We spotted this man just the other day on W47th St in the Jewelry District of Manhattan sporting a back-board that advertised a nearby Barber Shop.

Just a few blocks from New York City’s famous Times Square landmark, the Jewelry district in Manhattan is chock-a-block with stores selling gold, diamonds and other precious gems.

Amid all the jewelry stores on W47th St, the man with the board attached to his back stood out, mainly because what he was peddling was so different from the main business of the area.

One of the tragic eyesores of modern India, the Dharavi slum in Mumbai epitomizes the failure of the Indian state to provide the most basic necessities for its citizens.

Asia’s biggest slum, Dharavi is located in Central Mumbai, between Mahim in the west and Sion in the east and attracts poor people from across India who come to this teeming metropolis in search of a better life.

After decades of neglect, the government seems finally to have woken up to its responsibilities.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on May 31, 2007 has an advertisement from the Slum Rehabilitation Authority of the Government of Maharashtra inviting developers to bid for a project to transform this dirty slum into an integrated township with all modern amenities.

The overall cost of this ambitious project is

Mounted police are an interesting sight anywhere.

In this age of Hummers, BMW and Mercedes Benz cars, the sight of a policeman atop a big horse makes for a nice picture.

Horses, once ubiquitous in New York (according to a recent issue of the New Yorker there were 120,000 horses in 1908) are a rarity these days except on Central Park South, where tourists can take short rides in carriages. 

In the above photo, we see a New York City policeman riding down 8th Avenue in Mid-Town Manhattan on a Saturday morning.

Watching Shootout at Lokhandwala is cruel punishment for Bollywood fans.

By golly, we haven’t seen such a juvenile, amateurish gangster movie – either Bollywood or Hollywood – in 45 years.

Shootout at Lokhandwala’s director Apoorva Lakhia has accomplished a feat that we thought was impossible. Lakhia has made a movie worse than his previous disaster Ek Ajnabee (a crude copy of the 2004 Denzel Washington-Dakota Fanning movie Man on Fire). Bravo, Lakhia! Way to go.

Featuring the ex-junkie and real-life criminal Sanjay Dutt, a bunch of B-grade Bollywood flops like Viveik Oberoi and Suniel Shetty and C-grade misfits such as Tusshar Kapoor and Neha Dhupia, Shootout at Lokhandwala is a film that’s crude in conception, clumsy in execution and crass in action.

Shootout at Lokhandwala was released on May 25, 2007 just as Sanjay Dutt is about to be sentenced for illegal possesion of deadly weapons.

Much is wrong with Shootout at Lokhandwala.

The gangsters Maya (Viveik Oberoi), Bhua (Tusshar Kapoor) et al are not fear-inspiring, the songs not bewitching, the action scenes not thrilling and in their angst the cops just not convincing. As a result, the narrative is seldom gripping.

For the hapless viewer caught in the crossfire of the various bubbleheads involved in the making of Shootout at Lokhandwala, the overall effect of this repellent farce is plain agonizing.

Inspired by an actual shootout at

Some 50,000 low-caste Hindus and nomadic tribesmen converted to Buddhism at a horse race-track in Mumbai on Sunday in one of the single largest conversions in recent times.

For centuries, the stratified caste system has been one of the greatest scourges of India, particularly in the rural hinterlands where those from the lower castes and Dalis (former untouchables) still suffer at the hands of the upper castes.

But conversions have also become a sensitive issue in India, where some upper caste Hindus charge that inducements are resulting in conversions to other religions.

Hindus constitute the majority

Cheeni Kum is one of the better movies to come out of the Bollywood stables this summer.

Featuring the talented actress Tabu and the Old Man of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan in key roles, Cheeni Kum is the charming love story of a 34-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man.

Eschewing the usual Bollywood trappings of garish costumes, tawdry dances, weird fights and silly songs, Cheeni Kum is a movie for mature audiences.

Somehow, we have a feeling that Cheeni Kum may not resonate well with younger movie-goers. You know, the 15-30 age group.

We just can’t seem to get enough of Tabu. After her jaw-dropping performance in Mira Nair’s Namesake, Tabu delights us again.

Although Amitabh has thrown in a reasonable performance in Cheeni Kum, Tabu leaves the old man completely in the shade.

 

Besides the fine acting by Tabu, other highlights of Cheeni Kum are its fine music and a rare instance of a decent performance by a child artiste (Swini Khara).

Music director Illaiyaraja shows that in age where all the adulation centers around A.R.Rahman, Himesh Reshamiya et al, he’s still a force to