Raja Ravi Varma was a legendary painter who laid the foundation for oil painting in India, and attained a cult status during his time. Many of his life-size portraits are the pride of palaces in India. Raja Ravi Varma was one of the greatest painters of India who, in the latter half of the 19th century, strode across like a colossus in the history of Indian painting and laid the foundation for oil painting. While Kalidasa gave a perfect portrayal of feminine beauty with all its divinity while describing Paravati, the consort of Lord Shiva in his magnificent Kavya ‘Kumarasambhava’,…
Author: oiop
Hyderabad is a classic tale of two cities – the modern IT hub with its wired population and the old-world city of the Nizams, in their time, amongst the richest rulers in the world. The style of those legendary potentates, their tehzeeb and flagrant selfindulgence have left an indelible mark on the social fabric of Hyderabad even as this metropolis reinvents itself with modern flyovers, swish hotels and boutiques, hip coffee bars and restaurants. Much of the skyline remains the same with minarets pointing heavenwards and the soft toll of temple bells mingling with the sounds of raucous commerce in…
Sexual abuse may not be 100 per cent preventable but creating a culture and system of safety can make a real difference to the little ones, writes Hema Vijay. The rape of a six-year-old girl at an upscale school in Bengaluru has refocused everyone’s attention on the issue of child sexual abuse in the country. Ever since this chilling news has hit the headlines, parents across India have been forced to face the reality that their child too could be at risk. Despite the fact that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data has shown a rise of 45 per…
The Walt Disney of India (1938 – 2014) On 5 August 2014, every form of media was abuzz with photos of Chacha Chaudhary. The chacha of course needs no introduction in India. At first glance, it felt that the comic had perhaps run its course and was shutting down. That was jolting enough. It was a few seconds later one realised that the creator of that uncommon Indian man, eminent cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma had passed away. And then reality hit home hard – in that one instance there were three deaths – of the man, his creation and a…
Kathak began as a highly spiritual dance and turned into court presentation as Persian influence came into the art following Muslim invasion. It took the form of solo art where the touchstone of excellence was the virtuosity of the solo dancers, specially their command over laykari of footwork, writes Dr. Kanak Rele. Kathak, the classical dance style from north India conjures up visions of scintillating footwork and lightning chakkars that is the pirouettes. The word Kathak is derived from the word Katha that is story. In ancient times the wandering bards used to go from village to village and recite…
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi gets nostalgic as he walks down the portals of his school in Gaya and reunites with his friend and schoolmate to recount the happy days spent in his alma mater. On 4 April 2014, I completed the longest journey of my life, when I stepped into the portals of my alma mater – The Nazareth Academy, Gaya once again, having left it as a lad of 12 years after studying in the school for about two and a half years. I was now over 72 years old, but the approximately three years I had spent at…
Scrub fowl do not incubate their eggs by sitting on them as other birds do. Instead, they build huge mounds of sand, leaf, litter and other debris on the ground and bury the eggs in them. The heat generated by the decomposing vegetation helps incubate the eggs. The male scrub fowl looks after the eggs, adding or removing litter as required to regulate the internal heat in the mounds. He also digs holes to ventilate the mounds until the eggs hatch. Scrub fowl have large feet that are well adapted for digging and foraging through soil and leaf litter. The…
A few lessons in Vedanta could be learnt from observing the way Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi worked in the kitchen and his interaction with the inmates of the ashram. Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was a culinary expert and a perfect cook in the kitchen of Sri Ramanashram at Tiruvannamalai. He wasn’t an ordinary cook and used the kitchen as a background for spiritual training to all the disciples who worked there. Some lesson or the other from Vedanta could be learnt from observing the way he worked in the kitchen and during his interaction with the others. He was a disciplinarian and…
IT was Raksha Bandhan Day. Chandra Shekhar Azad, the intrepid revolutionary who was dodging the British minions at that time, happened to be in Allahabad at a friend’s house. Somehow the police got wind of his presence there and surrounded the place. Thinking fast, the lady of the house, Shridevi Mutsaddi, donned her finest sari and shoving a basket of sweets into Azad’s hands, asked him to follow her as if he were her servant. “Hurry up, hurry up, man!” she snapped, as they stepped out of the house. “My brother will be waiting for me to come and tie…
Lack of incentives and institutional support are discouraging small time farmers to move out of the farming sector and find jobs in nearby cities to make a living. Such a trend can spell doom for the agriculture sector and will only jeopardise food security and lead to economic imbalances, cautions Sriprakash Menon. When we live in urban areas, everything from grains to pulses and vegetables to fruits are made available through the local kirana shops or plush looking supermarkets. We readily pay the price and buy up these essential commodities without giving much thought to the people who produce them…