I just got back from a little Sping Break. We never think to go away anywhere but this year I thought, why not? We were a little late in planning so our choices were limited. We eventually decided on Indy because we've never done the zoo/museum thing with the girls.
This is what I've decided. All my kids need for a good vacation are restaurants and an escalator. There was one up from the hotel's main floor to the lobby. Tess must have gone up and down on that thing 60 times. And Sophie just likes food that Mom didn't cook. She likes my food too…but come on. Who can compete with chicken strips and french fries every day? The girls kept giving us spontaneous hugs and kisses the whole time. And not a beach in sight! We must have done something right.
If you haven't done the Indy thing, I highly recommend it. The museum is the best children's museum we've been to and I've probably hit at least ten. One of the things I liked about it, it was almost a mix of a regular museum and children's one. At many children's museums, there's only stuff for the kids to do, and you stand around and watch them play. But in Indy, there were many displays for parents too so we could learn a little (ask me anything about the authors of Curious George!)
The zoo has some cool features too that I haven't seen at other zoos. Although only about half of the animals were out (it was 35 degrees!) we still feel like we got our money's worth. Don't miss the walrus when you're there. He played patty-cake with Sophie. I'm not kidding. I have the video to prove it!
The best part about an Indy getaway…it's so darn close. Pretty much a High School Musical movie away. It's a must see if you have little ones!

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Their qawwali performance at the shrine of saint Nizammudin Auliya in Old Delhi is rooted in the mystical Sufi traditions. As the evening progresses, you notice a young vocalist accompanying the brothers. There is fire in his voice.
“Qawwali singing is a part of my heritage and I will do my best to preserve it,” says 31-year-old Mohammad Yousuf Khan Nizami who has been singing with the Nizami brothers since he was six and has released 12 albums so far, the first at just 13.
A student of Ghulam Sabir Qawwal, Yousuf is aware that the Westernisation of qawwalis can ruin his mission. “Naya raag do din, purana raag sau din,” he philosophises. And his guru, Qawwal Ghulam Waris, says: “Yousuf is bright and has the capability to imbibe the best.”
Sanjeev & Ashwani Shankar
When brothers Sanjeev Shankar, 28, and Ashwani Shankar, 24, performed at a concert a year ago, as a homage to Ustad Bismillah Khan, the notes of their shehnai moved the audience to tears.
Grandsons of Pandit Anant Lal and sons of Pandit Daya Shankar, the duo is determined to keep the Benarasi tradition alive. Aware of the changing times, the brothers are trying to innovate, using pick-up mikes to make the sound more reachable and are not averse to playing fusion.
Little wonder then that their recent performance at the Vishnu Digambar Jayanti struck the right chord. Sitar maestro Shubhendra Rao says, “Their music has a blend of tradition and modernity. They have the spark to be the face of the future.” “But we have miles to go,” says Sanjeev, an M.Phil in music who learnt the sitar under Pandit Ravi Shankar before taking to the shehnai.
A political science graduate, Ashwani learnt vocal earlier.
When you look at Imran Khan, 28, there’s a bit of a TV star in him with his stylish leather jacket, speaking in fluent English, Hindi and Urdu.
Proud to continue the legacy of his great grandfather, Ustad Mamman Khan, and several other illustrious artiste relatives, Imran gave his first concert when he was six— on his father’s first death anniversary.
Adept at solo concerts as well as fusion music, Imran was the lead vocalist in the rock band Orange Street “I don’t want to limit myself,” he says.
“I am not singing classical compositions in rock or jazz style, I’m maintaining the purity of the raga.”
Madhup Mudgal, vocalist, composer and principal of the Gandharva Vidyalaya, says, “Imran is talented and has a good voice but he needs to concentrate on raga sangeet which will make him more versatile.”
Suhail Yusf Khan
It’s easy to mistake Suhail Khan for a cool, college-going dude. But put the sarangi in his hands, and you realise that he has a whole gharanedar training behind him. Khan belongs to the Senia gharana of Rampur and their music tradition can be traced back to Tansen.
He admits that the “love of sarangi and music is hereditary”, apart from having a natural flair for art and ear for good music. His grandfather is the sarangi maestro Ustaad Sabri Khan, who has worked hard to give this ancient instrument a solo status.
“Sarangi music was like breathing air because someone or the other was playing or learning from him,” he says. He remembers the first lesson taught to him by his grandfather. “I played the small sarangi which is like a family heirloom— all the maestros of our gharana took their first lessons on this sarangi,” says Suhail who is a part of the Indian band Advaita and wants to popularise the sarangi.
At 20, he has accompanied maestros like Girija Devi and Shubha Mudgal. “He is an asset because he showcases how Indian classical music can be fused with rock bands and yet maintain individual identity,” says Kamal Sabri. This is only the beginning; the best is yet to come.
Abhay Rustum Sopori
He is the country’s youngest artiste to be awarded the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2006. Abhay Rustum Sopori, a management and computers graduate with a Masters in music, recently released his album Dancing Dewdrops.
A product of the Sufiana gharana of Kashmir, he learnt music under his legendary grandfather Pandit S.N. Sopori and father Pandit Bhajan Sopori, the santoor maestro and music composer.
Rudra veena maestro Ustad Asad Ali Khan says, “Abhay is talented and a rising star. He is always eager to learn and that is a rare quality.” Abhay has composed for Mahatma, a film presented at the UN on October 2 last year on the first International Non-Violence Day.
He has also designed a new 30-stringed instrument—Sur Santoor. Significantly, he always sings a composition along with its rendering. It is, he says, his way of expressing his creativity.

indiatoday.digitaltoday.in

is heavily involved in cockfighting in the Dominican Republic.
Stop that, Aramis, many of us will say. Cock-a-doodle-don’t.
And then what are we supposed to do?
This might be one of those controversies where it’s best to just roll your eyes and move on.
Cockfighting is legal in Ramirez’s native land, though that doesn’t really begin to describe its acceptance there. Where dogfighting is illegal in this country and relatively few people have an interest, cockfighting in the Dominican Republic is very, very popular.
As your mother might have told you, just because everybody is doing it doesn’t make it right. But this issue seems so
and involves so many cultural and national differences that it almost surely is a losing battle. It’s a fine thing to be morally indignant; it doesn’t mean it accomplishes anything.
Cockfighting is a brutal “sport.” It deals in blood and often ends in death for a rooster. There is nothing pretty about it. If you hate dogfighting, you hate cockfighting.
But as much as some of us might despise the practice, there’s nothing Major League Baseball can do about it. I already can hear the demands that Commissioner Bud Selig do
for being involved in cockfighting? Do you realize that one of Marichal’s jobs as the Dominican Republic’s minister of sports in the 1990s was to oversee the bloodsport?
Ramirez is quoted in the cockfighting magazine as saying of roosters, “When I’m in the Dominican Republic, I’m dedicated entirely to them.” He is pictured with several of the birds.
Roll your eyes and shake your heads, folks. There’s nothing else to do.
There’s no way for the Cubs or baseball to make Ramirez stop what he’s doing. Bullfighting is barbaric, too, but I don’t believe my employer would have the legal means of barring me from participating in it in Spain.
Someone surely will make the point that steroids are sold legally over the counter in the Dominican Republic but that baseball nonetheless tests for them here. The only way that logic follows is if Ramirez brings his hobby to the United States or if baseball starts testing for feathers.
is in prison for being part of a dogfighting ring. He reportedly was part of an operation that killed dogs when they no longer were good fighters. He deserved to be locked up.
Some of Vick’s supporters made the argument that dogfighting was part of the culture that produced him, which is to say Southern and black. How, they will ask, is Ramirez’s situation different?
To repeat: Cockfighting is legal in the Dominican Republic. There’s nothing any of us can do about that. We can tell Ramirez to stop all we want, but as long as he’s doing it on Dominican soil, we don’t have a legal leg to stand on.
I’m not giving Ramirez a pass here. The best thing we can do is blanket him with all the reasons he is wrong to do what he reportedly does. That he’s basically torturing a fellow creature. That it’s sick.
Change one person’s mind, and you might change a whole country’s mind. But I don’t think it will make a bit of difference.
Just because Ramirez works here doesn’t mean he embraces our world.
The fact is that many Dominican players can’t wait to get home after the season. Many of them leave the United States the day of or the day after their final game of the season. To suggest that because they live here part of the year they should adopt our mores seems a little ridiculous.
Our government is having a hard enough time trying to get

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