electioneering
my town
The 800th urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer approaches. From an excellent article in the Mint Lounge, 4 Feb 2012: “The Sufi Solution:”
“…Four months later, when Rajasthan’s desert winter has given way to the heat of June, the dargah will be filled with lamps. Its assembly hall, resounding with the sound of the qawwals’ harmoniums, will herald the 800th urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer. Smaller groups of musicians will draw their own listeners within the various courtyards and sama(a gathering listening to mystical verse) music will echo in the streets. The terraces surrounding the dargah will come alive with their own qawwali gatherings and the last melodic strains will die only when the early morning prayer is called by the muezzin…”
Excellent TOI article on #Rushdie, #JaipurLitFest, and Doniger. Very interesting.
“For all the book lovers out there, there is a great little book shop in Lane D. It is on the right side of the road, above a doctor’s clinic and opposite the stationery shop. Sophia has a good range of new and pre-loved books (both English and German). She will generally buy back any of her books, and if you have any other books you no longer want, she will also try to sell them for you on a consignment basis. She is a lovely lady and very helpful.” - Everything Expats Community Forum
MONSOON: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, By Robert D. Kaplan From the NYT Book review by By Aaron L. Friedberg “…’Monsoon’ is Kaplan’s 13th book, and like much of his earlier work, it contains a special blend of first-person travel writing, brief historical sketches and wide-ranging strategic analysis. Proceeding clockwise from Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Kaplan comes ashore at various points along the coasts of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Indonesia before completing his journey in Zanzibar off the shores of East Africa. At each point along the way he finds varying mixtures of economic dynamism, cultural diversity, ethnic tension, ecological strain and political turmoil…” {click here to read the full article by By Aaron L. Friedberg}
NYT book review: THE IMMORTALS, by Amit Chaudhuri (Vintage, $16.95.) The raga-loving scion of a corporate family in 1980s India is the protagonist of this comedy of manners. Chaudhuri “is candid without being cynical” about those who “have made India a global economic player,” Gaiutra Bahadur wrote in the Book Review, admiring the “wry, knowing authorial tone that makes the book so pleasurable.”
Times of India 24 Oct 2010: winning entry submission for “Signs of the Times”
A message from our favorite health food producers in Pune… Dakini Foods is back! Natural peanut butter, rice cakes (“wafers”), tahini… they’re great! Check ‘em out, available at Dorabjees and elsewhere…
Dear All,
We wish to announce with great joy that the brand “Dakini” has been revived . Unfortunately Mr Seemo had to leave for reason’s know to all but he wanted the brand alive and he decided to leave behind his legacy to us.
Due to business reason’s we had to shift the production but we assure you the quality and value of Dakini are not compromised one bit.
If you need more information , please feel to contact me on dakinicare@gmail.com , 09837084355.
Regards
Mukul Gupta
Just caught a mouse in my kitchen, grabbed his tail with my bare hand. Put him in a shoe-box & took him down the street to a new home. Just another day India.
Pune monsoon is here? I like the forecast….
Hunt on for lady killer tusker
Ananthakrishnan G , TNN, Apr 28, 2010, 07.28am IST
From Times of India
“THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the sticky summer heat of the Periyar Reserve Forest,a team of wardens is hunting for a serial lady killer a 25- year-old tusker with an insatiable sexual appetite,who stands accused of killing at least 12 female elephants.
Between February 25 and June 16,2009,eight female elephants were found dead in Periyar.Postmortem reports and other evidence suggested that these were caused by the same tusker, Keralas chief wildlife warden KK Srivastava told TOI.Two more females were found dead on March 12 and March 21,2010.The nature of injuries point to the same culprit, he added.Two other elephant deaths are also attributed to the rogue tusker,named Alpha by the forest department.
Alpha has been on the run for three years and gored the females to death as they resisted his sexual advances.Experts attribute the behaviour to musth (a state of heightened testosterone-fuelled aggression in bull elephants).The department was first alerted to Alphas misdemeanours in March 2009 when six elephants (five females and a male) were reported dead from the Periyar Tiger Reserve in a span of just two months.
Trackers on rail lines to save elephants
In an effort to save elephants from speeding trains,the Union ministry of environment and forests plans to post trackers on vulnerable railway tracks to alert train crews about the movement of herds.Trains have killed 29 elephants in the last three years in India.On the Coimbatore- Palakkad railway line alone,four elephants were mauled in train accidents last year.”
Our mango tree was harvested the other day by a neighbor and two young men — one climbed 3-4 stories high in the tree, the other received the mangoes as the climber threw them, quite adeptly, like oblong baseballs pitched over the roof-top-deck wall. Only a few were dropped, falling to the ground like rocks narrowly missing the car parked below. We were given as many as we wanted, and we proceeded to pass many of them on as gifts to friends and neighbors. These are ordinary mangos (sāḍe āṃbe), not the coveted Hāpūs/Alfonso, but they are really quite tasty when ripened. Traditionally these mangos are pickled or juiced.
Ripening mangos is a rather mysterious art, one which traditionally involves straw/grass/hay and crates kept at high temperatures (above 47 deg F, we hear). We went to our local market, and after buying our produce, asked if they had any empty mango boxes with straw, which they did, and we thus created our own little ripening system. The first round took 6-7 days to ripen, but the second round will be much shorter as the remaining mangos ripened in the bag we were keeping the mother-load of them in. Less than a dozen remain, most have been given away, a few we lost to mold.
Research-vacation in Goa. More pics here.
