Monday, February 23, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 Oscars has been is something great for India. In recent years people in India have been reportedly trying to promote their films in Hollywood.  Of course I'm not aware of the procedure anyway. What is very clear is that things don't work that way with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
 

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Residency






The Residency tower has been closed for some years now owing to the crumbling stairway and walls. However, the ASI has been sprucing up the place repairing walls and even reconstructing portions. Once the Supreme Court had expressed its opinion on buildings of historical importance, stating that preservation does not mean rebuilding. I've been a regular visitor to this spot over the years and I'm beginning to wonder if the original isn't gradually disappearing not through neglect but rather due to overenthusiasm. Whatever I hope whenever this ends the place remains as near to the original as possible. I cannot say for sure whether I'm right but in the basement museum there is a hole in the wall purported to have been made by a cannonball. Looking at the angle I couldn't imagine how it reached that spot. There weren't any laser-guided cannonballs I imagine? Top right is the tablet on the pillar marking the spot where General James Neill fell to a shot fired from the top of a nearby gateway, later named after him.



The pic on the right is the mosque that withstood all the bombardment in 1857 and is in pretty good shape.

A view from the top

At the Residency, Lucknow