Latest news with #Rajasthan
South China Morning Post
18 hours ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
In Good Taste: Inspire Yoga founder Neelam Harjani takes the PostMag Q&A
The wellness ritual you can't live without? I do a 20-minute breathwork routine every morning. The Sudarshan Kriya (a breathing technique taught by the Art of Living Foundation ) helps centre me and give me clarity. I have been doing it for about 13 years. I got so much from the practice that I began teaching it to others and am now an Art of Living teacher. The most conversation-sparking object in your home? A brass carving of the Hindu god Ganesh. My husband and I bought it in New Delhi as newlyweds. It was handcrafted in Rajasthan . We host weekly meditations in our home in Discovery Bay. Our Ganesh is positioned in the northeast corner of the living room, which has the energy of peace and spirituality. Shankara's Timeless Kumkumadi Oil is an Ayurvedic skin tonic made from 32 herbs. Photo: Jocelyn Tam A scent that brings you joy? Before prayers at home, my mum would light sandalwood incense. She'd also do it if we had guests coming over, to make them feel welcome. That scent takes me back to my childhood. It's about connection and people coming together. Your favourite city and the first thing you do there?
Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Riding a polo pony — how hard can it be?
Polo may be the only sport in the world more sensibly played on elephants. Cannoning round a field on a horse, swinging a croquet mallet the wrong way round, is like driving a Formula 1 car one-handed while using your other arm to practise your serve. In India, they play polo on elephants. Elephants are generally more inclined to lumber than speed, and come with their own elephant whisperer to steer. Alas, I'm in southwest London not Rajasthan, it's decades since I sat on a horse, and I've never had a riding lesson in my life. Nevertheless, I arrive for my first ever polo lesson well prepared. I am wearing cowboy boots and two bras. I am invincible. For one hour only, Nube is my horse. She lives at Ham Polo Club and looks at me doubtfully, as well she might. 'Her name is Spanish for 'cloud',' says my teacher, Manuel, stroking her nose. I sign a waiver promising that any calamity that befalls me will be entirely my fault. I look at Nube, wonder what the Spanish is for 'oh shit', then haul myself into the saddle and very nearly straight over the other side. When I'm safely installed, they insist that Nube is placid and small, even though the ground seems a long way down. But she is also a polo pony, and polo has always struck me not as placid but borderline lethal. We clippety-clop to the training ground and I hope for the best. • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts Ham is a rural idyll near the A3, a place of vast green polo lawns, broadleaf trees and little white clubhouses stacked with catering company chairs. Traditionally, summer in England isn't summer without the royals being photographed at a polo match, from Charles and Camilla in the 1970s to William and Harry in the 2000s. Just once, there was Meghan and Kate at the Guards Polo Club in 2019, back when everyone was playing happy families, but no more. These days, Charles is too old, William's too busy, Harry plays furiously in Santa Barbara or Florida, and Kate's always been allergic to horses anyway. Polo, though, is still indelibly associated with the royals. Chestertons, the estate agents, sponsors the annual Polo in the Park weekend in central London, in a bid to combine the sporting and the social with diversity (not just posh people), inclusivity (not just country types) and, presumably, selling houses. Described as the world's biggest polo festival, Polo in the Park is a veritable melting pot at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham, where the Princess of Wales used to bring George and Charlotte for tennis lessons when they were little. Back at Ham, Nube and I are bonding, a bit. She makes it clear with every snort and toss of her head that I am an idiot and she knows best, and she is not wrong. Polo ponies are trained to be extremely responsive, I am told, but the flipside of that is that they need to be told exactly what to do. This is difficult when your main focus is not falling off. I hold the reins in my left hand, as Manuel's shown me, and grip the front of the saddle with my right, to his consternation. I'm used to saddles with pommels, I tell him. The last time I got on a horse was when I lived on Vancouver Island in my twenties, and over there the saddles have pommels. A couple of times a week, I'd pick up a toffee-coloured horse called Rocky from the local stable after work and we'd head off fearlessly into the forest to explore. That was then, I was 24 and Rocky, bless him, was a Ford. Nube is a Ferrari. How I sit, and lean to swing the mallet, how I hold the reins, where and how I kick and with which part of my heel are all carefully calibrated parts of the equation geared to getting her to do what I want. Get any part of it wrong and Nube will effectively shrug, take the path of least resistance and do what she wants, which is stop. Manuel is an Argentinian professional polo player who's been riding since he could walk. He makes cannoning round a field swinging a mallet look as easy as falling off a log, or indeed a horse. From my reassuringly stationary position at the side of the pitch, I watch him demonstrate a rising trot. 'Now your turn,' he says, with an encouraging smile. I rack my brains for diversionary polo-related small talk. 'Is Prince Harry any good at polo?' I ask. He considers this with the seriousness all things polo deserve. 'He's a decent amateur,' he replies. 'Now lift the reins so she knows to move forward and kick your heels. Keep kicking so she knows to keep going.' 'And Prince William?' I ask, exhausting my supply of polo-related small talk quicker than I'd hoped. 'Probably a bit better,' he says, adding that he didn't like Harry's Netflix programme Polo at all. It concentrated on the social side, not the sport itself, he complains, so he watched two episodes and gave up. The gist of his conversation is that polo is about adrenaline and sportsmanship and manly excitement, not royals, or blondes necking bubbly on the sidelines. 'Your turn!' he says cheerfully. 'I'll come too!' So off we set. I go bounce, bounce, bounce and start to worry for Nube's spine and my own. Manuel confirms that he has had a bad back for years, which is discouraging, but we persevere. My steering seems OK even though my rein handling is deemed erratic — 'lift the reins, don't pull! She thinks you want her to stop! Kick!' — but the bouncing improves sufficiently that we try a figure of eight round two traffic cones, with success if not aplomb. I grasp my mallet, activate my core, and lean over to hammer the ball two, maybe even as far as three feet ahead. I swear under my breath, Nube snorts and soon I'm getting cross. I want to be good at this, but I'm not. I want to look at ease in the saddle, but I don't. I could ride a bit when I was younger, and had a pommel, so why can't I do it now? I read Black Beauty as a child. I know my Jilly Cooper. I watched Rupert Campbell-Black canter elegantly across my TV screen in Rivals and honestly, how hard can this be? Every so often Nube and I find our rhythm and I get a tantalising glimpse of just how wonderful riding must be. Then it's gone and I'm bouncing around in the saddle like a double bra'd jack-in-the-box. After my lesson, I walk bow-legged back to the clubhouse. The polo ponies look down their noses at me from their stalls. Nube is led away without so much as a disdainful backward glance. In the distance, real polo players gallop across the pitch with languid grace, turning on a dime and belting the ball to kingdom come. Rocky would have been good at this, I think, if he'd ever got the chance, but next time I think I'll try elephant polo. Anyone can ride an elephant. How hard can it be? Chestertons Polo in the Park is at Hurlingham Park on June 6, 7 and 8.
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Valmik Thapar: Legendary conservationist dubbed India's ‘Tiger Man' dies aged 73
One of India 's best-known wildlife conservationists, Valmik Thapar, has died at his home in Delhi at the age of 73. Dubbed India's ' Tiger Man', Thapar dedicated five decades of his life to reviving the big cat's dwindling population, writing nearly 50 books on the subject and appearing in a host of nature documentaries including for the BBC. Thapar co-founded the Ranthambore Foundation in 1988, an important non profit focused on community-based conservation efforts. The charity reportedly worked across almost 100 villages around the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, one of the biggest success stories in the country in terms of its flourishing tiger population, in the western state of Rajasthan. Never afraid to speak out over the shortcomings of government bureaucracy, he served as an expert on scores of public committees and was also part of the National Board for Wildlife, a Supreme Court-empowered committee which is led by the country's prime minister. In 2005 Thapar was appointed a member of the Tiger Task Force, set up by the government to review the management of tiger reserves following the infamous disappearance of the big cats from Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan. He disagreed with the findings of the task force, arguing that the report was overly optimistic about the coexistence of tigers and humans. Thapar said that for tigers to survive, certain forest areas needed to be completely free from human interference – a claim that put him in odds with activists advocating for the rights of forest-dwelling communities and tribes. Among the books on tigers written by Thapar are the popular Tiger: A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent (1997), and Tiger Fire: 500 Years of the Tiger in India. He has presented and co-produced landmark wildlife documentaries, including the BBC series Land of the Tiger in 1997, which explored the wildlife of the Indian subcontinent. In recent years, he had been critical of the government's Project Cheetah, which reintroduced African cheetahs into India. "Thapar was no arm-chair conservationist, he spent as much time as possible in the field. Be it in the searing heat or an icy cold winter morning, rain or shine, he would be ideating with community elders and officers managing India's Tiger Reserves and National Parks to find solutions to complex, sensitive issues," his family said in a statement, according to The Hindu. "Of course, he enjoyed his time in the jungle with his camera and binoculars, not just in the Indian wilderness but also in Africa. But what gave him the most pleasure was spending time with tigers in Ranthambore." Last year, he appeared in the BBC's My Tiger Family – a 50-year story of an Indian tiger clan in Ranthambore. Thapar is survived by his wife Sanjana Kapoor and their son Hamir Thapar. Jairam Ramesh, a senior figure in the opposition Congress party and former environment minister, said Thapar "was uncommonly knowledgeable on a variety of issues relating to biodiversity and not a day passed during my ministerial tenure without our talking to each other -- with me almost always at the receiving end'. "We had arguments but it was always an education to listen to him, full of passion and concern. He was truly an unforgettable one of a kind," he added.
Times of Oman
3 days ago
- General
- Times of Oman
India: Rajasthan reports 54 COVID-19 cases, one death
Jaipur: Amid rising COVID-19 cases in parts of the country, Rajasthan Health Minister Gajendra Singh said on Friday that the state has reported 54 cases and one death so far. The minister clarified that the death was linked to comorbidities, particularly tuberculosis, and that the current variant in circulation resembles the common flu. "So far, 54 cases have been reported, and one death has occurred. However, the patient was severely affected by tuberculosis. As of now, only one patient is admitted to SMS Hospital--a child infected with the Omicron variant, which is not very serious. It presents symptoms similar to the common flu. There is no cause for concern at the moment. There's no significant spread at the moment, but people are still advised to take necessary precautions," Singh told ANI. According to the Information and Public Relations Department, 15 new cases were reported on Friday--one each from AIIMS Jodhpur, Rabindranath Tagore Medical College (RNT), Sawai Man Singh Medical College (SMS), Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS), and Government Medical College (GMC), Udaipur. District-wise COVID-19 cases in Rajasthan are: Jaipur - 33, Udaipur - 10, Jodhpur - 8, Bikaner - 5, Didwana - 5, Ajmer - 2, Balotra - 2, Dausa - 1, Phalodi - 1, Sawai Madhopur - 1, and others - 1. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has confirmed that while COVID-19 cases were reported again in parts of the country, the current variants in circulation were showing mild symptoms similar to the Omicron strain. Arjun Dang, Chief Executive Officer of Dr. Dangs Lab, said the rising number of cases was attributed to more transmissible sub-variants. "We must understand that the current spreading variants are again a sublineage of the Omicron virus. Additionally, in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, we have certain other sub-variants that have been named Variants Under Monitoring, and these are basically of two types, LF7 and NV181. Currently, the cases that we are seeing are more transmissible. They can infect people easily, but again, from the severity perspective, till now, we have not seen any severe cases," Dang told ANI.
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
What It's Like to Work Outdoors in India's Brutal Heat
It's 7 a.m. as Nemi Chand loads concrete fencing poles onto the back of a rusty tractor in India's northwestern state of Rajasthan. The temperature is already 31C (87.8F). The season's final wheat harvest wrapped up a few days ago, and the scorched fields are now almost barren. During India's brutal summers, which run from roughly March to June, farming anything in the arid state is difficult. So the 30-year-old laborer is filling the dead months running errands and carrying out maintenance work at the farm where he's worked since he was 15.
