From the Guardian:
He won an Oscar playing Mohandas Gandhi in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 biopic of the Indian leader. Twenty seven years on, Ben Kingsley looks set to delve into subcontinental history books once again as part of a new project which will see him star as the Mogul emperor who built the Taj Mahal.
The actor will play Shah Jahan in Taj, a $25-$30m (£15m-£18m) project which he is also producing, his firm SBK Pictures said in a statement today. Indian superstar and former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, has agreed to appear as Mumtaz Mahal, Jahan’s favoured wife and the woman whose death in childbirth inspired the construction of the world-famous building between 1632 and 1654. More:
In Mint Lounge, Sidin Vadukut takes a trip to the Taj Mahal, Agra, and finds out how poorly we treat one of the world’s greatest works of art:
And then we saw a lady in a shimmering yellow sequin-studded sari suddenly emerge from behind a bush, quickly drape one end of the sari over her head and shuffle away. There was a large wet puddle behind the bush where she had just relieved herself in the Mughal lawns in front of the Taj.
After standing in another line to get inside the monument we took one of the less crowded, longer paths around the lawns to go back. Mistake. This route turned out to be Urination Alley. Several men stood leaning against trees while little children, egged on by their mothers, squatted by the edge of the walkways. We didn’t wait to look at the Taj reflected in their pools of water.
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By Daniel Sorid, Associated Press:
Many tourists report being treated like gobs of tourist putty in the hands of Agra’s masterful touts, cajoled into unwanted side trips to trinket shops or pressed to hire an unauthorized tour guide.
In a survey published in 2006, the government of India found that 63 percent of foreign tourists complained of being cheated or harassed “in many tourist destinations like Agra,” as well as Delhi, India’s capital.
But there are endless alternatives for a holiday in India without the Taj, and even first-time visitors to the country might choose one of these circuits – provided they can stand up to friends back home boggled by the idea of visiting India without seeing the fabled monument.
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A gold encrusted dagger that was once owned by Shah Jahan (1628-1658), the builder of the Taj Mahal and an aesthete whose love for beauty is well known, goes under the hammer on April 10. Inscriptions on the back of the blade include the Mughal emperor’s official titles, date and place of birth, and an “honorific parasol” — an ancient pan-Asian symbol of divinity of royalty, according to Bonhams auction house.
[Pic: Reuters]
From The Times of India:
Not many would have heard of Burhanpur today, but it occupied a promi
nent place in the empire during Mughal times, since it was a strategic point from which to control the Deccan region. It was here that Shah Jahan spent a considerable number of years as governor of the Deccan region, before his ascension to the throne. And it was in Burhanpur, two years after he became the emperor – on June 17, 1631, to be precise – that his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal passed away, while giving birth to their 14th child.
A grief-stricken emperor had her laid to rest near the banks of the Tapti river and a monument was built, where her remains were kept. Simultaneously, work also started on a grand mausoleum near the kabr (grave). Shah Jahan wanted it to be a monument of unparalleled beauty, conceptualised in white marble, whose reflection in the Tapti river would increase its beauty manifold. Yes, the Taj Mahal was initially planned to be built at Burhanpur. However, destiny had other plans.
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Sudha Ramachandran in Asia Times on the lifting of a 43-year-old ban by Pakistan on the import of movies from India
Amid the spate of doom and gloom stories that Pakistanis have to contend with daily comes some news to lighten their mood. The Pakistan government is poised to lift a 43-year ban on the import of movies from India. This will mean that some time soon Pakistanis will be able to watch the latest Bollywood movies on the big screen.
Late last month, Pakistan’s parliamentary committee on culture recommended the lifting of the ban on Hindi films. “We have devised a mechanism for allowing the import of Indian films for a period of one year, after which the arrangements can be reviewed,” Senator Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, who heads the committee, said.
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