Category Archives: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

INTERNATIONAL: JOURNALISM: Upendra Rai – Sahara India Media was Honoured for his Journalism by Lord John Beckett Taylor (Lord Taylor of Warwick) in the British House of Lords

The Overseas Friends of India (OFI) has also recognised the Sahara India Media’s Executive Director, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Upendra Rai’s fearless journalism in a ceremony hosted in London.

In a moment of pride for Indian journalism, the Sahara News Network CEO and Editor-in-Chief Upendra Rai got felicitated for his committed and courageous journalism in the British House of Lords. The House of Lords member Lord John Beckett Taylor (Lord Taylor of Warwick) felicitated Rai in the Cholmondeley Room of the upper house of the British Parliament.

Handing over the citation letter, Taylor lauded Rai’s stellar achievements in the field of journalism. The World Book of Records had also awarded Rai’s fearless work in 2019.

source/content: theprint.in (edited)

WORLD RECORDS: ARTS & CULTURE: Sucheta Satish 16-year Teenage Indian holds the Guinness World Record for Singing 120 Songs in 120 Languages (the most) in a Concert

pix: Twitter

Suchetha Satish is a 16-year-old Dubai based expat girl from Kerala who is making headlines today for her ability to sing in 120 languages, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. At an event hosted at the Indian Consulate in Dubai, she set the world record for singing in the most number of languages.

Satish achieved this feat at the ‘Music Beyond Borders’ performance held on August 19 in Dubai. Kesiraju Srinivas, another Indian national, held the record before her in the category in 2008, having sung in 76 different languages.

Satish is said to have achieved this feat by singing in 29 Indian languages and 91 global languages. She started at noon with Janaki Jane, a Sanskrit song from the Malayali film Dhwani. Her final song was written by her mother and produced by Bollywood musician Monty Sharma, and was in Hindi.

The ‘Music Beyond Borders’ concert, held in Dubai, commemorated India’s 75th anniversary of independence and the United Arab Emirates’ 50th anniversary of freedom. The ceremony was also attended by Ajay Puri, the Consul General of India in Dubai. While Satish’s parents, dermatologist T.C. Satish and Ayilliath Sumitha, recognised her potential when she was only three years old, her love of languages developed organically after she heard a Japanese song performed by a guest at her house. She promptly looked up the words on the internet and, within a few hours, she had performed the entire song, recorded it, and sent it to the guest

source/content : femina.in (edited)

GLOBAL RECORDS: FIRST INDIAN: Michelin Star Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna First Indian to make Gazette Review’s Top 10 Global Chefs

Indian celebrity chef Vikas Khanna was ranked sixth in Gazette Review’s rankings of the top 10 global chefs. The list is topped by Gordon Ramsay.

Michelin star celebrity chef Vikas Khanna has been ranked among the top 10 global chefs in the world by Gazette Review, becoming the only Indian chef who has made it to the prestigious list. Gazette Review ranked Mr. Khanna sixth, with British chef Gordon Ramsay leading the list.

The 50-year-old Amritsar-born and New York-based Khanna is known for taking Indian cuisine across the globe and on the world food map. He is the only Indian origin chef who has made it to the list along with great names in the industry.

Mr. Khanna, who also wears other caps including that of being a writer, filmmaker and philanthropist, took to social media on Tuesday and shared his joy on being listed.

In elite company

Others on the list include Anthony Bourdain, Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Emeril Lagasse, Marco Pierre White, Heston Blumenthal, Wolfgang Puck and Jamie Oliver.

Mr. Khanna is one of the first Indian chefs to receive international acclaim. Since 2011, his main restaurant Junoon in New York City has received a Michelin star, a hallmark of fine dining.

Mr. Khanna has served food to the former U. S. President Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and many other world leaders and celebrities.

Mr. Khanna is known for creating the most expensive cookbook in the world.

From 2011, Khanna hosted five seasons of Master Chef India, a series based on the original British version.

source/content: thehindu.com (edited)

WORLD RECORDS: INDIA RECORD : ARTS & CULTURE : Geetanjali Shree’s ‘Tomb of Sand’ First Hindi Novel to Win International Booker Prize : May 2022

Indian author Geetanjali Shree has won the prestigious International Booker Prize for her Hindi novel  Ret Samadhi, translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell.

The Mainpuri-born, 65-year-old Ms. Shree follows in the footsteps of Indian-origin author Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Arundhati Roy and Arvind Adiga to win the award.

The book was chosen among 135 longlisted ones.

The Hindi original was published in 2018 while the English translation hit the stores in India in March this year.

“This rather chunky text,” as Ms. Rockwell said at the award ceremony, “is the first time the translation of a Hindi language book had been nominated for the award”. “Shortlisting from 135 books was daunting. Choosing a single one from them has been agonising,” as the compere said before the announcement.

source/content: thehindu.com (edited)

GLOBAL RECORDS: INDIA RECORDS: INDIAN REGIONAL LANGUAGE: Kannada Spoken in the Canadian Parliament by Canadian Parliamentarian, Ontario’s MP Chandrakanth Arya

Canadia parliamentarian Chandrakanth Arya spoke in Kannada in the House.

Canadian parliamentarian Chandrakanth Arya, hailing from Sira in Tumakuru district, spoke in the country’s parliament in Kannada and posted a video on Twitter on Friday, earning praise in his home State.

Mr. Arya was elected as an MP for Nepean, Ontario, in 2015 and was re-elected in 2019.

He made a brief statement in Kannada saying him speaking in Kannada would make the people of Karnataka happy and proud.

He said Canadian Kannadigas had celebrated Kannada Rajyotsava in Parliament in 2018 and now he was speaking in Kannada.

He signed off with the lines of a Kuvempu poem: “Elladaru Iru, Enthadaru Iru…Endendigu Nee Kannadavagiru’‘ (Wherever you are, However you are…always be Kannadiga).

source/content: thehindu.com (edited)

GLOBAL RECORD : SCOTLAND : TRAVEL, TOURISM & HOSPITALITY : Edinburgh Restaurant ‘Mother India’s Cafe’ Voted Scotland’s Best Indian by Uber Eats Hailed as ‘Heavenly Curry Mecca’

An Edinburgh restaurant is celebrating success after it was shortlisted for the inaugural Uber Eats UK and Ireland Restaurant of the Year awards.

Mother India’s Cafe – based on the Old Town’s Infirmary Street – featured as one of ten Scottish nominees, with customers who voted deeming it the best Indian restaurant in Scotland , along with Mother India’s sister sites in Glasgow.

For the next stage in the awards process, customers can view the shortlist and vote for their favourite restaurants from across the UK and Ireland from until 16 June at ubereatsawards.com.

edinburghlive.co.uk (edited)

GLOBAL RECORDS : SCOTLAND: TRAVEL, TOURISM & HOSPITALITY : Glasgow Indian Restaurant ‘Swadish’ Named the Best in Scotland, as wedding venue scoops top award

 

An Indian restaurant and a wedding venue in Glasgow have been named the best in Scotland.

At the Scottish Entertainment Awards, Swadish, on Ingram Street, won the Best Indian Restaurant Award, beating off competition from across Scotland.

There was also success for another three Glasgow venues, as The Auditorium at Òran Mór was given the award for Best Wedding Venue, The Record Factory in Partick, famous for its live music, won the Best Late Night Venue award, and Connolly’s Irish Bar won the Best Irish Bar award.

Swadish has scooped other awards in the past for its fine dining experience, which brings together seasonal Scottish ingredients and traditional and modern Indian culinary techniques.

glasgowworld.com (edited)

INDIA RECORDS: GLOBAL PARTICIPATION :‘Vakeel Babu’ Selected for New York Indian Film Festival 2022

The film Vakeel Babu, produced by Civic Studios and co-produced by TrainTripper Films, has landed a place at the 22nd edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) 2022, taking place virtually from May 7th to 13th 2022.

The film will be participating in the Shorts (Narrative) category and has also been nominated in the Best Short (Narrative) category.

source/category : thehindu.com (edited)

The Indian Leg of the Great Backyard Bird Count, the 10th edition of Bird-O-Thon Records an Impressive 1,017 Species

A pair of bright yellow eyes stared right back at Angeline Mano, a 23-year-old birder, as she zoomed in with her binoculars. Angeline was at Stanley Reservoir in Salem, one of the largest fishing reservoirs in South India, documenting birds for the recently-concluded, annual Global Backyard Bird Count (GBCC). The bulky bird with a finely streaked breast, was a brown fish owl, perched on a branch just 10 metres away.

The India leg of the four-day event, coordinated by Bird Count India, allowed participants to count birds for as little as 15 minutes from a particular location. They upload their sightings online, on eBird (www.ebird.org/india), the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science platform.

source/content: thehindu.com (edited)

GLOBAL RECORDS : ARTS & CULTURE : Regional Cinema: Unesco Glory for ‘Dostojee’, North American Awards for ‘Once Upon a Time in Calcutta’

Dostojee, set in rural Bengal, has won the children’s award CIFEJ Prize while OUATIC, a slice of urban Bengal, was awarded the Grand Jury Award at IFFLA, Los Angeles, and the Circle Award at Filmfest DC, Washington DC.

Jeete khub-i bhalo laagchhe, eta amar bachchader jonno Eid er gift (We are overjoyed with the win; this win is Eid’s gift for the child protagonists of my film)… now we are looking for theatrical distribution partners in India,” says Prasun Chatterjee, whose debut feature Dostojee (Two Friends), set in an early-’90s remote, resplendent rural Bengal along the border, is a tender tale of childhood innocence, a friendship unmarred by the pulls of religious antagonism.

It won the prestigious CIFEJ Prize, recognised and accredited by UNESCO, and picked up the Best Director award in the International Competition section of the 2022 SIFFCY (Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth).

source/content: indianexpress.com (edited)