Shamanism, a spiritual practice for daily life, involves changes in the state of realization for a human being. The Shaman practitioner happens to be a person who has access to the world of spirits and practices the art of healing by using a variety of traditional meditation techniques. Catching the [...]

Manali: The  Halda festival of Lahaul and Spiti was celebrated here with great  enthusiasm and gaiety at the local Janj Ghar by the residents of Lahaul and spiti on Sunday night. The festival was in Manali was organized by Layul-Piti Jan Kalyan  Sangathan. Ravi Thakur MLA from Lahaul and Spiti Assembly Constituency was [...]

Since times immemorial, we Indians have been cherishing the heritage legacy bequeathed to us either by the British or the Mughals. Take a good look around Shimla- everything charming that one can possibly see is British. Remove all the British buildings from the town, would Shimla still present the same warmth [...]

Sualkuchi (IANS): In Assam’s Sualkuchi village, the rhythmic click-clock of the loom reverberates everywhere. Every house has a loom and in it the xipini, or weaver, weaves exotic mekhla chadors, the traditional Assamese attire, with an adept hand. Of late, there has however been a decline in the number of [...]

Allahabad (IANS) The world’s largest gathering of people, the 55-day Kumbh congregation, began in this north India town today with tens of thousands of devotees, led by ash-smeared Naga ascetics, taking a dip at the Sangam – the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers. Held in this Uttar Pradesh [...]

Sagar Island (West Bengal) (IANS) About three lakh devotees took a holy dip in the Ganges on the occasion of Makar Sankranti today at this island considered auspicious by Hindus. “Around three lakh devotees have taken the holy dip so far. More than four lakh pilgrims are here for the occasion. [...]

Kolkata(IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee might be a crowd puller as a politician, but this time it’s the painter in her that attracts people, even though her works vie for attention with those of masters like Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. The city is currently hosting two painting exhibitions [...]

Los Angeles (IANS) Composer Mychael Danna won the best original score motion picture award for “Life of Pi” at the 70th edition of the prestigious annual Golden Globe awards here. Danna beat Alexandre Desplat (“Argo”), Dario Marianelli (“Anna Karenina”), Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil (“Cloud Atlas”) and John Williams (“Lincoln”) [...]

Mumbai (IANS) Few know about Indira Niwas, a ramshackle two-storeyed chawl almost a century old, precariously standing on a busy main road in the Kurla suburb of northeast Mumbai. Local residents suspiciously guide you to the dilapidated structure housing many separate tenements, where a rickety staircase leads to a bare clinic [...]

Kolkata (IANS) Cultural programmes, a tableau depicting his teachings and colourful processions marked the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda in West Bengal Saturday. The celebrations started early in the morning at his ancestral house in the city’s Shimla Street, where people from all walks of life assembled to pay [...]