Reflections

Part of the summer this year was spent in Samarqand, the city of fruits. The apricot here is no longer worth its weight in gold.

It has the long title of ‘Global: Lab. Art as a Message. Asia and Europe -- 1500-1700’. However, the thematic connotation of this delightful exhibition is even more enduring. This experimental global laboratory is a treasure house of thrilling records of what happens when opposing cultures collide and cooperate with each other.

It is no secret that Hassan bin Talal preferred to give up the throne of Jordan rather than his liberal views. He was crown prince between 1965 and 1999.

When I went to Hyderabad in the summer of 2004, I was exposed to a foreign culture for the first time

The Austro-Marxists in power believed in municipal socialism. Their dream of a future socialist society was visualised as a "pragmatic utopia"