Articles by Sanya
The original trance music
Legend has it that Amir Khusrau was once dancing with his arms stretched up to god, his ‘beloved’. Nizamuddin Auliya, his guru, came up and asked him to lower his arms because he didn’t need to submit to anyone but his murshid, or teacher. Amitava Sanyal tells more...
Updated on Feb 19, 2010 09:31 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Cycle capital
Jhandewalan Market: The country’s largest cycle bazaar offers much more than wheeled delights at good prices, reports Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Feb 13, 2010 01:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Where the road bends
It’s a dramatic twist in the 50-year history of a freedom struggle. Two years ago, no Tibetan would have spoken out against the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ — his 22-year-old policy of accepting Chinese suzerainty over Tibet in exchange of ‘meaningful autonomy’.
Updated on Feb 05, 2010 11:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Future radio
Hope floats on air. While the wrangle over the third phase of FM licenses goes on in court and within government, two new segments are poised for a leap.
Updated on Jan 30, 2010 11:01 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal in Delhi and Bhairavi Jhaveri in Mumbai
Padma Bhushan Chatwal
Chatwal’s mobility started over games of bridge. A bored Maharaja of Faridkot would call a young Chatwal to draw a few deals. One deal led to another, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Jan 28, 2010 11:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Bringing Indian art to India
The Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, US, has two magnificent connections with India — its large collection of Indian modern art that’s unmatched in the West, and Tina Ambani, the only non-American on the museum’s 23-member board of trustees. Now the 211-year-old institution is trying to leverage both the connections and stage a show in India around the time of Barack Obama’s first visit to the country, reports Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Jan 23, 2010 11:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Of maps, mazes and manholes
How do you make money from art when the street is your canvas and subversion your motif? L’Atlas paints the city in white stripes, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Jan 22, 2010 10:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
The Kumars at 56
Delhi’s oldest art gallery celebrates 55 years, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Jan 22, 2010 10:12 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Fear and bathing at Kumbh
This Mahakumbh will be unlike any other that has gone before. Not only are the crowds at the biggest gathering of humans expected to be even bigger this year, but there’s also a clear and present danger of terrorism. Amitava Sanyal reports.
Updated on Jan 09, 2010 11:54 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Magnum opera
Opera is like Bollywood without the popcorn,” says Vikrant Subramanian. The 20-year-old, who studied opera with Situ Singh Buehler in Delhi before going to the National School of Music in Paris, goes a step farther. “Some moments are like a Govinda movie – when Kader Khan says, ‘Teri aukat kya hai?’ (What’s your stature?)”
Updated on Jan 08, 2010 09:39 PM IST
None | Amitava Sanyal
Druk clicks
Photography arrived in Bhutan half a century ago. And it took royal fascination to nurture the ‘new’ art, reports Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Dec 26, 2009 11:37 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi
The world is flatter
The tsunami gave S Kannan what half a lifetime of labour could not. After spending two decades as a helping hand on boats owned by Meenavars, the fishing elite of Tamil Nadu, this 35-year-old Dalit got a boat for himself, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Dec 19, 2009 11:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Trick’s the treat
In the beginning there was magic. Sunil Mehra had a vision three years ago while rereading the works of Gabriel García Márquez. The 54-year-old writer-producer proposed a festival of ‘magic realism’ — comprising fine arts, film, theatre and literature — to Renu Modi, owner of Gallery Espace.
Updated on Dec 11, 2009 11:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
New Yorkerji, New Yorkerji
There’s one outrage that 75-year-old Ved Mehta hasn’t been able to live down. It’s his being fired from The New Yorker, the high-brow magazine that had been his working home for 33 years till 1994.
Updated on Dec 04, 2009 11:03 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Making schools fun
Now no exams for Class 10, says the CBSE. Only, primary schools in Tamil Nadu have already shown the way with their innovative teaching methods, reports Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Nov 28, 2009 10:46 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi
www.philately.com
Hobby horse Internet, the medium that killed stamps, is now fuelling interest in them. But not everyone who logs on is a hobbyist, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Nov 21, 2009 10:46 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi
An ear for jazz
Lal, 69, is one of the 10 founder-members of Jazz India Delhi Chapter, a band of aficionados — now called Capital Jazz — that has been organising Delhi’s only regular jazz event for a quarter of a century, reports Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Nov 20, 2009 10:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
The curious case of establishment 22
For 47 years, India has kept secret an elite regiment of Tibetan commandos. They fought gallantly in the big wars, but their valour cannot be openly recognised, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Nov 15, 2009 01:31 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Now, we’re exporting missionaries
The country that has received Christian missionaries from around the world for the last five centuries will now be sending them out. Causing the move is a demographic shift within the largest and most powerful Catholic order — the Jesuits.
Updated on Aug 16, 2009 01:08 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
Half a century of a timeless classic
Kaagaz ke Phool is a work of breathtaking visual and aural beauty. And this ageless classic has just turned 50. Amitava Sanyal writes.
Updated on Aug 14, 2009 10:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
We, the liars!
Lies, damned lies and now statistics on lying. A five-city survey throws up something we always knew — Indians are glib liars, writes Amitava Sanyal.
Updated on Jul 25, 2009 10:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
But how do you define it?
It’s confusing enough when you are trying to gather a mind-numbing variety of artworks under a dodgy, neither-here-nor-there term. But it’s even worse when that term is defined by what it’s not, rather than what it is. Amitava Sanyal writes.
Updated on Jun 07, 2009 12:41 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
No turn Left
Never before has the CPI(M) been so close to being part of a Central government. But is the party’s million-strong cadre base ready for it? Amitava Sanyal reports.
Updated on May 11, 2009 01:25 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, Kolkata
Red alert
For the first time ever, the CPI(M) has clearly expressed a desire to join a Central government. A close look at the party and its experience in the state it has ruled for 32 years — West Bengal. Amitava Sanyal elaborates.
Updated on May 02, 2009 10:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, Kolkata
How the paduka became a political bazooka
Hurling shoes is not a form of protest we Indians are used to. So why is every other citizen hurling them at our politicians? Amtiava Sanyal tells more.
Updated on Aug 25, 2010 06:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amtiava Sanyal, New Delhi
How the paduka became a political bazooka
All it took was one hurled shoe. When Muntazar Al Zaidi pitched his shoes at George Bush, he couldn’t have had the foggiest that his form of protest would gain an iconic status in the world’s largest electoral process.
Updated on Apr 17, 2009 10:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal
No brakes please, this is breaking news
Oh, such a joy to be standing on the shore of a sea of unblinking believers. Belief, I believe, can push us into territories where reason fears to tread. Amitava Sanyal tells more.
Updated on Aug 25, 2010 06:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi
Why we should mind our neighbour’s business
One picture did for me what weeks and months of printed reports, blogged rants and clipped videos couldn’t. It slipped past my cynicism about the exaggerated sighs bemoaning Pakistan’s ‘slide’, and got me by the short-and-curly. Amitava Sanyal tells more.
Updated on Aug 25, 2010 06:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi
The readers: In their craft or sullen art
Some poems are written to be read aloud, while some others are rendered somewhat lesser when ‘performed’. The distinction is mirrored among those who take in the works — the reader-turned-listener. Amitava Sanyal tells more.
Updated on Aug 25, 2010 06:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi
Who was the host with the most, Uncle Oscar?
Iit’s time to give out a statuette to the best host in the manner of a lifetime achievement Oscar. And my nominees for this award are...Amitava Sanyal tells more.
Updated on Aug 25, 2010 06:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Sanyal, New Delhi