It seems that India collects “eternal love” stories: on top of that of Layla and Majnun, Khosru and Shirin, Sohni and Mahiwal, there is (among many others) that of Heer and Ranjha. This last epic has been the subject of numerous versions, the Wiki page...
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Heer, the revelation
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A good Indian wife
For those who need the summary of the story, please check Goodreads. The Good Indian wife is a novel of many qualities, in spite of a few flaws, perhaps because it’s Anne Cherian’s first. First a simple but effective story, based on a simple theme: can...
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India 2015
Hi all, this blog will revert to a travelog for a few days, as I'm off to Pilani, Rajasthan with my school, for a ten-day stay there and thereabouts. After the failure (seems a strong word, but well, that's what it really was...) of our attempt last year...
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Arrival
Notre arrivée s'est faite en plusieurs fois, selon les horaires des avions que chacun avait pu prendre. Ainsi, quand nous deux les profs sommes arrivés à Delhi, on a vite eu l'info que le premier groupe de 4 étudiants était déjà arrivé (vers 9h) à Pilani,...
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Cérémonies d'ouverture
Les festivités ont commencé! Hier, une rencontre entre industriels et université, et aujourd'hui la grande séance d'ouverture de la Conférence ICCS-2015, avec tous les intervenants venus d'inde et de l'étranger, dont un bon contingent de français, car...
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My two interventions
I knew before coming to Pilani that I would have to deliver an address in the context of the Conference on Communications Systems, but of course it couldn't be a scientific paper, so I had devised a subject called "the pleasure of communication", which...
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Pilani
BK BIET se trouve à Pilani, petite bourgade à 150 kms de Delhi, mais le bourg lui-même vaut le détour, enfin, si on y est, il y a des choses intéressantes. En fait, la ville est une espèce de Cambridge modèle réduit, car le coeur de la ville est composé...
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Jaipur - Agra - Delhi
Le dernier post vous a laissé haletant(e)s sur l’autoroute (?) qui nous menait à Jaipur, ignorant la suite… Voici venu le moment de combler votre curiosité ! Ne pas oublier que le « tour » de 3 jours organisé par BK BIET avait attiré 13 personnes, dont...
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25 years ago
Nutan left us 25 years ago today. Here's a tribute to the actress who now shines from high above: I have simply selected some unpublished photos of her (well, perhaps not all), and hoped that some of you would enjoy seeing them. First a selection of non-film...
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I finally went to the movie theatre
During our stay in October I finally went to the movies in India… A little post on this! (those of you who can read my French have had a little preview of the event here ). Almost ever since the beginning of my interest in Bollywood, people had been telling...
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Aranyer din ratri: Ray's models
It’s weird how when one starts wondering about a Satyajit Ray movie, one is faced with lots of people telling everyone it’s a masterpiece – this 1969 movie is even somewhere graced with the ubiquitous title of Ray’s best film ever – and how so little...
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Astitva, a feminist manifesto
Thanks to Anu Warrier’s Conversations over chai, I have just been the fortunate viewer of Astitva, by Mahesh Manjrekar, a film which was shot in 2000. If you haven’t read her review, please do, it’s a thoughtful, well-balanced commentary of the movie,...
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Parched - Righting women's wrongs
Went to see Parched (2015), by Leena Yadav, of (not good) Shabd fame. So I was a bit wary of what was to come. What came was a rather pleasant surprise, I’m happy to say. Parched is the story of four gujarati women, stuck all four of them in male-dominated...
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A passage to India
Why did I decide to read EM Forster’s A passage to India? Probably no other reason than it’s about a European’s vision of India and I had enjoyed some other books by the same author, Howard’s End and A room with a view. Then there was a film to watch...
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The origin of my admiration for Nutan
The long-awaited 80th anniversary of Nutan's birth has arrived! On top of being able to order Lalitha Tamhane's book in its English version (hopefully, I'll try asap), here's an article which, in agreement with Seema who had wondered if this contribution...
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Firaaq, the power of fear
It seems appropriate today to speak about Firaaq, a 2008 movie which is Nandita Das’s debut film venture, based on the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim riots, in which Indian PM Modi had been suspected of biased non-intervention. Today, because the pressure of...
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Lion, a pretty picture
Sunny Pawar
Before knowing that Garth Davis was a successful commercials director, I stood up from the screening of his first feature movie, Lion (2016) telling myself, “well now, that was nice, but rather commercial”. Not everything is bad about commercialization:...
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Nutan speaks about Bimal Roy
Bollywood actress Nutan talks about Bimal Roy... "We have very few directors like Bimal Roy to begin with but what made him special that he was not a jack of all trades, he was master of all trades. He was a very good cameraman, very good photographer,...
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ICCS 2017
De retour dans la douce Pilani, où le léger voile matinal nous caresse gentiment, et en attente du début des festivités de la Conférence ICCS, voici quelques nouvelles du voyage qui m'a amené ici. Le vol Air India s'est bien déroulé, la nuit à bord aussi...
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Journée bien remplie...
Ouf! la journée n'est pas encore finie; il y a encore tout à l'heure le repas avec animation devant la guesthouse comme le premier soir, mais déjà la journée a été bien fatigante! Matinée occupée par la série de speeches par des industriels invités pour...
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