Even at 85, Akbar Padamsee is as curious as a child.

A salt and pepper chirwa beard, upturned moustaches, a blazing red safa with an elaborate diamond and emerald sarpech sitting atop grandly was how I recalled my great grandfather from his portrait.

Once en route to Tirupati from Bengaluru, I was completely fascinated by ghadas or pitchers in neon colours strung outside quaint village shops. I even bought one in fluorescent green and lugged it all the way back to Delhi, much to the amusement of my co-passengers who must have thought I was cuckoo in the head! What was interesting was that while the shape of the pitcher was traditional, the new-age material had rendered it more mobile and more durable.

Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), the venerable Russian master of landscapes, has inspired a legion of artists. His paintings — Tibetan, Chinese, Indian, Russian and Japanese — are steeped in divergent cultures and stand out for their blend of Eastern and Western aesthetics.

It is quite well-known that Hanuman, the mythological monkey god flies but does he ride a space mobile? Well, at the ongoing India Art Fair, he does. And, giving him company at the venue are “Gandhis” on cola bottles and shop shutters lending a pop avatar to the Mahatma’s image.

While most people in the north have been complaining about the bitter cold, I have been revelling in it for many reasons — the major one being that I can wear my favourite fabrics, silk and pashmina. I wait for seven month for this weather and the only thing I have against it is that it gets over too soon and the endless wait begins yet again.

The other night I went to watch Swiss choreographer Cindy Acker’s two contemporary dance pieces — Lanx and Obtus. As I sat in the dark auditorium, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

I must be one of the last of the dinosaurs who loves to watch the Republic Day parade in actuality on a purely voluntary basis — meaning I want to, and unlike netas and some officials who don’t have t

The magic of cinema simply refuses to fade. Long after a movie has lived its theatrical life, it can defy the expiry date and sneak into the collective imagination of its admirers.

It all started when I happened to see a table-top created from wooden blocks that were earlier used for printing on cloth in Jaipur.