Kusum Choppra

Did you know that perhaps the earliest forms of air conditioning evolved in the middle eastern deserts? For years I had been asking those who lived there about the old Dubai, its history. But the standard reply was that Dubai is a modern trading country, which has left its history behind. It boasts of huge modern docks, tall buildings like the famous Burj and the World Trade Center and massive malls. In the midst of all these, history has been very carefully and beautifully preserved from as far back as 3000 B.C. A visit to the Dubai museum is a must. Located bang in the middle of the Meena Bazaar, it is housed within the beautifully restored Al Fahidi Fort, which was erected around 1799 to defend the city against invasion. The fort is small by the standards of the massive forts we have in India, but the the space has been used effectively by taking the museum underground. At the ground level are replicas of the houses of the olden days, complete with perhaps’s the world’s first form...

On Friday last, I went to see “Chicago”, the musical that has been making lots of noise in the entertainment world. It was a beautiful evening and a wonderful setting, although the stage was smaller than I had expected and most of it was filled with the orchestra, leaving, I felt, very little space for the dancers. But it was truly amazing how they managed to utilise that little space to dance and tell a story of the 30s Depression and the mafia rise of Chicago, coming and going with minimal props to tell the story of how women are driven to murder. What actually came home to me was that Hindi movies have long been pilloried for song and dance. Once upon a time 10-12 songs were not considered unusual for a film. Then came the vilification of Hindi cinema for its musical slant and the music content has slumped to remixes. Chicago was just like a Hindi movie; except that it was being performed live on a stage with the dancers who also sang, walking on and off the stage for more than thre...

THE SWING I entered with a big delighted grin on my face. " Aaj pata Maine kya kiya ?" ( you know what I did today ) Perhaps it was that grin that acted as a damper to his mood. He sat down heavily and picked up his paper " Kya ?" " Main jhoole pe baidhi ..." " kahan ?" " garden me" " Hoon ". The grump in that response effectively evaporated my grin. *********** Why, I ruminated, did women love swings ? Isn't it curious -- except for trapeze artists, you never see men on swings. It is always women and girls who are on the swings, in the gardens, the public parks, the playgrounds, the private jhoolas in homes, everywhere, all the time, in art, in literature, in song, in festivals, in the seasons, whatever. What is the special link between women and swings ? I had never given it another thought until that morning. One morning when I had walked through the almost somnolent ga...