By Pavani Kaushik The Aicon Gallery (formerly Arts India) Palo Alto, in collaboration with the Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi – is showcasing yet another of India's versatile talents – Yusuf Arakkal. The Bangalore based artist, also known for his sculpture and poetry, speaks from his heart with this latest series of paintings. Titled “The Street”, the work powerfully portrays slices of life on the streets experienced by various segments of the human diaspora.

By Vidya Pradhan Given its location in the heart of Mumbai, it is rather surprising that these 530 acres took so long to register on the radar of land developers. Salivating at the thought of prime commercial and residential potential, companies like Mitsubishi, Godrej and Reliance have begun applying serious pressure on the Mumbai Slum Rehabilitation Authority to get a move on the Dharavi Development Project(DDP).

By Rohini Mohan A pervasive email campaign has been making the rounds to nominate the Taj Mahal as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.   Over 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year- that’s about 8000 people a day.  Most of them get on a filthy train or stinky tourist bus from a distant location, fight a barrage of people, drink in automobile fumes, among other odors, and arrive dusty and derelict and consumed with frustration and fatigue at the first vista point. When they finally set their eyes on the “Miracle in Marble”…..it takes their breath away. The Taj is a flawless creation, probably the most wonderful manmade structure I have ever seen. However, if it were not for the one more obligatory trip I must make to see it with my son, I would be loath to brave another visit.

By R. Arun Kumar Imagine if you were asked, “When did you feel the happiest?” or its derivative, “What makes you feel full of life?” I might fumble with my reply if the question came out-of-the-blue, but when I am sitting behind the steering wheel of my car, peering ahead at an empty stretch of road that seems to go on forever, an azure blue sky beckoning me on, places crossed out in a folded piece of map waiting to be explored, the answer has always seemed so clear to me. I love the open road and all its possibilities….

By Rohini Mohan Yes, yes, labor is excruciatingly painful, but wait till you’re hit with what follows – raising the bundle of joy! And I don’t mean the next few months of sleep deprivation; I am talking about the next two decades of insomnia. The drooling baby morphs into the monstrous rug rat who metamorphosises into the precocious pre-schooler. As you walk him to his first day of Montessori, do I hear an involuntary sigh of relief escaping your lips? What? Freedom for a few hours, you say? Quick – bite your tongue; you have no idea what you’ve let yourself in for.

By Vidya Pradhan You may pooh-pooh directors like Karan Johar and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for pandering to mass appeal but, let me tell you, making an ‘entertainer’ is not easy as it seems. The alchemy that happens when the right story, dialogues and cast come together is elusive to most Bollywood directors, and sometimes even the most seasoned players are left with a product that, like a movie set, has no substance behind it.

By Rohini Mohan If I were on a deserted island and all I had was a DVD player and a choice of one movie to watch for eternity….. what movie would it be? I don’t need to think on that one. I would pick Sholay every time. Just as I get my son to eat paneer butter masala and acquaint him with Gandhiji, I feel the need to have him watch Sholay – to me it’s an essential part of being an Indian.

By Nirupama Subramaniam There is an old saying in Rajasthan that one needs clothes of steel and feet of iron to go to Jaisalmer. For many years, Jaisalmer was a remote, sparsely populated settlement in the middle of the harsh desert. Today it has been transformed into a tourist spot, attracting visitors from all over the world.

By Vidya Pradhan Multiplexes in India are performing a role today that NFDC used to a generation ago – providing young aspiring filmmakers with the means to make experimental, offbeat movies. Unlike the art house fare of Shyam Benegal or Mrinal Sen, these movies are made in the commercial realm - the experiment is just with subjects that would once have been rejected out of hand by the big studios as being too risky. Where once a movie needed to succeed in the ‘Bimaru’ hinterland to get a decent return for its distributors, the finances of multiplexes have made it possible for filmmakers to take chances with urban dramas that don’t necessarily have a universal appeal. I don’t pretend to understand it all, but the multiplex phenomenon seems to be a good explanation for the increasing number of serious non-traditional films that are now coming out of Bollywood. In this genre falls “(Life in a) Metro”, a story of the intersecting lives of 4 couples in a cosmopolitan city. Though the setting is Mumbai, the city does not intrude. It could be virtually any metro and just serves as a backdrop for the extramarital adventures of the upwardly mobile and educated middle class.

By Rohini Mohan I am vegetarian and it’s not easy in this world of carnivores. Especially since I was bitten by the travel bug early on in life and spent many days starving in many countries. In the greater interest of not passing out everyday from sheer hunger while backpacking in France, I did that one time succumb to eating meat. I tasted everything from black pudding to pheasant to oyster; to be perfectly honest, there were some creations that I enjoyed. Not so much, however that I could not switch back. I did, and I have been off meat for the last couple of decades.