the aesthetics of the Walled City. Laying cables in Daryaganj was completed in March this year.

Daryaganj's main road is steeped in history, but the wire mesh would block the view of some of the historic buildings. Officials said six transformers were shifted underground and it took about five to six months to complete the project.

Daryaganj being the pilot project for laying underground cables, SRDC is now planning to start the same project in main Chandni Chowk after the monsoon. Officials said 500 distribution boxes, 144 feeder pillars, 48m lowtension cables, 500m high-tension cables , 125km service lines and 11 package transformers will be installed once the Chandni Chowk project kicks off around September.

"Cables have been laid underground on Netaji Subhash Chandra Marg. But the work inside the colonies remains. The discom is charging a huge amount for carrying out the work in the residential area. Our main aim is to lay the cable underground in Daryaganj, rest of the work will be taken up in a phased manner," said a senior MCD official.

BSES Yamuna Ramesh Narain said they would start work in Chandni Chowk and other areas of the Walled City once they get funds. "We shifted overhead cables in Daryaganj, Paharganj and a small stretch at Karol Bagh where tourists were expected during the Games. We are now waiting for the go-ahead for Chandni Chowk. The entire project in Shahjahanabad will cost Rs 250 crore and stretches are being identified in phases," he said.

Eight roads have been identified in the Walled City, including Chandni Chowk to Naya Bazaar via Khari Baoli, the road starting from Subhash Marg to Jama Masjid then back to Jama Masjid via Parade Ground car parking to Urdu Bazaar road.

Approval for the Chandni Chowk project was given in the last SRDC meeting and MCD was recently given Rs 12 crore for the project.

Times of India, 13th July 2011

The secret underground tunnel which once connected the world renowned Amber Palaces and the Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur will now be restored and opened for tourism. The existence of a tunnel, linking the 16th century Amber Palaces and the Jaigarh Fort which is overlooking it from the ridges of the Aravali mountain ranges, was discovered only a few months back though the knowledge of its presence was with the local historians.

An initiative towards developing “tunnel tourism” was taken by Rajasthan Minister of Tourism, Art and Culture Bina Kak who met the Secretary of Sawai Man Singh II Trust, Princess Diya Kumari at the City Palace here on Tuesday. Both the sides in principle agreed to collaborate on clearing the tunnel from Amber Palaces' side to Jaigarh. Ms. Kak, who discussed with Ms. Diya Kumari the modalities of executing the tunnel project, expressed optimism on its early completion. It is expected that once the tunnel is completed, the tourists will get an opportunity to walk from one fort to the other.

“This new feature will prove an extremely popular and thrilling experience for tourists visiting the Amber complex,” Ms. Kak said. Principal Secretary, Tourism, Art & Culture Usha Sharma, Director of Archeology S. P Singh and Superintendent of Amber Fort Z. Khan were also present during the talks.

Though, Ms. Kak is optimistic about getting the project ready soon there are many aspects to be looked into, including the safety of the tourists passing through the tunnel. It is also pertinent that the other end of the tunnel is yet to be discovered. “We are excited about the idea but we are yet to figure out about the tunnel on our part,” said Yunus Khimani, Director of the Sawai Man Singh II Trust, which controls the Jaigarh Fort as well. “I asked the oldest employee at Jaigarh Fort about the tunnel. Though he grew in the area he does not remember ever seeing the tunnel,” Mr. Khimani said. Perhaps there could be more than just one exit for the tunnel on the Jaigarh Fort side, one of it opening at a distance in the plains. “It was part of the defence architecture and we have to find out its labyrinths,” Mr. Khimani noted.

Amber, the first capital of Jaipur rulers—before they shifted to Jaipur by 1727-- was completed by Sawai Jai Singh in the 18th century. Jaigarh Fort, whose foundation was laid by Kakil Dev in A.D. 1036, houses the biggest cannon on wheels. It has also a unique water harvesting system which made the hill fort self sufficient in water throughout the year.

The Hindu, 13th July 2011

Delhi now boasts a wonder . Akshardham Temple , considered the largest Hindu temple in the world , has been included in the list of "Seven Wonders of the 21st Century " by Reader's Digest . The 100-acre complex with its stunning main temple ranked fifth in a list topped by the Buddha statue in Lushan County , China .

Akshardham authorities are pleased , though slightly baffled by the honour . "I'm not sure what logic they have followed. There are different parameters for different things ," says spokesperson Janak Dave . The seven wonders , according to the popular magazine , include two natural wonders that have existed for millennia but were discovered in the 21st century — the Cave of Crystals in Mexico and the Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan . The two occupy the second and fifth positions , respectively . Dave , understandably , wonders at the criteria for selection . As far as the designers of Akshardham — an "in-house team " of sadhus and Somapuras (traditional designers of temples ), enlisted as consultants — are concerned , they were just doing their job. Monuments that consistently feature in wonders lists — the Great Wall of China , Great Pyramid of Giza — were engineering marvels for their time . Akshardham , ironically , won a place by doing things the way they've been done for centuries . It's built in the Nagari style of temple architecture.

There's no iron framework holding the main temple together but interlocking chunks of stone . The intricate carving that covers the walls , ceiling and pillars was wrought by artisans whose families have been in the profession for generations .

The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS ) has plenty of experience building temples . Swaminarayan (1781-1830 ), founder of the sect, supervised construction of six temples in his life. Subsequent gurus have added to the number . The first Akshardham Temple , in Gandhinagar , Gujarat , was completed in 1992 .

The only metal that is obviously , even emphatically , present in the main temple is gold . Idols of Swaminarayan and the gurus are covered in gold leaf . The rest — nine domes , 234 pillars , 20,000 statues — is in marble or red sandstone , hand-carved . The base is decorated with 148 stone elephants — each one carved from a single block. The present guru , Pramukh Swami Maharaj , tried to be as democratic as possible when it comes to including deities and gurus — every one from Guru Nanak and Gautam Buddha to the Pandavas feature on the walls of the temple . All this was achieved in just five years .

The stone-carvers were brought from Rajasthan , the wooden doors were carved by Gujarati artisans and idols made by craftsmen from Bengal and Orissa . They started out in 2000 and with the support of an army of 4,000 volunteers they were able to open on November 6, 2005.

Modern wonders purveying ageold wisdom come with signboards and explanations . Traditional architecture is combined with the snazziest ways of making a point and making it stick. The complex has an Imax cinema , robotics show, a boat ride and fountain show in the night . Adults take home the message , kids remember the visuals . But you know you've really arrived when terrorists find you important enough to target . The attack on the Gandhinagar Akshardham in 2002 taught BAPS volunteers valuable lessons . "We get hoax mails every two-three days . We can't take any risks ," says a volunteer . This wonder is protected by the most stringent security measures . You aren't allowed electronics , no stationary either . Photos are taken by volunteers from two fixed points for a fee. Loose pants are a bad idea too — belts aren't allowed .

SPELLBINDING

1 THE SPRING TEMPLE BUDDHA, CHINA

The 420ft (128m) Buddha statue in Lushan County, China, is the tallest in the world. Built by the Chinese govt, it includes a 20m (66ft) lotus throne and is made of gold. The area where it is located is also known for the Tianrui hot springs. Their water is believed to have curative properties. The statue, however, might have competition soon. India is planning a 500ft Buddha statue.

2 CAVE OF CRYSTALS, MEXICO

Cave of the Crystals or Giant Crystal Cave was discovered 980ft (300m) below the ground in 2000 by silver miners. Temperature in the cave can rise up to 58°C with 90-99 % humidity because of magma located below. A visitor can take about 10minutes of it. But the same conditions are responsible for transforming the minerals into crystals. The cave's largest crystal is 36ft in length, 13ft in diameter & weighs 55tons.

3 MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART, QATAR

Designed by I M Pei, the same architect behind the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar is home to Islamic works and artifacts that originated as far back as the 7th century. The architectural style of building reflects the Islamic artworks it houses as Pei traveled around the world delving into Muslim texts & architecture for inspiration. It occupies 400,000sqft on the edge of Doha Harbor.

4 BAHAI MANDIR, ISRAEL

Nicknamed the "Hanging Gardens of Haifa" after the renowned Hanging Gardens of Bablyon, the Bahai Terraces in Israel are located on the northern slopes of Carmel Mountain, over looking the city of Haifa.It was constructed using donations from Bahai's 5 mn followers worldwide and features 19 garden terraces with 450 different species of plantsIt is also home to Shrine of the Báb , the founder of Bábism & an important figure in the Bahá'í Faith.

6 DARVAZA GAS CRATER, TURKMENISTAN

Called the "Door to Hell" by locals, it was discovered in 1971 by geologists looking for natural gas. When the ground they drilled in collapsed, they discovered a 230-ft (70m) wide hole filled with methane. They set the gas on fire to prevent it from poisoning nearby town of Darvaza. This fire continues to flare today.

7 MILLAU VIADUCT, FRANCE

The Millau Viaduct is the tallest bridge in the world, with a maximum height of 1,125ft (343m), 19 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower. It offers spectacular views of the Tarn River valley in southern France and provides access to its gorges and limestone plateaus. After three years of construction, the bridge was opened to vehicles in 2005.

Times of India, 14th July 2011

After a decade of deliberations, the Railways is finally revising its plan to reconstruct the 140-year-old Yamuna Bridge, which is used by trains from the Eastern part of the country to reach the Old Delhi railway station.

The rail-cum-road bridge requires urgent replacement and the Railways has been considering building a parallel structure. The bridge, however, runs through the 16th Century World Heritage Site — Salimgarh Fort— and an approval from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was required, which initially refused it.

Considering the need, the ASI later suggested that a cultural impact assessment be carried out for the fort — its present condition and impact expected due to the alteration. The study, by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, suggested that instead of taking the parallel new bridge straight into the fort, it could be realigned outside the fort so that a portion of the fort wall need not be dismantled.

The Railways is now studying the feasibility of the proposed realignment. Once the design is approved by its technical team, a new proposal will be sent to the Competent Authority, Vijay Singh, who will forward it to the National Monument Authority for approval.

The Railways had earlier proposed that as the new bridge is required to be rebuilt 30 m away from the existing one, the location where the railway line crosses the wall of Salimgarh Fort be shifted. The new crossing required a 15-m-wide and 1.6-m-deep opening from top of the wall. In view of this, the study found that only some parts, roughly 6 to 7 per cent, of the fort will be impacted.

The study recommended that the speed of trains, while crossing the bridge, remain at 30 kmph to ensure vibrations remained within permissible limits.

The study recommended minimal interventions and reconstruction at the site, implementation of green area planning norms, creation of green cover and protection of existing ones, and air and noise pollution abatement by adopting mitigation measures like plantation of dust capturing species. It also suggested the use of earthquake resistant technology for the construction of the new bridge and solid waste management along the railway tracks passing through the fort.

Indian Express, 14th July 2011

The Capital will host a string of cultural events to celebrate 100 years of laying the foundation of New Delhi. The cultural events will include dance, music and light shows, plays, competitions and food events, showcasing the rich cultural and heritage value of New Delhi.

Senior Delhi government officials said they have prepared a proposal, which will be presented to the chief minister sometime next week.

While the government will start organising the cultural and entertainment events after the monsoon, officials said they are proposing month-long celebrations in November- December.

The heritage monuments and government buildings would also be decorated.

On December 12, 1911, Delhi was proclaimed as the new Capital of British India and the government shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. In the next 20 years, new buildings like the Parliament House, the Secretariat and the President’s house and other government buildings were built and called the New Delhi.

Senior Delhi government officials said the tourism department has been appointed as the nodal agency. The art and culture department of the Delhi government, the Archaeological Survey of India as well as the ministry of culture in Central government will also participate in the celebrations.

“The cultural extravaganza organised during the Commonwealth Games was a huge success and had earned appreciation from everyone. Cultural events during the “100 years celebrations” of New Delhi would also be organised on the same lines. A meeting has been called next Tuesday where the plan would be discussed and is likely to be given a go-ahead by the chief minister,” a senior Delhi government official said. Hindustan Times, 15th July 2011

Get set for a unique holiday as the owners of majestic resorts across India offer personalised experiences to the high-end traveller.

Your resort holiday has just been fine-tuned. Yes, the frills, the bells and whistles of a luxury holiday are very much in place — but it’s being garnished with the company and undivided attention of the resort owners.

Taking your holiday experience a few notches higher enterprising owners who are lending a personal touch. These players are pushing the envelope to redefine your vacation. And yes, they are hands-on: they’ll cook for you (sometimes straight out of cookbooks they’ve written), accompany you on treks (be it around Rajasthan’s rugged havelis or hamlets in the Kumaon hills). Some might take you on a jalopy ride (if not on horseback) to watch the sunset. You’ll have their unwavering attention till you check-out.

“Nobody wants a standard itinerary or luxury accommodation any longer. It’s the day of the bespoke holiday, which means that we customise vacations according to each client’s needs and interests,” says Jai Singh Rathore of Shahpura Bagh. It’s a palatial estate in Shahpura village in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district.

There’s plenty to explore and different highs to enjoy at resorts across the country — with the hotelier showing you how, personally.

What a spread!

Guests have more reason than one to flock to Ahilya Fort by the banks of the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. Besides the picturesque 18th-century setting, it’s Richard Holkar, son of the last Maharaja of Indore, who is at the helm and draws repeat guests. A confirmed foodie, with him, the menu is never dull.

Holkar has crafted a special menu at Ahilya Fort taken mostly from his own cookbook. The tea served at the resort is sourced from an exclusive tea garden in Darjeeling while the coffee comes from Coorg and is specially roasted for guests.

Sarai at Toria, which opened last October with six independent cottages, is just a 30-minute drive from Khajuraho. Run by Joanna Van Gruisen and her foodie husband, Dr Raghu Chundawat, you can expect a very “personalised menu” here.

“The Indian cuisine we serve is planned by Raghu,” Gruisen says. Chundawat, a diehard foodie, fine-tuned the recipes that have roots in his family kitchen. It’s not an unusual sight to catch him supervising the meals or even cooking for his guests. Gruisen does her bit by creating new soups or salads or experimenting with desserts for the Continental menu.

At Deoghar Mahal, a 50-room, 17th-century fort, 150km from Udaipur, guests can join Rajasthani cooking classes. Built in 1670, this heritage property began operating as a hotel in 1996, run by owner, Rawat Nahar Singh II and his family.

The 70-something Singh is deeply involved in the day-to-day affairs of the hotel. Organic vegetables from the kitchen garden, homemade jams, marmalade, fresh plum puddings and breads make their way to the table.

A more interactive session at Tree of Life Resort and Spa, a 14 luxury-villa property in Jaipur, allows guests to indulge their culinary skills. Their ‘Chef in You’ programme allows guests to cook their own meals along with the chef. Trips to the local vegetable market with the chef is part of the deal. “It’s quite a hit with guests,” says owner, Himmat Anand.

Go exclusive

Food apart, there’s plenty in store for guests at these resorts — and they can be sure the resort owners will be firmly by their side when they need them. Often, the resort has individual touches that are unusual either in the look, feel or design. At Sarai at Toria, a stunning eco-lodge, there’s always something interesting at hand. Chundawat, a tiger expert and conservationist, and Gruisen, a wildlife photographer, have a 15-year association with the region. “We studied tigers here for nine years and wanted to continue our conservation work and contribute towards local development too,” says Gruisen. The couple lives in the lodge during peak season, usually between October and April.

Being conservationists, they adhered strictly to eco-tourism principles when the resort was built. The building material was sourced locally to minimise carbon footprint. The cottages are made of mud while lime mortar has been used for the stone plinths in the brick kitchen and the store rooms.

At a completely different level, at Ajit Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, it’s hard to miss fashion designer-owner Raghavendra Rathore’s signature touch in every space. The resort, a mansion built by Maharaja Ajit Singhji of Jodhpur, has in the past hosted celebrities like designer Calvin Klein. Rathore (who lives on the adjoining property) and his brother, Suryavir Singh Rathore, personally look into the day-to-day functioning of the resort.

“My brother and I look at the design and the service aspect of the business from a holistic point of view,” says Raghavendra. The interiors include antiques and photographs from family archives.

Attention unlimited

The owners are leaving nothing to chance and are omnipresent in every way. For instance, if you arrive at the

The spectacular Sarai at Toria Lodge and (inset) the owners, Joanna Van Gruisen and Dr Raghu Chundawat; (below) Shahpura Bagh resort, owned by brothers Jai Singh Rathore and Shatrujeet Singh, is a royal homestay

Tree of Life Resort and Spa, Anand, formerly head honcho at Kuoni Destination Management, makes sure your wish-list at the resort is efficiently fulfilled. And that could be anything — preference in food to activities.

The work is often divided between the couple or the siblings who own the resorts. So, at Sarai at Toria, Chundawat oversees the kitchen and on-site personnel management while interior décor, housekeeping, reservations and bookings are Gruisen’s baby.

Between Rathore and his brother, the work is equally divided. He says: “We have portfolios that we manage independently.”

At Deoghar Mahal in the Aravallis, Nahar Singh II and his family split the chores. Senior Singh, an art historian, regales guests with historical facts of the place, while his wife oversees the kitchen. His eldest son, Veerbhadra, heads operational management while the younger son, Shatrunjay, assists in managing and marketing the property. Their wives, Namrata and Bhavna, look after the interiors.

Feeling at home

At Deoghar Mahal it’s easy to feel a part of the Singh family. As Shatrunjay, puts it: “It’s like an extended home and guests are part of the family.” The Singhs live 150 yards away so they can oversee the property efficiently. Nahar Singh II has even crafted a two-hour walking tour — improved on with suggestions from guests like William Dalrymple.

One of the top treats here is a jalopy ride to a nearby village. Shatrunjay, who has about 30 vintage cars, prefers to drive. They make it even more special for honeymooners with a romantic drive to the dunes for a candlelit dinner.

Sidharth Singh is another rehotelier who divides his time between his two properties — Rohet Garh that opened in 1990 in Pali district off Jodhpur and a newer property called Mihir Garh, a stunning nine-suite luxury mud fortress, 17km from Rohet Garh. Singh treats his guests to bird watching expeditions, picnics and village safaris. He also offers riding lessons to them, while his wife, Rashmi supervises the kitchen and the interiors and even squeezes in time for cooking lessons for guests.

It’s a similar passion that drives Dieter Reeb of Kalmatia Sangam Himalaya Resort, a colonial-style resort (offering cottages with splendid vie-ws) in the heart of the Kumaon hills in Uttaranchal. Reeb leads his guests to a nearby village while the meals are cooked under Geeta, his wife’s strict supervision.

Shahpura Bagh, about eight hours away from Delhi, and sprawled over 45 acres, has a history that stretches back to 1630 and has everything that a royal homestay should offer. Rathore and his elder brother Shatrujeet Singh are known for their personalised service.

Shahpura Bagh has stylish interiors and a wonderful setting (with hammocks and charpoys), a pool with 8,000sq ft of deck space to relax and sunbathe and meals cooked with vegetables from its organic kitchen garden. Guests are pampered to the hilt according to their interests — there’s boating, a village safari, photography and trekking. Rathore also promotes local artisans by giving them monetary support and helping them market their products.

He says: “Often, our guests find their interactions with the local artisans even more satisfying than a hearty meal at the resort.”

So, if you’re looking to be pampered on a holiday, head to the resort that catches your fancy. It’s just going to be about you.

The Telegraph, 16th July 2011

Until he breathed his last, dancer and collector Mohan Khokar (1924-99) dedicated all he had to documenting and archiving almost a century of India's dance history. Now, for the first time, this extensive and treasured collection of photographs, costumes, recordings, films, paintings, sketches and other dance-related material will be showcased in an exhibition to be inaugurated in the capital Sunday.

Organized by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and conceptualized by Khokar's son Ashish, a dance critic, the exposition, 'A Century of Indian Dance:1901-2000', will feature India's dance forms and its evolution over the 20th century. "The entire collection showcases the milestones in Indian dance forms and how they have evolved with time. The idea behind chronicling was to keep them as old reference points," said Ashish.

The exhibition, which is also being called the national launch of the Mohan Khokhar Dance Collection, will be open in five parts at the Visual Arts Gallery at India Habitat Centre. From the use of dance in old Air India advertisements to postage stamps retrieved from Singapore showing Indian dances, the collection promises to bring forth some unique objects, such as a 75-year-old Nataraja made of broken bangles and beads. "The collection records anyone and anything associated with dance. It also includes dance forms represented on calendars, fire cracker boxes, sketches, and Kathakali dance representation on textile and paintings," said Ashish.

Another interesting exhibit is a photograph of the Maharaja of Baroda with his newly wedded wife, a Tanjore princess, in 1883. The otherwise unremarkable picture offers a clue about the spread of Bharatanatyam to India's west and north, as the maharaja's dowry also comprised a troupe of Bharatanatyam dancers.

Ashish said his father used to spend hours at a time in a Chennai library, researching and taking down notes from the available literature on various dance forms, all with a pencil. "We are talking about the 1940s when my father documented the available literature of dance from books. The same library was destroyed in a fire later," he said.

Ashish has been managing and adding to the already comprehensive collection for the last 25 years. He says the archive is not just a study of dance. "We are not looking at dance in isolation. In fact, the entire collection is representative of what India was like in the 1950s or the 1970s. The collection is neither specific to region nor religion."Ashish's big worry now is the future of the collection as it does not have a home for itself, but is still housed at the Khokar residence in Chennai. "The collection has not been institutionalized or digitized till now. It has been with my family for the last 40 years and is kept in our home in Chennai." ICCR director general Suresh K Goel said the collection had been waiting to be showcased to the world for a while now. Even though ICCR may not be able to institutionalize it permanently, it does plan to take the collection across the globe. "The collection is slated to be exhibited in New York, Paris etc. The idea is to showcase to the world through this collection on Indian dance forms, how India itself has evolved in the last century," he added. The exhibition opens to public on July 18 and will run till July 24.

Times of India, 16th July 2011

Indian biologists have found what could be the most heat- resistant fungi ever reported.

Studying 25 samples of leaf litter fungi — microorganisms that degrade fallen leaves — from the Nilgiris, Western Ghats, the researchers have found that spores of nine survived 100 degrees Celsius.

Among these, the spores of Chaetomella raphigera and fungi from the Phoma species survived a two-hour incubation in a drying oven at 110 degrees Celsius, and those of the Bartalinia species survived exposure to 115 degrees Celsius for two hours.

The team was led by T S Suryanarayanan, Director of the Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology (VINSTROM), Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Chennai.

“The fungi in this study are among the most heat-resistant

eukaryotes on record,” the authors write in a research paper to be published in British journal Fungal Biology next month.

“This was a shock to us. These are mesophilic fungi that are known to survive in moderate temperatures. Even thermophilic fungi, which can withstand extreme heat, haven’t been reported to survive for this long beyond 100 degrees Celsius,” Suryanarayanan told The Sunday Express. His team had collected the fungi, commonly found on dead leaves, over a year ago to extract enzymes from them.

“When we put one in the oven for drying at 100 degrees Celsius, we found the spores survived. We weren’t expecting to find this. To confirm if this was a more common phenomenon, we subjected several other leaf litter fungi to the thermotolerance test. Since the results were so striking, we had them verified in other labs,” Suryanarayanan said.

The researchers, in collaboration with M Sudhakara Reddy from the Department of Biotechnology, Thapar University, Patiala, have confirmed the molecular identity of the fungi and deposited cultures with the National Fungal Culture Collection of India, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, and the Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh. They also consulted a fungal spores expert, Nicholas P Money, from the Department of Botany and Western Program, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, US.

Money, a co-author of the research paper, said in an email interview: “The fully-hydrated spores of these fungi can be moved from room temperature to the punishing conditions of dry heat in an oven (115 C), survive baking for up to two hours, and revive almost immediately when they are supplied with moisture. Revival means germinating to produce a normal feeding colony. This is nothing short of astonishing.” Fungi exist in two states — the vegetative state consists of thin branches called the mycelium, and the reproductive state where seed-like spores are formed. These spores get blown away and if deposited in a suitable place, germinate to produce fungal mycelium. While the mycelium of the heat-resistant fungi identified by Suryanarayanan’s group, labelled ‘Agni’s Fungi’ in their paper, cannot survive high temperatures, the spores can.

“We do not fully understand the mechanism by which these spores survive. Thermophilic microbes usually produce a protective heat shock protein upon encountering high temperatures. But we suspect the fungi under observation have a different mechanism. This is because the shift from room temperature to 100 C and above was immediate,” Suryanarayanan said. The researchers believe the survival mechanism, perhaps evolved from withstanding forest fires, could be either physical or physiological. “There are indications that food material is stored in the spores and pigments like melanin could be protecting the surface. These need to be verified. Also, if there are genes involved, they might become important biotechnologically,” said Suryanarayanan who is studying the physiological and molecular basis of the temperature tolerance of these fungi.

These fungi, Money said, may serve as models for understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms of heat tolerance that can then be translated to real biotech applications. There are many applications in which fungal tolerance of high temperatures could be valuable. Enzymes extracted from fungi are now used in pharmaceuticals, but these are not stable at high temperatures. Heat tolerance could also come in handy in the case of biocontrol fungi, used to wipe out agricultural pests, but ineffective when exposed to sunlight. The study also raises questions of temperature standards for food processing and safety, said Suryanarayanan. Indian Express, 17th July 2011

Challenges include retreating glaciers, formation of huge glacial lakes, less snow, more rock

It was in 1985 that Apa Sherpa, who scaled Mount Everest for the 21st time in May 2011, came face to face with climate change. His entire village Thame was washed away in a massive glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) of the Dig Tsho (Tsho-lake), in the western section of the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park, Khumbu Himal, on August 4, 1985.

The veteran mountaineer, who dropped out of school at 12 to work as a porter for expeditions to support his family, told The Hindu that the lake burst at 2 a.m. and he had a narrow escape. Now his worry is another glacial lake in the Everest region, Imja, which is growing bigger. “Imja Khola is a threat to the entire region and I can't say if it is as safe as is made out to be. We have to do something before it bursts.” Imja, located in the Khumbu region close to the Everest base camp, did not exist in photographs taken in the 1950s, but now has rapidly expanded to 1.012 sq km.

Girimitra Sammelan

Apa Sherpa is in Mumbai for the 10th Girimitra Sammelan, an annual gathering of mountaineers including Mark Inglis, first double amputee to have climbed Everest.

Now 51, Apa Sherpa said his 21st climb to the world's highest mountain would be his last. The first 16 climbs were to support his family, and in the other expeditions he was a climber himself, he says. The education of his three children is paramount. “My family wants me to spend time with them.” He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and teaches climbing skills there though the mountains are like “buns,” he grins. However, his association with Mt. Everest would continue along with Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been part of the Eco Everest Expedition since 2008 to clean up the mountain. They have recovered five dead bodies and 30,000 kg of waste. He is also planning a clean-up expedition along the entire Himalayan Range in Nepal. Climate change has been most visible to climbers like Apa Sherpa who have noticed big changes since 2008. “Now the snow has reduced and it has become very dangerous especially on the Hilary Step, before the Everest summit. When you wear crampons for the snow and suddenly encounter rock, it gets very slippery,” he says. The rocky patch is increasing over the years. However, his experience saw him through these unexpected challenges.

Since 2007 the ice pinnacles in the Everest area have reduced in height and at the advanced base camp, there has been flowing water in the climbing season, a clear indication that ice is melting. “You no longer have to melt ice to drink water,” says Dawa Steven Sherpa. He too noted that the Imja lake was growing bigger. It is upstream of the Everest Base Camp and above major village settlements. “Imja and its potential threat are in the forefront of everyone's mind since the devastation could be huge,” he fears.

Unpredictable weather is making climbing risky but that did not seem to stop 506 climbers, including 219 sherpas, getting to the top of Mt. Everest in 2011. “Rockfall is increasing and I have seen it break a leg. Ice avalanches are also dangerous.”

However, we are getting good at judging the mountain and we know it so well now which is why there are fewer deaths,” says Dawa Steven Sherpa.

Motup Chewang of Rimo Expeditions said major changes had swept the Karakoram Range as well in the last 20-30 years. The glaciers were retreating much faster and huge glacial lakes were forming there. Central east Bhutan also had a large glacial lake and it could be seen from satellites. Even near the Everest base camp some large cornices were disappearing. The Khumbu glacier had retreated by at least a couple of km.

In terms of weather too, patterns have changed, he says. Passes in the Himalaya in the Baspa Sangla area and in Nepal are riskier with snowfall and rockfalls. In Siachen, it took 30 minutes to get to the glacier in 1986 but in 2004 the snowline went up higher and now it was a distance of three to four km.

Many a broken trail

For climbers, the window or clear period for climbing is coming down, especially on Mt. Everest and even trails in many places are broken. However, satellite communication has advanced and it is possible to get hourly updates on weather, says Chewang.

Divyesh Muni, who has been climbing the mountain for over two decades, has noticed dramatic changes in terrain in the entire Himalayan region and the eastern Karakoram area since 2005. “In one of my expeditions in 2007 to Chong Kumdan, we had a tough time reaching the base camp. The glacier was deeply crevassed and the route had to be changed. It was a sorry state of affairs. In Saser La, a trade route famous for snow, there was none in 2007 making it a simple crossing.”

Uncertainty

There are few places mountaineer Harish Kapadia has not gone to and he has been observing changes in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions. “The last five years have been marked by receding glaciers and even walking is difficult. The uncertainty for climbers and trekkers is increasing in the Himalayan region.”

Mr. Kapadia was stranded in 2009 in Arunachal Pradesh near the Tibetan border in late October, said to be the best season for the area. Heavy snow covered the forest, there was no food for days and porters deserted the climbers as well. Finally they were evacuated by an Army helicopter.

The Hindu, 17th July 2011

Ancient temples received riches beyond imagination from wealthy kings. Sadly, most of it has been lost, and of what remains none retains its original form. Perhaps it is better if some secrets are never revealed.

I am not on the cocktail circuit but if I was, I would have a great story on something that is a hot topic now – exploring temple vaults. A decade back, when the renovation of a Vishnu temple on the Thamirabarani banks was happening, I had a chance to see the subterranean vault. The strong room had just had new metal doors fixed and a thick plank was slowly moved for a few steps that went underneath. The chamber was small — perhaps 6 by 6 feet and enough room for someone to couch. There was nothing there save two old ceramic jars. If only their mouths could talk… I didn't wait to listen, the heat, the smell was unbearable.

This temple received several gifts in the 13th century, none of which have survived. Imagination is our only key in most cases. Epigraphs also help. The Indian tradition of recording on stone is ancient, even from the time of Ashoka (2nd C BC). Successive invasions destroyed them in the North but the South, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu, fared better. Kerala's weather and land-holding patterns caused their temples to be small and compact whereas Tamil Nadu's temples became apogees of wealth with the God-King connects. In fact, even the Padmanabha temple is predominantly Tamil in construction than traditional Kerala. Temples in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh fared worse post the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire to Muslim rulers.

Any more surprises?

What would be the next temple on the list? Do all temples have such fabulous vaults? The answers would make great novels and films but the truth is sadly more prosaic. The wealthiest temple in Karnataka for all times stands a desolate, destroyed shell today – the Vittala Temple at Hampi, once rumored to have several gold images and many more jewels mostly from Krishnadevaraya's conquests. Temples in the state administered by pontiffs and run by monasteries may be in a better state. In times when charismatic pontiffs administered the temple, gifts would have poured in.

Kalahasti and Tirupati put Andhra Pradesh on the map. The earliest gift to the latter, it is believed, is a small Silver/Gold idol by a Pallava Queen. Much of the temple's wealth is probably from devotees today but I wonder if it still has untouched the jewels Krishnadeva Raya (1509 - 1529) gave to a long list of temples, including (from the Rayavachakamu), “heaps of jewels made with the nine gems”. However, by any estimate, the worth of jewels that have been given to the Tirupati temple by present generation devotees probably far outweigh the past!

Kerala's temples, due to a more tantric form of worship, have smaller principal deities and very simple, small processional deities. The connection between king and God, palace and temple is strongest in Tamil Nadu. Processional images became indicators of wealth since they moved out of the temple precincts and displayed the wealth and therefore the power of the temple to the society at large. The tradition of the Travancore kings ruling on behalf of God is an old practice but their personal humility probably less emulated by other kings. The nature of the idol in the Padmanabha temple and the temple's proximity to Tamil Nadu make it different. Sabarimala and Guruvayoor are wealthy temples, but much of it would be from the 20{+t}{+h} century or later due to public patronage.

Immense wealth

Last but not the least is Tamil Nadu where the link between kings and temples was the closest. Despite invasions from the 16th century, individual temple wealth is still immense. The Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, Andal temple (Srivilliputtur) and the Azhagar temple hopefully still have the many gifts Krishnadevaraya showered upon them, diamond earrings, brooches with lapis lazuli, nose rings, ruby studded waistbands, gold anklets, and image frames crowned by yalis inset with navaratna. To Ramasewaram temple, he gave three times his weight in gold among other gifts. Do they still survive is an important question and in the same form, an even more pertinent one. The bronze arch he gave to the Madurai temple was destroyed during renovation in the 1970s and the fate of the jewels can only be guessed. Old guide books to some temples even speak of them having statues of solid gold.

Shower of gifts

Srirangam, the most sacred among Vishnu temples, received gifts from several kings. Among them was Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I (1251-1268) who is in the temple annals known as “Hemachandra Raja” or “the king (Perumal) who covered the temple with gold”. Among his gifts include an image of Anantha, aprabhavali (the eliptical structure behind the image), a processional car, akavacham, vessels and Kalasa, a pedestal, a makaratorana (to shelter Ranga), an image of Garuda — all cast in solid gold! He also gave an emerald necklace, a prized possession in the treasury of Orissa's Kataka (Cuttack) Raja, a crown of jewels, a mandapa of pearls, and covered the vimana and the wall of the second enclosure with gold.

The Brihadeswara temple today has nothing of the gifts made by Raja Raja (many of them came from his sack of the Kerala kingdom). Inscriptions list out more than 17 kinds of diamonds and equal numbers of pearls and several other jewels, all of which have been lost. Several inscriptions even from lesser- known temples frequently talk of gold vessels and jewels. Temples like those in Tiruvottriyur in Chennai even had gold-plated doors funded by merchants. None of these survive today in their original form. Many secret chambers have come to light, some with ingenious constructions that let in light and air with the secret guarded by conscientious elders. They were empty or had bronzes and copper plates. Such temples include Madambakkam, Nallur, Gangaikondan etc. At a time when temples functioned as banks (charging interests of as high as 32.5 per cent) such vaults were essential.

However, before treasure hunters target these temples, they need to be warned. For many decades, unscrupulous elements of society have taken advantage of depopulated villages to either outright steal temple jewellery (e.g. the burglaries in Kanchi and Tentiruperai) or have copies replace originals (for jewels, paintings, lamps etc.).

Perhaps we should let temples guard their secrets and probe into those of Indians who have bigger riches illegally stashed away abroad. The greatest loss has not been the wealth but the growing ability of a devoted temple worshipper to unflinchingly commit dishonest deeds in contravention of the very basic rule of religion that enjoins us to strive to be better people. That has indeed been our inestimable loss.

The Hindu, 17th July 2011

Once dubbed an environmental disaster, the iconic Jal Mahal today attracts tourists with its extraordinary beauty.

It was rumoured that the former pleasure palace was haunted; that, as dusk descended on the glittering city of Jaipur, ghosts would frolic and flit in the Jal Mahal. In truth, the edifice that once floated on the mirror-still Man Sagar Lake had become a forlorn bedraggled reminder of its once-regal past; the infamous watering hole of drunks who were oblivious to the stench that rose from the swamp in which it was mired.

Fast forward to the present. The floodlit 18th century water palace now rises from the midst of a blue lake and is bathed in an amber glow as dusk mantles the city and the call of roosting birds waft on the fragrant night air.

A ride back

As our carved wooden barge drifted away from the palace jetty, we felt the pull of a magical past and imagined that we heard the sound of flirtatious laughter, the tinkle of ghunghroos, the flourish of trumpets and the rustle of silks emanating from the sun-warmed edifice. And was that the maharaja seated on a gold throne as though sculpted into it?

The illusion was complete... thanks to the Jal Tarang project, a 100-acre mixed-use tourism infrastructure project by Jal Mahal Resorts Pvt Ltd that brought the resources of the Rajasthan Government and the private sector together in a unique partnership. Jal Mahal Resorts spent Rs. 20 crore and the Government another Rs. 24 crore on bringing the lake, dubbed an environmental disaster, to life; cleaning and dredging two million tons of toxic waste and oxygenating it. The city's sewage still flows into the lake but it is treated by an eco-friendly system, as is the rain water that once carried in its wake 300 tons of plastic a year! Today fish leap in the limpid waters, birds nest on nesting islands and a flock of flamingos recently flew over the water body.

It was no ordinary face-lift, we realised, as project director Rajeev Lunkad related his extraordinary journey of transformation, peppered with highs and lows even as the iconic Jal Mahal glowed in the distance like some exotic extraterrestrial galleon that had strayed into the lake. An architect with a passionate interest in cultural history, Rajeev plunged in at the deep end in 2005 when an agreement was signed granting Jal Mahal Resorts a lease to develop 100 acres along Mansagar Lake and restore the historic edifice.

The government-private initiative happened because Jal Mahal is an unlisted monument, which the powers that be deemed had no real historical value and was ruined beyond redemption. (“If the country has say, 10 listed monuments, it has 10,000 unlisted ones,” said Rajeev, “and there is tremendous opportunity for the private sector to contribute to conservation in the vast spectrum of unlisted monuments.”)

Rajeev and his development team recruited experts from around the world and harnessed the skills of local craftsmen and masons like Bajrang Lal Kumavat, who has been associated with the restoration of Samode Palace and the famous Patwon ki Haveli in Jaisalmer among other vintage monuments. His walnut-brown face glowed with the purity of one who lives in the past tense. “I can build the Hawa Mahal today,” said the unlettered mason-cum-restorer with quiet pride. It would be a remarkable feat for Kumavat has studied neither architecture nor engineering in a formal sense but has the expertise because he was born into a family of masons.

Equally unassuming was Mohan Lal Soni from Shekhawati, an artist who has worked on miniature paintings all his life and has painted the frescoes on the roof of one of the pavilions of the Jal Mahal's terrace garden. What bound all of them – from art and architecture historians, architects, conservationists, specialist in lighting design, environmental engineers, master craftsmen and humble stone masons and artists — was an overriding passion for a pioneering project that would breathe life into a wasteland and restore an iconic monument to glory.

But ultimately much work still has to be done in terms of bringing Jal Tarang, a green leisure destination, from the drawing board to vibrant life. An amphitheatre, a craft market with handicrafts from all over India, boutiques and art galleries, cultural performances and lakeshore dining along a tree-lined promenade have been envisaged. Two high-end resorts are also planned so that tourists staying at these hotels will plunge into the colour and buzz of the Rajasthani metro as soon as they step out of their luxe sanctuaries.

At the heart of the experience will remain that jewel of a palace, Jal Mahal, built around 1734 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II (1688-1743). Here the sounds of duck hunting parties, firework displays and elaborate music and dance festivals used to reverberate across the marble monument that throbbed with life. In its heyday, the palace was strewn with silk pillows and glowing carpets, the courtyard and corridors were shaded with rich awnings.

Today the hallways, corridors and archways have been decorated with paintings in the miniature style (digitally blown up to cover entire walls) while frescoes adorn two of the pavilions in the romantic terrace garden atop the monument.

We moved through the five themed galleries including a 34-ft long painted mural of the Jal Mahal and its surrounds shrouded in the dark mystery of the monsoons... The Scented Chamber where visitors experience the traditional fragrances of Rajasthan; other themes centred around water, Rajasthani festivals and, finally, the Gardens of Pleasure give you a glimpse of what awaits you on the rooftop terrace.

Called Chameli Bagh and inspired by the courtly gardens of the past, the white marble rooftop garden is fragrant with frangipani and jasmine and bordered bychhatris and elegant tibaris or pavilions, which showcase the best of Jaipur's traditional decorative arts... all were created by master artisans who have been working on them for over a year.

As we stood looking out of the terrace garden, all our senses were engaged by the sights and sounds that enveloped us: the view of the muscled Aravallis that rimmed the entire canvas, the lake that resembled shards of glass, the magnificent battlements of Amber Fort snaking up the hill, a minaret tipped with light that stabbed the night sky... Finally, we were riveted by the Jal Mahal, a maharaja's fantasy, with moonlight dappling the ancient stone. Such is the power of royalty that this, their ultimate playground, enchants and plays forever on the imagination.

The Hindu, 17th, July 2011

The Haryana Wildlife Department has planned a bird-watching site here in order to place the district on the national eco tourism map.

Sources in the Wildlife Department , Haryana , informed that a decision to this effect was taken recently, after a four-member panel had visited various areas along Shivalik range and studied the varied bird life in this range.

The proposed bird-watching site will come up in Berwala forest near Pinjore. This site will initially come up on 250 hectares of land in a valley surrounded by ridges on both sides. “ This is the least disturbed area and has been identified for the benefit of keen bird watchers, to see birds in their natural habitat, “ informed Mr. R.D. Jakati, Chief Wildlife Warden.

The proposed site will have no enclosures or fencing , but a watch tower and camouflaged tree top trails will be set up later for bird watchers. To be designed on the pattern of bird safaris in other countries, the site has shrubs, trees, a water body and some landscaping to provide a conducive atmosphere for birds to be housed here.

The proposed site will have at least 100 different species of birds, will provide an opportunity to bird watchers in the region to study their environment, say Wildlife department officials. Besides certain exotic species of birds, grey partridges, black partridges, doves, pea fowl, green pigeons, grey crested grebe, snake birds, herons, egrets, stocks and flamingos will be housed here.

Sources inform that the plan for setting up a bird safari was first mooted by certain bird lovers before the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala. They had urged that since Panchkula was located on the foothills of Shivalik range, it provided a conducive climactic and topographical condition for setting up a bird safari. The case was then referred to the Wildlife Department for approval.

The department had earlier sent this proposal to the Central Zoo Authority for approval, but this was turned down on the pretext that a Wildlife Sanctuary was already coming up in Morni. This Wildlife Sanctuary will be spread over an area of approximately 12,000 acres. This area includes Khol Raitan, protected forest area in Balwali, Mandana, Asrewali and Bir Ghaggar.

However, the rich bird life in the state is not visible at one location. So, it has been decided to identify at least two other bird watching sites in the Shivalik range — at Morni and Kalesar, “ informed a senior official in Wildlife Department.

The Tribune, 17th July 2011

Despite a High Court notice to the Punjab Government on July 9, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation has entered into an agreement with the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board to vacate the 143-year-old Town Hall building to be further leased out to private hands for commercial purposes through the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board.

The Principal Secretary, Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Geetika Kalha, said: “We have not received any court notice in this regard... The tourism board is sensitive to the need of preserving heritage buildings.”

She said the Town Hall site would be re-used in a manner as to enhance its historical value. “We plan to house a well-stocked library of rare books, a museum on the city’s history, an art and craft centre and a food court and café at a later stage. The site will cater to a large number of tourists because of its proximity to the Golden Temple,” she said.

But Dr Krishan Thakur, on whose PIL the HC has issued a notice of motion to the government, smells a rat. “It is against the norms of the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites Act:1958 and the Punjab Ancient Historical Monuments Remains and Sites Act:1964 to hand over any such site to private hands for commercial use,” he maintained.

The Amritsar Municipal Corporation Commissioner, DPS Kharbanda, said the corporation had signed a pact with the tourism board as per the decision of the government.

“It is their baby now. Moreover, the revenue proceeds from the reuse of the Town Hall will come back to us. It will be ploughed back into Amritsar’s development projects,” he explained.

The Tribune, 17th July 2011

All the important cities of Europe and America have a beautiful tradition of creating space for the art and artists – be it the hill on Montmartre in Paris, the Palace plaza in Rome, the Leister Square in London, St Mark’s square in Venice, City Centre in Berlin and Vienna, Zurich and Geneva — the list goes on and on. These spaces are open enough to allow the artists to function and display their art and the audience to interact with them — be they tourists or serious art buyers. From the struggling to successful, all have found time to visit and work in these spaces in their commitment to the cause of art.

It is surprising that India, despite its great tradition of great art – folk, traditional and contemporary, does not have such a space so far. It is not as if there is no space in our cities for such a venture. Most cities have open spaces in the forms of playgrounds where artists and their consumers can come together. Ideally speaking, the winter months in most parts of the country are great for such a venture, but in the hills or places where it becomes too cold, this blissful time just before the winter sets in would be good too.

It has been one of my most cherished dreams to put something like this together in the five metros: Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi, Victoria Memorial Gardens in Kolkata, Juhu beach in Mumbai, Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, Marina Beach in Chennai, and the Golconda Fort ruins in Hyderabad. Even if there are not that many artists in other cities, there are enough to make this a success once a fortnight.

New Delhi, which is home to such a large art community, is ideally located for such a venture in the wonderful winter months. A weekly or fortnightly art conglomeration in the open spaces in either the Lodhi Garden or the Nehru Park could be open to folk painters, traditional painters and sculptors, contemporary artists to work there, display their work, hang out and even sell their work. No fees should be charged from them for either working there or any commission from the sale.
The ambience in such places will be that of free flow of interaction between the creators of art and their consumers. Initially, the artists will be invited to participate and later as the programme gains popularity, others will be allowed to register. Practising artists, hobby painters and students should be allowed to participate. Specially created and designed canvas canopies along with a surface area for the paints, easels, chairs is all that is needed. Other design inputs will include banners and ambience creation tools to focus attention on the meet. It could be a wonderful opportunity for branding of an art company, a telephone company or any other product that is looking for an upmarket tool to spread its wings.

I was sharing this idea with a fellow artist the other day and he was very enthusiastic and wished it could have started day before yesterday. But when I told him about the sharing the idea with my readers, he was aghast as he thought it could be a commercially viable proposition and I was giving it on a platter to some commercial house or even a bureaucrat. But then like the proverbial cat, who didn’t teach the fox to climb the tree, the key to the success of this venture is an ongoing and sustained artist management to ensure the prestige, popularity and dignity of the programme, which is not everyone’s cup of paint!

But having said that, this is such a cherished dream that I wish someone actually executes it so at least I will see it come true. And aren’t ideas like pollen scattered in the wind? Someday, somewhere, someone will pick up and the seed will germinate into a flower…

The Asian Age, 18th July 2011

Author historian Rahul Jain brings alive scroll paintings of the royal courts of Jodhpur and Hyderabad in his new book. Team Viva reports

Vivid images of women chit-chatting, the rise and fall of empires, people arriving from foreign lands, minute floral patterns... history, geography, spirituality and everyday life find space on one canvas — a piece of cloth. Author Rahul Jain has carefully captured the images of painted fabrics to compile his book Rapture-Art of Indian Textile Industry. He has also chosen some images embroidered and woven on silk and cotton to highlight the craftsmanship of our handloom weavers.

Pictures indeed speak more than words as the book presents cloth scrolls of the 15th and 16th centuries that tell you about the working of the judiciary and royal courts.

A historian and textile designer, Jain has left no stone unturned in taking the reader on a visual travelogue that spans 500 years. Even little known details, once published in journals and textile books, find a place in the book. Says he, “Over the years, I have gained in-depth knowledge of the textile industry. Now I write books for enthusiasts, researchers and connoisseurs.”

Jain has included hand-painted scrolls from the Jodhpur royal collection, Hyderabad Chowmahalla, palaces in Jaipur and famous places of Ahmedabad and Andhra Pradesh.

Collecting pictures was the trickiest part. “I completed the text in about six months but had to wait for a year to source the pictures. I even bought high quality images of painted textiles from abroad,” he informs.

“One of the images embroidered on the fabric describes gardens and the lifestyle of the maharajas of Jodhpur and shows them in their marble palaces lounging around being entertained by musicians with all this beautiful lush foliage in the background. The velvet garment worn by the maharaja and the unique golden thread embroidery done on that is an example of the rich heritage that we have always had. We definitely have the most majestic history in fabrics,” says Jain, adding the technique has a deep history through kalamkari, an ancient Indian art that has gained popularity around the world.

Jain conducts silk weaving workshops in Varanasi to experiment and re-invent century-old textile-making techniques.

The Pioneer, 18th July 2011

Dancer, critic and collector Mohan Khokar’s treasure trove is a precious mix of books and other dance artefacts. Son, artiste and curator Ashish Khokar tells Sumati Mehrishi it is meant for the people of India

A copy of The Pioneer and other dailies was a thing he wanted before his morning cuppa. Mohan Khokar, the renowned dancer, dance critic, collector and historian would then carefully go through all the newspapers marking neatly — articles, reviews and stories that revolved around the Indian dance scene and artistes — as his wife, the Bharatanatyam exponent MK Saroja would spend a typical Indian household morning being a “regular parent”, swapping other roles she played deftly.

Khokar would then call out to one of his children, usually Nandan, who never really showed immense interest in learning dance — to cut the marked pieces of writing with a pair of scissors. Nandan was expected to be extremely neat at his job. Nandan Khokar, a scientist by profession, says, “I could never be callous. He would be very finicky about the edges of the press cuttings. It did not matter to him if reviews or reports on the same event appeared in different newspapers. He would read all.”

According to Nandan and Ashish, when the house was not flooded with the most popular power -packed artistes and dance troupes as guests, there would be a new entrant to the huge collection of dance memorabilia, letters and books — from the most unexpected quarters of the fraternity — regularly. History visited the Khokars everyday, lingering on like a fond obstinate guest. A Century of Indian Dance: 1901-2000, The Mohan Khokar Dance Collection — an exhibition at the Visual Art Gallery serving as a reference point for all major milestones and trends that took place in Indian dance in the last 100 years — is only a part of the history that the Khokars have been preserving and protecting for years.

The event, inaugurated by patron, scholar and President of ICCR Dr Karan Singh, was expected to be a success. Fortunately, it turned out to be more than that, with many of the country’s top artistes from the dance fraternity joining the festivities, showing solidarity to this cause with gusto, paying their tribute to Mohan Khokar and his collection at the event which also highlighted the traditional and modern costumes in an impromptu performance by Daksha Sheth, Uttara Coorlawala, Satyanarayan Raju, Payal Ramchandani, Probal Gupta, Shashidharan Nair and artistes from the Yakshakala Academy, Bengaluru and the Bharatiya Kala Kendra.

Mohan Khokar’s children inherited the love for performing arts from the parents but Ashish surpassed the rest. He was trained in Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi and western ballet. Ashish chose to take the collection to the people. He says, “We were used to being in a house cluttered with dance curious, crammed with paper cuttings, book stacks, posters, brochures, banners, masks, gramophone records, video tapes, inventory, paintings, etchings, drawings, handbills and numerous knick knacks. We never stayed in huge houses. The space was always very beautifully crammed.”

On a day when Ashish Khokar could have been extremely cheerful, elated, beaming over the fact that he lived his father’s dream — of taking Indian dance history to the masses — he seemed slightly content, wearily remembering the struggle that has gone into putting all this together and fairly sarcastic owing to the fact that he was trying to display the collection while Mohan Khokar was living but failed miserably. He says, “Government agencies were not very supportive. I wasted time in sending proposals, rewriting and resending the proposals. My father died in 1999 and I struggled more,” adding, “This table with the rarest of books on Indian dance and brochures designed by Satyajit Ray collected by my father, donated and gifted by performers from around the world cost more than `50 lakh. I would be a rich man if I sold this to an agency in Europe or the US. But I wanted it all to remain in India.”

In the collection are depictions of Nataraja, the Lord of dance in plastic, bronze, wood and paper. There are pictures of the Devadasis taken by Guru Muthukumaran Pillai. A copy of the Census of India, 1891, which has details highlighted on the presence of dancers and musicians; pictures of American pioneers Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn; pictures of Uday Shankar, among many others, with Italian “sisters” Adelaide and Sokie; and of Kalanidhi Narayan, the young Brahmin girl who was among the first from the community to take up Bharatanatyam professionally. There are letters exchanged between artistes in the pre-Independence era discussing projects and dates; handbills, photos, diaries and posters from Tanjore; posters and pictures from Kalakshetra; pictures of dancing couples, modern ballets, sketches and drawings.

Why were the organisations refusing to exhibit the collection? “Because of politics. It’s unfortunate how people treat history in this country. The ICCR has been very helpful. But I have been made to struggle over the years. One thing is for sure. I am not selling this outside India. I would prefer to burn it with a matchstick instead,” adds a visibly disappointed Ashish Khokar.

Ironically, the collection failed to find takers — at the Jawahar Lal Nehru University (its concerned wing, the Department for Arts and Aesthetics) and the Indra Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, a premiere institution for Asian arts in the Capital. This, in spite of the fact that the Mohan Khokar Dance Collection is hailed as India’s single largest holding by Lincoln Centre, New York; The Dance Museum, Stockholm and UNESCO’S Dance Council, Paris. Khokar collected over 1,00,000 photographs, 50,000 performance brochures and around 25,000 press clips.

The Khokars, however, found a sensitive sympathiser in the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), an organisation that went beyond its role to support the exhibition. At the opening, ICCR DG Suresh K Goel released the 200 paged catalogue of historical and educational materials with rarest of pictures of dancers and copies of letters, press clippings etc. He says, “We are extremely proud to have exhibited this historical collection. It’s a fact that the exhibition really had no takers. Not even in the US. We plan to take part of the collection to a few European countries for exhibitions.”

Pandit Birju Maharaj whose rare picture is featured in the brochure, credited Mohan Khokar for “successfully documenting the voluminous changes” in the katha vachan, the narration in Kathak.

Leela Samson, chairperson, Sangeet Natak Akademi, felt the exhibition would help the layman connect with the classical arts if perceived and watched in the correct way. She said, “People should watch it in a systematic way, during a long leisurely visit to understand the documentation better. The press clippings throw a vast study of the way our dance forms have been performed and undergone changes over the century.”

Yamini Krishanmurthi, guru Raja Radha Reddy, Kaushalya Reddy, Singhajit Singh, Kanak Rele, Madhavi Mudgal, Pratibha Prahlad, Shovana Narain, Jayant Kastuar and Uttara Coorlawala were other artistes present at the occasion.

Aditi Mangaldas frolicked, surprising her peers with images and anecdotes she remembers from performances and they don’t, like seeing a picture of Saswati Sen “performing in a fur coat at a concert in the West.” Daksha Sheth remembered how Mohan Khokar would visit her with the feisty performer Ram Gopal at her residence in the 1980s in Kerala, as Isha Sharvani would crawl around them.

Was being wife to a critic difficult for MK Saroja? “Yes. But he was a man of principles. He never wrote anything about her or her performance. There were artistes who would come home so often, great friends to my parents and the next day they would be criticised in reviews,” laughs Nandan Khokar.

The Pioneer, 19th July 2011

Delhi has always been known for its architectural heritage but now it can boast of a wonder as well. The Akshardham Temple of Delhi has been included in the list of “Seven Wonders of the 21st Century” by Reader’s Digest. The 100-acre complex is on the fifth rank in a list that includes Buddha statue in Lushan County, China at the first position, Cave of Crystals, Mexico at second, Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar at third among others.

Interestingly, no one is aware what aspects of the structure has won it the inclusion in the list, not even the temple authorities. “We were unaware, infact, baffled when we got to know that our temple has been included in the list of seven wonders of the 21st century,” says Janak Dave, the spokesperson of the Akshardham Temple. But the temple authorities think that it’s the splendid design of the temple that attracted them. “The seven structures listed in it are very different from each other, so one can’t point out the criteria for their choice. But it’s for sure that the magnificent design of the temple would won it the credit,” says Dave.

Even young architects in the capital are of the same views. Abhinav Gupta, a town planner, says that examples like the Pyramids of Egypt and the leaning tower have been in the list of seven wonders because of their interesting features. “Even our own Taj Mahal. When you look at these structures, you know there’s something different in them. The entire Akshardham temple is so fascinating with influences from our culture and tradition. And this one is also different from the Islamic Indian architecture that India is usually known for,” says Abhinav.

Some think that the structure’s merit is in the way it has been built. “While most of the structures in the 21st century have made the best possible use of the newest technology of the time, this one has been built following the older methods,” says architect Vaibhaw Vishal, who mentions reading that there’s no use of iron pillar to hold the main temple together.

The temple has been built with the help of 11,000 people over four years in the ancient style of building. “No iron or steel pillar has been used in the structure, rather stone blocks interlock them. The basic materials used are red stone, marble and it has some of the most beautiful carvings, both geometrical and floral,” says Dave.

A.G.K. Menon, convener, INTACH, says that the beauty of the Akshardham temple is the traditional art. “The temple has a base of the traditional art. The display is really good. While Indian architecture has always been known for a beautiful display of its tradition and culture, the Akshardham Temple continues the trend,” he says and adds, “It is keeping the tradition alive and it’s a good enough reason to be included in the list,” he concludes.

The Asian Age, 19th July 2011

The Golden Chariot, a train that caters to tourists from across the world, is designed to reflect the rich cultural and architectural heritage of Karnataka. Hampi-style pillars, Yakshagana masks, brass artifacts, and pictures of the State’s monuments with names and brief histories of dynasties are all part of the theme, writes Aruna Chandaraju

The magnificent monuments of ancient and medieval India and the country’s richly varied folk arts have inspired many a modern structure. Even Indian luxury trains have been inspired. Take the Rajasthan art-and-architecture-inspired Palace on Wheels and Maharashtra’s Deccan Odyssey which reflect local heritage to namma Karnataka’s Golden Chariot.

Hampi style pillars, Yakshagana masks, brass artifacts, Mysore-silk furnishings, and framed pictures of the State’s monuments with names and brief histories of different dynasties––a walk through the Golden Chariot is like a crash course in Karnataka’s history and culture.

Mumbai-based Pramod and Kusum Pendse of Pendse and Associates won the project. The whole process of designing and conceptualisation took nearly two years. It began with a brief given by Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) that the train should reflect the State’s heritage in art and architecture as fully and aesthetically as possible. All this while maintaining “five-star standards” i.e a train which catered to the high-end national and international tourist looking for a luxurious voyage to the State’s nationally and internationally famed destinations.

For Pendse and Associates––architectural and interior-design consultants handling multidisciplinary projects including hospitality, corporate, and special segments like luxury trains––this was a big challenge. Of course, they had already successfully created and implemented the Deccan Odyssey project.

But Karnataka and its unique heritage was a different territory. “However, it was not unknown territory. We were familiar with south Indian architecture thanks to Pramod having studied the history of Indian architecture in college and also a few previous projects we had worked on which involved research into this area. Moreover, Pramod had created a Belur-inspired Ganapati decades ago. So, we welcomed this challenge,” says Kusum Pendse.

The first step was, on KSTDC’s advice, touring the State and its famed tourist attractions, most of which were on the luxury train’s itinerary. So, the couple visited Mysore, Aihole, Halebid, Belur, Pattadakal, Hampi and Badami. “We absorbed as much as we could both about the overall structures as well as fine details,” they reveal.

The influences of all these places had to be reflected in the layout of the Chariot with its 18 coaches, 11 cabin coaches, two restaurant coaches, one bar coach, one gym-and-rejuvenation centre coach, one staff coach, and two power coaches. Space constraints were another challenge, after all, these were rooms onboard a train and not sprawling resort suites or villas.

Three styles for the coaches

Three major styles of Karnataka were identified and used for these coaches––Mysore, Halebid and Belur. So, there are four coaches in Halebid Style and three in Belur style.

“While developing designs of interiors of Halebid and Belur style coaches, various elements of stone carving have been carefully combined in the simple design frame of the interior features of bed, headboards, doors, ceiling, etc., reveal the Pendses. These were teamed with the famed silk of Karnataka as also its cotton fabric in elegant designs. And Kasuti-type embroidery work was used on thick tussar silk for bedspreads in Belur coaches.

The Mysore style was employed in four coaches. So there was a typical Mysore Palace style arch pattern for headboard and vault ceiling with carved bands for the ceiling. The entrance door was also styled on Mysore Palace design. The bedspread fabric has typical paisley design which many Indian maharajas were fond of.

Nalapaka or the restaurant coach is styled after the Vittala temple in Hampi. It reveals typical columns of its famed chariot with decorative brackets.

The ceiling, the pelmet above the window and banquette sofas are inspired by the temple roof though the upholstery is contemporary. Ruchi, the restaurant coach, reflects Halebid temple inspiration. It has intricate lace-type carving on the ceiling and typical Deccan-style columns and carvings on the banquette sofa. The scallop on windows has appliqué work done on silk, to match the Halebid-style carving.

A luxury train is incomplete without a bar. The Golden Chariot’s watering hole is the Madira. This bar is inspired by the Mysore Palace with its beautiful colonnade, combined with backlit floral-design grills.

“We made a mirrored false ceiling to reflect the grandeur of a palace-inspired interior,” explain the Pendses. The sofa and sofa chairs are colonial style.

The health club Arogya is more contemporary though the massage rooms have Yakshagana masks to accessorise the walls. The rooms and coaches are named after the different dynasties which ruled Karnataka so a guest will find himself assigned to one of these dynasties, Chalukya, Bahamani, Adilshahi, Rashtrakuta, Shathvahana, Kadamba, Vijayanagara, Yadukula, Sangama, Ganga or Hoysala. And each coach has one prominently placed frame containing a summary of the history of the dynasty after which it is named.

The art work for the train was preceded by a brief survey of the arts and crafts available in museums including rural-craft museums.

Finally, the best of these traditions were made use of. So the train’s interiors showcase leather puppets, hand-painted wooden dices, Dashavatara or Ganjifa-playing cards, Yakshagana masks, mina-work, sandalwood craft, wooden-painted toys, etc. These are in addition to the several photographs of the State’s most popular monuments.

Besides, there was the more demanding task of making of the train itself. Chennai was close to Bangalore, so the Integral Coach Factory here was chosen to make the Golden Chariot. As design consultants, the Pendses had to co-ordinate the total development of the train including its M S framework, metalwork, plumbing work, air-conditioning work, electrical work, painting, etc.

This was the toughest part given the weather conditions at Chennai explain the Pendses. However, after nearly two years of hard work, beginning from July 2006 to March 2008, the Golden Chariot was made ready for KSTDC. “It was a tough and demanding project but we enjoyed exploring and projecting the great Karnataka heritage in art, architecture and culture,” they conclude.

Deccan Herald, 19th July 2011

A strategic friendship treaty was signed by Dodda Veerarajendra of erstwhile Coorg with the British East India Company in 1790, which was primarily to jointly fight their common enemy: Tipu Sultan of Mysore.

The treaty was solemnised in October that year at Tellicherry with god, sun, moon and earth as witnesses! With this alliance, the British got tactical access to Tipu’s Mysore from the western flank with logistical support, courtesy the Raja of Coorg.

After Tipu’s elimination in 1799, Mysore came under British control. It was around 1795-1801 that Dodda Veerarajendra built a guest house exclusively for his frequent British visitors. There are several mentions of this guest house in the writings of British visitors to Coorg.

This accommodation had all amenities the Europeans were accustomed to. A water-colour sketch by artist John Johnson gives a very realistic picture of this imposing structure, which unfortunately does not exist anymore. In the sketch, Mercara Fort can be seen in the background.

One of the guests during Lingarajendra’s rule, General James Welsh, gave the following graphic description of the building when he visited Coorg in 1811: “I must now describe our own habitation, built on a small island, surrounded by paddy ground, now dry for the sole accommodation of Europeans. It is a large square, having a hall in the centre, a large covered-in verandah all round it, and four bed-rooms projecting at the angles of the verandah, all on an upper story, the lower rooms serving for the guard, attendants, store-rooms etc.

It stands on a square of seventy feet, the verandah having thirty-eight glass windows, with Venetian blinds outside. The bed-rooms have sixteen windows, and the hall eight glass doors; every part being neatly furnished, in the English style, with beds, tables, card-tables, writing boxes, chairs, chandeliers, settees etc. etc. And there is an old butler of my Vellore friend Colonel Ridgway Mealay, and a dozen active servants, who very speedily produce an English breakfast or dinner, served up on handsome Queen’s ware, with every kind of European liquor; and what is even still more extraordinary, the cook bakes good bread!”

Another visitor, Dr William Jeaffreson, was a guest of Chikka Veerarajendra, in 1830. He spent 22 days in Kodagu. He wrote about the guest-house in these lofty words: “…There we found a splendid bungalow, fitted up for our accommodation, with every possible convenience..

Round this residence grew flowers of the richest hues and the sweetest perfume, while trees, laden with delicious fruit, among whose branches perched wild birds of the brightest and most variegated plumage, cast over us their agreeable shade.

Near this bungalow was a tank, made of black marble of the highest polish and most elaborate workmanship, in the centre of which rose a fountain, throwing up jets of water so clear and pellucid that hundreds of large and beautiful fish might be seen disporting in the basin, or else darting about in every direction after their prey. This tank was the favourite resort of the Rajah who was wont to visit it daily, at noon. Standing beside it, he would ring a small gold bell he carried in his hand, and, at its tinkling, all the fish collected together at one spot, anxiously waiting for their food (young frogs, parched peas etc.), which an attendant threw to them from a basket.

In another part of the garden was an immense black marble stand, of pyramidal form, along the five front steps of which were arranged hundreds of bleached skulls of elephants, being the Spolia Opima of the chase.”

WHAT ABOUT THE BUILDING TODAY??

After the British annexed Coorg in 1834, the building built exclusively to host British guests was surprisingly neglected. By the 1860s, it was in ruins. The crumbling edifice can be seen in a rare sketch of Mercara dated circa 1840. It was in 1862 that 64 Kodagu elders approached the British government for assistance in constructing a boarding house for boys.

They suggested the site of the guest-house for the hostel, and further requested the material from the collapsed building be used for construction. The British agreed, and the boarding house was ready by 1871 under Rev G Richter’s supervision who as principal set-up the Government Central School in 1869. The 142-year-old Central School is now a Junior College and continues to be as vibrant as ever.

Deccan Herald, 19th July 2011

Karnataka is home to many temples dedicated to the deity of Venkateshwara or Balaji.

Apart from Chikka Tirupati, the temple near Magadi is also famous in the vicinity. The ancient structure, known as Lakshmi Ranganatha kshetra was built by the Cholas in the 12th century. However, it was renovated several times by successive rulers and local chieftains in the region.

The temple is situated near Magadi road, which is six km from Magadi town and 45 km from Bangalore. The beautiful gopuras were built by Vijayanagar emperor Krishnadevaraya in the 16th century and later renovated by King Jayachamaraja Wodeyar of Mysore. There are structures inside the sanctum sanctorum which were also built by the Cholas and later renovated. According to legend, sage Mandavya and Vasishta installed the idol of standing image of Lord Vishnu, which is known as Ranganatha.

The idol is about three feet tall, one hand in a mudra, which suggests that the deity fulfills all the wishes of people who pray to him here, according to local belief. There are sub shrines dedicated to Rama, Sita, Anjaneya and Venugopala Krishna. Behind the main shrine, there is a small temple dedicated to ‘Putta Ranganatha.’

The temple of Goddess Lakshmi is also near this shrine. There is a Garuda kamba (flagpost) which mentions the offerings made by Emperor Krishnadevaraya in 1524 AD. There are beautiful pillars inside the temple. Tipu Sultan is also said to have patronised the temple. The stepped well or kalyani (sacred pond) is on the right side of the temple and many rituals are conducted here.

Yelahanka NadaprabhuKing Kempegowda built a watch tower near the Thirumale temple. Even now, the ruins of the tower can be seen. His grandson, Kempegowda II also renovated the temple. Magadi was their last capital and it is believed that they visited regularly to this temple. The area is surrounded by trees, ponds and small hillocks. Several species of birds thrive on the trees here. The condition of the Magadi road that leads up to the temple is good, so the journey can be an enjoyable one for the visitors.

Thirumale or Laksmi Ranganatha khsetra is situated near Magadi road and about 45 km from Bangalore. Limited bus services are available from the city, but it is advisable to have your own vehicle to reach there. The famous Savanadurga is 10 km and Magadi is only six km from here. It is better to carry your own food and water.

Deccan Herald, 19th July 2011

Receding Himalayan glaciers are resulting in the formation of glacial lakes which climatolgists warn are growing at an alarming pace. The Himalayas have 55,000 glaciers but the creation of these lakes could destroy the settlements located close to them.

Prof. G.M. Bhat of the department of geology in Jammu University warned that the increasing number of lakes were forming due to rising temperature.

If these lakes breach their banks (often formed from loose Morain) the floods can cause devastation in downstream areas said Prof. Bhat.

Though little data was available on just how many lakes had formed, 35 glacial lake outbursts have occurred in Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and China during the last century according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Many of these lakes are located near seismic faults and geophysicists with the Dehra Dun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology warn that an earthquake whose epicentre is located close to a lake could create a disastrous situation.

Senior seismologists confirm that the Himalayas record half-a-dozen minor tremors every day. The danger is as much from an earthquake as it is from landslides and avalanches which can make even a small lake dangerous.

UNEP experts cite the example of glacial lake Inja located close to the Everest base camp. The lake did not exist in 1950 but has presently expanded to a total area of 1,012 square km over the years.

UNEP experts believe nations need to come up with their own strategies to adapt to this new situation. They cite the example of Bhutan, which has partnered with the UNDP to avert the risk of glacial flooding from lake Thorthormi by training a small team of workers to clear the rubble from a channel that drains the lake to prevent flooding.

The UNEP confirms that glacial lakes in Nepal have increased by 33 per cent and in case of a burst, “there will be little or no warning to evacuate a great number of people who could be in danger because of this”.

Giving his views on the Himalayan meltdown, organised by the UNEP, retired engineer Chewang Norphel, (known as Ladakh’s iceman) pointed out that farmers in Ladakh were able to cultivate only 0.25 per cent of available land.

Asian Age, 20th July 2011

The three-year project - with its first phase along Janpath and second near Mandi House - is part ofDelhi Metro's Phase III plans. The work will start at Janpath and will take roughly a year. Afterwards, work at the Mandi House stations is expected to get under way and be finished by 2014. The Mandi House station will be expanded and made into an interchange station.

"We have come up with the traffic plan and will try to keep the disruption to the minimum. Since the area sees significant traffic movement, signage will be in place, advisories will be issued and traffic police deployed to ensure smooth movement," said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Satyendra Garg.

Traffic movement will be closed from Tolsoy Marg to Western Court due to underground digging and ongoing work. Partial movement of traffic will be allowed from Windsor Place to Western Court for commuters visiting buildings along either side of the road. Traffic police is also planning to allow one-lane paid parking on either side of the carriageway on Janpath. "This can provide easy passage for people wanting to visit Janpath market or buildings near Tolstoy Marg. They can park their cars and walk. There will be a U-turn from where the Metro work begins on Janpath, but only vehicles parked there can use the stretch, which is otherwise closed for general traffic," said a senior traffic police officer.

Traffic on the five other radials of Windsor Place and other parts of Connaught Place is likely to be affected, traffic cops said. "There might be traffic disruption when there is a demonstration at Ramila Maidan. We will advise protesters to not proceed to Jantar Mantar as is the norm because this can lead to chaos. Also, there should be a cap on the number of people demonstrating at Jantar Mantar due to heavy traffic movement on Tolstoy Marg," explained a senior traffic police officer.

Ashoka Road, Raisina Road and Janpath on the other side of Windsor Place are expected to be affected due to the closing down of Janpath. "There will be a ripple effect on all these other roads. Janpath is one of the most important roads after Rajpath and Connaught Place is already a congested area. The closing down of an important road which has a thoroughfare running through it will obviously have a spillover effect. Commuters are advised to keep some margin as traffic movement will be slow during the peak hours," explained a senior traffic police officer.

After the work on Janpath is finished, work on the Mandi House metro station will start and will go on for two years. It will result in the closing down of Ferozeshah Road and Copernicus Marg, said officials.

Times of India, 20th July 2011

With many trees in the Delhi Zoo decaying, authorities have come up with a new plan to keep the green cover intact. Zoo officials have conducted a survey of the flora, and decided that decaying trees must be replaced by new ones.

The future plan of action also includes re-introducing the concept of dividing the zoo into four zones — African, American, Asian and Australian — placing the flora and fauna accordingly. “Each zone will have animals and trees pertaining to that continent. The plan is part of the masterplan, which will take some time to implement. But we have already started replacing the trees,” said R A Khan, curator (Education), Delhi Zoo.

According to the survey, there are 5,591 trees on the zoo premises. While there are 273 species of shrubs, herbs and climbers in the zoo, there are 132 species of trees — Indian as well as exotic. “There are several trees that are decaying and need attention. We will take the trees from the NDMC, Forest ministry and our own nurseries to make up for the deficiency.

The initiative has been taken, keeping July’s Van Mahautsav celebrations in mind. While the focus was on planting shrubs and climbers earlier, this year the spotlight has fallen on planting more trees. “The zoo was built more than 50 years ago, and in recent times, we have noticed that many trees have started decaying,” the official added.

R A Khan says that the concept of dividing the zoo into four distinct zones was introduced when it was built in 1959. At that time, the zoo has species from all over the world, and each enclosure had trees that belonged to the region from where the animal was brought. However, the animals died over the years, and there no longer was a reason for maintaining the demarcation.

However, with the masterplan expected to come soon, the zoo plans to re-introduce the concept. “Even now, Autralian birds such as Emu has Acacia and Eucalyptus trees surrounding them, but there is a need for planting more trees,” said Khan.

Indian Express, 20th July 2011

As New Delhi celebrates its 100 years, Hindustan Times has identified 100 iconic buildings and institutions that have come to define the Capital. As part of our ongoing series, we'll feature 17 icons that Delhi came to be identified with then and now. Today, we present six of them.

The Cathedral church of the redemption
The Cathedral Church of the Redemption traces its origins to the early decades of the 1900s when Rev T.R. Dixon was appointed as the Chaplain to meet the spiritual needs of the British officers in Delhi.

The services were held at the present Toga Ashram, which housed a church room at No.1 the Chummeries, Alexandra Place (Gole Dak Khana), and accommodated about 60 people.

Appeals for donations to make a new church were met with a handsome response from the royalty, viceroys, Christians and people of other faiths. The first few donors were King George and Queen Mary and the Indian Church Aid Association.

In 1925, the chief engineer was asked to prepare the plans for a 300-seater church with provisions for extension at a cost of R1.5 lakh. Soon after, in the presence of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the committee was decided to call for a 'closed competition of designs'.

Architect HAN Medd's design was chosen and it was finally opened to public worship on Sunday, 18 January 1931.

Architect: HAN Medd
Built: 1931

Gole Market
Built a decade before New Delhi's central shopping attraction Connaught Place came up, the Gole Market catered to the day-to-day needs of the thousands of government employees brought to the new Capital from different parts of the country such as the Bengal and Madras presidencies. The octagonal market forms a critical part in the axis planned by Edwin Lutyens as part of New Delhi's layout.

The market, which still has shops dating back to the 1930s, was in a dilapidated condition due to being in constant use and had faced a lot of damage.

The market was recently restored by the New Delhi Municipal Council, which plans to bring the heritage building back to its old glory.

Architect: Edwin Lutyens
Built: 1921

Gole Dak Khana
It is perhaps the only post office in Delhi, or even perhaps the country, where you would have to dodge busy traffic and risk your life and limb to post a letter. The Capital's landmark Gole Dak Khana, officially the New Delhi General Post Office, is situated quaintly amid five converging arterial roads.

Earlier known as Alexandra Place, Gole Dak Khana was part of the original layout for New Delhi made by Edwin Lutyens, who had a penchant for octagonal structures and roundabouts. The post office, however, was designed by Robert Tor Russell, the chief architect of PWD. The building was deliberately built low rise so that it doesn't spoil the view of the Sacred Heart Cathedral next to it.

Architect: Robert Tor Russell
Built: 1931

Sacred Heart Cathedral
It was Lady Willingdon who caused the plans for a post office to be modified so that the adjacent Mission property (in which a Cathedral was to be built) might be spared the proximity of an eyesore in the form of staff quarters behind this office. When the perspective of the new Cathedral was distorted by an error which placed the foundations too close to the boundary, Lady Willingdon once more came to the rescue and also secured a small addition to the property. An interest-free loan of R60,000 was obtained from the government for the Cathedral. The land on which the Jesus and Mary Convent School, the Irish Christian Brothers School and the Cathedral itself now stand, measures more than 14 acres. All this was acquired in 1920 for R7,000, upon a perpetual lease with a yearly rental of R365. Architect HAN Medd's design was chosen and the construction began in 1930. For five years the work went forward.

Architect: HAN Medd
Built: 1935

National Stadium
Built in 1933, the Dhyan Chand National Stadium was originally known as the Irwin Amphitheatre. Situated between the Patiala House and Jaipur House, it was built against the wishes of Edwin Lutyens. The original plan was to build a garden at the site so that it provided a clear view of the Purana Quila in the backdrop. The stadium is linearly situated on the axis beginning from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Rajpath and ending at the India Gate. It's entrance is dominated by five large arches with four chhatris above them. It hosted the first Asian Games in 1951, when it was renamed National Stadium.

Architect: Anthony S DeMillo
Built: 1933

Viceregal Lodge
The Viceregal Lodge served as Circuit House till it became the temporary residence of Viceroy Lord Hardinge who shifted his residence from Calcutta to Delhi after the latter was declared the new Imperial Capital by King George V.

From being a nondescript building, the refurbished Circuit House suddenly became the seat of authority that governed India for almost two decades. In fact, from 1912 to 1929, it was the venue of several functions. It was home to five viceroys.

It now serves as the office of the vice-chancellor of Delhi University.

The Hindustan Times, 20th July 2011

Newly- Appointed railway minister Dinesh Trivedi chaired a meeting, attended by officials from his ministry as well as the ministry of environment and forests here on Wednesday, to find ways to prevent wild elephants from dying after they on to railway tracks and get hit by moving trains.

On the meeting`s conclusion, Mr Trivedi outlined some of the short-term measures that the Railways plan to take in tandem with the environment ministry to prevent such deaths.

Among them are the decision to look at equipment developed by IIT Delhi to track elephant movement, bette lighting in "vulnerable" locations for elephants, watch-towers to spot the movement of elephant herds near railway tracks, and training of loco-pilots. Mr Trivedi also announced committes at both the Railway Board and the local level to track elephant movement.

The railway minister also stated that while the safety of elephants was paramount, stopping the movement of trains was neither desirable nor possible.

Railway officials admit that the punctuality of trains has taken a hit after speed restrictions were imposed on them owing to elephant movement.

With the Railway imposing speed restrictions of 50kmph on the movement of trains when running through forest areas inahabited by elephants. the railways says that as many as 265 mail and express trains have lost punctuality.

An internal note prepare by the Railway on the issue of elephant movement and casualties also says, " The number of speed restrictions due to elephant movement over the railway track has increased manifold to 19, slowing down the average speed of trains affecting both freight and passenger services as no extra time has been provided for these new speed restrictions in the working time-table.

The Asian Age, 21st July 2011

Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala attracts more domestic tourists than any other spot in the country — scenic, religious or otherwise. According to statistics for 2010 released by the Union tourism ministry, Andhra Pradesh has gained the position of the most visited destination in the country recording 155.8 million domestic tourists thanks to the Tirumala and Tirupati temples which attract the most domestic tourists.

The number of domestic tourists visiting Andhra Pradesh is more than Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, which have Taj Mahal and Ajanta Ellora, respectively, a senior Union tourism ministry official said.

Some 740 million tourists visited various destinations in the country in 2010 – up by 10.7% compared to last year. The number of domestic tourist visits to the states and Union Territories was 669 million in 2009 and 563 million in 2008. "The growth in domestic tourist visits in 2010 was about 11% in comparison with the previous year," said the official.

VK Jeyakodi, secretary of Tamil Nadu tourism department, says: "Nearly 60% of the tourists visiting Tamil Nadu come under the cultural and pilgrimage category. Rameswaram temple has the maximum visitors every year and most of the pilgrims who visit Rameswaram also make it a point to visit Madurai. They visit the Meenakshi Amman temple and then proceed to Rameswaram."

The remaining 40 per cent nclude those coming for medical treatment in hospitals in Chennai and a few other cities in Tamil Nadu. "We don't have the exact data on medical tourists. We are creating one," Jeyakodi said.

The Times of India, 21st July 2011

When creating some stunning and grand structures in the new Imperial capital, the rulers did not forget the basic essentials — healthcare and women’s education.

LADY HARDINGE MEDICAL COLLEGE
After the shifting of the Imperial capital to Delhi from Calcutta, a need was felt for a separate medical college for women..

The initiative was taken by Lady Hardinge, who laid the foundation for the college but died before it could even start. On the suggestion of Queen Mary of England, the college was named after Lady Hardinge.

The college started in 1916 and its first principal was Dr. Kate Platt. In its first year, 16 students were enrolled for the seven-year course.

While the duration of the course came down to five by 1960, the number of graduate admissions stands at 150 currently. The college was affiliated to the University of Delhi in 1950 and from 1954, post-graduate courses were started.

Built: 1916

THE IMPERIAL
The Imperial, which is a unique blend of Victorian, Old colonial and Art Deco styles, was New Delhi's first most iconic luxury hotel. Designed by FB Blomfield, it was built and run by Ranjit Singh, son of Narain Singh, a leading contractor of Lutyens' New Delhi. The hotel was given its name by Lady Willingdon and inaugurated by Lord Willingdon in 1936. The hotel, which exudes the aura of a 19th century English manor, has earned its name as 'museum hotel', thanks to its matchless art collection. Perhaps there is no establishment in the city that celebrates the creation of New Delhi as The Imperial. The hotel also has suites named after personalities associated with the creation of New Delhi, including Lutyens. It also boasts a '1911 Restaurant' and a '1911 bar' that celebrates the historic year 1911, the year Delhi was declared the new Capital.

Architect:: FB Blomfield
Built: 1934

HOTEL AMBASSADOR
Designed by British architect Walter Sykes George, who worked with both Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, chief architects of New Delhi, Hotel Ambassador is one of the earliest hotels of New Delhi along with The Imperial and Hotel Marina in Connaught Place. Built in 1945, in colonial and Art Deco style, the hotel boasted of rich, famous and the royals among its clients. In fact, the royal family of Indore even had a suite permanently reserved for them. The heritage building, which has retained much of its old world charm, is one of Lutyens' Delhi's most important landmarks. For the past several decades, it has been a favourite haunt of travellers from all over the world who love to soak in its colonial charms.

Architect: Walter Sykes George
Built: 1945

LOK NAYAK HOSPITAL
Located in central Delhi and catering to both Delhiites and patients from neighbouring states, the sprawling Lok Nayak Hospital began as the 350-bed Irwin Hospital in 1936. The foundation for the hospital was laid by Lord Irwin in 1930 and started in 1936 under Lt. Col. Cruickshank.

Irwin Hospital also became the venue for the Maulana Azad Medical College in 1957. Though it was renamed Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) in November 1977, old timers still know it as the Irwin Hospital.

The facilities and infrastructure at the hospital had to be expanded after the partition in 1947 due to the huge influx of refugees. By the 1950s, it became one of the largest hospitals in north India and was the mainstay for residents of the walled city and the central and eastern parts of Delhi. The hospital today has 1,597 beds in all its medical and surgical specialties and caters to nearly 20 lakh patients every year.

Built:: 1936

NEW DELHI RAILWAY STATION
Before New Delhi was established, the Delhi main station in the old city served as the railway head of the city. The capital had the Agra-Delhi chord line, which crisscrossed much of the present Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, Rajpath and India Gate. Officials realised that the new township would need a railway station and much of the Delhi-Agra line realigned to make way for buildings.

A long bureaucratic battle later, the East India Railway Board, which controlled the railways at the time, sanctioned the making of a one-story building around a single platform near Ajmeri Gate in 1926. It was later known as New Delhi Railway station.

This was made as a point of entry to the new city for Viceroy and the royals during the inauguration. In 1927-28, New Delhi Capital Works project involving construction of 4.79 miles of new lines was completed.

The road linking the station's original solo platform and Connaught Place was thus named State Entry Road, which still exists. The original station building hid behind years of building of super-structures and served as a parcel office.

DELHI GYMKHANA CLUB
The Imperial Delhi Gymkhana Club was established on July 3, 1913, at Coronation Grounds, Delhi, for use of the ruling elite comprising officers of the Indian Civil Service, Armed Forces and Civil Residents of the then Delhi.

When New Delhi was built, the Imperial Delhi Gymkhana Club was allotted 27.3 acres of land in the new city in 1928 on perpetual lease.

Spencer Harcourt Butler, first governor of the then United Provinces of Oudh and Agra, was its first president. When India gained Independence in 1947, the word "Imperial" was dropped and it was simply known as Delhi Gymkhana Club. As per site plan made on the drawing board by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens as part of his grand design for Imperial Celebrations, Lutyens Delhi — the eighth in line — was built in an area littered with stones, tombs, domes, ruined walls and gardens of former Capitals - the historic cross roads and battle grounds of India.

The Hindustan Times, 22nd July 20111

Last week New Delhi saw rich tributes being paid to Rabindranath Tagore and Yog Sunder in the form of dance.

It was an unusual week when dance was performed in the context of tributes to the inclusive mind of legendary poets. Pandit Birju Maharaj and Saswati Sen, performing for The Indo-American Friendship Association at Nehru Memorial Museum, had the rare ambience of ambassadors from several countries paying tribute to Rabindranath Tagore, each recollecting the visit of the poet to the respective country followed by the reading of a translation in the language of the region of a Tagore poem. Curated by Surendra Kumar, the delightfully varied bits of information emerging from the allotted five minute slot for each speaker was a fitting homage to the genius. Far ahead of his time, the influences from the poet's travel to 30-odd countries and his concerns covering rural reconstruction, ecology, education, women's liberation, the co-operative movement and Panchayats and global unity got reflected in his musical manifestations.

Jayati Ghosh, in a very involved, short recital brought out how Tagore's music while grounded in Bengal and India carried the synthesised global influences of East, West, classical and folk. Kathak torchbearer Birju Maharaj, notwithstanding the obstacles of a sore throat, sang a Tagore song with feeling. Saswati's Kathak, instead of the usual Kathak formula, topped the unusual evening with mimed sequences of Tagore's pithy proverb-like pronouncements and along with the guruji's daughter danced to ‘Ekla Chalo' ending on a note of hope.

BANGLA TRIBUTE

Equally expansive in spirit was the salutation to the legendary Bangladesh poet Kazi Nazrul Islam at the Bangladesh High Commission. Deeply influenced by Tagore and the Persian and Arabic legacies alike, this specialist in Sanskrit, Bengali and classical music was a rebel, who spoke for the eternal spirit of man against injustice and bondage. Srabani Goswami and Mihir Basu sang from the prolific musical oeuvre of the poet who wrote not only nationalistic poems and those describing the beauties and changing faces of Nature at different times, but also about Shiva as the Creator of the Universe. Tamanna Rehman — the Manipuri dancer from Bangladesh first trained under Shantibala Sinha at Dhaka and later under the ICCR cultural exchange programme under Bipin Singh, Kalavati Devi and Darshana Jhaveri — presented a host of dances in a free style and also in Manipuri. She performed to Nazrul songs on Krishna perceived as the child asking his mother for butter, of Radha's longing for Krishna, and of Krishna wanting to throw colour on Radha who glows with all the colours found in Nature. She ended with a Nazrul song ringing in the message of hope for a new world with new ideas. Graceful and light on her feet, intervals aiding Tamanna's change of costumes, were filled with Nazrul poetry read by the Deputy High Commissioner. In keeping with the inclusive spirit of poetry, music and dance, the evening began with observing a minute's silence for the victims of the Mumbai tragedy.

PRINCELY HOME

Ninety years spent in the service of Dance by Yog Sunder were celebrated as Indian Revival Group heralded the founder director's contribution with “A Life in Dance” mounted at the Shri Ram Centre. Snippets of film material recaptured the princely home he was born to, pictures of the coronation of George V attended by his father Darbar Gopaldas Desai, Yog Sunder's days in Santiniketan from 1939-41, his Kathakali days after meeting with Vallathol, and his early dance career in Kolkata partnering Sadhona Bose. The performance part based on Ramkatha with the Gujarati folk art influences with Rangla and Rangli as narrators in Bhavai fashion was very colourful (though in the array of new costumes the preponderance of orange could have been toned) and vibrant. Raghavendra as Rangla was easily the star of the evening. Particularly imaginative and humorous was the swayamvara scene with the unsuccessful suitors' attempts visualised in different classical forms based on typical ‘bols' from each style. After this, “The Man Divine” based on Tagore's poetry seemed somewhat hackneyed in the group formations and expressions.

The Hindu, 22nd July 20111

When the Forest Department is busy celebrating Van Mahotsava for planting new saplings in the monsoon, hundreds of green trees especially are being felled under the nose of the authorities on 110-acre of land between Dhanur and Abutgarh villages in Sirsa.

The illegal act is going on unabated for the past more than a month in the name of excavating earth from the land, but this has not moved the authorities.

The Forest and Irrigation Departments have been passing on the buck to each other and have been disowning their responsibility.

Villagers allege that so far more than 1,500 green trees have been felled during this period and mischief continued unimpeded. “Green trees on over 110 acres of forest land near Ottu Lake between Dhanur and Abutgarh villages are being felled in a systematic manner. Some people have been digging earth from the land with the help of JCB machines and in the process making the roots of these trees naked. Green trees dry up and fall after their roots are exposed to the air,” alleged villagers, Yadvinder Singh and Tara Chand.

Other villagers alleged that the illegal act was going on with the active connivance of the officers of Forest Department, who, they alleged, had been looking the other way for reasons best known to them.

“We called up a senior officer of the Forest Department last evening, when over one hundred tractor-trolleys and some JCB machines were busy excavating earth from the forest area, but the officer turned up late in the night and by then all had left,” the farmers alleged.

No action has been taken against those felling the trees illegally despite this, they alleged.

District Forest Officer Naresh Ranga, however, said that the land did not belong to his department.

“I visited the land after receiving complaints, but I found that the land belongs to the Irrigation Department, though the trees belong to our department. It is for the Irrigation Department to see how they have allowed excavation of earth from the land where green trees are standing,” maintained Ranga.

He claimed that the land was neither a protected forest nor covered under Section 34 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

He maintained that the entire responsibility of protecting the trees lay with the Irrigation Department.

The Superintending Engineer of the Irrigation Department, SS Hudda, however, belied the contention of Ranga.

“When the Forest Department plants trees on the land of other departments, it becomes the duty of that department to protect these trees. They even do not allow us to fell those trees without their prior permission, in case of dire needs,” Hudda claimed. He denied that his department had ever allowed excavation of earth from that area.

The Tribune, 22nd July 20111

Construction Heritage structures define the culture and history of a place. Bangalore has a number of heritage homes that can be preserved for posterity, writes Bindu Gopal Rao

Physical materials of an earlier time that might have been state-of-the-art at the time of construction, often need replacement with contemporary materials that are aesthetically and functionally superior. Exterior and interior paint colours present similar problems over time and hence the need to restore.

“Firstly, outdated heating and cooling systems at the time of construction are no match for current conditions, installation of climate controls which were never there at the time of construction.

“Air pollution, acid rain and the sun take a toll and often many layers of non-original paints are applied before an attempt at restoration is made. Colour spectrum analysis of old paint will allow a matching chemical recipe which can be produced by current technology. But this is often only a beginning as many of the original materials are either unstable or in many cases environmentally unsound.

“Many eighteenth century greens were made with arsenic, a material no longer allowed to be used in paints nowadays,” explains architect Asif Iqbal. In today’s era where culture plays a predominant role in shaping our identity, countries across the globe are showing an increasingly high participation level in preserving their cultures through restoration of heritage structures.

The process of restoration of heritage structures is a growing practice of great importance as every country is taking initiatives to preserve its roots, which is mainly visible in the west. “This effort is a very important step to preserve our ancient monuments. Preserving our heritage structures is preserving our culture and preserving our roots is a way of giving the future generation an identity,” says Mayank Madhani, Head – Projects, Neev Infra.

Safety concerns

A prime consideration during any kind of restoration is safety. According to Pradeep Misra, Director, REPL, “The restoration of the building should be done on time, before the building dilapidates and reaches a position where it cannot be handled. Proper intervention is a must before the building becomes a disaster.” Heritage buildings should be regularly checked for stability and fire safety aspects.

In order to prevent a fire in the first place, ignition sources and flammable materials should be identified and then either removed or alternative methods of storage should be introduced so as to avoid a calamity.

“It is necessary to obtain accurate plans of the building before starting any work, as this will not only save time and money but can help with continuing refurbishing work; an inventory of artefacts or valuable items is then obtained, and security assessments are made. By identifying ignition sources and flammable materials and introducing necessary steps, fire risk is greatly reduced. Electrical circuits have to be checked. Safety measures often come with challenges, because they may disrupt the original fabric of the heritage structure. Latest physical installations may be difficult in a heritage building and the staff has to be trained appropriately to face any emergencies in an old structure,” explains Iqbal.

“Introducing detection in areas of the building that could pose a risk from hidden fire spreading, such as floor/ceiling voids, redundant goods lifts/chimneys, apart from training the staff in ways to respond immediately to a fire signal and to begin implementing evacuation and artefact salvage plans will greatly help in prevention of a fire,” adds Madhani.

The safety aspect for heritage buildings starts at the structural study level. “Individuals from craftsmen, architects to key people from Archaeological Survey of India play a very important role all through the research to the implementation level.

“Safety of guests being of utmost importance for any Hotelier, there can be no compromise at any given stage; faster alternative routes is never advisable," says Inderpal Singh Kochhar - Managing Director, Sewara Hospitality and Development.

Challenges

To adhere to the strict rules and regulations of restoration of heritage structures pose a huge challenge whilst restoring heritage sites. Meticulously sustaining the authenticity of any heritage structure without defacing its true form and shape would be one of the most challenging tasks which require a very detailed approach.

“This followed by finding the right set of craftsmen, who are proficient in restoring the novelty of the building is onerous in this day and age. Heritage structures usually never stop metamorphosing due to which they do require constant attention at all time, which ends up being a very expensive venture," says Kochhar.

Great care has to be taken while restoring these buildings. Selecting and replacing old decaying materials so as to not lose the allure of the original buildings must be left to experts who will ensure that the style remains the same and the heritage structure retains its originality. “Interiors, lighting and landscape details should also be taken into consideration while restoring these heritage structures as these buildings tend to look better with monochrome lighting and experts should refrain from using colourful lights in heritage structures as it would ruin the feel of the place,” says Madhani. There’s a growing need among the civic and government bodies to address the situation before a rich part of the cultural legacy is lost forever.

One possible solution which could prevent this from occurring would be the government bodies getting into a Public private partnership model for restoration of heritage structures in the city. This model could achieve better cost-efficiencies and improve delivery of customer services.

Besides, there are several developers and outsourcing agencies in India who specialize in heritage restoration. These structures are fragile and require the utmost care whilst restoring them.

Hence the government should look at being associated with experts as they would add value and bring in their expertise to help retain these structures.

Deccan Herald, 22nd July 20111

Presented with the idea of “Shatak ko Salaam” (Saluting the Century), school children came up with ideas ranging from 100 years of “Shahi Khana of Karim's” to “Reminiscences of the Raj”, from “Century old living monuments” to Darya Ganj's “Tundey Kababi”, even as they celebrated a hundred years of New Delhi being the Capital of the country.

The city-based education trust that promotes heritage education through stories, Indian Tradition and Heritage Society (ITIHAAS), organised “Anveshan 2011” here on Friday. Over 130 schools participated in the “search for things, places, traditions or individuals that are 100”. Places like the Parathewali Gali in Old Delhi, the Oberoi Maidans and the Delhi Gymkhana Club were among the subjects that the students worked on and documented.

The chief guest at the event was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur, who gave away awards and certificates to the prize winners. “It is the essence of our culture to be respectful to the past,” she said, appreciating ITIHAAS' efforts in making children appreciate the history of their city.

Speaking about the importance of the work they do, ITIHAAS founder director Smita Vats said: “Children today are becoming foreigners in their own city.” She added that the inherent wisdom of India is appreciated the world over, and it is important to “bring the collective Indian wisdom into the world view of children”.

Archaeological Survey of India's Director-General Dr. Gautam Sengupta said that after Delhi, the ASI would be like to partner with ITIHAAS in other cities to promote heritage education.

Over 250 students from 20 different schools were present at the Teen Murti auditorium, where the event was held. ITIHAAS also conducted a study tour at Teen Murti premises followed by students painting their idea of heritage on tiles. Among the winning schools in various categories were Delhi Public School, Mathura Road; Raghubeer Singh Junior Modern School, Humayun Road; Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar; St. Mary's, Safdarjung Enclave; and Amity International School, Mayur Vihar.

The Hindu, 23rd July 20111

Though forgotten, Mahadevapatnam Fort is still a historian's wonder.

If the history of India is made up of battles, then our forts surely deserve more attention. Tucked away on the Thanjavur–Mannargudi Road in Tiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu, Mahadevapatnam is but a blip on the map. The village may always choose to be like that but it has a tourist and historian's treasure waiting for the world to discover.

Sakthi and I felt like intrepid explorers. We had a line of reference from an old book about the possibility of a mint from the Maratha times existing in the place and another about how a play called “Sivakama Sundari Parinayam” was staged within the fort in a temple dedicated to Adivaraha. Our guide Atmaram Garud had also put enough pressure on us! With the lack of concern for heritage most of our fellow Indians display, we didn't expect to see much. Under promising and over delivering seemed to be Mahadevapatnam's way of forever etching that trip in our memories.

The road passed through thick plantations and sliced across village life in all its sleepy old-world charm and finally halted in front of towering fort walls of brick more than 25-30 feet high. The walls overlapped and the road took a sharp bend and that was the entrance to the Mahadevapatnam Fort that was built and lived in by Tulaja I (born in 1676 ACE), a Maratha king who ruled from Thanjavur between 1728–36. Before he succeeded his brother Serfoji I (1712–1728), and his older brother Shahaji (1684–1712). The three siblings were the children of Ekoji, the founder of the Thanjavur Maratha dynasty .

Tulaja was a scholar and his works include operas and Ayurvedic treatises. Sadly both have been published but remain unknown. The opera, “Sivakama Sundari Parinayam”, was written and staged during the consecration of the temple. The work has beautiful songs with notations but no musician sings it or dancer dances it. Perhaps some day, Tulaja and his work will live again. His other opera, “Rajaranjana Vidya Vilasa”, remains unpublished.

The square-shaped fort has a perimeter of approximately 1.2 km and encloses close to 40 acres of land. At corners are circular bastions overgrown with weeds. The excessive use of mortar indicates an age of approximately 300 years, my architect-companion noted.

LANDS DIVIDED

The fort today is a thriving coconut plantation. How did this come about, we asked the locals and were told of the story of a Raghava Iyengar, who leased the land from the Maratha family that owned the land in 1937–40. He planted the coconut trees and looked after the temple as well, including the installation of several new idols. After his death the lands were subdivided several times and no one was sure of how many owners the fort has.

The Ganesa temple inside was a new one, but the Adivaraha temple is a splendid example of Maratha brick and stucco work. The temple's wall was surrounded by a brick cloister with recesses for lamps. When all of them were lit, the temple must have surely been a magical place! The original marble idol lies broken after a theft in 1942. Some stones are from Chola times but the temple is clearly an 18th century structure. A disused secret passage, an exquisite mandapa in brick that is miraculously standing despite one pillar having fallen away and broken; stunning stucco images call for more memories. The ceiling was once painted with scenes from the Ramayana but no traces remain. The pice de resistance is an unusual stone column with many unusual deities and small images of clouds, snakes, crabs, lizards etc. The Sanskrit-Marathi inscription is from August 2, 1728, and invokes the blessings of more than 20 primary and secondary deities of the Hindu pantheon.

Passing beyond the temple, we investigated another building that may have been part of the palace, a fully overgrown wall with several recesses for lamps, a tall tower that may have been a watch tower or a brick kiln were all we found. The placid waters of the lake within and the old trees kept their secrets to themselves.

Written sources speak of a large and a small palace and about the fort being an important one during the fight between the East India Company and Hyder Ali in 1781.

Outside the town, even more remote was the Shiva temple also built by Tulaja. Called the Mahadeva temple it was in a much more dilapidated state. There was more stonework here but time and neglect had ravaged the building.

The villagers are hoping to renovate the temples and one only hopes they do it with respect for the unknown craftsman's skill in fashioning beauty from bricks. Perhaps someday, while the walls of the fort stand, the Tourism Department and the Archaeological Survey will work together to convert this into a heritage-tourist draw. Perhaps someday, the “Sivakama Sundari Parinayam” will once more be staged within the fort amid more than a 100 lamps lit around the recesses in the temple walls as they were more than two centuries back, with the wonderful music and dance.

The Hindu, 24th July 2011

The Victoria Public Hall, constructed more than 100 years ago, is all set to get renovated and thrown open to the public in September this year. Swati Das tells us more about it.

It was once the pride of Madras (now Chennai) where some of the most important historical events had taken place. But in the last 44 years, despite attempts to restore the glory of the Victoria Public Hall, it remained just a beautiful old relic of the past. In 2006, the Karunanidhi Government had promised to revive the hall to its old, pristine self.

Chennai Mayor M Subramaniam announced last week that the restoration work would be completed by August and the hall would be thrown open to the public in September. The time has finally come when the citizens of Chennai can look forward to the much delayed opening of the Town Hall, as it was otherwise known.

The Town Hall — sandwiched between the Ripon Building (housing Chennai Corporation) and the Chennai Central Station — is a piece of art created amid parks by Namperumal Chetty between 1888 and 1890. The building, named after British Empress Victoria, was designed by architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm in the Romanesque style — one of the key relics of Indo-Saracenic architecture that adorned the city those days.

The Victoria Hall, built to host dramas, lectures and other socio-cultural activities, later became a historical meeting venue in the pre-Independence era. A meeting place that saw its citizens agitate after the fall of Arbuthnot Bank and a demonstration point for cinema and theatre groups. Eminent personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Subramania Bharati and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had addressed meetings in the Town Hall.

Located on EVR Periyar Salai, the building is designed to accommodate 600 people (ground and first floors together). While the ground floor built-up area is 13,342 sq ft, the first floor is of 12,541 sq ft. There is a wooden gallery in the eastern end, providing a seating arrangement for more than 200 people. Arched verandas, a three-storied high square tower and curved pyramidal roof lend the Victoria Hall its special quaint effect. To go with it is an intricately carved terracotta cornice on the tower resembling Islamic calligraphy.

The idea of a “Town Hall for the Town of Madras” was first conceived in March 1882 during a meeting of some prominent citizens at the Pachaiyappa’s Hall in George Town (which is now part of the old city, but then the main city), essentially to find a venue for recreations. Following a request from these citizens, the then Madras Municipal Corporation leased a 56-ground (3.14 acres) site at the People’s Park for 99 years from April 1, 1886. The lease rent was eight annas a ground or Rs 28 for the property.

Sir Ananda Gajapathi Row, the then Maharajah of Vizianagaram, gave a donation of Rs 10,000 for starting the construction and laid the foundation stone. A total of Rs 16,425 was collected from 34 other donors for starting the construction. Other prominent donors were Travancore Maharajah (Rs 8,000), Mysore Maharajah, Puducottai Rajah and former Madras High Court judge Muthuswamy Iyer (all Rs 1,000 each) and P Orr and Sons, a watch company (Rs 1,400). There were still more — Ramnad Raja Bhaskara Setupati, Zamindar of Ettiapuram and Hadji Abdul Batcha Sahib.

In 1888, with the initiative of the then Municipal Corporation president, Sir AT Arundale, the hall was named after Queen Victoria and was thrown open to public in 1890. It is not clear as to who inaugurated the hall — some version has it that it was Madras Governor Sir Montsuart Grant-Duff.

As the hall lay unused and without maintenance, then Chief Minister CN Annadurai carried out renovation work and dedicated the hall for public use in October 1967. But again, after a few years, the building got the unused status. There were two other attempts to revive it — in 1990 by Madras Sheriff Suresh Krishna and in 1993 by former Maharashtra Governor C Subramaniam. But these attempts fizzled out. The hall is currently being used to house the South Indian Athletic Association Club, as the Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium was built near it in 1990 on the area what was part of the erstwhile People’s Park.

Today, this area is congested with the Corporation (Ripon) Building on one side and the city’s main railway station on the other. Till the 1980s there also existed the Moor Market (another heritage relic burnt down), where now stands a tall suburban railway office, far removed from its historic neighbours. When the DMK came to power in 2006, then Local Administration Minister MK Stalin urged the Hall Trust members not to let the relic rot for want of maintenance. That set the motion for restoring the building and opening it for public use.

The restoration work that began in April 2009 is being carried out at an estimated cost of Rs 3.96 crore under grants received from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The renovation is being carried out by Chennai Corporation with assistance and monitoring by the Archaeological Survey of India, IIT-Madras, Anna University and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

The corporation has planned to host a light-and-sound show on the ground floor, while the first floor, with wooden floors resembling the Victorian days, will be dedicated to cultural programmes. The roof has been replaced and work is being completed on the wooden flooring and staircase. The roofing is done with teak wood and body with Mangalore tiles. Even the Cuddapah (black) stones have been replaced with semi-polished stones.

The preservation of historical monuments has been a constant battle for the city in the backdrop of the Government’s apathy. What the Victoria Hall will not have now to boast of are the serene surroundings, amid which the building was originally built. Not only does it stand on a busy thoroughfare thronging with lakhs of train commuters (for Central and Park Town) and hawkers everyday, there is also very little space around it to provide for enough parking.

Moreover, the city’s cultural hub has shifted to areas in and around Mylapore. Now it is left to socialites, art lovers, theatre/cinema personalities and government officials to generate enough interest to revive it as the Town Hall of the city of Chennai — for old time sake and for the sake of this relic of a past glory.

Perhaps, the Town Hall could well become a venue for the prestigious annual music and dance festival in December, much to the delight of residents living in nearby localities.

The Pioneer, 24th July 2011

Elegant looking turbans of Rajasthan may soon find a place in Unesco’s list of “Intangible Culture Heritage”.

The Udaipur-based Western Zone Cultural Centre (WZCC) — tasked by the Union Ministry of Cultural Affairs a few months ago — has completed extensive research on turbans of the desert State and made a documentary and a catalogue to back the proposal for inclusion of Rajasthan’s turbans in the Unesco cultural heritage list.

Also known as safa or sirpech, turbans in India and particularly in Rajasthan are considered as a symbol of honour and respect. Though about 80 types of turbans are worn by the people in Rajasthan, the colourful Jodhpuri safa, with a long tail, is the most recognised one. In fact, Udaipur has a full-fledged turban museum, wherein about 100 types of turbans of different periods are on display.

The WZCC had constituted a three-member expert committee for the purpose of research, preparing the catalogue and making a documentary for a presentation before the Unesco committee on cultural heritage.

The catalogue and visuals have been sent to the Union Ministry, according to a senior official of the WZCC. “We have depicted turbans of Rajasthan as the social and cultural heritage of the State,” said WZCC additional director LN Mantri.

A few years ago, WZCC had successfully presented the case Kalbelia folk dance to be recognised internationally.

“We have the privilege of having the turban of Prince Khurram. When he left Agra to stay with the rulers of Mewar in 1622, he used to wear this turban,” said Mubarak Hussain, superintendent of the archaeological department.

The popularity of Rajasthan’s turbans saw Commonwealth Games organisers inviting Mahender Singh Parihar to tie the Jodhpuri safa to the Indian contingent for the opening ceremony of the Games in Delhi in October last.

Parihar is known as a turban expert who can tie at least 40 types of turbans. He is often called by erstwhile ruling families to help their guests wear turbans, which is an essential part of marriage and other social ceremonies among them.

“During the Commonwealth Games I not only helped the players wear Safa but also described to them the importance and sanctity of turbans in the traditional and cultural context of the country”, maintained Parihar, who has become a one-man institution on turbans in Rajasthan and has done an extensive study on the turbans of Mewar region.

Rulers of Mewar introduced their individual style of turbans and they are known by their names. Arseeshahi, Bhopalshahee, Bheemshahee and Amarshahee are a few turban styles, which are more popular in the region,” Parihar maintained.

Different communities in Rajasthan could be identified with their distinctive style and colour of the turban. While the Meenas wear dotted white turbans, other tribal communities wear pure white turbans.

Interestingly, while in most parts of the country people wear white clothes and white headgears during occasions of mourning, in the Mewar region, broadly comprising of Bikaner and Jodhpur, people wear brown coloured turbans on such occasions.

“There were times when no one was found without wearing colorful Safas during marriage ceremonies. Now the number of Safa-wearing guests is declining as the younger generation hardly knows how to tie a turban. Sometimes we have to take the services of elderly people to help them tie the Safas,” said Deepeder Singh Shekhawat, Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly who belongs to the erstwhile small principality of Mehensar in Sikar.

To keep the tradition of tying turbans, the Rajput Mahasabha at Bikaner regularly organizes turban tying trainings camps for school going children. “We are doing our best to revive and maintain the turban tradition as among the Rajputs turban is not only a piece of cloth but a proud dress for the community,” pointed out Ranbir Singh, an activist of the Mahasabha who is sure that turbans of Rajasthan would definitely find its place in the heritage list of Unesco.

The Pioneer, 24th July 2011

A recently published volume aims to establish the astonishing range and dazzling quality of Indian textiles and place these in context

Seeing, or even thinking about, great Indian textiles sends my mind darting in different directions. Memories, thoughts, exciting associations, come crowding in. Almost instantly, for instance, images of the Calico Museum of Textiles, that great repository of early Indian textiles at Ahmedabad, with its exquisite displays, begin to rise and glint in the mind. Invariably, Kabir, that weaver-saint, enters, movingly humming those dohas andbhajans in which fabric turns into a great metaphor for life itself: "chaadar ajab julaahe beeni, soot karam ki taani", or, again, "chadariya jheeni rey jheeni...."

Even that day returns, when, some years ago, in the course of a meeting of the Acquisition Committee of the Crafts Museum in Delhi, a dealer brought in a bolt of Dhaka muslin, offering it for sale. The mere mention of Dhaka had made us all sit up: it was as if, suddenly, a breath of history had entered the room; and old descriptions of fabrics of gossamer lightness, which once bore names like aab-e rawaan (‘running water’), shabnami (‘dewdrop’), and baaft hawa (‘woven air’) knocked at the mind, at least mine.

Delicately, very delicately, the bolt was unrolled and all of us felt, gently, the fabric between our fingers. I can still remember that texture, that light-as-air sensation..

In this context, then, the pleasure that a recently published volume like Rapture, which explores the Art of Indian Textiles, yields is palpable. Even more so because it is authored by Rahul Jain, who is not only a textile researcher and technician of distinction but also someone who seems to know the soul of Indian textiles.

Consider, for instance, the manner in which, at the very opening, he leads the reader into his world. "Textiles differ in important ways", he says, "from all other manufactured objects". For, above all else, "a textile is a sensual material that is held in close proximity to the human body. Its texture, weight, and dimensionality, even at their subtlest, exert a powerful sensation upon skin".

And then, goes on to add how the physical properties of textiles deserve as much attention as their visual qualities of pattern and colour.

"At their finest", he says, "Indian textiles, whether of cotton, silk or wool, offered an unparalleled sensory experience: cotton muslins that were woven to the thinness of air and that flowed over the body as would water; dye-painted chintzes glazed like polished parchment; tapestry-patterned wool worked to the thinness and translucency of silk; and metallic tissues calendered to resemble beaten gold and silver."

These were all the work of India’s unsung textile artisans, who could transform the ordinary. Magically.

There are more than 80 extraordinary objects assembled in the volume which moves, like a soft-footednayika, through the world of resists and mordants, metal threads and gold stamps, block prints and patterned silks, samite weaves and lampa pieces. But seldom, if ever, the end is lost sight of. When a cotton sari featuring trees with birds, understated but so extraordinarily complex, possibly from Karuppur in the South, features here, we hear, on the one hand, how this kind of textile ‘depended on an intimate collaboration between the jamdani weaver and the kalamkari artist and dyer’, or how they had to ‘work together on a pre-determined design format as well as on the patterns that would be fitted into it’, and on the other how objects such as these, produced for the Maratha princes, who ruled over Tanjore, were given away as ‘khillats’ to their generals and allies, and how Karuppur saris and turbans were reportedly worn for royal weddings.

Consistently the aim is to establish the astonishing range and dazzling quality of our textiles but also place them in a context. In doing this, a bewildering assortment of collections is drawn upon, from time-honoured institutions in Ahmedabad and Surat in India to museums in London and Washington and Basel, and on to privately owned objects in New Delhi and Copenhagen. Pieces woven in India, found in Tibet and now in an Arab museum figure here as much as those that were produced under the eyes of the great Vaishnava saint, Shankaradeva, for enveloping the sacred book in the sattras of Assam; lotuses, serpents and love-poems woven into a silk sari patterned with weft ikat jostle against temple cloths in which gopis, limned with gold tinsel, gather in a forest waiting for Krishna to appear. There are fragments of stencilled wall hangings and velvet tent panels, quilts and coverlets and canopies and floor coverings; the Dutch appear here wandering in a South Indian wonderland; Chinese men and women move through red mansions; the simplest of folkish cottons are juxtaposed against the lush complexity of imperial silks. But each time, as Rahul presents them, it is not the intricacies of technique — whether of the great patolas from Gujarat or the Vrindavani vastras from Kamarupa — that are allowed to take over: everything is placed in an historical setting; and where that context is not precisely known, speculations are made and questions raised. Patterns, weaves, materials, pigments, imagery, source, provenance: everything is gathered and arranged as if in a bouquet for the reader to take home while savouring its sight and smelling its fragrance on the way.

There are regrettably no paintings in the volume that could have served to emphasise the use of these objects or to point further to their context. Except for one, a very telling one, which serves as a frontispiece: a 19th century folio from Mewar. In an elaborate outdoor setting, surrounded by tents and qanats, with crowds of nobles and soldiers and retainers milling around, the Maharana of Mewar, Jawan Singh, is seen seated with the then Governor General of India, Lord William Bentinck, sitting on a chair facing him. All kinds of dignitaries — sardars of the realm and officers of the Company — are ranged on all sides, all gravely sitting on European chairs. But in the centre of the ‘reception space’, on glistening white sheets, are prominently placed, in neat rows, piles of a glittering range of colourful textiles: evidently the Maharana’s only presents for the visiting dignitary. Nothing else, no object of exchange or gift appears in sight.

The Tribune, 24th July 2011

Head of Shanghai Municipal Archives Gong Fang talks to Megha Mukhopadhyay about Rabindranath Tagore’s devotion towards eastern civilisation and how he prompted Chinese literary communities to include elements from the West

More than four decades have passed since Guru Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian laureate visited China, where he left his historic footprints. In the year of his 150th birth anniversary, collections of the Shanghai Municipal archives including 35 display boards having 123 photographs of the Indian poet’s visit to China were recently exhibited at Azad Bhavan. Zhang Yan, the Chinese Ambassador to India, says, “This exhibition is a joint effort to highlight and reaffirm the cultural ties and friendship between the people of China and India.”

Tagore’s literary writings and poetry continue to be popular among Chinese bibliophiles to this day. In fact, Tagore is one of the literary figures most revered by the Chinese readers. The poet had made three visits to China, of which the first one was in May 1924, and later in March and June 1929. Gong Fang, head of delegation of Shanghai Municipal Archives, says, “Tagore was very popular in Shanghai. He not only helped build friendly ties with the renowned Chinese literary figures, but also influenced many Chinese writers. From this exhibition we will be able to revisit many of Tagore’s works that were translated into the Chinese during those years. These works speak of Tagore’s unparalleled influence and popularity in China.”

The quote from Tagore, “I found myself a Chinese name and Chinese clothes. This I know down the depth of my heart; I am reborn where I befriend. Friends bring the miracle of life. Unknown flowers are in full blossom on an exotic land,” leads to a row of photographs displayed at the exhibition. One of the photographs shows Tagore with the famous Chinese poets Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin, in front of Fayuan Temple in Beijing.

Xu Zhimo was a modern poet who accompanied Tagore to his China trip as his interpreter. Another picture shows Tagore with Xu Beihong, a renowned Chinese painter.

Apart from Shanghai, Tagore also visited Hangzhou, Nanjing, Jinan, Beijing, Taiyuan, Hankou and was enchanted by the local sceneries and folk traditions. According to Fang, Tagore’s visits created “Tagore fever” in modern China and infused eastern wisdom into a country which was undergoing social transformation in the face of Western thoughts. Fang adds, “An advocate of love, harmony and humanitarian spirit, Tagore had huge enthusiasm and devotion towards the eastern civilisation. He prompted the Chinese literary and cultural communities to think seriously on one aspect — how the Chinese and western cultures could converge elements from western civilisations and how our fine cultural traditions could be preserved. The question remains to be of great significance to which thinking and research efforts are due in our times.”

The poet also had delivered a speech at the gymnasium of Southeast University. The script has been photographed. The laureate created contact with military trainer, Jiang Baili, the evidence of which can be seen in a picture where Tagore is sitting with four daughters of Baili. A picture demonstrated Tagore with a well-known Chinese architecture, Liang Sicheng. Another picture gives a glimpse of his residence at Visva-Bharati University.

The Pioneer, 25th July 2011

More than a century has passed since the famous hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett was born in the lake city of Nainital, people of the region never forget to celebrate his birth anniversary with great pomp.

This year, the occasion of Corbett’s birth anniversary is more special as it is the platinum jubilee year of the famous national park named after Jim Corbett.

On the occasion of Corbett’s 136th birth anniversary on Monday (July 25), the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti has organised, as it does every year, festivities involving villagers and schoolchildren. Dancing, singing and little skits based on the life of Corbett are part of the celebrations. Tourists who are in town come to know of the great respect Corbett commands in Kumaon. People love him and love to talk about him. Corbett Country is an exciting and fascinating part of Uttarakhand and has always attracted large numbers of tourists the year round.

Edward James Corbett, affectionately called Jim by his family, was born in Nainital to Mary Jane Corbett and Christopher William Corbett who was the postmaster at Nainital. The family spent summers in Nainital and winters in Kaladhungi near Chhoti Haldwani. Jim shot his first leopard at the age of eight. From the mid-1920s, he put down his gun and took up the camera and pen. As a tribute to his undying love for India the national park he helped set up at the foot of Kumaon hills was renamed after him in 1957. Founded on August 8, 1936 as Hailey National Park, Corbett National Park in the Uttarakhand Himalayas, India’s first national park, will turn 75 on August 8, 2011.

Near the foothills of the Kumaon Himalayas lies a quaint little village, once the personal property of Jim Corbett. Called “Chhoti Haldwani”, this village is Corbett country in the truest sense. Stories about Corbett, known as “Carbet Sahib” or “Carpet Sahib” among the villagers do the rounds in this picturesque village in Nainital district.

The village was named by Corbett himself when he bought this sal forest estate and developed it into a model village, first settling 40 families in it. His own house in the village is called “Arundel”.

“Jim Corbett Heritage Trail” is managed by the villagers of Chhoti Haldwani and showcases the pioneering work done by Jim Corbett to develop a model Kumaoni village. Spread over 3 km, the trail takes visitors a couple of hours to complete.

The Community Based Tourism Project members guide visitors along this heritage trail, run a souvenir shop, have home stays in village families and maintain an information kiosk.

Kaladhungi, the winter home of Corbett, is now a museum which is looked after by the Corbett National Park and is at a distance of about 35 km from the park. .It is one of the very few such monuments dedicated to a European anywhere in India. It is a single storey bungalow set in a beautiful garden. Corbett was a friend of every villager and sat on the Panchayat, giving his advice and suggestions. Between 1907 and 1938 he killed ten large man eaters of Kumaon..

When he left India for Kenya along with his sister Maggie, his constant companion, he gifted his lands away. He gave for a small sum, his Kaladhungi home to an Indian friend. Jim left India when he was 72 years and spent only eight years in Kenya .Before he died, he was planning to return to Kumaon, where his heart was.He wrote about his intention to friends in Kumaon .But ill health prevented him from doing so. In his will, he bequeathed Rs.10,000 to the temples in Almora and Rudraprayag and the mosque at Kaldhungi .Each villager of Chhoti Haldwani received a sum of money. As he confesses in his book “My India” , Corbett’s love for India was confined to Kumaon and its people and it is fitting that Kumaon is best known worldwide through his first book”Man- Eaters of Kumaon” published first in 1944.

He lives on in the hearts of the people of Kumaon whom he loved and looked after like a father all his life. Tales of his valour and wisdom echo in these hills. Carpet Sahib is immortal here.

The Pioneer, 25th July 2011