The Uncensored Household
Maqbool Fida Husain, known as M.F. Husain (1915-2011), was one of India’s most eminent and prolific artists. Often described as India’s Picasso, MF Husain is one of my favourite Indian artists. He is one of a group of Indian artists known as the Great Masters and they are indeed great, possessing a quality and perspective yet unmatched by generations of painters since.
‘The world’s largest democracy’ cast more than 500 million votes over five weeks to decide who would win and take India roaring into the future and Narendra Modi came out on top with a huge majority. India has spoken. Decisively.
For the first time in 30 years Indian voters helped create a majority government blasting the incumbents to an insignificant minority. Right wing and Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) had long been tipped to win the election but most Delhiites I spoke to last month were sure that they wouldn’t have an outright majority and would inevitably have to form a coalition of sorts. My goodness was everyone shocked, it was time for a new generation. Even former MPs that had held on to their safe seats for 15 years or more were ousted for the first time.
Vineet Bahl WIFW AW 2014
My fellow blogging buddies and I had to keep reminding ourselves that we were seeing AW collections as both Anupamaa and Vineet Bahl showed collections that could easily overlap the current Spring/Summer trends. Shame we have to wait for the collections to hit stores!
Vineet Bahl used to be one of my favourite Indian designers due to his Western silhouettes which were gorgeous. Over the last couple of years he has started specialising in India ethnic wear which I guess has more commercial sense for him but he was truly a refreshingly different designer for Western design.
His new AW14 is inspired by the celebration of every moment of life without prejudice and judgement. The collection began with muted earthy handloom silks occasionally peppered with neon embellishment detail and pastel shades slowly crept in and made way for a myriad of vintage inspired colours and delicious combinations such as Prussian blue with peach. Want!!
Yours, not Zadie Smith’s…. I’ve become mildly obsessed with teeth whitening these days. This is possibly due to it being Summer and my desire to wear the new peach and pink lippies and my belief that these shades look best paired with white teeth, however, I am generally obsessed with white teeth.
Americans are often appalled by British teeth and we Brits roll our eyes
It is quite normal to respondez s’il vous plait to invites but there still seems to be resistance to this very polite etiquette by elder members of our South Asian community. Especially to wedding invites.
I recall in my youth attending weddings that I hadn’t been invited to because I was spending the weekend with an aunt or so. Not something I would even consider doing today…. But this was normal. Weddings were a festival that anyone remotely related could attend. Huge buffets were laid on. What was a handful of extra guests going to matter?
It’s not Movember, but this film looking at the decline of the moustache in India is really interesting, funny and worth a watch…
The Telegraph gave it an impressive 4 out of 5 for its brilliant depiction of British Asian Culture. The Evening Standard despairingly gave it 3 out of 5 for it’s bad taste and cliche. Bunty Chatterji gave it a 2 out of 5 for its embarrassing attempt to portray British Asian culture and its cliched relationship to Bollywood.
What a shame!
Roti Chai in Portman Mews, next to Selfridges, brings street food of India to London.
The canteen style restaurant with a fine dining area downstairs, has carefully selected dishes from around India such as papdi chat, dhokla and bun kebabs.
It’s been some time since I walked into a house where everything was covered in plastic, so, visiting a family friend the other day threw me right back to my childhood.
The carpet entering the front door had that central studded plastic runner that would keep the center strip clean and the carpet around the edges darken with age. I remember my parents putting this in our house and it was awful to walk on. We would walk on the edges to avoid the plastic so that we could feel the soft carpet under our feet.
The recent death of Sathya Sai Baba has evoked many of his devotees to speak up in his defence. To millions he is their saviour. As one follower put it “He is God himself”. To cynics, he is just a very successful orange robed conman preying on the vulnerable to build his $9billion empire. This is only an estimation as no true valuation can take place – he did not have a bank account!
So who is Sathya Sai Baba?
There are customs that are fun, customs that are respectful and customs that should have been left in the times they served such as the Gujarati custom in certain castes of not washing your hair during your pregnancy. It still amazes me that women adhere to this custom here in Britain.
The Chatterjis Blog 