Away from the expensive piano that sits in the hall of her Mumbai residence though, Chelsea De Souza is a charming young lady, soft-spoken and with dreams in her eyes quite like Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz.

Chelsea will travel to Dorothy’s Kansas this July to attend the International Institute of Young Musicians through a scholarship she earned recently. And if all goes well, the 16-year-old could well find herself in a land of opportunities, those that India cannot offer her.

Indeed in a country where the loud and gaudy Bollywood fare stifles all strains of classical music, this prodigy is something of a misfit. Chelsea, who started playing the piano when she was three years old, hates Bollywood music and has watched “exactly two Hindi films in my life — Fashion and some Hrithik Roshan flick, which I think had Pyaar in its title”. However, Chelsea is not entirely sure if she wants to leave her motherland, not yet at least. Her mother tells us that it’s because she’s “so good in her studies, she wants to pursue her academics and her music simultaneously”.

Last year Chelsea completed her ISCE or the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education with a score of 96.14 percent. She has been a class topper all along. After completing her schooling from Bombay Scottish, she chose to go to Cathedral because “they encourage you to participate in extra-curricular activities”.

Interestingly, it isn’t just academics that Chelsea excels in. She has won numerous elocution and contests, athletics meets and needless to say, has lost track of the whole lot of music competitions in which she participated and won.

Among the prominent ones that she aced is the All India Piano Competition in the age group below 14 years, when she was merely 10. At 13 she was the youngest contestant and runner-up at the All India Piano Competition in an open age group of up to 30 years. She has been to Germany twice on summer music scholarships to the University of Cologne and will be heading back there this summer too.

More recently, in September 2009, she won the advanced division of All India Musiquest Piano Competition in Pune and has now been nominated to represent India at the Kawai Asian Piano Competition in Hong Kong. Chelsea has also passed her LTCL or the Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music, London, an exam we are told is taken by people not younger than 25.

Of course the list of Chelsea’s achievements could go on. But the 16-year-old’s concerns are somewhat more immediate. She has her school examinations and likes to focus on them whenever they’re around the corner. “That’s when the piano rehearsals are reduced to about an hour a day,” she says “During competitions I usually practice for at least five hours each day, which can get difficult because I don’t return from school before 5 pm. I love English and Psychology and would like to major in one or both subjects.”

Back at Cathedral, Chelsea is part of the school’s choir and performs with the various rock and pop bands within the school. When she isn’t playing music, she loves to read books and watch movies just like other kids of her age. Unlike most of her peers though, Chelsea has read “almost all the classics” and devours fantasy novels like there’s no tomorrow. As for movies, she loves comedies among other genres.

She says, “I loved Pirates of the Caribbean because of its amazing script and of course, Johnny Depp. I don’t enjoy a lot of action films, although I did like The Dark Knight. Among my favourites I’d count all three parts of Pirates, August Rush and a whole lot of comedies. I just watched (Jack Black’s) School of Rock and loved it. Somehow I never liked Hindi movies because they’re so melodramatic. There’s no escaping Bollywood music, though I don’t particularly enjoy that either.”

What she does enjoy is a lot of jazz, pop and rock. She continues, “I love Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey in pop, Guns N’ Roses, Coldplay and Dream Theatre amongst the rock bands and a whole lot of jazz pianists. My iPod has a lot of rock and Alicia Keys, though my dad decided that some classical pieces won’t do much harm.”

As it happens, the father is a pianist too and also strums the guitar once in a while. Her mother is also a pianist and drives her around for recitals and rehearsals. Both her parents are supportive of their daughter’s career decision, whatever it might be. “She’s spoilt for choice,” her mother tells us. “If she was not so good in her studies, music would have been her only option. But I guess she wants to take her time and decide. Whatever her choice may be, we’re sure she’ll excel in it.”

Chelsea likes her father, an engineer in the merchant navy, to sing and play the piano for her. She confesses somewhat sheepishly, “My mom tells me that when I was in her womb, he’d sing me a song called ‘Daddy’s gonna buy you a mockingbird‘. Then about a year after I was born and dad was on the ship, mum sang it to me. She tells me that I cried silently. Today I’d probably request him to play (the jazz piece) Misty for me or Careless Whisper by George Michael.”

Leave the piano to her though and chances are that Chelsea would play “Fazil Say’s Paganini Jazz if I was upbeat, orReflections in Water by Debussy because it is slow and impressionistic”. She continues, “I love the music of the Impressionist period as well as the Romantic era. Impressionistic music is very abstract, which is what makes it so enjoyable to listen to.”

While playing and listening to music de-stresses her to a great extent, Chelsea also likes to meditate just before a big show or a contest. “I just sit, don’t speak and try to focus. During such days I take a day off from school so I am not running around. If I am appearing for my school exams I give studies a priority and let the piano take the backseat. I usually like to take one thing at a time and take it to its logical conclusion. That way I don’t have too many things on my plate and can focus on the task at hand.”

It isn’t surprising when she says she cannot entirely relate to the young students who have been taking their lives, but says that the Indian education system does not offer you second chances. “You cannot blame the school or the parents. As kids we need to focus on our studies. I also don’t see how 3 Idiots is contributing to so many suicides. You cannot just follow something because it is shown in a movie. However, the Indian education system can be somewhat cruel. If you don’t do well in the major examinations, there are no second chances. But the key is not to get bogged down by the pressure. Failure is not the end of the world.”

While she admits that she might not have seen big failures in her life, Chelsea says that it is something she is prepared for. “With success comes failure. So I know I will have to face it someday. But like everyone else I too have my share of small failures, during such times I try to learn from them and move on. I believe that is the only thing you can do anyway. It’d also be the very advice I’d give to people of my age. Failure is not the end of the world.”

Chelsea says it helps to have a hobby in order to deal with failure and stress. She continues, “You cannot make studies your entire existence because you’re going to get bored. Having a hobby — whether it is reading or watching movies or even something like surfing the Internet — helps you take your mind away from the mundane.”

Source: Rediff.com

National Emblem - Saranath Lion Capital of Ashoka

Location:
North of the equator between 8°4′ and 37°6′ North Latitude and 68°7′ and 97°25′ East Longitude
Continent: Asia
Region: Southern Asia
Coordinates: 20°00′N 77°00′E

Area:
Seventh largest country in the world
3,287,263 square kilometers (1,269,219.3 square miles)
Land (90.44%) – 2,973,190 square kilometers (1,147,955.08 square miles)
Water (9.56%) – 314,400 square kilometers (121,390.519 square miles)

 Political / Administrative Geography:
States: 28 (subdivided into districts)
Union Territories: 6 Union Territories and 1 National Capital Territory

Map of India - States and Union Territories
State	Capital
Andhra Pradesh	Hyderabad
Arunachal Pradesh	Itanagar
Assam	Dispur
Bihar	Patna
Chattisgarh	Raipur
Goa	Panaji
Gujarat	Gandhinagar
Haryana	Chandigarh
Himachal Pradesh	Shimla
Jammu and Kashmir	Srinagar (Summer Capital), Jammu (Winter Capital)
Jharkhand	Ranchi
Karnataka	Bengaluru (Bangalore)
Kerala	Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal
Maharashtra	Mumbai (Bombay)
Manipur	Imphal
Meghalaya	Shillong
Mizoram	Aizawl
Nagaland	Kohima
Orissa	Bhubaneswar
Punjab	Chandigarh
Rajasthan	Jaipur
Sikkim	Gangtok
Tamil Nadu	Chennai (Madras)
Tripura	Agartala
Uttar Pradesh	Lucknow
Uttarakhand	Dehradun
West Bengal	Kolkata (Calcutta)
Union Territory	Capital
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	Port Blair
Chandigarh	Chandigarh
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	Silvassa
Daman and Diu	Daman
Lakshadweep	Kavaratti
National Capital Territory of Delhi	Delhi
Puducherry (Pondicherry)	Puducherry (Pondicherry)
For detailed information like the Administrative, Legislative and Judiciary Capital with year of establishment please visit Wikipedia

Climate:
Climatic zones:
Alpine Zone: High altitudes of Himalayas in the northern most areas of India
The climatic zones here are varied with the foothills experiencing subtropical climate and Alpine Tundra Zone on the higher altitudes. These climatic variations occur within several dozen miles of each other.

Subtropical Humid Zone: Majority of Northeast India and North India
This zone experiences hot summer with rainfall while in winter temperature may fall to freezing point in higher ranges.

Tropical
Tropical Wet Zone: Southwestern lowlands next to the Malabar Coast, the Western Ghats, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
The zone experiences moderate to high year-round temperatures with the average temperature not falling below 18 degree Centigrade. The rainfall is seasonal but heavy occurring between May and November.

Tropical Wet and Dry: Large part of Peninsular India
The zone experiences long & dry winter and early summer, with the month of May experiencing extremely hot summers. June to September brings in the annual rainy season with an average rainfall of 750 – 1500 millimeters.

Arid: Arid Zone covers about 12% of the country’s geographical area which comprises of over 31.7 m ha of hot desert and about 7 m ha of cold desert.
Semi-Arid Zone:Includes Karnataka, inland Tamil Nadu, western Andhra Pradesh, and central Maharashtra
March to May remains hot and dry, with December being the coldest month, October and November experiences significant amount of post-monsoon rainfall. Generally this area tends to be prone to draughts due to less reliable rainfall.

Arid Zone:Most of western Rajasthan (arid), East of the Thar Desert, the region running from Punjab and Haryana to Kathiawar (tropical and sub-tropical steppe climate)
July, August, and September experiences cloudbursts due to the monsoon winds and rainfall is generally unpredictable. The months of May and June tend to be exceptionally hot.

Seasons:
Winter:
December to February with the month of December being the coldest
Winters are dry in Northern India, with the Southern part not very marked due to the moderating effect of Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.

Summer:
Starts from the month of March thru to June, with summer in Northwestern India starting from April thru to July
April is the hottest month for the western and southern regions whereas for most of North India, it is May.

Monsoon:
In late May or early June the monsoons hit the coastal shores of South West India and gradually sweep across to North India by the end of June lasting till September.
South India receives overall higher rainfall than North India.

Retreating Monsoon/ Post Monsoon:
As monsoons drenching all of India, begins to retreat this season marks the switch from wet to dry conditions. Mostly lasting between the months of September to November, this period experiences a gradual decrease in rainfall.

Sandeep Bachhe is an autorickshaw driver in Mumbai. More of him later, but first let me take you through his wonder autorickshaw. It has a television set tuned to good old Doordarshan — which incidentally is celebrating 50 years of transmission in India. Then there is also a board with the day’s price of gold, silver, dollar, pound and the yen.

Behind the driver’s seat hangs another chart with phone numbers of hospitals, theatres, hotels and airlines. You can also pick up the day’s papers and a couple of magazines in the rack behind him. ‘Do not spit,’ another notice admonishes you. There are pictures of Gods from all major religions. “All are welcome,” he says with a smile.

Of course, you can’t have it all, even Bacche’s wonder auto has some limitations — ‘No toilet available,’ says another sign and Sandeep, 35, explains, “Some college girls got in and told me, ‘You have everything where is the toilet?’ and so I put this sign up.”

The signboards continue, and there is one that says, ‘Donate for old people’ with his mobile number below. Sandeep gives whatever he can spare to an old age home. He also collects money from like minded auto drivers to distribute notebooks among slum children.

He points out four other auto drivers to me who had each given Rs 500 the week before to distribute books to needy children.

Sandeep also gives free rides of up to Rs 50 to people who are blind and gives a 25 per cent discount to the physically challenged. He gets a physically disabled customer about once a month.

If you are wondering where Sandeep gets his ideas and why he goes out of his way to help people, well, it is best described by him.

“I have been driving an autorickshaw for ten years. Whatever money I make I first give my family. The little that can spare, I give it to an old age home. During the beginning of the academic year for schools, we try and distribute notebooks to needy students.”

Sandeep has studied up to Class 10. After that he worked for a tourist cab company for eight years. His elder brother Raghunath bought him this rickshaw as a gift to set him to earn his own living. Even while he worked with the tourist cab company, he had the foresight to get an autorickshaw driver’s license. This stood him in good stead when he quit his job.

This philanthropist auto driver is one of five siblings — three brothers and two sisters — all of who completed their school, but did not have the means to go to college. His father toiled as a mill worker when Mumbai was a well-known textile city.

When the mill closed down and in 1986, his father returned to his village while his elder brother got himself an autorickshaw permit. The same permit was used to buy Sandeep his rickshaw.

The seeds of social work have branched to Sandeep’s wife as well who counsels HIV+ patients. As an outreach worker, she goes to patients’s homes and advises them about nutrition, child care and preventive measures to stop the further spread of the deadly virus.
“She is a commerce graduate,” Sandeep informs me proudly.

Talking about the genesis of his all-in-one auto, he says the idea was an offshoot of his days in the tourist cab company. On the occasions he had to stay overnight at the office, he would stay awake watching television in the tourist vans that belonged to the company.

That experience gave him the idea of installing a television in his vehicle. The magazine idea was also taken from the company; its cars had the latest magazines for their clients.

All these utilitarian fixtures found their way into the autorickshaw one by one. First came the television, the fan and then the different signboards. If it is a celebrity’s birthday, that too finds mention on the notice board!

Sandeep and his friends regularly visit an old age home, taking biscuits, sometimes pulses, depending on the amount of money they can spare. His latest goal is to help a young boy whose name he doesn’t know.
“He sells sandwiches between Nanavati hospital and LIC office on SV road, Vile Parle (northwest Mumbai). He got married this May. Now his in-laws are giving him a tough time because the eyesight in one of his eyes has gone blurred.”

“I want to collect enough money to get him operated or at least take him to a doctor who will treat him free of cost. He is a poor boy from UP or Bihar. I will find a way to help him.”

Sandeep meets the boy every day when he goes in the evening to have a sandwich. He is also paying for the convent education of his two children and is determined to ensure that they go to college.

Painted inside his rickshaw is another sign which perhaps sums Sandeep Bacche best. ‘King of Bandra,’ it says after Mumbai’s tony suburb. That is the title his friends have crowned him with, and rightly so.

He might not be the King of Bandra in wealth like Shah Rukh Khan who also lives in the suburb, but he is certainly the King of hearts.

There are 55,000 autorickshaw drivers in Mumbai, but he is unique.

Sandeep Bacche
MH-02-Z-8508
9022416338

Article Source/Credits: rediff.com
Posted on: September 17, 2009

He co-owns one of the city’s hippest nightspots, has appeared in an ad film and is probably one of the most well-known expatriates to have made Mumbai their home. He is also credited for having redefined the way Mumbai parties and dines out, no mean achievement for the mere five years that he has been around.

Matan Schabracq, the Amsterdam boy now living and working in suburban Mumbai (Bandra), hardly needs an introduction to the clued-in Mumbaikar. He landed in the city in March, 2004, not as a tourist, but on a business trip. “I was offered a job as a consultant to set up a restaurant/ bar/ club in Bandra, Mumbai. It came at a time when I was craving for a new adventure in my life. Before this, I studied hotel management and worked in Amsterdam, New York and Tel Aviv.”

While the trip was necessitated by a business deal, Matan says, he had a “high need for pleasure and inspiration.” Predictably, the first impression of the city was overwhelming. Recalls Matan, “The moment the doors of the airplane opened up, a terrible smell pushed itself through the pressured cabin. The way from the airport to the hotel was an unforgettable one. No car stayed in its lane, non-stop honking and the amount of people that walk the streets at night was unbelievable. I asked myself — how the hell was I going to live here?”

The rarefied environs of his five-star hotel came as a relief. The air-conditioning, the continental food, the “polished marble and soap in the bathroom” all came as a much-needed respite from the assault on his senses that was Mumbai. “It was my pirate’s nest,” he laughs. A month later, Matan moved in to his own apartment in Bandra, which he now shares with a friend. “It is nice to come back to your own crib,” he smiles.

Matan co-partnered Zenzi, which introduced partygoers in the city to a “successful upmarket place which is at the same time extremely informal and chilled-out.” The entrepreneur points out, “Before Zenzi opened, it was not done to wear flip-flops and shorts to a restaurant — even in this heat. I think Zenzi has changed that.”

While Matan cut his teeth with Zenzi, today he has the Bagel Shop, reportedly India’s first bagel place, and Zenzi Mills (in Lower Parel, central Mumbai), which recently opened to good reviews.

It seems Matan has earned his stripes — he travels frequently by autorickshaw, swears by his dosa lunches, eats bhel puri off the street vendors, and dives into his gulab jamun desserts three times a week — like any other Mumbaikar. “I love Bandra for its village atmosphere, where everyone knows every one else, everything is close by, and you can go out for walks by the promenade every evening.” He also recently succumbed to the idea of having domestic help for his chores — a luxury he could not even think of in the West.

Setting up a successful business and expanding it has not really been a cakewalk for Matan. The city is notorious for its prohibitive laws and taxes. “The high rentals and ‘unpractical’ regulations are not motivating if you want to do something original. That’s probably the reason restaurateurs are scared to take risks and that’s probably why lots of them fail. But in general I think that if you create a good product (in any business) there is no reason to be unsuccessful.”

But he adds: “They (my partners) gave me a carte blanche. We hired some creative, like-minded people who came with a big network of cool friends. And at the end of the day, it is the people that make the place. It’s your inner-circle loyal guests that you need to pamper,” comes his astute observation.

There have been some sacrifices however, and Matan does not seem too happy about having sent his dog back home. “This is not a dog-friendly city,” he rues.

His bond with Mumbai and with India was strengthened by his long trips to various parts of the country. “If you live in Bombay, you need to do that at least every three months, otherwise you lose the plot,” he argues.

Matan has also witnessed the great floods, the terrors attacks which united the people of the city and the nation in grief and concern. “I lived in New York on 9/11 and I lived in Israel when the Intifada started. Somehow you have to accept these things and live your way around it. After the 26/11 attacks, there was so much affection from friends and their families, I have never felt that much love and appreciation anywhere in the world.”

Even as he flits between his home in Amsterdam and his home in Mumbai (which he calls an ‘organised mess’) Matan can feel India gain a stronger hold on his personality. He jokes, “I have picked up many words in Hindi, even a few cuss words. Besides that I learnt a few words in Tulu — my girlfriend is from Karnataka. I understand the context of a conversation in Hindi, but speaking is tough.” What’s interesting is every time he goes back to the sanitised life of his country, the clean roads, the silent cars and the ordered life, he finds it “Utopian” to the point of being “almost boring!”

Five years in the Maximum City and Matan Schabracq says he feels more “Indian than Dutch”.

“I am very proud of what I did with the last five years of my life in India. It was tough but also extremely satisfying and inspiring. I have learnt so much about love, friendship on one side and business on the other side. Nowadays, many foreigners that want to set up something in India ask me to consult for them. Maybe one day, I will do that. Until then, let them also learn it the hard way.”

Article Source/Credits: rediff.com
Posted on: September 01, 2009

Peacock in Indian Religion
- PARAVANI, the peacock is the vehicle (carriage) of Kartikeya or Subramanya the son of Lord Shiva
- Lord Krishna is depicted with peacock feather adorning his headgear known as the ‘mor-mukut’
- The Ramayana has references of the peacock as follows:
Ravana the asura king, due to the boon granted by Brahma, which made him invincible from the wrath of any gods and goddess misused his powers to terrorize the Gods. Fearing Ravana and for protection the gods chose to enter the bodies of birds. Indra (also known as the Lord of Rain) chose to enter the body of Peacock. Pleased with the protection by the Peacock, Indra bestowed a boon on the peacock that it would never be afraid of snake and it would have a thousand ‘eyes’ on its fan-tail. It is also mentioned that due to this close association of peacock with Indra it shows its delight by dancing whenever it rains.

There are numerous instances in Ramayana and Mahabharata where the Peacock holds a special place.

Peacock in Indian Art and Literature
The famous ‘Peacock Throne’ (Takht-e-Tâoos) of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan is one of the most popular pieces of art and sculpture that depicts the Peacock. Shah Jahan had the famous Koh-i-noor diamond placed in this throne.

Peacock has been carved in Bronze statues of Skanda from the period of Chola (11 century AD), in Vijanagar art and appears on silver coins of Kumaragupta I. It has replaced an absentee lover in Pahari painting of 18th century AD, adorned a Rajasthani Ivory Lamp, enameled in design in inner royal apartment in Udaipur (17-18th century AD).

Through out the recorded history of India the Peacock holds a special place. The following books and links provides more information about Peacock in Indian Art and Literature
- Peacock in Indian Art, Thought And Literature (2006) by Krishna Lal
- http://www.geocities.com/belabutalia/nbird.htm
- Peacock Throne – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock_Throne
- ‘A pageant of Indian Culture’ by Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya has an entire chapter (Chapter 16) dedicated to The Peacock in Art and Literature.

Scientific facts
The Scientific name of the Indian peafowl is “Pavo cristatus”
Indian Peafowl is also known as Common Peafowl or Blue Peafowl

Hence this site that solely concentrates on exploring and discovering India, her past, her present and her future derives it name from the majestic and beautiful bird that symbolizes India. So, lets discover and explore India – her past, her present and her future - making Mayukhi.com truly ‘Yours India!’.

Reference:
Wikipedia:
Pavo Cristatus

Indian Divinity:
Animal Deities,  Avataar Rama