Category Archives: Uncategorized

What’s named after Dara Singh?

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A reblog of an old post, from when my blog was only a couple of months old.

Reblogged, because there’s an addition to this list.

After many years of thinking I knew all the obscure (and not) ways in which popular actors are immortalised in everyday objects, I had a moment of serendipity—an unexpected addition to this all-too-short list.

The other day, our gardener turned up, bringing with him a rather nice-looking plant with glossy striped green leaves. Would we like to keep it, he asked my husband. It’s a good indoor plant. We really don’t need any more indoor plants (we have plenty as it is), so we declined, but my husband asked him, out of curiosity, what it was called.

“Dara Singh ka paudha,” he said. Dara Singh’s plant.
Why on earth?
“Bahut shaktishaali hai,” he explained. “Marta nahin hai.” It’s very hardy, doesn’t die.

Later, when I had some time, I checked the plant out on Google Lens, and the penny dropped. This, to give it its botanical name, is Dracaena fragrans. Dra-caena, which has a similar set of syllables to ‘Dara Singh’, barring that g at the end. In a country where we have gardeners mangling names of plants left, right and centre (a friend has ‘begum bailiya’ flowering profusely in her home, another looks forward to pansotia at Christmastime), this is hardly unexpected.

Anyway, so we’ve said no to Dara Singh’s plant. But I’ve learnt something new in the process.

https://madhulikaliddle.com/2009/01/22/if-only-i-were-a-film-star/?page_id=677

Announcing a New Book: An Unholy Drought (The Delhi Quartet, Book #2)

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Back in November 2021, my publisher, Speaking Tiger, released the first novel in my four-book The Delhi Quartet, a series of novels that will tell the stories of a group of interconnected families against a backdrop of 800 years of Delhi’s history. That book, The Garden of Heaven, was set in the early years of the Delhi Sultanat, beginning four years before Mohammad of Ghur attacked Delhi and wrested power from the ruling Rajputs. The Garden of Heaven spanned around 200 years, and its story was narrated by a woman, Shagufta. Shagufta, who tells the story of her ancestors to a wounded enemy soldier (one of the attacking army of Taimur), whom she has (against her better judgment) saved and succored.

Cut to 150 years later. 1556. A terrible drought grips the north Indian plains, even as a thirteen-year-old Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar tries to maintain a grip on the throne he has inherited after the sudden death of his father Humayun. There is uncertainty, instability—and death could be right round the corner.

In Delhi, an old calligrapher named Nadeem sets out to document the story of his family. Along with his teenaged grandson Mohsin, Nadeem chronicles their history, beginning with the tale of Daanish, the son of Shagufta (from The Garden of Heaven).

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Paigham (1959)

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This is a film that’s been on my radar for a while now. Dilip Kumar, Vyjyanthimala. A cast also boasting of Motilal and Johnny Walker. Some good songs. Paigham, I thought, might be worth a watch.

I will admit, though, that my heart sank a bit when I saw the opening credits and discovered that this is a Gemini Studios release. Like AVM, I now approach Gemini with trepidation: while their films often had great casts and excellent music, they were invariably just too melodramatic for my liking.

But I persevered.

Paigham begins by introducing us to Manju (Vyjyanthimala) who, along with her best friend Malti (B Saroja Devi), has just finished college: Manju at the top of her class, Malti at the bottom. Malti isn’t fazed by this; she’s a wealthy girl, her father Seth Sewakram (Motilal) a prosperous cotton mill-owner. Malti, in fact, has promised Manju that she will ask her father to give Manju (who’s done a course in shorthand and secretarial work) a job at the cotton mill, which is in a town named Rangpur.  

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Historic Hisar: A Foray

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Last year, on our way back from Himachal Pradesh, we had stopped briefly at Ibrahim Lodhi’s tomb in Panipat, and, even more briefly, at a kos minar near Karnal. While it had not been especially impressive, it had, inspired me to see more of Haryana. After all, I’ve lived in Delhi and around for nearly forty years now: it’s unpardonable to have seen so little of one of our neighbouring states.

This year, we’ve realized it may not be possible—given various exigencies—to go for a week-long summer vacation. A brief road trip is all we might be able to manage. It seemed a good time to try exploring Haryana. Hisar, we decided, with a stop en route at Rakhigarhi.

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The LO Goes to the Little Rann of Kutch

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We ushered in the New Year this time in Ahmedabad (see my blog posts, on Historic Ahmedabad and on more around Ahmedabad). But Ahmedabad, really, was just on the way—for a place I’d been looking forward to visiting for a while now: the Little Rann of Kutch, which is home to the Wild Ass Sanctuary, India’s largest wildlife sanctuary.

The Little Rann of Kutch is just about 95 km from Ahmedabad along a very good highway, so it can take less than two hours to cover the distance. We had booked a cottage at a resort (in the village of Dasada) named Rann Riders by Kaafila, and had arranged for them to have us picked up from Ahmedabad. Given that we are interested in history, we opted to take a longer route to get to Dasada: through Patan and Modhera, which are home to some of Gujarat’s most iconic historical structures.

Rani ni Vaav, Patan
Section of carvings at Rani ni Vaav
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Introducing a new blog: Madhulika Reads

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As some of you probably know, I am not just a writer, but an avid reader as well. On an average, I read more than a hundred books a year, and that too just about every genre, every style: crime and detective fiction, humour, romance, historical fiction, horror. History, popular science, food and food history. About nature and wildlife, about old cinema. And much more.

For the past ten years, I’ve been a member of the book reading and reviews site, Goodreads.com. There, I’ve reviewed more than a thousand books over the years. I also review books for several publications.

About time, I decided, that I began a blog on which I review books (no, don’t worry; Dustedoff isn’t going anywhere; I’m still going to be blogging about old cinema).

Therefore: Madhulika Reads. Here, my reviews are somewhat different, longer and more detailed, from what I post on Goodreads. You can click this link to learn more about this blog.

I began writing reviews on this a few weeks back, so now there are several (not many!) reviews on Madhulika Reads. You can explore further by clicking the Fiction Books Reviewed and Non-fiction Books Reviewed pages to see what I’ve reviewed so far. I read at a speed of at least one book a week, so you can expect frequent additions to these pages. If you’re as avid a reader as I am, do follow this blog to look out for (and offer) recommendations, compare notes, and generally chat about books.

Look what I stumbled upon!

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Aaye-gaye manzilon ke nishaan
Lehraake jhooma-jhuka aasmaan
Lekin rukega na yeh kaarvaan

(The markers of destinations came and went;
The sky swirled, danced, bent down:
But this caravan will not stop…)

– From ‘Mud-mudke na dekh’ (Shree 420, 1955), lyrics by Shailendra, music by Shankar-Jaikishan. Sung by Asha Bhonsle and Manna De, picturized on Nadira.

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Bahaaron ki Manzil (1968)

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What if you were to wake up one morning to find that your life had been switched with that of another? That the people closest to you were all dead, and that the people now claiming to be your friends and family were all strangers, or pretty much so?

This is how Bahaaron ki Manzil begins: with Radha/Nanda (we don’t know who yet; Meena Kumari) waking up one morning. As she stirs, we can hear her mind: she’s happy, looking forward to her wedding—because today is her wedding day. When she gets up, though, she looks down at the tinselly sari she’s wearing, and is puzzled. She doesn’t have a sari like this. And there’s a wound on her forehead…

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The LO Goes to Himachal, Part 1: Chandigarh and Beyond

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The LO—previously, the ‘Little One’—is my now-nine-year-old daughter. I say ‘previously’ because the LO has now decided (and both her father and I agree) that she’s too old to be called ‘little’. “How about Loved One instead?” she said, and I agreed. The LO is now the Loved One. She always has been, actually.

For those who’ve read previous travelogues on this blog, you’d know that the LO is quite a one for travelling. Much like her parents, really: all three of us like nothing better than to go new places, explore new cultures, experiment with new foods.

This time, our summer vacation was not really a completely new experience. My husband and I have been to Shimla before, and the LO has been to Himachal too. But she hasn’t been to Shimla, and that, we figured, needed to be corrected. Also, it had been fifteen years since the two of us had been there last. High time for another trip.

From Noida, it’s an easy two-day journey up to Shimla. This travelogue is about our trip up to Shimla and back; Shimla itself will be covered in Part 2 of this travelogue.

On our first day, we drove from Noida to Chandigarh in easy stretches, arriving in Chandigarh sometime in the late afternoon. We stayed at the Novotel, and the LO was very excited to discover that the hotel lobby houses a Porsche showroom! She couldn’t stop ogling the cars.

The Porsche showroom at the Novotel in Chandigarh.
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Book Review: Jerry Pinto’s ‘Helen: The Making of a Bollywood H-Bomb’

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This is a reblog of an old post, in which I had reviewed an earlier edition of this book.

(The other day, I happened to meet Jerry Pinto—he was in Delhi for an event—and I couldn’t stop myself from telling him how much I enjoyed his Helen book. The next day, I discovered that Jerry’s Helen book has just been released in a new edition, with a lovely new cover, this time by Speaking Tiger Books. This book, which I read only about three years ago, is one of my favourite books on Hindi cinema: it combines intelligent analysis with humour, a genuine affection for the Hindi films of yore, and of course, Jerry Pinto’s very readable writing style).

Here, then, is my review of Helen: The Life and Times of a Bollywood H-Bomb. Or Helen: The Making of a Bollywood H-Bomb.

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I won’t go so far as to say that Helen was the first Hindi film actress I remember seeing (that would be Shakila, since CID was the first Hindi film I remember watching). But I distinctly remember being about 10 years old, watching Chitrahaar, and being very excited because an old favourite of mine, a song I had till then only heard and never seen, was going to come on (in Chitrahaar, there would always be a sort of intertitle between songs, a single frame in which the name of the next song, the film it was from, and the names of the music director, the lyricist, and the singer(s) would be listed).

This song was Mera naam Chin Chin Choo, and my feet were already tapping when it began. All that frenetic movement, those men in sailor suits dancing about. The energy, so electric that it…

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