Culture
Mappilas of Malabar – A Kitchen Community
There is no more sincere love than the love of food – thus observed George Bernard Shaw and one finds it very difficult to disprove the Shavian observation, if one has tasted any of the delicacies that Mappila cuisine of North Malabar offers. Muslims of North Kerala are generally called as Mappillas or Moplahs. Many […]
What is Eating Our Frames?
What happens when we watch food on screen? There may not be a unanimous feedback to this question, as eating and watching movies are deeply related to our varying subjective moods. But Maharshi Bhasa, the ancient theatre theorist from India, has said to the effect that food and sex need only be alluded on stage. […]
Capturing the Spirit of Ramadan
Islamic art can’t remain aloof from political concerns all around, as art comes to terms with the identity of Muslims constructed the world over. Ahmad Abull Hafeeth Mesleh’s camera clicked a rare moment in the occupied Qudus on 17th August this year. People stand in queue but they are invisible and blurred the symbol of […]
Pilgrimage: Beyond Destination
There isn’t a thing called way; rather it is what you make when you walk, goes an Urdu saying. Le Grand Voyage is about the paths one is bound to take in a life time. Not in the obligatory sense of the ritual pilgrimage. It is rather about the paths one needs to traverse inside […]
Expo of Imam Ali Paintings at Tehran
An exhibition of rare paintings of Imam Ali is attracting scores of people to Tehran, the capital of Iran during the current fall of the holy Ramadan. Tehran’s Shokuh Gallery hosts the event, the first ever such venture to showcase the portraits of Ali, a very important figure in the history of Islam, especially for […]
When Istanbul Sings; We Hear Many Istanbuls
Turkish music is irresistibly intoxicating. The more you listen to it, the more it binds you inside. Once you begin to indulge in its soothing pleasure, it engages you to endless entrapment. Here, modernity cohabits with tradition as in the historic city of Istanbul, where a symbiosis between the east and the west is sharply […]
Muhammara: the Taste of Aleppo
Bilad al-Sham aka Sham aka Syria is where the Ottaman taste still lingers in our tongue. The country is also known as Levant and Levantine Cuisine is part of the lore of foodies all over the world. Mezze or the West Asian small dishes; Tabbouleh the famed Arabian Salad; hummus-the West Asian dip (Tasty mixture […]
Lubna Agha: Inheritance from a Loss
Visit the website of Lubna Agha, an honored Pakistani painter based in America (the link is listed towards the end of this article); you can read these lines on the Homepage: Amongst the foremost contemporary American-Pakistani artists is Lubna Agha, whose images challenge the immovable qualities of traditional Islamic art and artifacts to provide a […]
Music played in the Tunnel
To put in a nutshell, Bahman Ghobadi’s ‘None Knows about Persian Cats’ (Kasi az gorbehaye Irani khabar nadareh) is about the search for two young musicians, Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshhanejad) with the help of Nader to form an indie-rock band to perform abroad from among 312 bands in the same genre and […]
T-Shirt Discourse Against Islamophobia
Humour has become a bold expression in culture to the Islamophic responses the world over. T-shirts with humorous, yet culturally significant, slogans have lately been into the market to dispel the propopganda against Islam. It’s in this context that the works of design moulavi deserves mention. See what design moulavi has to say on this: […]
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