delhi

Click here or on the image to listen to the audio recording

we had a chat at work about marriage and castes in India not long after arriving. it was interesting for us and the Indian guys to hear how it works and the differences between love marriages in the West and arranged marriages as well as the process involved in India. in these modern times, websites are used for arranging marriages, similar to the online dating sites that crowd the late night tv advertorial space.

some of my questions / comments sound quite dumb now that I know more about the place and people here but it was my first week in Delhi and didn't know much about Indian customs.

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

this evening we went to dinner at Azzurro at the Saket PVR. we spent most of the night gazing out the window at the people walking by. it's amazing how the people here can look right past other people as if they don't exist. I probably shouldn't have taken photos/video, but I wanted to remember it and this helps me to remember.

why indeed..

Saket, New Delhi, India

09/09/2006

music is Kal Ho Naa Ho from the KAL HO NAA HO movie soundtrack

on a related note, this is an interesting project by one of the Sarai Independent fellows 2006 - Home Street Home: A Street Child Survival Guide for Delhi

http://ifellows2006.wordpress.com/fellows/anjali-jyoti/

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

today we went to Red Fort in Delhi, India. 03/09/2006. it's a huge fort next to Old Delhi. there's a museum also with a few artefacts from Mughal days - some weapons, cloth and clothes as well as photos, paintings and and old copy of the Koran.

earlier we went to the spectacular Akshardham temple - no photos are allowed there though. it's a newly built temple with amazing carvings which tell ancient stories told around the grounds as well as intricate designs inside the temples. there's even a boat ride and cinema show and at night a light and sound show though I didn't see this. another time hopefully.

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

a slideshow video of a cycle rickshaw ride through old delhi & chandni chowk, showing the busy streets, markets, people and life. the place has a special character of it's own.

pictures taken 09/05/2006

music is Through the Loop by Pendulum

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

we went along to the Qutab Hotel last week to see Jalebee Cartel play. it was a really nice venue. low tables with soft cushioned chairs scattered in front of where the band played. the room filled up pretty quickly - once the band was playing I turned around and the place was packed! the band were excellent. at first I thought the vocals needed a better mix, but it improved quickly. I'd heard a couple of the songs on their myspace page and thought they were great, but the live performance was great - you could tell they were enjoying themselves. they introduced a range of instruments and had different style songs. some electronic and some more acoustic, some with vocals and others without. the lead male vocalist reminds me a touch between underworld/infusion/the beloved. I really like his voice. one song was in the more traditional form. the female vocalist was great also - such beautiful tone.

the song in the video / slideshow was downloaded from the Jalebee Cartel website - it's called "One Night with Baba Maal' by Jalebee Cartel. the website url is http://www.jalebee.in/ or their myspace page is http://www.myspace.com/jalebeecartel

take a listen to Beautiful Rising on their myspace page. it's such a nice track. they played it at the gig, along with a remixed version as the encore song.

the original video & photos are very dark - it was the first time I've done night / indoor shots with my new camera & unfortunately I didn't take my other camera which has better night vision. so, some of the shots in this version have been adjusted so the people can be seen more clearly. my screen is broken so I hope the colours adjusted ok!! I'm seeing everything in VGA mode atm so colours / light could be out

the original version is @ http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1087003716

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

music is Indian Summer by Big Bud

I went along to the Sarai Independent Fellows 2006 workshops last weekend (26-27/08) @ Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi. I missed the first two days sessions, but here is a slideshow video of some of the saturday & sunday sessions. it was really interesting - both the presentations and the discussions afterwards. some sessions were in Hindi so I couldn't follow as easily. there were a wide range of projects though - art, music, urban issues. hopefully they'll link to some of the full papers on the sarai.net website. it was a great way to get another insight into life and goings on in India and related places.

photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/saraiifellows2006

http://ifellows2006.wordpress.com

http://www.sarai.net