Woodstock lives
“Excuse me, do you smoke?” A brawny guy wearing dark glasses – it was pitch dark even on the outside – and a shocking pink jacket asked me. “No, I quit.” I replied. “Of course you know I didn’t mean just cigarettes,” he said laughing and dipped into his pink pockets for a cigarette that […]
Hornbill is rock
Hornbill Rocks. Because any band worth its, well, rocks, has to earn its stripes from Hornbill. Preferably by winning. With screen days crowd of over 15,000 and close seven times that on the finals, the benchmark is well set. “When we started the Hornbill rockfest, there were only two small speakers…the sound seldom reaching till […]
Ways of seeing
(This is the fifth in the Hornbill series. Apologies for the delay in the uploading…several reasons, including the really, terrifically crazy rockfest finals the day before. And whatever afterwards…) Somebody akined cars to a tin box. By extension trains would be jolly rides with Tutankhamen and flights, plush cells. So, I decided to give the […]
Gone in 60 seconds…well, almost
(This is the update from day four of the Hornbill Festival, December 4, 2011) “It is not a very advisable thing to do,” a worried Dr Thorsie said. The pork eating competition was about to start in a few minutes. “But the participants are mostly members of the cultural troupes you know,” he added as […]
A story in every step
(This update is from day three of Hornbill Festival. Dear reader, apologies for the delay in the update as businesses take a strict break in Christian-dominated Nagaland.) Petering out crowd is a challenge to any festival. Keeping the audience interest alive is a comment on the organisers’ ingenuity and imagination. Day three of the Hornbill […]
The Kohima Drift
(This is the third update from the Hornbill Festival, 2011.) In Nagaland there are no bad drivers; there are only good drivers and there are those who don’t drive. This is a terrain where simple manoeuvring calls for exceptional skill at the wheel. The adrenaline rush is everyday. For some, it is a living. For […]
And the Hornbill takes off
The bull and the bolero became one. Colour charged the air. You could touch the permeating pride. The fine film of dust that hung about added to the surrealism of a whole culture played out over centuries compacted and capsulated in the confines of a fair ground. Each of the 16 tribes gathered from all […]
One extra day this year
(This is the first in the regular series of updates from the Hornbill Festival, 2011. I am trying to make this daily for the 500 and counting subscribers of Wanderink.com. Did I say daily? Got to see if I can push my 8pm deadline…) The setting sun was sending out jagged rays through the cotton […]
The Mehrangarh Fort and Other Reveries in Jodhpur
History of branding says that you try harder when you are number two. ‘Blue City’, ‘Sun City’, ‘cultural capital’ – epithets attributed to Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan, are industrious at best. But they also give the impression of trying too hard – something which they don’t have to. As long as the […]