More morning ragas

Ayaan Ali Bangash is the Indian equivalent of a rock god. He is young, handsome and plays the sarod, not the electric guitar. Last month, he performed at a Sunday morning concert in the morning raga series, staged at the India Habitat Centre. He was outstanding, the best Indian classical music artist I have seen…

Thursday Doors in York

I have just returned from a spot of leave in England. I spent a weekend in York with my daughters. Here are some doors from the historic city. These two wonderful doors are at the King’s Manor. This was built between 1483 – 1502 as the Abbot’s house. Henry VIII dissolved the abbey in 1539…

Sanitation

More people defaecate in the open in India than any other country in the world. Nila Madhab Panda is a film director who is shooting a film in Delhi on open defaecation in the slums. It is the story of a seven year old, Pichkoo, who is too shy to shit in public (unlike 99%…

Aajeevika Mela

Delhi has a massive exhibition centre, called Pragati Maidan. The Mela held in Hall 18 was promoting ethnic handicrafts and handloom cloth. I was infected with the fabric bug from my wife and now my sister-in-law, so I had to take a look. I felt like a hippy in the late 1960s – “Wow, the…

Thursday Doors

An eclectic bunch of photographs for you passionate portal people this week. Let us begin with this set of marble doors, inset with iron for the hinge at the bottom. It is the tomb of a follower of the famous Sufi Chishti saint, Sultan-ul-Mashaikh, Mehboob-e-Ilahi, Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad bin Abdullah AlHussaini Nizamuddin Auliya, known…

Milk-o

India is the world’s biggest producer of milk. The USA produces more cow’s milk, but when you consider cow and buffalo milk production, India leads the way. Buffalo milk contains more fat and milk solids, so it looks whiter and is slightly more viscous. My father was a milk deliveryman for most of his working…

Primrose Hill Doors

Back in UK for a short break to see family and friends, I wandered around Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park, in north London. It was a typical spring day, warm in the sunshine, cool in the shade and perishingly cold when the wind blew. ‘I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on…

Khan-i-Khanan

In 1598, the wife of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, died. He was a linguistic scholar, administrator, military commander and poet at the Mughal courts of Akhbar and Jahangir. To honour his wife, he built a mausoleum. It is now known as Khan-i-Khanan, Rahim’s official title. He finally joined his beloved wife, being interred in the tomb…

Holi Concert

Holi doesn’t have to be a riot of drunken, drugged up people spraying other drunken, drugged up people with indelible dye. There is a gentler, more refined way to join in the celebrations. Some Indian friends took me to a converted local farmhouse, Mohan Vilaas (sic) to experience an “entertainment with flour” (or was it…

Thursday Doors

Some daunting news. My latest foray into the backstreets of Old Dilli has resulted in seventy-seven door photographs. If I post seven images a week, that will take me to the middle of June. More worrying is that my free allowance at WordPress is almost exhausted. The theme for this week is blue, or blue-ish…