Uncategorized
What is this album about?
Sound Trippin is an album compiled from the television show of the same name, where a song is put together with sounds inspired by a particular location in India. Each song is a collage of the unique auditory experience of that region – musical traditions, ambient sound and local voices – combined in a contemporary framework, in timeframes as short as four days.
Who is it by?
Sneha Khanwalkar is a young composer known for the strong rural Indian flavour in her contemporary compositions.
Why should listen to it?
Khanwalkar makes sense of the sound clutter that beseiges our ears when we walk along the streets of the cities and villages of India. For instance, Tung Tung is inspired by Punjab – the sounds include not just the full throated vocals of the Nooran Sisters and the beat of the dholdrum, it also includes a factory siren, a tractor motor and the voice of the commentator at the rural olympics in Qila Raipur. The very phrase, tung-tung,mimicks the sound of the local single-stringed tumbiinstrument.
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s October 2012 Issue.
Uncategorized
The Paithani saree is named after the place of its origin, Paithan, situated about 40 kilometres from Aurangabad, Maharashtra. It is one of the saree types in a traditional categorisation called ‘shalu’or drapes in muslin with gold thread-work, made exclusively for royalty and aristocracy. It was called ‘maha-vastra’ (grand attire), part of trousseaus and worn on special occasions like religious ceremonies and weddings. Some families possess 100-year old heirloom Paithanis, lovingly preserved and passed down over the generations, to the daughter or the daughter-in-law. A signature Paithani carries a criss-crossing border design along with colourful motifs on the ‘padhar’ (end-piece). The motifs are borrowed from nature – ‘munia’(parrots),‘bangdi mor’ (peacock inside a ring), ‘asavali’(creepers), ‘kamal’ (lotus) and ‘narali’(coconut). The nature motifs and buttis(small gold motifs) are worked in gold thread when placed in the body of the saree, and in colour when on the shimmery end-piece. The saree background is usually in magenta, peacock blue, turmeric yellow and crimson. Dual-shaded sarees, called ‘dhup-chaav’(light and shadow) are also made with different colours in the warp and weft, for example, red and green. It takes a month to hand-weave one simple Paithani and several more, for a more intricate one.
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s December 2012 Issue.
Uncategorized
Until 1905, West Bengal and East Bengal (now Bangladesh) were the same state and the language spoken across the region was Bengali or colloquially, Bangla (Baa-ng-laa). According to the 2001 Indian census, there are 83,369,769 speakers of the language in the countrymaking it at that time, the second most spoken language in India. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is credited with refining the Bengali alphabet and simplifying the type.For an insight into the concept of bhakti(devotion), patriotic fervour in pre-Independent Bengal or the abolition of the zamindari system, one needs to look no further than the treasure trove of Bengali literature. The most prolific and perhaps best known name in Bengali literature is that of the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. Apart from short stories, novels and poems, Tagore also wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh. Spoken Bengali varies from its written form. So, while the greeting, ‘Namaskar’is written in Bengali as having an ‘a’ vowel, it is pronounced as ‘nomoshkor‘. Also, among the words that are common to Bengali and other Indian languages, those with a ‘va’ alphabet are pronounced as ‘ba’. So, Monday is ‘som-vaar’ in many of India’s languages, but pronounced in Bengali as ‘som-baar’. When in Bengal, if all else fails and you are unable to understand what is being said, simply say, ‘Ami bangaali boli naa – tumi ki, English bolte paro?’ or ‘I don’t speak Bengali – do you speak English?’
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s December 2012 Issue.
Uncategorized
Who would have thought that the first person to have represented India at the Olympics in athletics was of British descent? Norman Pritchard won two silver medals (Men’s 2oo metres and 200 metres hurdles) in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris but the question of his representing India or England is controversial. Milkha Singh, nicknamed The Flying Sikh represented Indian in the 1956 Olympics and won two golds at the 1958 Asian Games. At the 1982 Asian Games, athletes like P.T. Usha, Shiny Wilson and M.D. Valsamma put India’s name on the world athletics map by winning a total of 20 medals. Other notable names include T.C. Yohannan, Sriram Singh, Jyotirmayee Sikdar, Saraswati Saha, Anju Bobby George and Chand Ram. While Indian states have their own training academies, athletes like P.T. Usha have opened coaching schools to mentor young and rising stars to go on to participate in competitive events including the Olympics.
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s December 2012 Issue.
Uncategorized
Khasi (khaa-see) is the language of the eponymous tribe of the North Eastern Indian state of Meghalaya, with some speakers also in Assam and Bangladesh. It is the official language of the state with 1,128,575 Khasi speakers according to the 2001 Indian census. Khasi proper is the language and dialect spoken in Sohra.
The language had a rich oral tradition of songs and folklore, some of which has been forgotten for lack of a script. It was up to missionaries like Wlliam Carrey, who arrived there from 1813, to create a script and introduce literacy. Thomas Jones, regarded as the Father of the Khasi Alphabet, arrived in 1841 and set about putting together the First Khasi Reader with 21 alphabets in the Roman script. John Roberts, with his translation of religious texts and extensive language Readers, is considered the Father of Khasi Literature.
Renowned names in Khasi literature include Jeebon Roy Mairom and his son, Sib Charan Roy Dhikar, Rabon Singh, Radhon Singh and Soso Tham.
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s August 2012 Issue.
Uncategorized
Madhubani (ma-dhoo-ban-ee) is a folk art form, traditionally practised by women from the region in and around Madhubani in Bihar. It is also known as Mithila (Mi-thee-laa) paintings, after the region’s historical significance as the ancient kingdom of Sita from the Ramayana (one of her names is Maithili or ‘she who hails from Mithila’). As a result, the Ramayana is a popular theme and so are depictions, usually in profile, of scenes from nature, folk deities, mythological figures, and other Hindu deities like Shiva, Parvathi, Krishna, Ganesha etc. Madhubani has its origins in the ritual decoration of walls and floors of the ‘Kohbar’ or nuptial chamber. The dyes were traditionally derived from natural sources like flowers, rice, clay, bark etc. and the choice of colour depended on the community of the women painting the mural as well as whether the mural was drawn on the floor or the wall. Today, an array of themes are painted in many colours on paper or canvas and sometimes, even as decorative murals in offices and homes. Madhubani’s appeal can be seen as far as Japan, where over a thousand of these paintings are displayed at the Mithila Museum in Tokamachi.
An edited version of this article was published in the December 2012 issue of Culturama
