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The ecstasy of God's dancers: now more than ever the world needs a gentle, tolerant version of Islam. Sufism is exactly that, but it faces growing hostility Six years ago, in the autumn of 1998, I was sitting in a roadside tea shop surrounded by the desert landscape of Rajasthan, when I saw a succession of bicycle rickshaws appear over the horizon. The...(Continue Reading) Ghosts in the city of widows: when their husbands die, devout indian women make the pilgrimage to Vrindavan, where they will pray for others, and await Vrindavan is a city of widows, of ashrams, temples and Lodging-houses for the wasted women of India, whose husbands have died and whose children have ......(Continue Reading)In praise of vulgarity: How commercial culture liberates Islamand the West WHO WILL EVER forget the strangeness of the first images out of post-Taliban Afghanistan, when the streets ran with beards? As one city after another ......(Continue Reading)Monsoon Wedding: raining on tradition - Film As Text IN MONSOON WEDDING (2001), director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala 1998, Salaam Bombay! 1991) successfully entertains us with an over-the-top Indian wedding. She also presents some serious issues th...(Continue Reading)Cool Spins Susheela Raman: Love Trap (Narada World) She's more than just a vocalist capable of interpreting lyrics with emotional dexterity and fluency; she's ......(Continue Reading)
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