Homai Vyarawalla

©Homai Vyarawalla/The Alkazi Collection of Photography

Homai was born in 1913 into a middle-class home in Navsari, Gujarat and she belongs to the Parsi community of India. Her father was an actor in a traveling Urdu-Parsi theatre company. Homai grew up in Bombay. She was the only girl in her class to complete her matriculation examination.

Homai received India’s first National Photo Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2010, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2011. In 2010, Vyarawalla gave her entire collection of prints, negatives, cameras and other memorabilia to the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi for safekeeping and documentation. A retrospective of her work was held at the NGMA soon after, bringing her vast archive into public view.

Delhi, the political and cultural capital of several empires including the Mughals on Monday added yet another chapter to its glorious history as it marked 100 years of its re-emergence as modern India’s capital.

red fort

Delhi was proclaimed as the capital of British Raj on December 12, 1911, shifting from Kolkata, by then Emperor of India George V thereby returning to the historic city its lost glory.

As the city celebrated 100 years of its re-emergence as modern India’s capital, Delhi government and other cultural agencies like the Indian Council for Cultural Relations have lined up for a later date, a series of celebrations to mark the occasion.

A British Lady in 1911 Delhi

A book with pictorial references and articles about the city by eminent persons like Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Malvika Singh chronicling its culturally diverse heritage since Mughal era was launched here by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today.

The book — Delhi: Red Fort to Raisina traces the journey of Shahjahan’s new capital of the Mughal empire Shajahanabad built on the banks of river Yamuna in 1638 to New Delhi, the new capital of British-ruled India.

A photo exhibition on the city of monuments is also among a series of events that the government agencies have lined up to mark the centenary year. The exhibition will chronicle the culture of Delhi — right from its ancient days to the modern period — where both the heritage sites and modern-day buildings co-exist. The year-long celebrations will actually kick off in January when the Ministry of Culture has lined up a number of events that will showcase the rich cultural heritage of the city.

The ‘Delhi Ke Pakwan Festival‘ brings the very soul of Delhi’s culture, street food to the people with a variety of ‘kebabs’, ‘kulfi’ and other mouth-watering delicacies.

The foundation stone for the building of a new city in Delhi was laid by King George V and Queen Mary at the site of the Delhi Durbar at Kingsway Camp on December 15, 1911 and New Delhi, as it is called, came out of the architectural brilliance of Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.

Delhi has traditionally been the seat of a series of empires and regimes that have ruled India since over 3,000 years back.

Each of the empire has left behind an indelible imprint on the heritage of Delhi, that has housed no less than eight cities over the centuries, and the 100 years of the latest city marks an opportunity to celebrate the continuity of this rich habitation.

There are quite a number of architectural marvels in New Delhi, including the Jama Masqid, the largest mosque in India. Others include the Delhi Fort, Humayun’s tomb, Jantar Mantar and Purana Qila. Modern architecture is depicted in the construction of the Lotus Temple, Akshardham and Laxminarayan temple.  Laxminarayan temple is a very nice spot to visit while in India. It was put up by the Birla Family in 1938. It has a lovely garden and fountains behind it. Also, you can visit the Red Fort. The last fort to be built in New Delhi, it has lived through a number of historical hallmarks, including the decline of British rule, the building and fall of fortunes and the Independence of India. You really must see this place while in New Delhi. You should also make an effort to visit the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Chandni Chowk and Qutab Minar.

The documents, which belong to Cambridge University Library’s South Asian manuscript collection, will be studied individually and catalogued placing them in their broader historical context. They will also be digitised and put on the library’s new online service.

The university said the collection included “the oldest dated and illustrated Sanskrit manuscript known worldwide”.

Dr Vincenzo Vergiani of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, who along with his colleague Dr Eivind Kahrs will study the manuscripts, described them as “an invaluable and untapped source for understanding the pre-colonial past of South Asia, and therefore its present”.

Palm leaf manuscript (997 AD) from Cambridge University Library’s South Asian collection

In the heat and humidity of India, materials deteriorate quickly and manuscripts needed to be copied again and again. As a result, many of the early Indian texts no longer exist. More than half of the library’s collection of south Asian manuscripts was in Sanskrit which dominated the literary culture of pre-modern South Asia for almost three millennia.

The word Sanskrit means refined or perfected. From a very early stage, its speakers were obsessed with handing down their sacred texts intact. Out of this developed an attention to how the language works. A grammatical tradition arose that produced, around the 4th century BC, the work of Pāṇini, an amazing intellectual achievement and arguably the beginning of linguistics worldwide, which made the language constant, stable and transmissible.

The evolution of Asian martial arts as they are known today is thought to have originated around 500 A.D., when an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma arrived in China. Legend has it that he taught Indian fighting exercises to the Chinese monks in order to improve their physical condition. All kung-fu is thought to have evolved from this beginning, and from kung-fu came karate.

Click to view slideshow.Bodhidharma was born around the year 440 in Kanchipuram, near Madras the capital of the southern Indian kingdom of Pallava. He was the third son of King Simhavarman. When he was young he was converted to Buddhism and later received instruction in the Dharma from Prajnatara, whom his father had invited from the ancient Buddhist heartland of Magadha. Prajnatara was a master in the Dhyana school of Buddhism which was later transliterated to Ch’an in Chinese, Zen in Japanese and Son in Korean. His teacher, Prajnatara, changed the boy’s name from Bodhitara to Bodhidharma. Following his father’s death,  Bodhidharma served Prajnatara for many years spreading Buddhism. Upon Prajnatara’s death Bodhidharma left his monastery in India to follow his master’s last wish that he go to China and spread the teaching.

Bodhidharma crossing the Yanstze Rover on a reed

Bodhidharma arrived in China about 475, traveled around for a few years and finally settled at Shaolin temple. Mainstream Buddhist tradition holds that Bodhidharma arrived in China in 520, although there are historical indications that he may have arrived in 470, or even as early as 420. There is no agreement as to the route he traveled or where he arrived first. Some say he traveled by sea, “risking his life over the towering waves,” from Madras in southern India to Guangzhou and then by land to Nanjing. Other scholars believe that he walked a well-beaten trail over the Pamir Plateau, across the desert and along the Yellow River to Luoyang, the provincial capital and center of Chinese Buddhist culture. In any case, the journey from India is agreed to have been long and dangerous.

In 527 AD crossed through Guangdong province into China. In China, he was known as Da Mo. Bodhidharma was honored as the first Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and Shaolin Temple renowned as the origin of Chan Buddhism.

Bodhidharma (also known as Taishi Daruma in Japan) eventually became revered as the founder of Zen Buddhism. Whether his legends hold an element of truth, or are the products of later Zen scholars attempting to flesh out a believable patriarch, he remains today a prime symbol of the will-power, determination and self-discipline that are essential to success in the martial arts. Following his example, the modern martial artist strives to “endure what is most difficult to do, and practice what is most difficult to practice.” Bodhidharma’s example of the Master-student relationship for teaching the way to enlightenment also endures today throughout the martial arts. Consequently, through the hard evidence for his existence and his martial arts contributions is entirely lacking, he is still widely and beneficially accepted as the Father of the Asian Martial Arts.

Read The Full Story of Bodhidharma

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Fauja Singh

It took Mr. Singh over 8 hours to cross the finish line, more than six hours after Kenya’s Kenneth Mungara won the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Sunday for the fourth straight year.

Mr. Singh born in India in 1911, Mr Singh was a farmer in the Punjab but moved to Britain in the 1960s.

Mr. Singh was the last competitor to complete the course but entered the Guinness Book of World Records. He accomplished the amazing feat, becoming the oldest person ever to complete a full-distance 42-kilometre marathon. Mr. Singh, who only speaks Punjabi, also surprised himself.

He said he had set a goal of finishing the race in about nine hours.

“Earlier, just before we came around the [final] corner, he said, “Achieving this will be like getting married again.”

“He is absolutely overjoyed, he has achieved his life-long wish,” the coach added. Sunday’s run was his eighth marathon. He ran his first at the tender age of 89 and wasn’t the first time he set a record.

Born: 1st April 1911 in India

Former Occupation: Farmer

Running Career: Rediscovered at age of 81

Diet: Ginger Curry

Marathons: London (5), Toronto (1), New York (1)

Marathon Debut: London , 2000 aged 89

London Marathon Personal Best: 6h 2m

London Flora Marathon 2000 6 Hours 54 m

London Flora Marathon 2001 6 Hours 54 m

London Flora Marathon 200 2 6 Hours 45 m

Bupa Great North Run (Half Marathon ) 2002 2h 39m

London Flora Marathon 2003 6h 2m

Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2003 5h 40m

New York City Marathon 2003 7h 35m

London Flora Marathon 2004 6h 7m

Glasgow City Half Marathon 2004 2h 33m

Capital Radio Help a London Child 10,000m 2004 68m

Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon 2004 2h 29m 59s

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What BCCI does with its cash

Do you want to know the details of how the world’s richest cricket board spends its money?

Most cricket fans would want to know the details of how the world’s richest cricket board, the BCCI, spends its money. So, here are some figures that you can sit back and enjoy. (Text courtesy: Mail Today)

A peep into the Board’s latest balance sheet throws up some interesting expenditures under less-then-serious heads like telephone bills, postage and stationary charges, and the worth of the stock of cricket balls with the BCCI.

Many fans may also want to know how much winning the World Cup cost the Board. The answer is: 71.77 crore! This includes players’ fees etc.

And despite spending so much, it earned a profit of 30.29 crore from the tournament. It was possible mainly due to income from sponsorship besides the participation and hosting fee that the ICC gave to the BCCI.

According to its 2010-11 balance sheet, the BCCI spent 32.63 lakh on printing and stationary, 27.38 lakh on postage and telephone bills, 66.16 lakh on advertisement, 4.28 crore on travelling, and 3.74 crore on salaries and allowances of its staff and 30.76 lakh on seminars.

As of March 31, 2011, the Board had in its stock cricket balls worth 1.09 crore.

Inexplicably, the Board didn’t spend a single rupee on anti-doping-related issues, despite having set aside 40 lakh for the purpose.

For 2011-12, it has again budgeted 40 lakh, though it remains to be seen if this would be utilised. The BCCI spent 14.77 lakh on curators, though many of the pitches are still not up to the mark. The 90 lakh budgeted for the annual award and function expenses remained unspent.

Manu-Joseph

Siddhartha Mukherjee won the E O Wilson Literary Science Writing Award for his The Emperor of All Maladies, while Manu Joseph was selected for PEN Open Book Award for an exceptional work of literature by an author of colour published in 2010 for his debut novel Serious Men.

Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi

Indian queen Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, who fought the British valiantly in the 1857 war, has been listed by the Time magazine with the likes of Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin among 10 wives who were resolute even in troubled times.

Lakshmi Bai Originally named Manikarnika and nicknamed Manu, she was born on 19 November 1827 at Kashi (Varanasi) to a Maharashtrian Marathi Karhade Brahmin family, the daughter of Moropant Tambe and Bhagirathibai Tambe

The magazine compiled its list of 10 such women following the much-talked about charge by Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Dang against the man who tried to throw a pie at her husband’s face.

Among others who find their names mentioned in the list are US first lady Michelle, Republican leader Sarah Palin who was John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election in the US, ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra and Tiger Woods former wife Elin Nordegren.

A vast treasure trove of gold coins, jewels and precious stones were unearthed at a Hindu temple in Trivandrum, India. The opening of four vaults reveals a vast bounty that unofficial estimates at 22 billion US dollars (1,00,000 Crores).

16th-century Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple is located in Trivandrum, capital of India’s southern Kerala state. The discovery has instantly turned the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple into one of the wealthiest religious institutions in the country.

The treasures unearthed so far include statues of gods and goddesses made of solid gold and studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds, crowns and necklaces, all given as gifts to the temple over the centuries.

The $22 billion figure is double India’s 2011-2012 education budget. The vaults were opened for inspection after a local activist filed a case that reached the Supreme Court alleging the temple’s authorities were not properly tending to the site’s security. And now some in the traditionally leftist state of Kerala where the temple is located are calling for the hoard to be handed over to the government in order to be dispensed in the public interest.

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple History:

The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple has been around for nearly a millennia, but gained its real luster by the 18th century, when it was patronized by the powerful monarchs of the local state of Travancore. Not long after decisively defeating a Dutch army in the 1741 Battle of Colachel, Marthanda Varma, king of Travancore, set about building the towering structure that defines Sree Padmanabhaswamy to this day and dubbed himself and all those in his lineage servants of Padmanabha, another name for the Hindu god Vishnu. Ever since, the prestige of the temple and Travancore’s royal dynasty has been entwined, the latter deriving a fair amount of symbolic power from their connection to the former.

After Indian independence in 1947 and the dissolution of its many semi-independent princely states, it’s suspected that much of the royal dynasty’s considerable wealth was funneled into the temple and that, combined with decades of accumulated donations, has created this extraordinary treasure trove. The descendants of the house of Travancore still supervise the trust that administers Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, but, unlike some of India’s other disparate (and defunct) royal families, appear to have been rather careful about their bequest, keeping it in the dark and under lock and key for decades.

That fastidiousness will likely dampen whatever political flames are sure to spark after this treasure’s unearthing. In India, home to virtually all the world’s religions, contests over holy sites are always hot-button issues, and often sadly a matter of life and death. Some among the country’s Hindu far-right still invoke in present political discourse the 11th century sacking of the great (and wealthy) temple at Somnath in western India by Muslim invaders, among other historical grievances. But it’s unlikely the hoard at Sree Padmanabhaswamy will be carted off — though one can only hope that both state and temple authorities find a means to bring such reportedly exquisite treasures safely to light, for all to see.