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India - News
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News Updates - 15
March 2001 Small is beautiful - Forbes magazine Little India - Traveler magazine Bombay Journal - New York Times Life and legacy of Gandhi - Washington Post India unbound - Washington Post Come for the tea, stay for the food - Los Angeles Times
For luxury travelers these days, the larger the budget, the smaller the destination, whether it be a beach resort in Bali or a downtown Paris hotel. So say the 2,500 respondents of the 19th annual readers' survey conducted by Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report, a monthly newsletter. "The intimate setting is becoming so important to our readers—the difference is personal service," says Andrew Harper, who is based in Sun Valley, Idaho. This year, 87% of respondents were presidents or CEOs, and 92% had traveled outside the U.S. in the last 12 months (see andrewharpertravel.com). Harper points out that in the past year, readers' preferences for boutique resorts have widened to include city hotels as well. Half of the hotels on the Top 20 International City Hotels list contain fewer than 100 rooms. "People are widening their travel horizons and seeking out something more exotic," says Harper. He believes that in the years to come India will be a popular destination, in large part because of the Oberoi hotel chain. Drawing on the success of the luxurious Rajvilas in Jaipur, Oberoi is building a new tier of hotels—all with fewer than than 100 rooms—to attract a clientele like Zecha's. One new hotel, Udaivilas, is set to open in Udaipur in October. Another new Oberoi resort is Wildflower Hall, a spa hotel in Mashobra in the Himalayas. "Oberoi is filling the void - people are going to start looking at India," says Harper. Despite shaky global equity markets, Harper seems unfazed by the effect of an economic slowdown on the luxury travel industry. "Nowadays, people look at travel as a right: It used to be two weeks a year; now it's part of their lifestyle," he says. Harper thinks that a severe recession might mean two vacations a year rather than three, but that this won't affect his readers' choice of destinations. "They're still going to go for the best."
"Little India" - Newark Avenue between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue is the center of gravity for Jersey City's vibrant Indian community. It's only a couple of blocks from the Journal Square PATH subway station.
For your special occasions, or just a change of pace, these restaurants offer take-out and catering. Some also offer local delivery. When you stop by be sure to bring home a very special treat - box of Indian sweets “For the traveler, ethnic neighborhoods offer a rich dimension to the American urban experience,” says Gary Krist, “We offer a comprehensive guide to these ethnic neighborhoods throughout America, with valuable information on restaurants, cultural opportunities, and vendors. In many cases you can even buy ethnic products - straight from neighborhood outlets - online.”
BOMBAY - Up on Malabar Hill, in the midst of this teeming, polyglot metropolis, breezes off the Arabian Sea caress the bungalows of the rich and rustle into a 50-acre forest that has for centuries been the place where Parsis, followers of the ancient prophet Zoroaster, brought their dead to be devoured by vultures. Since the 17th century, Parsi descendants of the Persians who found religious freedom in India a millennium ago have carried their dead up Malabar Hill.
The "jostling, flapping rabble," as one bird guide described them, would then descend, and in an hour or two only a skeleton would be left. The Bombay Parsi council plans to build an aviary on Malabar Hill where disease-free vultures will be bred in captivity. The central government has given its permission to proceed, but the council is waiting for a go-ahead from the Maharashtra state government.
On a stroll through the peaceful confines of Doongerwadi, where bird song is more piercing than the distant roar of the city, Khojeste Mistree, an Oxford-educated Zoroastrian scholar, reacted to the horror outsiders often feel about the Parsi way of death and explained why he is among its impassioned champions. "It's no more horrifying to me than being eaten by worms over 30 to 40 years or being burned by fire," he said, referring to the alternatives - burial and cremation. In Zoroastrian thought, death is seen as the temporary triumph of evil and the corpse as ritually defiled, he said, adding, "God does not murder." In disposing of the dead, Parsis are enjoined to avoid polluting fire, earth and water. So long as there is a Tower of Silence where bodies can be eaten by scavengers and exposed to the rays of the sun, Parsis are required to do so, he said. It is a final act of charity to the vultures, a hygienic and economical method of disposal and a way of ensuring that all Parsis - rich and poor - are equal in death "Every community has to have religious rules," he said. "You can't have anarchy. Given that our theology is so beautiful and that our forefathers died to safeguard the religion, do we forsake it in this wonderful land of India where we have religious freedom?" 'Gandhi's
Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi' Stanley Wolpert, doyen of American historians of India and the author of a 1960 novel on Gandhi's assassination (Nine Hours to Rama), has delved deep into the Mahatma's life in Gandhi's Passion, a smooth, highly readable book. Mohandas Karamchand -- or Mahatma ("Great Soul," a term he detested) -- Gandhi remains a compelling subject for biographers. And for good reason: He was a living lesson. Asked to summarize his mission for a peace group, he declared, "My life is my message." Gandhi was unique among the statesmen of the 20th century in his determination not just to live his beliefs but to reject any separation between beliefs and action. In his life, religion flowed into politics; his public persona meshed seamlessly with his private conduct. And his endless explorations of both, in reams of correspondence, notes, letters and missives scrawled on the backs of envelopes to an astonishing variety of addressees, have left biographers with an abundance of material about the Mahatma's inner (as well as public) life. But what a story it is. Mahatma Gandhi was the extraordinary leader of the world's first successful nonviolent movement for independence from colonial rule. At the same time, he was a philosopher who was constantly seeking to live out his own ideas, whether they applied to individual self-improvement or social change: His autobiography was subtitled, typically, "The Story of My Experiments with Truth." No dictionary imbues truth with the depth of meaning Gandhi gave it. His truth emerged from his convictions: It meant not only what was accurate but what was just and therefore right. Truth could not be obtained by untruthful or unjust means, which included inflicting violence upon one's opponent. Gandhi's puckish sense of humor is nowhere on display in this book. Asked what he thought of Western civilization, he replied, "It would be a good idea." Upbraided for going to Buckingham Palace in his loincloth for an audience with the King-Emperor, Gandhi replied, "His Majesty had on enough clothes for the both of us." Neither remark figures in a book that averages half-a-dozen quotations per page. But in reminding us of the other details of his extraordinary life, Stanley Wolpert has done the Mahatma -- and all of us -- a signal service. The book was reviewed by Shashi Tharoor, who, most recently wrote, of "India: From Midnight to the Millennium." His new novel, "Riot," will be published in the fall. Unleashing the Tiger - 'India Unbound'11 March 2001, Washington Post, Book by Gurcharan Das, Reviewed by Jonah Blank Gurcharan Das, a venture capitalist and former head of Proctor & Gamble India, is far more than a mere harvester of filthy lucre. The author of three plays, a novel and innumerable newspaper columns, Das is a writer whose subject is business rather than simply a businessman who subjects us to his writing. The argument of Das's new book is straightforward: From Independence until 1991, the government of India strangled commerce and stunted the nation's economic development; now that the shackles of socialism are being loosened, India is poised for great financial success. It is an argument that might be considered settled fact in most boardrooms and seminar-chambers from Delhi to Dallas, but it could be an eye-opener to readers unfamiliar with the radical transformations currently under way in the subcontinent. For American readers accustomed to view India as a land of tigers rather than high-tech and maharajahs rather than microchips, this book will come as a welcome surprise. Come
for the tea, stay for the food at Shahjehan Cuisine of India In a conscious effort to consume less coffee, I recently switched to teas as an afternoon pick-me-up. Turns out, tea is satisfying and fun, providing the lift and reward of java without fraying nerves and inducing guilt. So it's no surprise to me that chai tea lattes have become so popular. Enhanced with minerals and anti-oxidants, these exotic, lightly caffeinated brews laced with milk and sugar have long been associated with the Indian cuisine experience, and now the rest of us seem to have caught on to it.Unique Indian Tea is an outgrowth of the Shahjehan Cuisine of India restaurant in Redondo Beach, a little nook on Artesia Boulevard that has been around for more than a decade. Owner Atique Ahmed serves such fine Indian chai teas in his restaurant that he's packaged his own brand of instant and ventured into cyberspace (uniquetea.com) to meet demand. The restaurant is not much to look at from the outside, but inside, it's cozy and nice, checkered with jade green tablecloths against white linens and calmed with soothing music that strays from the typical sitar twang. All too often, Indian cuisine meals get off on the wrong foot with something too spicy for American tastes. I avoided this pitfall by tempering an order of garlic naan - that addictive oven-fired bread dabbed with butter and garlic, served with spicy pickled carrots and cilantro-mint chutney -- with a cool dinner salad of crisp lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers in a creamy dressing. Tandoori chicken at Shahjehan was a slight departure from the norm. Sometimes this dish tastes as though the meat has been painted with red dye, but these pieces of dark meat chicken possessed the deep-marinated taste of garlic and ginger, coupled with a nice charred quality you don't always find. Chicken tikka is one of my all-time favorite dishes, Indian or otherwise. Boneless chicken breast pieces are marinated in yogurt, garlic and fresh herbs and then cooked lean in the clay tandoor oven. Served on a sizzling platter of grilled onions, this excellent dish did not disappoint. Chicken tikka masala goes a step further, with those wonderfully tender hunks of white meat filet floating in a creamy boat of yogurt curry sauce. Seasoned yet not spicy, this goes well with the house vegetable dish, aloo gobi mater, of potatoes cauliflower and peas in light sauce.The lamb vindaloo came on a bit strong at first, perhaps because the spicy sauce had not yet permeated the roasted meat. But after a while, the sauce melded with the lamb, infusing the meat with a spicy richness. A spicy meal merits a cool dessert. Special Indian desserts include kulfi, an ice cream flavored with rose water and almonds; and keer, a custard made from crushed cardamom and garnished with nuts. Of course, I recommend the chai latte on ice. Even if tea isn't your bag, you won't be able to resist. |
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