2321 IST, Wednesday, June 19, 2013 
Culture/Tourism
For thrill seekers, mountain biking the new passionBy Shilpa Raina
Vamini Sethi, 27, doesn't look physically strong. But give her a mountain bike and she re-defines toughness. For her riding through craggy terrain, dirt roads and treacherous paths are like child's play. |
Gaitonde's painting fetches record price at Sotheby's
A newly discovered art piece - "Painting No 1" of 1962 - by Indian artist Vasudeo S. Gaitonde has been sold for 698,500 pounds (about $1,093,000) at the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale here. |
'It's the best time for Kerala percussion'By Malavika Vettath
He is arguably Kerala's most famous percussionist. Mattannur Sankaran Kutty, known for working magic on Kerala's traditional chenda drum, says "it is the best time for Kerala percussion" as it now crosses myriad boundaries of caste, religion and gender.
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Preparations on for Sikh festival in Malaysia
Preparations are on for the four-day festival of Barsi, said to be the largest Sikh event outside of the Punjab state in India, in Gurdwara Sahib Malacca in the Malaysian state of Malacca, starting May 30. |
SPIC-MACAY's first global convention begins May 20 in Kolkata
Over 1,800 delegates will participate in the first SPIC-MACAY international convention on promoting Indian classical music and culture that begins here May 20. |
Six Rajasthan hill forts on World Heritage list
For long the tourist attractions of the desert state, six hill forts of Rajasthan have made it to the Unesco World Heritage site list this year. |
Professional TouchBy Alaka Sahani / Indian Express
When Jehan Manekshaw returned to Mumbai in 2006 after completing Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Direction from the University of London, he found a number of new productions being staged in the city. While that was reassuring, the quality of most of these plays was not. He did notice a lot of hunger among theatre artistes to learn about other practices. Travelling across India made him aware of several theatre practices that exist in other parts of the country and Manekshaw wanted to expose others from the fraternity to them as well. |
Tagore: Seeking out the man behind the maskBy Radha Chakravarty
To reconsider the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) on his 152nd birth anniversary is to confront a maze of contradictions. What, for instance, inspired a school dropout without a college degree to establish an international university? Why did a member of the land-owning 'zamindar' class feel compelled to write about the lives of oppressed peasants, and to experiment with schemes for rural development? How could a man write so insightfully about the lives of women? What made him express religious devotion in erotic language, and love in the language of religion? Why did he yearn for fame, yet live in constant fear of it? |
With snow still to thaw, Gulmarg attracting touristsBy Rohit Vaid
With snow falling as late as May, Kashmir's Gulmarg resort remains an attractive tourist destination, especially for winter sports, even as summer capital Srinagar, where the nearest airport is located, worries over security. |
US firm to invest $240mn to light Bihar Buddhist sitesBy Arun Kumar
A power venture formed by Indian and North American energy professionals plans to create a role model for the world by lighting up famed Buddhist sites in Bihar with a $240 million (Rs.13 billion) solar energy project as part of a corporate social responsibility initiative. |
India is often described as a tourist paradise. From the mighty snow-capped Himalayas of Kashmir in the north to the shimmering seas of Kanyakumari in the south, the verdant deltas of Sunderbans in the east, the world's largest protected eco-and-game reserve to the historic forts and shrines of Rajasthan to the west – India has everything that the footloose traveller would like to sample. 
