Indian-American wins National Geographic ‘Pictures of the Year’

the shore of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, waiting for action. The engineer-turned-hobbyist photographer said he stayed, watching as bald eagles swooped in and out of the fishing grounds in Haines, Alaska.

The area hosts the largest congregations of bald eagles in the world every fall, when around 3,000 arrive in time for the salmon run.

Kochi, Feb 21 (IANS) The Kochi Muziris Biennale embodies the joy of experiencing some of the greatest modern artworks that are completely honest and created with sincerity, said the Norwegian Ambassador to India Hans Jacob Frydenlund, who was at the venue of the 5th edition of the Biennale.

"It is of high significance that the Biennale has paved the way for the exhibition of the global arts itself," said Frydenlund.

Impressed by the creations of Norwegian artists, Frydenlund and his wife Gina Lund spent considerable time extolling the beauty of the works.

Two renowned artists from Norway, Elle Marja Eira, and Hilde Skancke, are also participating this time.

"The works of both of them are beautiful and powerful. They are the pride of our nation," the Norwegian Ambassador said. The Kochi Biennale provides a unique experience as it reflects the various cultures from across the world and a myriad choice of subjects under a single roof, Hans Jacob Frydenlund opined.

Parents, guardians, schools need to expose children to music & arts: Shubha Mudgal

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) "Sadly, studying music or arts for a lifetime is not considered important enough. Success means winning a talent show and not otherwise. I fail to understand how one puts artistic urges in these parameters?" questions will never understand the value it adds to growth and development."

New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) IndianAmerican Karthik Subramaniam, a San Francisco-based software engineer, has won the 2023 National Geographic 'Pictures of the Year' award, beating over 5,000 entries.

Subramaniam's photo, which is titled 'Dance of the Eagles', shows a trio of bald eagles battling for a spot on a branch in Alaska's

Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, a press release by the magazine said.

He titled the image as a homage to a fictional dragon war in George R.R. Martin's novel, 'A Dance with Dragons'.

"Wherever there's salmon there's going to be chaos," Subramaniam told the magazine that this was his motto as he camped out near

The photo was selected from nearly 5,000 entries across four categories: Nature, People, Places and Animals.

Subramaniam has been photographing landscapes and his travels for years.

He started experimenting with wildlife photography in 2020, grounded by the pandemic in his San Francisco home.

Padma Shri awardee Shubha Mudgal, adding parents and guardians and schools need to expose children to all kinds of music and arts, and the splendid diversity this country offers in it. The singer, along with co-artistes Aneesh Pradhan (Tabla) and Sudhir Nayak (Harmonium) was recently in Chandigarh to perform 'Rang Hori' on the invitation of 'Elsewhere', conceived in the memory of Sangeet Natak Akademi awardwinning playwright and author Swadesh Deepak, added: "I was a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education constituted by the Government of India, a focus group discussing the need for introducing an arts education programme in mainstream school education during the National Curriculum Framework 2005. It was eons ago, and our recommendations were accepted but we are yet to see them applied. Until we do not give the same importance to music and the arts as we do to math and science, or attach a tangible outcome to its study, children

Talking about the 'Rang Hori', the singer and musicologist, who was performing in Chandigarh after more than a decade stressed that when it comes to basant and holi, there is an inexhaustible wealth of compositions to be presented. "In our tradition, so much has been written on and inspired by the seasons. I am fortunate enough to continue to be immersed in the khayal and thumri dadra forms for the last 40 years, to learn and perform them to my best."

Born into a musically dedicated family, Shubha has been trained by some of the finest musicians and musicologists in India including eminent scholarmusician-composer Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang", Pandit Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya and Pandit Vasant Thakar.

She later learnt stylistic techniques from well-known maestros Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki and Pandit Kumar Gandharva. She also received training in thumri from Naina Devi.

In her quest to keep the arts alive, Shubha takes on students, and molds them in her own 'customized version' of the Guru shishya parampara.