Price Of A Deal
Musharraf may have bent backwards in a bid to make his country the standard bearer of the US in the region. Of course, there are financial rewards for Pakistan, but the fear of a fundamentalist backlash continues to keep the nation on tenterhooks.

Circle Of Death
Violence fuelled by bigotry and foreign money brought the Taliban to power. Now as things come full circle the Islamic militia may meet an equally brutal end.

Afghanistan 1978-2001
Its women once enjoyed social freedom, and there was joy and peace. It is now a country perverted by the missionaries of a grim utopia. A social history in pictures.

METROSCAPE

Fort Of Arms

In the 16th century, a Portuguese governor fortified a strategically located house to defend ships in the harbour of a island on the west coast of India acquired from the Sultan of Gujarat. This was on the southernmost of the seven islands of Mumbai, which later passed over to the British in the 17th century. The fortification, then called Bombay Castle, became the headquarters of the East India Company which further braced it against Kanhoji Angre's marauding Maratha navy by adding three bastions and sea walls. Mumbai grew first into a fort and then into a city from here.

Then, in a deliciously ironical act three centuries later, post independence India's nascent navy renamed the fort after the very Maratha admiral it had been fortified against.

That was exactly50 years ago. INS Angre's golden jubilee celebrations this month also marked the culmination of a restoration which has revived at least some of its history.

The hectic restoration work started by Vice-Admiral Madhvendra Singh two years ago saw structures around the historic ramparts being demolished exposing its imposing walls and bastions-the oldest structures in the city. Two abandoned behemoths-10 inch cannons weighing 29 tonnes apiece-were fished out of the harbour to serve as showpieces and at least 130 other cannons were rescued from junkyards. Then earlier this year, an 11-foot high bronze statue of Admiral Angre, was installed near the walls. The restoration is now an ongoing process and is helped by the fact that the base also houses the navy's presitigous western naval command. "We've just begun realising there is so much heritage here," says Angre's commanding officer Commodore Aspi Marker. For the navy, which recently shed the George cross from its ensign, the voyage of discovering its heritage has begun.

— Sandeep Unnithan

Two facile container hoods with receptacles, photographed cunningly on the right, are actually the amatory emblems of a food fest. Here's why. This cheeky campaign was done for Oberoi's Festival of Ecstasy that had Nawabi delicacies flavoured with traditional aphrodisiacs. The menu at the Delhi hotel was perfected in consultation with Unnani hakims and spearheaded by the kabab troika of Lucknow (now adored by shammi-fatigued Delhiites)-the gilawat or galouti, the Kakori and the stringed dora kabab. As consultant Mohammed Usman, the grandson of the late Tundey Mian who invented the dora (and now sells kababs in Lucknow's Aminabad), explained, many dishes contained legendary stimulants like shilajit, crushed pearl and coral, amber, naag kesar, 24 carat gold leaf and sandal wood. Usman adds that an authentic galouti, with all 160-odd spices, does have the impish habit of changing the way you look at things.

—Anshul Avijit

MetroScape

Fort Of Arms
In the 16th century, a Portuguese governor fortified a strategically located house to defend ships in the harbour of an island on the west coast of India acquired from the Sultan of Gujarat. Mumbai grew first into a fort and then into a city from here.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi Photography:
Pradeep Bhatia

Delhi Music Concert: Pandit Ram Chatur Mallick Dhrupad Foundation

Delhi Sculpture: Sculpter Hemi Bawa