By Rohini Mohan The Grand Canyon, painstakingly chiseled out over millions of years is testimony to the relentless power of nature. When you stand atop its great rim and peer down at the Colorado River, centuries of natural, geological and human history silently stare back at you. It humbles, you, yes, but it also provides you with a feeling of intense gratification, that you are part of its sheer magnificence, that it is a part of you.

By Swati Siddharth False dawn over the Bay-of-Bengal is a thing of beauty. Even when you are yawning into it! With breakfast hamper in hand, we set out towards a little known resort – Horsley Hills – a legacy from the days of the British Raj.

By Rohini Mohan Are Mr. & Mrs. Average ready for Nishabdh? Alfie Doolittle’s theory on middle class morality is what India, with arguably the world’s largest middle class, lives and breathes. To expect this audience to digest and then appreciate a film like Nishabdh would be a real stretch. Probably why there were a total of 9 people in the theatre on a Saturday afternoon, the day after its release.

By Vidya Pradhan Why oh why does Vinod Chopra end his movies the way he does? Mission Kashmir lost a whole lot of its impact when the Hrithik Roshan character survived. Parineeta( which was from his production house)  was a lovely period movie that, to my mind, was almost ruined by the contrived ending where Saif breaks down the dividing wall using a concrete planter( have you ever tried lifting one of those things?). My biggest, and probably only, criticism of this movie is the way it ends.

By Rohini Mohan I was really expecting very little when I rented the Baabul DVD.  I knew I was setting myself up for 3 hours of tearful farewells, long winded songs, far fetched scenes, complicated emotions and an anachronistic storyline. Every now and then when scripts are wanting, Hindi movies stray into the area of some neglected social melodrama. Film makers know fully well that we hopelessly forgiving Bollywood audiences will gratefully gobble it all up. Not to mention the whole astrology angle which Bollywood financiers seem to happily substitute for old fashioned mathematics. I can just imagine Ravi Chopra’s thought process; Baghbaan starts with a B, has the big B in it; and Salman and Hema to boot. Same deal with Babul. Throw in a few Saigal style songs and some masala tear jerking, and Voila! Baghbaan super hit, hence Babul super hit….unfailing Bollywood logic. (Case in point, all the K movies made by Karan Johar - talk about preying on the subliminal!)

By Vidya Pradhan Sunny skies, green manicured grounds and a group of sportsmen dressed in white. No, this is not a preview of the World Cup Cricket matches soon to be played in Barbados. This committed bunch is made up of kids under the age of 11, as focused and disciplined as their senior peers and as serious about winning their 3 game tournament on a school ground in Cupertino.

There is an image from back home that is really hard to get rid of. A little girl, scraggly, matted hair, bloated but empty belly, tear stained dirty face, knocking doggedly on my car window, begging for a few paisa to buy her next meal. I sit in air conditioned ...

Geeta Padmanabhan, Chennai writer, journalist and blogger, met with maverick director Nagesh Kukunoor who also writes his stories and screenplays. In the following interview, he discusses ‘Iqbal’ and the trouble with portraying people with disabilities.

By Vidya Pradhan Reshma Dordi is the host and producer of the popular weekly Bollywood program ' Showbiz India'. WNI caught up with her when she was in town showing her support for Ruchika, an organisation that supports schools for homeless children in India. Gorgeous and gracious, Reshma spent a few minutes talking about her career track and plans for the future of her successful show.

By Vidya Pradhan If the recent World Cup debacle has completely turned you off Indian cricket, here is a way to recapture some of the simple joy that the game has brought us over the years. Remember the fun of ‘galli’ cricket? A few kids, a cardboard sheet with three lines drawn on it, a narrow alley and a tennis ball; that’s all it took for an afternoon of uncomplicated masti. That’s the spirit that the Tennis Ball Cricket Association(TCA) has been trying to bring to the Bay Area and the weekend Kapil Dev's in all of us.