Indian men by default have a special, elevated status, simply by being born male. We could be lazy good-for-nothings, ignorant fools, crooks, wife-beaters, or worse…
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Manohar Lal Prasanna plays a hypnotic flute, and comes from a long line of classical musicians of the Banarasi Gharana, which also also includes the master of shehnai, Bismillah Khan.
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My mother wouldn’t let go of my hand. Six years ago, at Delhi airport, I put her on a flight to Heathrow, to my sister, a doctor, who would get her properly diagnosed.
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This man, Munna Lal, in my hometown of Lucknow, is at the very bottom of the food chain in a country whose corrupt politicians manipulate and exploit the poor to make themselves and the rich even richer.
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"Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you"
Spent a great morning speaking to the students and faculty of the Singhania School in Kanpur. Some of the smartest and most curious students I have engaged with.
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After 21 planes, 7 trains, 18 taxis and 55 variations of sky I'm back to the slow magic infuriating inequity, illogical reality stranger than any fiction, the too-loud airport music with its many flavors of the same endless nightmare Bollywood-lite song…
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It's always a joy to return to the place I spent my best 12 years in, but I am particularly inspired by the current Principal, Carlyle McFarland, (next to me), who has made La Martiniere College one of the top schools in India and comparable to the best in the world.
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I'm returning to Calcutta after decades and there's something strange and sad about it. There's a big, modern airport, eerily empty in a city so massive, but the traffic is insane. The heart of the city is wrapped up in blue and white Christmas lights, the colors of Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee's party.
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If you're in Bombay, come attend my talk on new narratives of love in a hate-filled world, at the path-breaking Godrej India Culture Lab in the Godrej HQ in Vikhroli, Jan. 27th, 5 pm.
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Beth Orton played an ecstatic set with local Rajasthani band "Josh" elevating her songs to a whole new level and jamming on some Sufi music last night at the Jaipur Literary Festival. Her "Galaxy of Emptiness" is in my top 100 songs on ITunes. Thank God for music.
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It's the longest I've been here in 25 years. Two months and 23 days. How this country drips into you. It's insanity and chaos and inequities and it's wild beauty and gentle intoxication.
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Making a film or any art requires blind faith and maniacal devotion. Only the foolish and obsessed embark on such perilous journeys, mostly against all advice. The everyday terror of failure, rejection and financial ruin haunts you while the joy of creation keeps you going.
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Spent an instructive afternoon speaking with and being inspired by the lovely ladies of Sanatakada- an NGO doing vital and praiseworthy work to uplift underprivileged and oppressed women and evolve the culture of Lucknow.
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