Culturama May 2017

POWERED BY GLOBAL ADJUSTMENTS

May 2017 Volume 8, Issue 3

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Summer of Dreams

Visit the summers of yore, in all their splendour through our nostalgic feature

72 A Buddhist Goddess On the female Bodhisattva Guanyin and ideas that were exchanged through the silk route between India and China

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Dear Readers,

As the hot month of May rolls around, I want to share a cool lesson I learnt recently.

Being cool is about being open minded.

This life lesson came to me last week when Anabel came into our office. Sarah and Jeremy, her parents, had relocated from Tennessee to Chennai. They were settling down to their first Asian experience and learning to embrace a new culture via our intercultural training programme. Little Anabel came along for the ride. She was instantly comfortable in her new setting.

She left her parents in the training room and walked around as if she owned the place. She raised her arms wide open to be carried and passed around to bask in the admiring glances she was receiving from our teams. She had already learnt to say nandri, the Tamil word for Thank You, with folded palms.

I asked myself what it was about being childlike that we could relearn to stay cool.

I learnt from Anabel the COT formula.

Curiosity: Remain curious about differences and everything around you.

Point to things. Ask questions, touch and feel the newness of whatever you are exposed to. It may surprise you.

Openness: No preconceived notions.

Anabel had none, as she was a baby. Her innocence came from having no memory of anyone being ‘like’ her or ‘unlike’ her.

Everything was fun. Can we learn to be open to learn and explore?

Trust: Start from a place of trust unless proved otherwise. She had no problem being handed something new like a doll that wobbles its head Indian style.

She engaged with anyone who played a game with her. All it took was a game of peekaboo and she was on board. Her parents had brought her to this place. They were around somewhere nearby. They had handed her to this uncle, that aunty… she was all set.

The orange Indian flowers on Anabel’s brunette hair brightened her American face. Who had drawn these imaginary geographical distinctions? Would she ever be able to understand ‘go back to your country’?

‘Which country?’ she might ask. ‘I am such a cool global citizen.’

Enjoy this Culturama of coolness with a summer special on mangoes on Page 30 and nostalgic holidays of yore on Page 18.

Ranjini Manian, Editor-in-Chief globalindian@globaladjustments.com

Editor-in-Chief Ranjini Manian Senior Editor Lakshmi Krupa Creative Head Prem Kumar Graphic Designer Ankita S VP Finance V Ramkumar Circulation S Raghu Advertising Chennai Ambeka Deshmukh Bengaluru Meera Roy Delhi/NCR Ruchika Srivastava Mumbai/Pune Ashish Chaulkar To subscribe to this magazine, e-mail info@globaladjustments.com or access it online at www.culturama.in Chennai (Headquarters) 5, 3rd Main Road, R A Puram, Chennai – 600028 Telefax +91-44-24617902 E-mail culturama@globaladjustments.com Bengaluru No.: A2, SPL Habitat, No.138, Gangadhar Chetty Road, Ulsoor, Bengaluru – 560043.

Tel +91-80-41267152, E-mail culturamablr@globaladjustments.com Delhi-NCR Level 4, Augusta Point, Golf Course Road, Sector 53, Gurgaon 122002, Haryana Mobile +91 124 435 4224 E-mail del@globaladjustments.com Mumbai #1102, 11th floor, Peninsula Business Park, Tower B, SB Road, Lower Parel, Mumbai – 400013 Tel +91-22-66879366 E-mail mum@globaladjustments.com Published and owned by Ranjini Manian at #5, 3rd Main Road, Raja Annamalai Puram, Chennai – 600028, and printed by K Srinivasan of Srikals Graphics Pvt Ltd at #5, Balaji Nagar, 1st Street, Ekkattuthangal, Chennai – 600032 Disclaimer Views and opinions expressed by writers do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s or the magazine’s.

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Cover Image

Culturama’s cover image this month pays tribute to the philosophies of the Buddha whose ideas travelled from India to shores far and wide.

Advisory Board Members N. Ram is an award-winning journalist and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu. He is Director of Kasturi & Sons Limited, publishers of The Hindu.

Suzanne McNeill lived in India for seven years before returning to Scotland. She is a freelance writer and graphic designer.

Liz Neisloss is a veteran journalist and writer who has worked for CNN based from Singapore, Chennai and at the United Nations in New York.

She is now based in Mumbai.

G. Venket Ram is an acclaimed photographer and the creative mind behind many a Culturama issue. www.gvenketram.com Annelize Booysen is a business consultant and social entrepreneur. She lived in Asia for more than a decade, which included three years in India.

She is currently based in the United States.

Namita Jain, founder of Jaldi Fit, is a leading fitness guru and a businesswoman who helms Kishco, a world-class cutlery brand.

Contributors

Susan Philip is a freelance writer based in Chennai, and the editorial coordinator of Culturama’s various coffee table books.

Eknath Easwaran (1910–1999) was a spiritual teacher, author and interpreter of Indian literature. In 1961, he founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and Nilgiri Press in California.

Devdutt Pattanaik is the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group and a writer and illustrator of several books on Indian mythology. www.devdutt.com

Letters to the editor Dear Editor,

I enjoyed reading the inspiring interview with Traci Morris in the April edition of Culturama. Kudos!

Annie Carmel, Chennai

Dear Editor,

Your feaure titled Weaves of India on the many resplendent traditions of Indian clothing was lovely. I look forward to reading more such pieces of contemporary Indian cultural writing in your magazine.

Shriya Kannan, Delhi

Dear Editor,

The new Culture Quotient column in Culturama is a wonderful addition to the great content your magazine already offers. I enjoyed learning about the TV shows from around the globe that had Indians at the heart. Well conceptualised.

Swara Desai, Mumbai

culturama – Subscribe Now! Get your copy of Culturama as a hard copy or as an e-magazine - visit www.globaladjustments.com to subscribe For other enquiries, e-mail us at culturama@globaladjustments.com or call us on +91-44-2461 7902

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Contents

18 Feature Join us on a nostalgic trip to summers of yore when holidays meant togetherness.

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In Focus

Shrabani Basu talks about her book, Victoria and Abdul.

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Myth & Mythology

Ideas beyond Buddhism were exchanged as the silk route connected India and China via Central Asia.

India’s Culture 8

Short Message Service

Short, engaging snippets of Indian culture.

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Festival of the Month

This May the country celebrates a host of occasions, from Buddha Purnima to Ramanuja Jayanti.

Journeys Into India 74

Holistic Living

Can’t see how just repeating a word over and over can do anything?

Learn the magic of the mantra.

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Picture Story

Celebrating the Indian summer in all its glory.

Regulars

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Culture Quotient

Our recommendations for films, books and TV shows.

Relocations and Property 78

Space and the City

Property listings in Chennai.

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Seeing India

There is something for everyone in the Andamans.

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SMS

by Suzanne McNeill Short cultural snippets for an easily digestible India

Art/textile/craft Mat-Making Pattamadai pais are soft grass mats woven in the small village of Pattamadai in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.They are made from Korai grass, a type of sedge plant that is found in abundance along river banks and marshlands in southern India. The grass is harvested and cut into fine strips while still green, then dyed and soaked in running water to allow each strip to swell before the final drying stage. Weaving then commences on a floor loom and can take several days. The finest and most closely woven mats are called pattupai or silk mats because they have a texture akin to silk fabric. Traditionally, pais were made to order for wedding ceremonies, inscribed with the newlyweds’ names and the wedding date. They were meant to last the couple’s entire lifetime.

Word Adda

Photo: Pia Berglund, Sweden

Adda is a Bengali word that means a ‘den’, but which is now understood across India as a term that represents an informal, leisurely but often erudite conversation amongst a group of people that might go on for hours. It may involve long discussions about politics, literature or music, and is often accompanied by copious amounts of chai or coffee. Its origin is from a Hindi noun that means a stand, a meeting place or a perch, and it is also understood as a common place where friends hang out, perhaps a college club or a coffeehouse. Even a tea stall might be a street-corner adda.

Food and drink Shikanji Shikanji, in its traditional and simple form, is homemade lemonade. It is a refreshing and energising coolant that is sold from street stalls during hot days. Prepare Shikanji by pouring 1.2 litres of water into a pan, adding 6 tablespoons of sugar and heating gently, stirring to dissolve. Squeeze the juice of three lemons into a jug, add black salt, pepper and the sugar water to the lemon juice, stir and chill in the fridge. It may be flavoured with a hint of cumin or ginger, or a chaat masala spice blend, then garnished with mint or tulsi leaves and served with ice.

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Name to know Zoya Akhtar Zoya Akhtar is an increasingly influential Indian film director and screenwriter, who enjoys making mainstream, ensemble-cast cinema. Her films are rooted in Bollywood but have a contemporary twist and a strong visual aesthetic. She was born in Mumbai in 1972 into a family immersed in the Indian film tradition. Her father, Javed Akhtar, is a renowned Indian lyricist and poet and her mother is the actress and screenwriter Honey Irani. Younger brother Farhan Akhtar is also a director, screenwriter and actor. Zoya cut her teeth in the industry in logistics, casting and production roles, including working as assistant to Mira Nair, before making her directorial debut in 2009 with Luck By Chance, set in the Hindi film world and starring her brother. He went on to appear in Zoya’s 2011 film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, a romcom road movie, in an ensemble cast that includes Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif and Abhay Deol. The film was a critical and commercial success and Zoya won the 2011 Filmfare Award for Best Director.

Averse to being pigeonholed, Akhtar then wrote a psychological horror thriller Talaash (2012) followed by a family comedy drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015). She describes herself as obsessed with human behaviour, a people-watcher, and admits that she enjoys taking a story and scaling it up, whether in terms of location (she uses travel as a device in her films to bring a group of characters together), stars, film sets and full-on music numbers. Whatever the setting, she aims to make films that depict experiences and emotions that affect everyone.

Zoya is currently working on her next film, a coming-ofage story set amongst street rappers in the ghettos of Mumbai.

Interpretations Anthill Worship The worship of anthills was once common throughout India but is now mainly concentrated in the south. The mounds are large and very old, and are actually made by termites rather than ants. Nonetheless, the association has remained over the years and just as the rice flour that forms the kolam designs on the ground outside houses also provides food for the ant, the smallest of creation, these ‘anthill’ mounds are sacred in rural India. Dismantling one is said to bring bad luck.

Snakes also make homes in anthills, and the worship of snakes is associated with fertility. Devotees make offerings of milk, fruit and flowers and decorate the anthill with orange powder that is made of vermillion, an auspicious colour. Threads are tied around anthills to protect them and worshippers make wishes, especially for babies and good health, by tying threads to trees around snake pits or anthills.

They come back to untie the thread when their wish comes true. In Goa, anthills are revered as a manifestation of the Earth Goddess.

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India in symbols

by Susan Philip

Water Water

EVERYWHERE

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Water is the means of physical cleansing, and also symbolises spiritual cleansing in practically all cultures In a nutshell Water is seen as a life-sustaining, cleansing and purifying agent in all cultures. Hinduism is no exception.

Water from some sources is considered especially sacred, and the means of salvation. It is an important element in rituals to mark birth, death and all the major milestones in between. It is also a component of everyday customs followed by people across the country, cutting across barriers of creed. Varuna, the Lord and regulator of water in all its forms on the earth – the oceans, the seas, the rivers, the ponds, lakes and also rain – was in the preVedic era worshipped as the preeminent deity, though in course of time, he yielded to Indra in importance.

Meaning On a day-to-day basis, water is sprinkled on the thresholds of homes and shops at dawn and dusk. It’s done not only as a purification ritual, but also to settle the dust and bring at least a degree of coolness during the summer.

The poorna kumbha or pot filled with water is an integral part of many a religious ceremony in India. The water in the pot symbolises life, and the fact that the pot is filled signifies plenty.

Many Hindu homes have a vial of water from the Ganga, which is given to those on their deathbed for a final cleansing of the soul. And the ashes of the dead are

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the fact that many of the cities considered holy are located on the banks of rivers.

Rivers are sacred in India. The confluence of rivers is considered especially holy.

The Ganga is seen as the most sacred of all rivers. Varanasi or Banares, Haridwar and Allahabad are a few of the pilgrimage centres that border this great river. From ancient times, Hindus have believed that the waters of the Ganga are powerful.

Saying it in verse Aapo Hi Sstthaa Mayo-Bhuvasthaa Na Uurje Dadhaatana | Mahe Rannaatha Cakssase (From the Rig Veda)

floated away in the waters of rivers and seas, symbolising a return of the mortal remains to nature, from which it sprang.

Even idols of Lord Ganesh, made to celebrate the elephant-headed God’s birthday, are immersed in water bodies, symbolically reiterating that nothing lasts forever, and that, in the cycle of life, what is created must disintegrate, and will be formed again when the wheel turns a full circle.

Many temples have tanks attached to them. They are considered sacred, and the water is used for the needs of worship. On a practical plane, they function as catchment areas and recharge groundwater. A full temple tank is a soothing sight, because it means that the surrounding areas don’t have to fear water scarcity.

The stuff of legend The first of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu is inextricably linked with water. In the Matsya avatar Lord Vishnu took the form of a fish that grew and grew. According to the story, Manu, the first and noblest King of humankind, was warned

by Vishnu in the form of the fish about a cosmic flood that would shortly destroy life on earth. He told Manu to build a huge ship, and take on board seeds of all the plants and animals so that the wealth of nature could be replenished.

The giant fish then towed the ship through the rising waters to the top of a mountain, where it remained safe from the floods which drowned out every other living thing in the world.

Scientific substance The importance of water in Hinduism can be gauged by

O Water, because of your presence, the Atmosphere is so refreshing, and imparts to us vigour and strength.

We revere you who gladdens us by your pure essence.

The Aikya factor Water is the means of physical cleansing, and also symbolises spiritual cleansing in practically all cultures.

Purification rituals prior to taking part in worship are part of the tradition in the whole gamut of religions, including Islam, Buddhism, the Bahá'í Faith and Shintoism. In Christianity, Baptism is a sacrament where water is used to signify the wiping away of a sinful past and the start of a new life.

The story of the great flood finds echoes in many religions across the globe. The Old Testament of the Bible speaks of the disillusionment of God with the growing sin and evil in the world, and His decision to destroy all life by means of a catastrophic flood. He however finds one family, headed by Noah, worthy of saving. He tells Noah to build a giant ship and take on to it pairs of every type of animal, bird, insect and reptile, so that their species would be saved. After the waters receded, the earth was populated anew. Stories of a Great Flood in which one upright man or group of people are preserved are also found in Greek mythology and in the legends of the native peoples of Canada, Africa and other places.

“May the water that flows down from the snow clad mountains bring you happiness. May the water that flows in the rivers bring you happiness. May the swift flowing streams bring you happiness. May the water of the monsoon bring you happiness."

From Atharva Veda, Kanda 19

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I will always be your shadow, mother. Photo: Armando Bruck, Brazil

Picture Story

by Anukriti Bisht

What Makes a

Mother?

Mother’s day…What do you get someone who has given you everything? This mother’s day, don’t just write a huge paragraph about your mother on social media, pick up your phone up and give your mother a call, give her a hug and appreciate her.

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Motherhood is a heart-exploding, blissful hysteria. Photo: Candice Gibory, France

Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother. Photo: Megan Bond, Canada

You are my comfort, you are my home. Photo: Diana Griege

A Sunday afternoon spent making sandcastles with mother.

Photo: Sophie Fontant, France

Your happiness is my happiness.

Photo: Deepak Raval

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Feature

by Team Culturama

Summer of Dreams Photo: Johnny Baird, UK

Join us on a nostalgic trip to the summers of yore when holidays meant togetherness

In this essay, we recreate the best of summer memories for our readers. Remember those lazy, long-gone summer days? When the heat would be unforgiving but there would be company to ward off all the summer time blues?

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Summer loves company Oh, indeed, it does. As children we would brave it out in the sweltering heat with friends, cousins and neighbours.

Playing board games – antakshari (a relay singing game), gilli danda, ludo, moksha patam (our own snakes and ladder), ludo, pallangkuzhi (a wooden board with pits into which cowry shells, tamarind seeds or beautiful red manjadi seeds were filled) during those quiet, long afternoons while our grandparents napped. Come evening and we would all shuffle out, after a fresh bath and talcum powder smeared all over as cuckoos called out sweetly. With the evening breeze gently caressing us, we would run around trees playing hide-andseek or lock-and-key. There would be street cricket and badminton games, some cycling too... There were no tabs, smart phones or cable TV. Just good old Doordarshan, radio and the big beautiful outdoors for entertainment.

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Pickles & more

Photo: Leann Canty, USA

Summer time was also when the elderly would prepare for elaborate pickling rituals. The best raw mangoes, lemon and yellow cucumber would be picked, chopped up into tiny triangular pieces. They would be tied up in a thin white cloth. With fiery red chilli powder, mustard powder, salt and sesame or groundnut oil the pieces they would be soaked and kept in a cool, dark part of the kitchen in those beautiful big ceramic white and mustard coloured jars. We could not wait for the pickle to be ready. But wait we had to. And then when our grandmother decided they were ready, we would have that pickle for every meal, savouring it.

Summers were also the perfect time for rice crispy or poppadom making. Little balls of rice with onion, sheets of rice flour, sago ground with chillies and salt, and so on, would be dried on the terrace for use round the year. Deep fried in oil or just cooked over an open flame, the crunchy poppadams and vadaams would make dinner time so much brighter.

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Photo: Anne Daugherty, USA

Bottoms up!

To quench our thirst in the summer there would be a variety of drinks.

In the beginning of summer there would be panakam, a sweet drink made of water and jaggery, flavoured with cardamoms. Then there was the lassi and neermor – the former made from curd and sugar and the latter made by diluting the curd with water and churning it with some salt, curry leaves, green chillies, coriander and asafoetida. With the onset of mango season there would be mango lassis, too. Lemon juice or nimboo paani was another absolute favourite. Ice golas (lollies), in various flavours such as orange and kala khatta (sherbet made from blackberry bush), were a hit.

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Hills are alive Some weekends we would be bundled into cars or trains and taken to the nearest hill station; to leave behind the harsh sun and take in some of the cool air.

There would be horse rides, ice creams in the cold, visits to gardens brimming with flowers, lazy evening chai, local treats including sweets and some much-needed respite.

Photo: Manfred Friedrich ZINK, Germany

Kite runners Evenings would also be for the great outdoors.

Depending on where you were, this could be a park, a building’s terrace or the beach where you could also play in the water. And, as the wind picked up, colourful kites would compete with each other in the sky. We would learn to run with the wind first and then send the kite up soaring...

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Learning some fun It was almost always during summer vacations that we would learn, all the while having so much fun that it would not even seem like learning. There was cycling, falling down, hurting ourselves and then braving on until we were pros who could go round the entire street with our hands off the handlebar; then there was swimming, skating and knitting or stitching for those who loved craft from our grandmothers. Crafts and skills we would proudly write about or show off when our schools reopened.

Eating together Those lovely dinner times, when we were all rounded up to the terrace, under the moonlight for a meal together. Ah, those were the days. The elderly would take one big vessel and mix in rice with sambar or dal or kuzhambu and have us all seated in a circle.

Then our grandmother would waltz in with her brilliant stories and all her love. There would be no plates. The mixed up rice rolled into tiny bite-sized balls would be offered on our hands with freshly made rice crisps on the side. We would be so engrossed in the stories that before we knew it, we would have wolfed down three rounds of meals and then, magically, the story would end just as the rice did!

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Summer Special

by Devanshi Mody

The king of

fruits

A tribute to the golden yellow fruit that seduces everyone who crosses its path...

The mango is the king of fruits. It is also the most dangerous of fruits, I realise, when one shatters millimetres from my head. Maya and Leela, housekeeping staff at my hotel Grey Suit, are aggressing the mango tree that covers the hotel, its branches laden with massive mangoes hanging outside the windows in irresistible enchantment. The girls have been shaking mangoes with an improvised stick noosed in a plastic bag when a sought mango misses, barely missing my head. No other fruit motivates such mindlessness (well, the apple, Eve would say‌) Nothing perhaps unites India like the mango season in May, when madness spreads across the country like wild fire setting streets ablaze with stretches of golden mangoes on display.

Mangoes are exquisite. And, they have been around for a while in India! You can spot beautiful damsels at the stupendous Konark Sun Temple in Odisha, embowered in a mango tree whose fruits glitter through the lush leaves like a billion miniature suns.

My first experience of the mango season in India was

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when, as a child, I visited Mumbai for my cousin’s wedding felicitously in May. I fell in love with the alphonso that is golden like bullion, rich like saffron, redolent like nothing else and small like dynamite but explosive in ecstasyinducing flavours. This is the world’s most famous mango. Why would you spend thrice as much for a mango third the size of enormities like Rajapuri? For its maddeningly ineffable flavour that is only describable by the squeals of delight it extorts. Indelibly etched in memory are slices of glowing alphonso like sundrenched boats lazing languidly on white plates at my grandmother’s house. And, during wedding meals we would have thalis with mango shrikhand, mango kheer, mango kulfi, and so on. Yet, what I loved most was aam ras, luxuriant mango juice to be had with hot, hot puris.

My grandmother’s maharaj (cook) watching me demolish bowl after bowl of aam ras conjured the mango season in Rajasthan, from where he hailed, and offered to whisk me away to his mango-groved village. Lest I elope with the cook my grandmother took to freezing aam ras for my annual visits from the United Kingdom every December. Alas, defrosted aam ras does not retain the thrill of fresh, fragrant extracts. Moreover, there is only so much one could store and rationing diminishes the pleasure, especially as my mother would agonise me with childhood recollections of summering in Gujarat, where her uncles had ample barns carpeted in mangoes that she unabashedly gorged on for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The mango season in all its abundant childish glory still exists in South India, too. I certainly relished it over my

Indelibly etched in memory are slices of glowing alphonso like sun-drenched boats lazing languidly on white plates at my grandmother’s house.

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first Chennai summer in 2011. Sprays of golden mangoes enlivened the streets. Heaps and heaps of mangoes heaved aromatically everywhere. I soon discovered there is more to mango than alphonso and that the Deccan has its own repertoire of marvels. Banganapalli from Andhra Pradesh piqued our fancy; it was big and beautiful and enormous slices struck across plates like sun rays, albeit succulent rays that oozed velveteen juice when bitten into leaving rivulets of thick golden-orange dripping down our chins. Reluctantly weaning away from the banganapalli we hazarded other indigenous mangos, including local alphonso which tasted authentic – little packets of delicious extravagance mantled in golden yellow. The alphonso swayed us until our neighbour returned from Andhra Pradesh bearing a truckload of mangoes “from our own estate,” he beamed, and gifted us a dozen. Doused in tickling squirts of juice galore I resolved to be very nice to the neighbours.

East India boasts mangoes, too, one forgets.

Odisha has captivated export markets. As for Bengal, Chef Sujan Mukherjee at the Taj Coromandel poetically evokes the quintessentially Bengali mango season, delineating popular Bengali mangoes like langra, balking at the value-for-money fazli (big, but little on taste). Incidentally, not the alphonso but the musky Bengali himsagar connoisseurs crown the “king of mangoes.” The inviolate himsagar, Chef Sujan says Bengalis consume as it is, unadorned.

So he plays instead with the plethoric southern mangoes, including exclusive imam pasand which Tamils contend is

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I soon discovered there is more to mango than alphonso and that the Deccan has its own repertoire of marvels the “king of mangoes.” Now, Chef Sujan has the suaveness of Bond himself – indeed, my brother says, “I’m sure he slinks around with a slick gun held by his head.” But if Bond can turn his finger into a gun, then Chef Sujan can turn the mango into a quintessentially southern summer menu deploying his young chef Shankar Padmanabhan at Southern Spice as “Q.” Following our chat about mangoes, he confesses that he thought it a splendid idea to improvise an all-mango menu, an epicurean excursion across South India's mango circuit. Expect southern mangoes infusing everything from mango kesari amuse-bouche to starters, curries, dosas, rice and desserts. Here is a culturally fascinating plated presentation of how the four southern states implement mangoes extensively and excitingly in their cuisine, contrasting with other regions where mangos are restricted to desserts. Chef Shankar has me discover esoteric exotica like mango chutney tapioca cutlets and mellow mambhaza pulissery (mangoes simmered in curried yoghurt) from Kerala, a sweet and sour mavenkai mensukai from Karnataka and feisty mango pulusu from Andhra traversing via mangoes the entire gamut of flavours from placid through piquant to pungent and pugnacious. Modulating the pronounced flavours of the curries is dulcet mango rice from Tamil Nadu. But my mouth still smarts from the chilli mango masala dosa, which the mellifluous mango payasam, mango elada and Chef Sujan’s Bengali mango desserts must assuage.

Young Sulthana Khaleel of Pantry D’Or Cordon Bleu who featured in Vogue has crafted venturesome creations like mango and gorgonzola white pizzas; mango and parmesan lasagna parcelled in silken sheets of pasta; mango and feta pides; mango, avocado and rocket bruschetta; mango, strawberry and basil smoothies; dark chocolate with lavish mango ganache; mango sorbet in raw mango macaron, and so on.

The mingling of many cultures in Chennai sees mangoes infiltrate European and Asian cuisines, too. Westin Chennai’s pan-Asian restaurant Five Sen5es has the finest Asian desserts I’ve had, including mango sago pudding. For something whackier the restaurant’s innovative chefs can rustle up mango sushi, mango maki and mango tempura. Aam-azing!

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Indian Impressions

by Alfredo De Braganza

Sound Camera Action!

A Spaniard Filmmaker on Satyajit Ray, one of India’s finest filmmakers and an Academy Award Winner for Lifetime Achievement

“Villains bore me,” Satyajit Ray (Calcutta 1921–1992) wrote once. In Camus’s The Plague (French title La Peste) a character says, “I understand everyone, so I judge no one”. Ray made us understand. In the sparest and the most refined of cinematic idioms, he gave us a world. If Joyce captured a man in full through the relentless description and analysis of a day in Dublin, Ray’s films are delicate vignettes sculpted in time recording an entire culture. The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael said about him, “Ray sees life itself as basically good, no matter how bad it is.”

On a business trip to London in 1950, Satyajit Ray watched Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves more than a dozen times. On the ship back to India, he wrote a screenplay for his first film, Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road). It became the first movie from independent India to attract major international critical attention and won “Best Human Document” at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, establishing Satyajit Ray as a major international filmmaker. Even today it is considered one of the greatest films ever made.

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12 RAY FILMS YOU CANNOT MISS THE APU TRILOGY 1955-59

Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) tell the story of Everyman Apu from birth through boyhood, marriage and fatherhood. Visually poetic, this delicately crafted trilogy is a work of astonishing sensitivity.

JALSAGHAR 1958

(The Music Room) Powerful study of crumbling feudalism through the eyes of a zamindar who refuses to accept that times have changed.

MAHANAGAR 1963

(The Big City) Neglected masterpiece. A wife steps out to work: she changes, her relationships change, the world changes her.

CHARULATA 1964

(The Lonely Wife) Ray’s personal favourite. A neglected and sensitive wife finds solace and identity in a complex relationship with her brother-in-law.

Forget the technical jargon of montage, mise-en-scène, fade-outs and jump cuts, Ray performed, better than any other Indian, the basic duty of a filmmaker. He communicated. He touched. The fun and games of Durga and Apu, the caring and sharing of the siblings, the candyman, the kittens, the rain dance and the loss of a sister, and the inability of Apu to comprehend its enormity as he brushes his teeth without his sister Durga by his side.

This film is about childhood but made through the filtered vision of an adult looking back, which makes it that much more nuanced and philosophical.

Pather Panchali was followed by two films that continued the tale of Apu’s life: Aparajito (The Unvanquished) in 1956 and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) in 1959. The three films are together known as The Apu Trilogy. Whether it is the smile of a child staring at the pompous village shopkeeperteacher or the tragedy of a mother who has lost her young daughter, emotions are articulated without words and are all the more searing for that. You don’t need subtitles to sympathise with these people, you live alongside their feelings; it is all

about visuals held together by silences and sounds to create feelings that are abidingly haunting.

If we take a clinical eye to Apu’s story nothing much happens to him that is out of the ordinary. His lower middle-class life is but a basis point in the statistical percentages of social studies. But Ray makes him Everyman; you see him grow from birth to fatherhood, and all you want is that he should be happy. His quest becomes yours.

The important thing is not that he is a villager, not that he is a Bengali, but that he is a human being, a person, and that is the universality of the film.

For a viewer who had lived on a healthy diet of Hollywood blockbusters or megabudget Bollywood flicks and regards cinema as an escape, Pather Panchali can become too real for comfort. This viewer can sense the slow rhythm from the beginning, not understanding the subtle emotions and can get bogged down even by the poverty and relentlessly tragic mood. In my opinion, the most important criticism which we can make of Ray is that he believes naively that people are fundamentally good and that

GOOPI GYNE BAGHA BYNE 1968 (The adventures of Goopy and Bagha) Age-no-bar musical fairytale about two travelling minstrels blessed by the King of Ghosts.

It’s also a powerful anti-war parable.

A still from Charulatha (1964)

Pather Panchali

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India honours Satyajit Ray with a stamp. An honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to him weeks before his death in 1992.

his films are too well crafted in contrast, for example, to the raw passion of Ritwik Ghatak and his spontaneous and stubborn frames.

Like every giant, Ray suffered attacks from intellectual midgets, some of whom whined that the only reason he was so well received in the West was because of the negative picture his film showed of poverty in India. This is, of course, rubbish. Certainly the people in his films were poor and their lives were conditioned by that poverty. But poverty, in one degree or another, is a fact of life for every large part of the world’s population.

The people in Pather Panchali are engaged in the struggle to survive, but it does not impair their humanity!

I personally find a link between Ray’s film and a “magic” scene from Guiseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso when the young boy Toto is fascinated as Alfredo (his projectionist friend) inclines the projector and lets the moving image travel out of the theatre over the wall of the town square.

Martin Scorsese once said, “With Ray’s films you became attached to the culture through the people”. Watching Pather Panchali, the experience is not about acting, camera frame, music (by Ravi Shankar), editing or sound.

It is about more than that: an unforgettable movie magic experience; a ray of light to your consciousness.

An image from The Bicycle Thief, a 1948 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica, which was an inspiration for Satiajit Ray’s Pather Panchali.

ARANYER DIN RATRI 1969 (Days and Nights in the Jungle) Four urban young men go for a short trip to the Palamau jungle. Three return, their lives changed forever.

PRATIDWANDI 1970 (The Adversary) Surrealistic and experimental in style: about unemployment, late 60s Calcutta, the power and failure of the imagination, and an elusive birdcall.

SONAR KELLA 1974 (The Golden Fortress) Delightful thriller about a little boy who remembers his past life and the treasure hunt that follows. Made then unknown Jaisalmer a thriving tourist destination.

JANA ARANYA 1975 (The Middleman) Ray’s darkest work. Juxtaposes the slow moral degradation of a young man trying to earn a living against the decay of Calcutta and Bengali society.

SHATRANJ KE KHILARI 1977 (The Chess Players) Ray’s only full-length Hindi feature film. Dissolute nobles spend their days in pointless leisure as the English annexe Awadh.

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Picture Story

by Anukriti Bisht

A Slice of Summer

Photo: Michel Valade, France

Summer. The only time of the year when the sand becomes a yellow inferno and the waves provide a refreshing escape. The white-fringed waves rolling onto the beach, the last sip of your coconut water, the salty breeze near the ocean shore, that feeling you get while digging your feet deep into the sand. This is our summer.

One that is brimming with jubilance and bliss and gives room for memorable moments with your loved ones.

Water kept in earthen pots offers cool respite from the heat and dust. Photo: Lee Webb

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Drink up, little one! This coconut water will shield you from the scorching sun.

Photo: Didem Atahan-Fabig, Turkey

A fun escape from the blazing summer heat.

Photo: Donna Ghaderi, USA

It’s fun for everyone, no matter who you are. Photo: Alina Simonova, Russia

Impressive somersaults in the holy river Ganges. . Photo: Alina Simonova, Russia

With the wash of a cool wave on the beach, here comes a little friend!

Photo: Silvia Ricanek, Germany

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In Focus

by Marina Marangos

The Queen and her tutor I had the privilege of hearing Shrabani Basu at the Jaipur Lit Fest, in conversation with A. N Wilson. I think this was probably one of my favourite sessions because with their combined historical knowledge, I came to appreciate Queen Victoria in a completely different way and I learnt so much about her and her relationship with Abdul Karim, an Indian servant who was sent over to the Palace for the Queen’s Jubilee. This true story would have been buried and forgotten forever had she not brought it to light...

than a servant. That portrait spoke to me and I wanted to know more.

When did you conceive the idea for the book and what made you begin the quest to find more about this relationship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim?

The first thing I discovered was that all the letters she had written to him had been burnt by her son and heir, Edward VII, so it was not the best start. But I started with Queen Victoria’s journals and her Hindustani journals. I had these translated. They revealed a lot about the relationship. I went to Agra and found Abdul Karim’s grave and the house she had given him. I found some material in the archives in Agra.

Back in London, I worked in the British Library and read her

I knew from research for an earlier book that Queen Victoria had some Indian servants and enjoyed eating curries.

But it was during a visit to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight that I saw the portrait of Abdul Karim. He was painted holding a book in his hand, and looked more like a nawab

I started my research in Windsor Castle and read Queen Victoria’s journals and her Hindustani journals. That was the start of my journey into their life together.

Where did your investigations take you and what did you find? Was it easy or difficult to have access to the material and historical records?

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In conversation with Culturama, writer Shrabani Basu talks about her book, Victoria and Abdul correspondence with the Viceroys of India where Abdul is covered extensively. I went to Scotland and read the private papers and journals of Queen Victoria’s doctor, Sir James Reid. These were a major source for the book. There were also the private letters, diaries and memoirs of her household, ladies in waiting and even the Royal Chef. Newspaper reports were a valuable source. All these helped construct the story.

The icing on the cake was finding Abdul Karim’s diary in Karachi. It was a journal that the household had wanted destroyed. It was amazing to hold it in my hands after over a hundred years.

How long between conception and the publication of the book?

Four years.

Were you surprised by what you found?

It was a journey of discovery at every step. I discovered that Queen Victoria had learnt to read and write in Urdu

from Abdul Karim. I discovered how passionate she was about India and how she took a keen interest in the Indian political scene. I learnt how she stood up for Karim and defended him against her household, her family, the Viceroy and even the Prime Minister.

It was a shock to me to see that her son and heir actually threatened to get her to step down from the throne on grounds of insanity because of her relationship with Abdul Karim. This was the longest reigning monarch at the time who had celebrated her golden and diamond jubilee and was the iconic symbol of the British Empire. I thought this was hugely significant and showed the lengths to which they were ready to go.

Well, of course, they didn’t succeed. But they did get rid of Abdul as soon as she died, by sending him straight back to Agra and burning his letters. They wanted to delete him from history.

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What are your views about Queen Victoria?

I thought she was way ahead of her time. She had no prejudices of class or colour and really stood up for her Indian servants and looked after them. The fact that she learnt Urdu so late in life shows her commitment. She never missed a single lesson over thirteen years.

What is your view about Abdul Karim?

Karim was just 24 years old when he was sent to England to wait on the Queen. He was quite proud and did not like being a servant. He actually wanted to return to Agra, where he was a clerk in the jail. But the Queen begged him to stay. She wanted to learn Urdu from him. The way I see it, he did not ask for any of it. He was transported to another world where the Queen enjoyed his company. Under the circumstances, who can blame him for asking for favours?

Everyone else in her court did. The Queen showered him with titles, land and presents. It attracted the jealousy of others in the household. They hated him because he was Indian and because he was a commoner. They were plain racist.

They referred to Indians as the “Black Brigade”. One lady-inwaiting said she ‘shuddered’ every time he walked by. They wanted to go on strike if the Queen took him to France on her holiday. They tried every trick in the book to get him, but failed.

Despite all this, he never said a word about their behaviour apart from a few references in the Hindustani journals and his own memoirs. He never complained about how he had been treated by the Royal Family after the Queen’s death and lived quietly in Agra.

Ultimately what do you think he offered her apart from teaching her Urdu/Hindi, which must have been quite a challenge to take up in her sixties?

I think he offered her companionship. She was very lonely; her children were troublesome and her household kept a formal distance. Karim was the one person, like John Brown before him, who crossed that barrier and related to her as another human being.

Also, she was fascinated by India and Karim brought India to her. He told her all about his country, the festivals, the politics, the culture, the Taj Mahal. She connected with India through Karim and went on to build her own miniIndia at Osborne House.

I think the relationship with Karim gave her a new lease of life and she lived till the age of 81, which was remarkable

Karim was the one person, like John Brown before him, who crossed that barrier and related to her as another human being. in those days.

A lot of effort was made to discredit him and some of the people in the Court of Queen Victoria were clearly threatened by his relationship to the Queen. Do you think this was justified in any way?

The household hated him as he was so close to the Queen.

There was the element of racism as well as class snobbery because he was a commoner from India. The Queen lavished gifts on him. She gave him his own carriage, houses and titles.

She welcomed his family to Britain. She spent long hours with him taking Urdu lessons, gossiping. It was more than they could bear.

Do you think Victoria was sexually attracted to Abdul Karim or was it more a child/ mother relationship?

It was a relationship that worked at several levels.

Victoria liked a strong man standing by her side, taking care of her. John Brown had been there for her after Albert’s death.

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Four years after John Brown’s death, she was devastated and lonely again, and that was when Abdul Karim was presented to her. Of the two servants who came to her, she did not choose the portly and “smiling” Muhammad Buksh but went for the tall young man with the “fine serious countenance”.

The physical aspect was definitely important.

listening to him.

In her letters she would refer to herself as his ‘closest friend’ and sign her letters with crosses. At other times she would sign it “Your loving mother”. So it was all of these.

I was unsure about their communication to start with and wondered if they were able to converse – clearly this improved over the years but in the first few years when you say they exchanged stories I was a little doubtful about whether this actually happened. What evidence do you have to support this?

It seems Victoria was quite a lonely woman and Abdul won her total trust as a confidant and friend. Do you think it was him per se or would anyone in that position have achieved that closeness?

It was definitely Abdul. He was young, charming and companionable and all this appealed to her. He understood her loneliness and his words comforted her. He would quote Urdu poetry and discuss Eastern philosophy and she enjoyed

Also, he brought India to her, a country that she was Empress of, but had never travelled to. He gave her the real picture of India, not the one fed to her by the colonial administrators. Through Abdul she felt the heat and dust of India and lived her Indian dream.

The letters she wrote to her daughter,Victoria, saying how comforting he was and that he was such a good teacher. This was within a few months of his arrival.

Abdul Karim was treated badly after Victoria died. His family was bullied into handing over everything to do with her. Yet you managed to secure enough to put down the basis for the relationship and the book. Do you ever imagine how much more there was in written communication between them and what was its nature?

I did get to see some letters which had escaped destruction. They give you a real glimpse into their relationship. There would have been so much more if they had survived. However, I don’t think they would have revealed anything startling or new. They would have just shown how close they were, for which there was enough evidence from all the other sources.

Personally I learnt a lot – loved the fact that she was so enlightened and blind to prejudice – what did writing this book mean to you?

As I mentioned earlier, it was a learning curve for me, too.

I had started out thinking Abdul Karim was probably a rogue, but learnt that he was not. He had just been portrayed that way by the household.

And, I learnt so much about Queen Victoria. I loved the way she stood up for Karim and accused her household of racism.

Are you working on something else that we can start looking forward to?

Yes, I am working on something. All my books involve years of research, so it will take some time. I hope it will be something everyone will enjoy.

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Thought Leader

by Meera Roy

Making a difference

Hendrikus van Dord, Executive Vice President of the Indian Economic Trade Organisation, on working in India, sustainable development, heartrending experiences with Indians and more‌

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Can you tell us about your work in India?

I came here as Chief of Protocol as I used to work for embassies, Trading Commissions and Ministers abroad. In the beginning, I was the head of the Arab Indian Chamber of Commerce. Currently I am the Executive Vice President of the Indian Economic Trade Organisation. We work more from the Indian perspective towards the world. In the time that I am here I see my duty changing by the week. People need to start a relationship before they start trusting each other to do business. At all levels it happens, from political levels, from country to country, territories, business alliances and business interest groups.

Can you share a funny or emotional moment from your India experience?

I went to a protest organised by the cleaning workers of Bengaluru. When I got home that day, a lady called me. She spoke good English and said, ‘You met my mother today,’ and that she was really happy. Nice, I said. She had never met a foreigner before. I said, ok. She said, ‘Yeah and you gave her your card, right?’ Oh, wow. For me this was a normal gesture, shaking hands and giving my card, because everybody is still a person. But then the fact that I shook her hand made her so happy. She got her daughter to call and say that she was happy that she met a foreigner. She said I had to visit her one day. That would never happen in the United States or Bulgaria or other countries that I worked for. For me that was really, really nice. I felt really acknowledged. I went there because I had the respect for the town I live in.

So I talked about it to the council and we had an idea for the programme, ‘Through Foreign Eyes Again’. I am going to take a movie of the people who clean the sewers to the Canadian International School and show it to the students who have to make an impression of it. And, we are going to take the movie across the borders where we have contacts with film festivals. I can go to a protest, but that does not change anything. But when I bring that movie to a film festival in Amsterdam, I can make a difference.

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What does the young Indian workforce need to do and what does it have to stop doing to make it a longterm super power in the world?

I think people should work on sustainable things.

Now India is working on ’Make in India’. But it needs infrastructure. The whole system of exports needs to be smoothened out. Make it possible for someone who produces in Bengaluru to sell it in South Africa or America.

Also, make in India for India. India is emptying its field of farmers to go into the cities. Those farmers have nothing to do in the cities. They are not going be IT specialists. Some of them will find a job because they have to. They cannot make a living in their own place, so they have to go somewhere else.

You have forced them to go away. You need to take care of your farmers.

What fields of immense potential seem unexplored, according to you, in India’s trade scenario?

What is the field of immense potential? It is not IT. IT is a moment, because they make programs. So IT, at this moment, is a big thing, but it is not sustainable. You need craftsmen who fix your sewer pipes, who produce food, who produces things to have in your house. You need tangible things to make in your own country. Therefore, things that you produce more should be sustainable. Food. The next problem will be water.

I have a bucket in my bathroom. When I turn on the shower and it is initially too cold, that water collects in the bucket and I use that to flush the toilet. Is it going to help? I save 2 litres of water a day. Does it help? No. That is only 700 litres of water a year. But imagine if every single Indian does that!

The biggest problem I see here in the young Indian workforce is that they know it all. That is normal. But then they do not own up to mistakes. When something goes wrong, everybody says it was not me, it was somebody else. They think that failing is something bad.

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Make in India for India.

What practical tips would you like to share on intercultural adaptation for those moving to countries outside their home on work?

Young Indians are not taking ownership of their mistakes?

Yes. Making a mistake means that you did something risky or harmful but you still had the attitude to do it. And that is what makes a country big. That you are innovating, that you have the strength and the self-esteem to do it. You have the self-esteem but you do not take the responsibility for it. For me it is a little different as I come from an army organised structure.

India is a culture with several cultures within, and because of that I sometimes think it is what makes people conservative. Instead of adapting to other cultures and enjoying other cultures, they get pretty much scared of it. They think that everything that is not in their small group is against them. I was young, 17, when I went abroad (America) and I was against everything American for the first three months. For the first three months, you go against or are in denial saying this is not good, it is not as good as back home, and so on. Thereafter from the third to the sixth month you start realising, ‘Hey American cars drive real nice, right?’

And, after those six months you start realising those qualities you have brought back from home and start implementing them in your own lifestyle in the new place.

So you adapt in general lines to the new culture and within it you stay within your own culture.

So be open and accept that the first three months will be tough. Things need time. You cannot keep dreaming about, “Everything in the Netherlands was better, why am I here?” It is normal because it is a normal human reaction.

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Culture Quotient

A culture guide with an Indian connection, for television, movies and books, handpicked by Culturama for its global audience

TV Guide Tokyo Trial On: Netflix Tokyo Trial is a historical drama that focuses on a decade-long investigation into events in the Pacific during and after WW II. Starring Marcel Hensema, Paul Freeman and Indian actor Irrfan Khan, in this miniseries, in the wake of World War II, eleven Allied judges are tasked with weighing the fate of Japanese war criminals in a tense international trial. Irrfan Khan plays Justice Radhabinod Pal, who was the only South Asian person appointed to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East's trials of Japanese war crimes committed during World War II. Among all the judges of the tribunal, he was the only one to submit a judgement which insisted that all defendants were not guilty. The Yasukuni Shrine and the Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine in Japan have monuments specially dedicated to Judge Pal.

The Big Bang Theory On: Zee Cafe The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom centred on five characters living: Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, physicists who share an apartment; Penny, an aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. Raj Koothrapali is played by Kunal Nayyar, a British Indian actor. Nayyar was born in Hounslow, London, to a Punjabi family and was brought up in New Delhi, India. Nayyar has also written a book about his career titled Yes, My Accent is Real.

Blindspot On: Colors Infinity Blindspot is a crime drama series that focuses on a mysterious tattooed woman who has lost her money and does not know her own identity. The FBI discovers that her tattoos contain clues to crimes they will have to solve. The series stars actors Sullivan Stapleton, Jaimie Alexander and Archie Panjabi, among others. Archana ‘Archie’ Panjabi is a British actress, best known for her role as Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife and Pinky in Bend It Like Beckham.

Panjabi was born in Middlesex to Govind and Padma Panjabi, both Sindhi emigrants from India.

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Book Guide The Indian Spy Author: Mihir Bose The true story of one of the most successful and expensive spies of World War II, Bhagat Ram Talwar, a Hindu Pathan from the Northwest Frontier Province of British India. He was the only quintuple spy of World War II, spying for Britain, Italy, Germany, Japan and the USSR. His spying missions saw him walk back and forth 24 times from Peshawar to Kabul eluding capture and certain death. He fooled the Germans so successfully that they gave him £2.5 million, in today’s money, and awarded him the Iron Cross.

His British spymaster was Peter Fleming, brother of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Fleming, operating from the gardens of the Viceroy’s House in wartime Delhi, gave him the code name Silver. Talwar became a spy after he helped Subhas Chandra Bose escape India via Kabul. Bose was seeking help from Germany and Japan to free India and never discovered that Talwar was betraying him to the British.

Baaz Author: Anuja Chauhan 1971. The USSR-backed India-Mukti Bahini alliance is on the brink of war against the America-aided Pakistani forces. As the Cold War threatens to turn red hot, handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane. Flanked by his buddies and fellow Gnatties Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure – until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism and whose eyes fill with disillusioned scorn whenever people wax eloquent about patriotism and war… Pulsating with love, laughter and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan’s tribute to our men in uniform.

Zelaldinus Author: Irwin Allan Sealy On a camel’s back hill beyond Agra stands a redstone citadel altogether different from the white marble Taj Mahal. Fatehpur Sikri is the capital Akbar built to honour the saint who foretold the birth of his first son. In the inner court of the king’s palace is a broad stone terrace with a chequered pattern that resembles a game board. Here, accounts say, Akbar played a kind of chess using human pieces from his harem of three hundred. Costumed in various guises, his women would have presented lively masques upon this stage. Zelaldinus mounts such a pageant, glittering and fantastical, where past and present, nobles and commoners, history and fiction rub shoulders. Its variety of verse and prose forms evokes the carnival spirit of a masque.

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Movie Guide Meri Pyari Bindu Language: Hindi A successful writer, Abhimanyu Roy who is stuck with a writer’s block returns to his roots to write an old-fashioned love story. The reason for the block could be Bindu, who is the love of his life but he has lost touch with her. In his house, Abhimanyu stumbles across an old audio cassette that contains their favourite playlist. It sends him down memory lane – and as he waltzes in and out of his past and present through the songs in the mixed tape, he finally faces reality and reconnects with his roots, with his family and his novel starts writing itself.

Half Girlfriend Language: Hindi Once upon a time, there was a Bihari boy called Madhav. He fell in love with a girl from Delhi called Riya. Madhav didn’t speak English well. Riya did.

Madhav wanted a relationship. Riya didn’t. Riya just wanted friendship.

Madhav didn’t. Riya suggested a compromise. She agreed to be his half girlfriend. Based on bestselling writer Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name, Half Girlfriend stars actors Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor.

Sachin: A Billion Dreams Language: Hindi A tale of a small boy with dreams and his journey to becoming the God of Cricket and the most celebrated sportsperson in his country. Sachin: A Billion Dreams is a biographical documentary film written and directed by James Erskine. The film is based on the life of Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Movie tip: Many multiplexes run Indian movie shows with English subtitles on specific days. Call your local multiplex to find out when.

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Seeing India

by Team Culturama

Island hopping History buffs, nature buffs or beach bums... There is something for everyone in the Andamans...

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The Andaman is the right place for you when you just want to unwind, but at the same time experience something absolutely new and different.

Archaeological evidence shows us that the islands of Andamans and Nicobar have been inhabited for at least 2,200 years, but research on the genetic, linguistic and cultural isolation of its inhabitants points to a much more fascinating journey. It is believed that these islands have been home to inhabitants for at least 30,000 to 60,000 years now. Located almost at equidistance from Chennai and Kolkata, the islands are easy to access by air; or if you want an adventure, try the sea!

Water sports, historical monuments and scenic beaches make Andamans an exciting getaway...

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Photos: Swaroop Mami

Port Blair Port Blair, the capital, is home to many beachfront properties from where you can watch the waves, while sipping on chai or sitting by the pier and taking in the breeze.

It is also home to one of the poignant reminders of India’s independence struggle – the Cellular Jail. It was so named as it was made up entirely of individual cells for solitary confinement. The most gruelling of jail terms were reserved there for the heroes of our independence fight. They were sent to the Andaman’s Cellular Jail to serve out sentences and many even met their fate at the hands of the hangman there. The Sound and Light show in the Cellular Jail narrates the story of the Indian freedom struggle, and is highly recommended.

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Ross Islands The entire island, now under the Indian Navy, is a museum of sorts, with the crumbling decay of old British buildings.

In his video promoting the Andamans as a tourist destination, actor Tom Alter refers to Ross Island, the administrative centre where British officers once lived, and recalls how it was then called the Venice of the East. Although far from being Venice today, Ross Island presents some rare photo opportunities. A patch of green that was once a tennis court, today it hosts a herd of deer ambling about lazily. Peahens slowly pecking away and sparrows flitting about busily‌ Ross is an odd combination of neatly laid pathways and old buildings in the throes of destruction.

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Havelock Islands Rich coral reefs, white pristine beaches, greens everywhere... That is Havelock for you.

Watch the azure blue waves gently caress the shore during the nights and then recede in the afternoons. Walk the beaches hunting for beautiful shells and conches in myriad shapes and colours. Go snorkelling to watch a world of wonder come alive under the sea. The coral reefs, beautiful fish and many different life forms... all come together to help make memories that will stay with you long after you have left the islands. Havelock is home to a number of beaches, the most popular of them being the Radhanagar Beach. The others are Vijyanagar Beach, Kalapathar Beach and Elephant Beach.

Places of note in the Andamans include Neil Island, Long Island and Diglipur.

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Festivals of India This May the country celebrates a host of occasions, from Buddha Purnima to Ramanuja Jayanti

Moatsu

May 1 – 3 An important festival celebrated by the Ao tribe in the north-eastern state of Nagaland, Moatsu Mong is held to seek the blessings of the Almighty. Cattle are fed and fattened ahead of the festival for a feast, rice beer is brewed and songs are sung in honour of the tribe’s heroes. The festival is an important draw and people from all over the country visit the state during this time to enjoy this colourful festival.

Narasimha Jayanthi

May 9

This is a day when the half-man, half-lion incarnation of Lord Vishnu descended on earth to kill a demon.

On this occasion, some devotees of Vishnu do not eat, special prayers are performed and gram sprouts and jaggery are offered to the idol.

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Buddha Purnima

May 3

Buddha Purnima celebrates the day Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment and became the Buddha. While some regard the day to represent all three important events in his life – birth, enlightenment and death – some believe that it signifies the death of the mortal’s desires and the birth of immortal knowledge. Buddha Purnima is so called because it falls on the full moon day (referred to as Purnima) of the Buddhist (and Hindu) month of Vaisakha.

Buddha, who was born into a royal family, a prince in what is present-day Nepal, gave up the pleasures of princely life and went in search of the source of eternal peace. He attained enlightenment under a bodhi tree at a place currently called Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India. He advocated the ‘Eightfold Path’ – right conduct, right motive, right speech, right effort, right resolve, right livelihood, right attention and right meditation – to his followers. Following this path, he said, can help one attain nirvana or complete liberation.

To Do: Buddha Purnima is celebrated with great reverence in Lumbini, Bodhgaya and Kushinagara. Prayer meetings, religious discourses, meditation and processions are held to mark the day.

Ramanuja Jayanti

May 1

Sri Ramanuja Acharya (1017–1137 C.E.) was a great Hindu philosopher and thinker. He is the most venerated guru in the philosophy of Sri Vaishnavism, which is a sect of Hinduisim that worships Lord Vishnu. He was born in the 11th century in the village of Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, in 1017 CE. Sri Ramanuja Jayanthi marks his birth anniversary and this year the festivities will be extravagant to mark his 1,000th birth anniversary.

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Portrait of India

by Team Culturama

One of the eight forms of Goddess Lakshmi (the wife of Lord Vishnu), known as the Ashta Lakshmi, Dhanya Lakshmi is so called because dhanya means ‘food grains’. She is the giver of agricultural wealth – especially food – all year round.

Here she has four hands, two of which hold lotuses and the others hold sprigs of paddy.

Painting by Sri S. Rajam. Picture courtesy ‘Art Heritage of India: A Collector’s Special’, published by L&T-ECC & ECC Recreation Club.

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Myth & Mythology

by Devdutt Pattanaik

culturama

China’s Buddhist Goddess Ideas beyond Buddhism were exchanged as the silk route connected India and China via Central Asia

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Buddhism originated about 2,500 years ago in the Gangetic Plains. It gradually spread across and beyond India. As it spread, it transformed dramatically, responding to history and geography. In China, a female Bodhisattva, Guanyin, came into being. This is her story.

Initially, Buddha was venerated as a teacher from India.

But, as the centuries passed, the historical Buddha gave way to the multiple mythological Buddhas who inhabit various plains of existence.

One such Buddha was the celestial Amitabha. From around 2,000 years ago, Buddha became seen less as a teacher and more a saviour figure, not just wise but also compassionate. The concept of Bodhisattva emerged: one who delays his own nirvana to help all suffering beings of the universe. One popular Bodhisattva was Avatilokeshwara, visualised 1,500 years ago as Padmapani or the lotus-holder, in the Ajanta caves. His stance is elegant, almost feminine.

Goddess worship and Tantra rose around 1,500 years ago in India. In Buddhism, there was increased reference to the Goddess Tara, placed next to Buddha and Bodhisattva.

In some texts, Tara is described as residing in Chin-desha, or China. In others, a branch of Tantra is called Chin-achara, or the Chinese way. Taoism in China spoke of the harmony between male and female principles, the yang and the yin. In Chinese Taoist cultures, female shamans played a very important role. Did Tantra spread from India to China, or was it the other way round? We can only speculate. What we can be sure is that ideas beyond Buddhism were exchanged as the Silk Route connected India and China via Central Asia.

In China, people wanted a yin to the Buddha yang. If wisdom was masculine, there was need for a balancing

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feminine compassion. Tara was a supplementary deity, not a central deity. As time passed, the feminine took on a more central role in Chinese Buddhism. First, we find references to Bodhisattva taking female forms in scriptures. Then, we find images of androgynous Bodhisattva. Finally, images of female Bodhisattva start appearing following visions of a ‘lady in white’. She was named Gyanyin, probably an abbreviation of Guanshiyin, which means the same thing as Avatilokeshwara: one who gazes down to listen (to the cries of the suffering mortals).

All this happened probably because of Chinese women who were pushing back against the increasingly patriarchal Confucian order that was overshadowing even the genderbalanced Taoism. Guanyin, who answers prayers, gives children, saves lost sailors, mingled and merged with local Taoist goddesses associated with the moon and the sea. Stories emerged of the compassionate princess, who wanted to be a nun and was tortured by her father for that decision; still she cut out her eyes and gave it to her father to cure him of a fatal illness. She was even linked to the Hindu Tantrik deity Chandi, and called Cundi-Avatilokeshwara (chun tie-guanyin).

Most importantly, Guanyin was probably popularised during the reign of the Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty, 1,300 years ago, as she used Buddhism to consolidate her hold on the land, legitimise her rule and counter Confucian rivals who believed that ‘to ask a woman to rule is like asking a hen rather than a rooster to crow at dawn.’ Was it her face that the Chinese saw when they prayed to the goddess of love and compassion? We can only wonder.

Published in Midday. Reprinted with permission from devdutt.com

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Holistic Living

by Eknath Easwaran

The Mystery of the

Mantram

Can’t see how just repeating a word over and over can do anything?

Join Us Every Saturday Global Adjustments Office, Chennai, facilitates a weekly spiritual fellowship group following Easwaran’s Eight Point Programme of Meditation. E-mail us for more information at globalindian@globaladjustments.com If you are in other cities, visit www.bmcm.org for e-satsangs.

The practical answer is just to try it and see for yourself. So far as I know, we still don’t really understand how aspirin works, yet we have faith in aspirin. When you take the bottle off the bathroom shelf and pop a couple of pills into your mouth, you are saying in effect, “I believe.

I have faith that this will work.” I would say, “Take plenty of mantrams too.” It is equally good advice: one for fever in the body, the other for the fever of self-will.

People sometimes retort, “We don’t think it will work.” I reply, “Don’t you think you can give the Buddha or Jesus the Christ as much credence as you give Mr. Bayer?” That is all I am asking for. Try it. If you only feel comforted by things that come in a bottle, which I can understand, take an empty bottle and write Rama or Jesus on the label. Then put it on your bathroom shelf. When you have a disquieting afternoon or evening or night, take it down, look at it, and start repeating your mantram. You have taken the medicine.

Ramdas advises, “Have the mantram constantly in your mind.” That is the first and last instruction where japam or repetition of the mantram is concerned.

Make use of every spare moment to repeat your mantram. A million opportunities can be discovered during

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the course of a single day, and of course when you are falling asleep at night.

There may come a time when you cannot sleep and find it almost impossible to go on repeating the holy name hour after hour. The mind gets tired. At such times, I used to ask Sri Krishna in my heart to make it a joy for me to recite his name. As a result, now it is not a discipline; I do it with all the joy of indiscipline. I have no limits now, no restraints. I do it all the time, which is what going beyond all disciplines means. But you have to struggle with disciplines for a long, long time before this kind of spiritual freedom comes.

In my own practice, for example, I found that gradually – over a long, long period, not immediately – the period of japam will go on increasing, particularly when deepening meditation means you don’t need so much sleep at night, so that you lie awake resting your body in bed and resting your mind through japam.

The dramatic moment comes when your meditation and japam together amount to over twelve hours. When it becomes about thirteen hours, you have a say in what you’re going to think; you have a say in what you’re going to feel. Gradually, fourteen, fifteen hours of conscious sovereignty over the mind brings increasing freedom in your thoughts and feelings, in your very life. That’s the motivation for repeating the mantram.

According to Swami Ramdas, when you go on repeating the mantram that your teacher has given you, you’ll feel the presence of the teacher always with you. That’s why the mantram is said to be the bond between the teacher and the student. When you become established in your mantram, the mantram is your real guru, because the mantram is God. When you have unified your desires through the practice of meditation, the repetition of the mantram and the observance of all the other disciplines, when the mantram has become established in your consciousness,

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what may happen is that you go out for a walk, say, and all of a sudden there is a kind of fast tremor running up the spinal column until it almost explodes in your head. You hear aaaauuummm and then inside there is tremendous vibration.

It can last for about a minute or two. When this happens, stop where you are and repeat the mantram. Don’t get excited, don’t gloat over it, but stop where you are – if necessary sit down, because it can upset your balance – and keep repeating the mantram until the vibration subsides, probably in a minute or two.

Which mantram you have been using doesn’t matter; when you hear this sound, it will be very much like Om. That is the nearest phonetic equivalent a human being can give.

These are the signs by which you can reasonably guess that you are on the way, doing very well in becoming established in japam.

You cannot anticipate this at all.

You can never prepare yourself for it. If you have been really meditating well and observing the allied disciplines, it comes

and goes. For a long, long time it’s like that. Then it is finally that you become established in it after years of this repetition.

The proof is when you have a compulsive attachment, you can free yourself from it simply by the repetition of the mantram embedded in your consciousness.

I read that when the astronauts went to the moon, they established a base from which they were able, with their radio telescope, to hear signals from the depths of the universe because everything was still; there was These are no interference from earth at all. the signs by Similarly, when we reach the supreme which you can state, we discover the truth of what reasonably the Bible tells us: “Be still, and know guess that you that I am God.” Everything is still. St. are on the way, Augustine has a beautiful description doing very well of this stillness which I have included in becoming in my collection of passages for established in meditation, God Makes the Rivers japam. to Flow.

It is in this stillness that you may hear the pranava, the supreme cosmic sound, Aum or Om.

Reprinted with permission from ‘The Mystery of the Mantram’ by Eknath Easwaran from The Blue Mountain Journal. Copyright The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, P.O. Box 256, Tomales, CA 94971, www.easwaran.org.

(Extract from https://www.bmcm.org/inspiration/journals/)

culturama

Learn from the Bhagavad Gita

by Team Culturama

Chapter 11 Capturing the essence of the Bhagavad Gita in a single sentence, one chapter at a time; accompanied by an inspirational photograph from our Annual Photo Competition.

Surrender enough to see the truth as it is.

Photo: Cassia Reis, Brazil

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