I finished reading Bombay Rains Bombay Girls with a huge sense of achievement. I used to be a-book-a-night person, but my unenviable, largely non-correctable eyesight soon put a stop to that. But I so miss reading that I picked up the first book that seemed to have comfortable-looking print at Gangaram’s, Bangalore and made off [...]
In most households, a pen is just that — a pen. In mine, a pen was something to be treasured and treated with careful reverence. That’s because, the rest of us have always wanted to be as brilliant at calligraphy as my father is.
Very recently, my father, after nearly 55 years, managed to get in [...]
When I lived in Maadi, Cairo very long ago, I treated the Maadi Club as a second home. There was always something to do there; if nothing else, just walk around absorbing the surroundings and what people were doing. It was in Maadi Club that I met Omar Sharif – for real!
But one afternoon, as [...]
The Indian national anthem sung to perfection by this perfect doll, Sia Iyer. Sia also manages to sing another tongue-twisting national song, Vande Mataram.
And another incredibly sweet, charming little girl does the same, with a little bit of help.
There are so few tribal fusion choreographies taught on DVD! There’s the fantastic Arabian Spices from Sahira, of course. Also her Ali, which I’m personally not fond of because of the forced Indian moves. And then there’s the Fantasy Bellydance series which has at least one tribal choreography on each of the 3 videos. [...]
Never underestimate Expert Village. You just never know what you’ll find there!
I was looking for something on the hagalla walk (though I do have Zahra Zuhair’s excellent basics video) and chanced upon a lovely treasure trove of instructional video clips on Expert Village.
The instructor is a Johanna Xenobia Kryntzky and she seems to very much [...]