Delicious ambiguity drives dancer to greater heights
She is a Gold medalist in her Masters in Bharatnatyam dance, an actor, and a lawyer. Suhani Dhanki Mody, an established silver-screen actress, has recently relocated to London after her marriage and plans to concentrate on her career as a Bharatnatyam Danseuse. A lawyer from the well-known Government Law College at the University of Mumbai, the multi-talented Suhani has...
KASHISH 2021: Jérôme Marrel, partner of fashion designer Wendell Rodricks, to continue his legacy of supporting the festival
KASHISH 2021 is inviting artists and graphic designers across the world to participate in the Wendell Rodricks Poster Design Contest to design the official festival poster and overall look for the festival’s upcoming edition. The theme for this edition is ‘Unlock With Pride’, representing the festival's mission to unlock geographical & racial barriers, and encourage love & acceptance of...
Community bonds over Hindu temple cemetery restoration project in Hong Kong
The capacity for people to give of themselves even in hard times is a wonder of the human spirit. Recently this was evident as a forgotten cemetery behind a Hindu temple in Hong Kong was saved by an eager crowd of volunteers. Arianne Baldesimo, a Filipino teacher who calls Hong Kong her home, has been in the Hindu Temple at...
Real stories from real people for a better world
There has been a lot of press recently about artificial intelligence (AI), in particular ChatGPT, with predictions reaching from mass unemployment to the end of the human race as we know it, laced with amusing stories of auto-generated images creating pictures of people with six fingers and suchlike. So I just wanted to take a brief moment to discuss...
Remembering Chiku, our squirrel child
This poem's been inspired by real events and has been written to make children understand the power of compassion towards animals. It is meant to encourage them to love them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I heard the crows scream out quite loud And ran outside to see, There lay on the grass in our Mumbai backyard Tiny balls of three! It was early hours, we were barely awake But...
Triumph of good over tear-gas: an extraordinary story of Hong Kong Bengali Association’s Durga Puja
‘Wherever you go, a bit of Calcutta will go with you. I know, because it’s happened to me. And every Puja, I am overcome by the magic of Bengal. It’s a feeling that’ll never go away.’ Vir Sanghvi ‘If you want a city with a soul: come to Kolkata’ True that! The Kolkata virus never quite goes away, and the infection...
From bondage to the company boardroom
Indian tea plantation workers swap life of bondage for a seat in the boardroom In a groundbreaking initiative to rehabilitate and include plantation workers in the Southern Indian state of Kerala, Priyadarshini Tea Environs in Kerala's Wayanad region saw the state government give 900 acres of land to the survivors of slavery in 1986. The plantation is seen as a rare success story...
Lockdown Diaries: Arya Taware of FutureBricks shares her hands-on attitude to success
I love to start my day properly by making sure I’m awake at 6am. I’ll either go for a morning walk or run everyday before I sit at my desk. I find that routine is everything right now and can help everyone mentally separate the very thin line between personal and professional life. Remaining positive As an entrepreneur and founder, it’s...
Lockdown Diaries: Bamboo House India supports waste pickers, daily wage earners with continued livelihood and aid
'My Waste, My Responsibility' is the mantra followed by Hyderabad-based social enterprise Bamboo House, India. Prashant Lingam, who co-founded the initiative along with his wife Aruna Kappagantula in 2006, moved from making eco-friendly bamboo homes to recycled eco-friendly plastic homes, plastic paver titles and kiosks for street vendors, using tonnes of used plastic garbage that would otherwise end up...
Proud of the Rainbow Pride
The Mumbai Pride March 2020 (#mumbaipride2020) organised by the collective called the Queer Azaadi Mumbai (QAM) and Humsafar Trust was held on February 1, 2020. Traditionally, since the last ten odd years, this march by the LGBTQIA+ has been held from the August Kranti Maidan, the same iconic park from where Mahatma Gandhi started the QUIT INDIA movement in...
