Art/Culture

By IANS, New Delhi : Broken frames, dislodged pictures and photographs on the floor... that was the "as it is" scene Monday at an exhibition showcasing the works of the eminent painter M.F. Husain that had been vandalised the day before. Refusing to give in to the miscreants, organisers Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) extended by a day the exhibition held on the lawns of the Vithalbhai Patel House in the heart of New Delhi. The mess that would otherwise have been an organiser's nightmare was converted into an expression of protest by Sahmat.

By IANS Chandigarh : A single storey building where India's only planned city, Chandigarh was designed by French architect Le Corbusier and his team will be renovated and conserved. Punjab governor S.F. Rodrigues, who is also the administrator of Chandigarh, made a surprise visit to the building in Sector 19 here Saturday and asked officials to conserve the structure in its original form as it was of monumental importance to the city. Corbusier and his team of architects and engineers had designed Chandigarh from this building in the 1950s and 60s.

By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS, Adharjhor (Jharkhand) : In the heart of a dense forest in the Patamda block, this ramshackle village of 100 thatched huts is fighting a tough battle to keep afloat its 400-year-old traditional craft - making percussion instruments. The village is known for its special 'hari khol' - the percussion instrument offered to Lord Vishnu at shrines during 'naam-kirtan' (sessions of devotional music). It is located 35 km from Jamshedpur, the district headquarters of East Singhbhum.

Mumbai: Pakistani ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali's concert in Mumbai, which was scheduled to take place on January 29, has been cancelled, according to film...

By Vishal Gulati, IANS, Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh government has now provided legal protection to a dying art form - miniature embroidery on handkerchiefs on the lines of the globally famous Chamba school of miniature painting. The art of embroidery on the Chamba rumal (handkerchief), as it is known, originated and flourished in the same princely hill state of Chamba (now Chamba district) in the 16th and 17th centuries where the Chamba school of miniature paintings got royal patronage.

New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) Fashion designer Manish Malhotra, known for using an aesthetic blend of colours in his collections, has now joined hands with Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd. to launch 'Colour Styles of 07-08'. An endeavour to precisely chart colour trends in India and understand the logic of colour transition, Colour Styles 07-08 gives a glimpse into how colours and moods are strongly linked with each other. "It is good to see that a paint company is now exploring the emotional aspects of consumers while connecting with them," Malhotra said at the launch here Friday evening.

By Rohit Bansal, In May 2012, sitting with a borrowed iPad, a few metres from the White Nile in Juba, I saw a show aiming to flow against the current of television advertising. The Nile, as we know, flows from south to north!

By Kulsum Mustafa, TwoCircles.net From making cartoons for some of the leading newspapers in the country to pioneering the concept of introducing political cartoons in electronic media India, to being sentenced to four months imprisonment for making a cartoon on former Chief Justice of India in 2007, life has been both sugar and spice. Irfan has only grown with each episode, his pencil strokes acquiring more depth, more maturity, his wit getting sharper and his serious messages packed with humor getting conveyed with élan to the masses.

By Bhavana Akella New Delhi : With attacks by fringe Hindu outfits on writers and intellectuals for their views and assaults and murders of...

By IANS Chennai : Anger and indifference are the two main reactions expressed here Friday following Thursday's closure of an "objectionable exhibition" organised by French journalist and political commentator Francois Gautier at the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA). The exhibition claimed to "expose the misdeeds against Hinduism during the Mughal period".

By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS, New Delhi : New US President Barack Obama's background makes him pro-Indian and "he is going to do a lot for India before this spring is out", says noted historian Simon Schama. A professor at Columbia University in the US, British historian Simon Schama foresees a favourable run for India vis-a-vis bilateral ties with the US during Barack Obama's government. Why? "Obama's background - his mother was a hippy adventurist and his Indonesian link - makes him very pluralistic and very pro-Indian," Schama told IANS in an interview.

By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : President Pratibha Patil and Vice-President Hamid Ansari Tuesday greeted the people on the occasion of Navroz, marking the beginning of the Parsi New Year. In her message, the president said: "On the occasion of Navroz, I convey my greetings and good wishes to all the people of our country, and especially my Parsi brothers and sisters." “May this festival heralding the New Year bring happiness and prosperity to all and strengthen our commitment to harmony and universal brotherhood," she added.

By IANS, New Delhi: The 11th edition of the annual Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema commenced here Saturday evening with legendary lyricist Gulzar getting the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. "I really want to thank Osian's and all people for this honour bestowed upon me. The journey (cinematic and poetic) that I have gone through has been really beautiful. A person needs these kind of acknowledgements because they give creative satisfaction to an artist," said Gulzar.

By DPA, Berlin : A few new cushions on the sofa, a wall covered with floral wallpaper and a redecorated dining table... it does not take much effort or expense to transform your home. "You can do a lot with colours and fabrics in particular," said Sam Bohr, a member of Die Wohnberater, a Berlin-based interior decorating consultancy. "Anything that's fresh is trendy now ...such as in green and blue."

By Fakir Hassen, IANS, Johannesburg : As million of tributes continue to pour in from all over the world for his 90th birthday Friday, there is another special treat in store for iconic leader Nelson Mandela - a film produced by a local Indian filmmaker as a tribute. Internationally acclaimed producer Anant Singh will share his feature length film with millions of South Africans when it has its world premiere on one of the television channels of the South African Broadcasting Corporation Friday evening.

By TwoCircles.net staff reporter

New Delhi: The Delhi University’s Department of Arabic organized a national seminar on ‘Comedy in Arabic Literature’ on 25th March wherein papers on various aspects of the topic were presented by scholars and researchers.

By TCN News New Delhi: A group of 225 Muslim men from across the country have come out in support of the...

By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS, New Delhi : Terror is a reality of our times, whose echoes can be felt across the country. Now leading artists and top galleries from Kolkata have joined hands for a mega exhibition, "Art Against Terrorism". The exhibition will begin March 23 at the Aakriti Art Gallery in Kolkata, said Vikram Bachhawat, director of the gallery. The exhibition is part of a series against terror, which, he said, had become a "crusade for the artists' fraternity in Kolkata".

By IANS New Delhi : Entire families on the terrace cheering as their kites soared higher, mothers and grandmothers making sure the supply of sesame-seed sweets did not run out - that is how parts of India spent a happy Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival, Monday.

By Uma Nair, IANS Mumbai : As many as 115 works by 43 Indian artists will feature in the Saffronart autumn online auction of contemporary Indian art works that will take place Sep 5-6. This auction is the eighteenth in the series by Saffronart - exclusively on www.saffronart.com. On the cover of the catalogue is Atul Dodiya's "Chikoo Drawing". Signed and dated in English (verso) 1989, this oil on canvas is estimated at Rs.6 million-8 million ($150,000-200,000).

By IANS, Kuala Lumpur : Kuala Lumpur is celebrating Odissi, an Indian classical dance form, with Malaysians interpreting it in multi-media formats while retaining its essence. Galeri Petronas, in collaboration with Sutra Dance Theatre, is holding the exhibition called Stirring Odissi in conjunction with the 4th International Stirring Odissi Festival 2008. The event features 15 visual artists and photographers from Malaysia and India and showcases how different artists interpret the Odissi dance.

By Sarwar Kashani New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) The widening gulf between "fundamentalists" and "liberals" will perhaps end up in the partition of Pakistan, says Lahore-based theatre director and political activist Madeeha Gauhar. "The growing intolerance shown by Taliban followers is proving lethal for the country," Gauhar, the founding member of Ajoka Theatre, told IANS in an interview. "There is no overnight solution to the problem. I am afraid it will break up the nation," she said, adding: "I don't mind that but am only worried about the bloodshed the partition brings along."

By IANS, Chandigarh : Flaunting designer clothes, loads of jewellery and expensive accessories, a London-based NRI family chose a rather different way to travel to the wedding venue - pedal-rickshaws and horse carts. NRI Murli Vohra’s son Pawan ignored the usual mode of chartered aircraft, helicopters and limousines that rich people travel in to make a style statement on weddings.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

Bangalore (Karnataka): The Directorate of Archeology and Museums organized an exhibition of coins used during Tipu Sultan's time, as part of the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence and in commemoration of Tipu Sultan in Bangalore on Tuesday.

By IANS Mumbai : The legendary singer Mukesh's wife Saral is dead. Saral, who had married Mukesh on July 22, 1946, passed away here Monday, thereby drawing to a close a golden period in the history of Hindi film music. Neil Mukesh Mathur, who debuted in last year's crime thriller "Johnny Gaddaar", was very close to his grandmother Saral and was inconsolable. "I spent a lot of time with my grandmother who lived in the same building as my parents and I did," he said.

By Papri Sri Raman, IANS Book: "The Silent Raga"; Author: Ameen Merchant; Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India; Pages: 452, Price: Rs.395. A man's rare insight into a woman's plight? A sentence in Ameen Merchant's first book gives away the empathy, which made him delve so deep into women's minds.

By IANS, New Delhi : The mystical and colourful cultures of the Arab countries came together in a high-voltage jugalbandi with traditional Indian dance and music on the closing day of the India-Arab Forum Cultural Festival in the capital. The forum, an Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) initiative, was inaugurated Dec 4 and came to a close Sunday. Performers from 12 Arabian countries, including Syria, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Iran and Yemen, took to the stage in a riot of colours and styles that mark the folk arts of Arabia.

New Delhi : The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Wednesday urged the central government to clear all hurdles within a year to ensure construction...

By IANS Dhaka : A renowned Chinese ethnomusicologist who trained and researched in India is introducing the songs of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Qazi Nazrul Islam to the people of China with help from Bangladeshi artistes. The styles and techniques of the two great subcontinental greats were presented by Adity Mohsin and Anup Barua, renowned artistes from Bangladesh who performed eight songs each at a programme recently organised in Beijing by the Central Conservatory of Music (CCM), China.

By IANS New Delhi : The historic Red Fort here, granted the Unesco World Heritage Site Status recently, will be made more tourist-friendly as authorities plan a makeover of the area around the monument. According to the proposed Comprehensive Research Conservation Plan (CRCP), the area around the 17th century Red Fort, always crammed with vehicular traffic, will be decongested to allow free movement of tourists by constructing more subways and underpasses.

By DPA Washington : Even removed from Berlin, the watchtower has a threatening mood to it. Along with the 11-metre wide section of the defunct Berlin Wall - said to be the largest outside Germany - it provides visitors of Washington's newest museum a formidable insight into what life behind the wall in Berlin might have been. It may seem strange to find these relics of Cold War history in the Newseum, which is to open Friday on Washington's fabled Pennsylvania Avenue and is dedicated to the media and freedom of the press.

By IANS Bangalore : Traditional dance dramas, a drum performance and movies and games for poor children at upmarket malls are among the programmes lined up in Bangalore to celebrate the 60th anniversary of India's Independence. A replica of the Taj Mahal made with 26,000 roses, and a spaceship made with over 10,000 flowers at the famous Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in the city is expected to draw more than 200,000 visitors on Aug 15.