Hailing from a poor family in Shilong, Lou Majaw was sent to a hostel when he was a child. There is the association of other well off students, his romance with the guitar began there. He got introduced to the music of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley by a friend. And then he got a chance to visit Kolkata, in those the biggest city of the Eastern India. It was in Kolkata that Majaw chanced upon the genius of Bob Dylan. The meeting was mesmerizing, throwing the man into the world of Dylan's music for ever. 

So taken in was he by the legendary songwriter-singer that he decided to organise a ‘Dylan’s birthday concert’ in Shillong on May 24, 1972. And that became an annual event, a tradition that remains unbroken even after 37 years. Dylan fans across all over travel thousands of miles just to listen to Majaw and his band Ace of Spades croon, and reconnect with Dylan, the poet.


After over four decades of playing covers, ask him if he will ever tire of Dylan’s songs and Majaw says, “I can’t. His songs have poetic value that is hard to get weary of.” It is such madcap devotion that has earned him the moniker, India’s Bob Dylan. 

Known for his signature short shorts and long, silver mane that could give Axl Rose and his kilt a run for his money, the veteran rocker has won many fans not so much for his vocal prowess but for his showmanship, stage antics and swagger. 


The life of this maverick guitarist forms the subject of ‘Forever Young,’ a documentary by Ranjan Palit, to be telecast on NDTV’s Documentary 24x7 on May 24. In the film, the 60-plus rocker talks about his fascination for Dylan, whose songs he first heard in 1966. It took Palit, a Film Institute product, six years, 12 visits to Shillong and plenty of determination and dedication to complete ‘Forever Young.’ The engrossing film tracks six years of Majaw’s life, music, passion and philosoph


After all this one is bound to ask how he feels being now respected as a celebrity. He will smile and say, “I’m just a simple guy with no big dreams.” 

What Passion Does

Ramli Ibrahim

Ramli Ibrahim is a muslim male from Malaysia. The profile does not quite make it conducive to take up a dance form like Bharatnatyam as a career option. Ramli had to fight against many odds - ridiculed froms friends, discouragement form the government and no support from Indian schools that taught Bharatnatyam. But Ramli went ahead with his calling and lernt not just Bharatnatyam, but also Odissi, Ballet and western dance forms.

But today Ramli Ibrahim is recognised world over as an accomplished dancer in ballet, modern, and Indian classical dance, and is cultural icon. He has performed internationally for more than three decades now and in 2009, was honoured at the Nartaka Dance Festival organised by the Natyanjali Trust. Last year The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), in Mumbai presented a spectacular evening with Ramli Ibrahim called "Vision of Forever"

In Vision of Forever, Ramli had chosen an Odissi repertoire from three major gurus of this tradition: Durga Charan Ranbir, Gajendra Kumar Panda and Deba Prasad Das. The performances brilliantly exemplified works of the late Odissi pioneer Guru Deba Prasad Das. It unleashed powerful images from the Shaivite and Tantric traditions, bringing out the macabre and terrifying beauty associated with the repertoire of his late dance guru. 

Ramli today has established his open school - SutraDance Theatre, where he nurtures new talents. Ramli has choreographed stunning works and has single-handedly established Odissi as a widely appreciated dance form in Malaysia.

A Pack Of Lies

A Pack of Lies is a refreshing new offering from the house of Westland Publishers who in the past one year has given such best sellers like The Immortals of Meluha by Amish and Ammi by Saeed Zafri. A Pack of Lies  tells the story a poor little rich girl effectively abandoned, and now suddenly hungry. Ginny is an unlikely heroine and her story is filled with with sensual pleasures of food and the fabulous excitement of fame, that we almost miss what is, at heart, a novel about loneliness, a primer on lust, and most of all, an extraordinary window on the secrets of a young woman for whom resistance to gendered rules becomes a source of jeopardy, and yet, eventually, of salvation.

Urmila Deshpande is kbnown to readers of the blogosphere as one who writes regularly on food, cooking, women, relations and even sex. Her wide writing experience must have shaped her book. She writes her with an insouciance and almost savant honesty that will make you laugh, cry and think. Her prose is simple and yet vivid, her characters are complex, and she has an uncanny ability to familiarise us with them in one deft description. Both searingly poignant and heartbreakingly funny, one can read this book with eyes but feel it with one's heart

Gang's of Wasseypur

Anurag Kashyap's much awaited zara hatke film 'Gangs of Wasseypur' make ruffle many feathers. it is about coal mining mafia set in a fictitous Bihari town where the characters resemble those who can be easily identified with the people really involved in the often obnoxious coal-mining.

Anurag Kashyap is one of the most notable zara hatke film directors of India today, who won many awards and accolades for his off beat films like Dev D, Shaitan, No Smoking, Black Friday and The Girl In Yellow Boots.

But Gangs of Wasseypur is different from what he has done till now. Its scale is very large, its production is expensive and it talks about something which is immensely challenging and hitherto not been tackled in any movie in India.

The story is set at the end of colonial India, Shahid Khan loots the British trains, impersonating the legendary Sultana Daku. Now outcast, Shahid becomes a worker at Ramadhir Singh’s colliery, only to spur a revenge battle that passes on to generations. At the turn of the decade, Shahid’s son, the philandering Sardar Khan vows to get his father’s honor back, becoming the most feared man of Wasseypur. Staying true to its real life influences, the film explores this revenge saga through the socio-political dynamic in erstwhile Bihar (North India), in the coal and scrap trade mafia of Wasseypur.