Sep29

Nine nights of rapture

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Navratri. Just as on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone’s Irish, during Navratri, we are all Gujju. For while it is celebrated in many parts of the country, no one does Navratri with as much panache as the Gujaratis. I recall wheedling out passes to some of the more well-appointed Navratri […]

Sep9

A smokin’ good idea

One of the most popular desi tracks on the UK charts features none of the scantily-clad dancers, exotic locales or quaint videos that have become de rigueur in music these days. Instead, this unlikely hit features two firemen, some ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’, an important social message and a wicked hip-hop-meets-bhangra sound. This is […]

Aug3

Courting the Indian paryatak

The new ‘resurgence’ of India and the burgeoning of the ‘great Indian middle class’ are phenomena that are written about ad nauseum. The gushing ‘India-is-so-cool’ and the alarmist ‘beware-India-is-arriving’ sections of the media, have both written about how the Indian consumer is fast becoming a force to reckon with. The more outlandish of these […]