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shahana dastidar
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Romance can kill you
Candle lit dinners cause cancer.
I read it on the BBC.
The other thing that can kill you are romantic movies. The most disgusting misogynistic unfunny puke-making one I ever saw (and there have been lots) was the one that had Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore playing divorce lawyers. I'd rather someone stick a couple of red-hot pokers into my eyeballs than ever watch that one again.....
I have a treadmill in the north-eastern corner of my room. It stands there all day and looks at me. I hear its pleading voice. Walk on me, it says, Run Run Run. USE ME. I pretend I can't hear it. I avert my gaze. I ignore.
However yesterday, I succumbed. And today again.
I walked on it. I USED it.
A funny thing though. The monitor told me, as I walked faster and faster, that my pulse DROPPED from 82 to 51. I'm no expert, but isnt it supposed to rise with exercise? Anyway after about half an hour of walking (and getting nowhere) I was feeling faint. So I stopped and did the crossword.
Which was so exciting, my pulse rose and came back to normal.....
Mental
INTACH has started a new heritage walk through the Nizamuddin area of Delhi. This is an urban village and a really historic one. However I think I may go for the Shan-e-Nizam walk instead because they seem to be organised by the locals. Nizamuddin has the dargahs (tombs) of several Sufi saints and is named after the most famous one, Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya. He's the guy who said - Dilli Door Ast (Delhi is still far) when he heard news of a conquering army on its way to Delhi. He prophesied well.... the army never reached.
To give you an idea of how old this settlement is, Nizamuddin lived during the time of the Delhi sultanate (i.e. pre-Mughal) and died in 1325 A.D. The present tomb one can see there dates to 1562 A.D.
Anyway, they have a 700 year old Baoli (step-well) there which was recently conserved and revitalised by the Aga Khan Foundation & the Archaeological Survey of India. Somehow the spring that feeds the well never got choked by all the garbage. When I go, I'll take a picture and post it on here. Until then, this pic is of another Baoli in Delhi in the nearby Purana Qila (Old Fort). Just for people reading to get the concept of what a Step-well is. At the bottom of all the steps is the actual well full of water.
Fridays I guess is the day to go explore Nizamuddin because they have Qawwali after the prayers. A Qawwali is a genre of music originating from the Sufi tradition and lies somewhere between folk and classical music. To me (and I'm no expert for sure), the singers appear to follow a question & answer format or an argument & rebuttal one as they debate and discuss matters of life and faith. Its really rousing stuff and the one at the Nizamuddin basti (village) would be every Qawwali lovers dream performance.....
If they were ever able to find the place the performances are held! The basti is a confusing winding maze of lanes and shops which is the reason I want go for that heritage walk.
But only when the weather improves.
Notes: Images are not mine but from Wikimedia Commons. I've seen both places years ago but never carried a camera. I hope to go for both the walk and the Qawwali sometime at the end of September or early October when the weather in Delhi is more suitable for outdoor activities. Yes I believe the Qawwali is outdoors, I'm imagining in one of the Dargah courtyards perhaps? Drop me a line if you'd like to join. I will probably take my parents who like this stuff as much as I do.
Comments:
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I happen to think that movie was beautiful, it almost made me CRY!!
I was going to congratulate you on the pictures, I'll just bemoan the passing of artisans in a lot of contemporary architecture, instead.
Have fun at the Qawwali, sounds great, also sounds like I should be using more respectful words to describe it.
I was going to congratulate you on the pictures, I'll just bemoan the passing of artisans in a lot of contemporary architecture, instead.
Have fun at the Qawwali, sounds great, also sounds like I should be using more respectful words to describe it.
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