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Inside Delhi

A replay of fashion week

If you missed India's most fashionable week on the ramp, you can still catch a glimpse of it at Ensemble in the Capital's Ambawata Complex. Attempting to capture the fashion statement of the coming season, Ensemble will be displaying the Lakme India Fashion Week collections of "The Awesome Ten''. Starting from this Tuesday, the collection will be on display for a week.

Showcasing their collections at Ensemble will be well-known designers including Wendell Rodricks, Shalini and Paras, Payal Jain, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, Shantanu Goenka, Deepika Gehani, Nandita Basu, Manju and Bobby Grover, Ashish Pandey and Sonali Mansingka.

Catch the Goa-based designer Wendell as he takes a walk in a flea market or Delhi-based Payal Jain in a nomadic mood. On "Cue'', designers Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna present their fashion statement for the coming season.

And there's space for new talent here as well with debut designers Deepika Gehani and Shantanu Goenka also putting up their collections.

Anjali Dhal Samanta

An important document

Among the souvenirs and mementoes presented to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during his recent visit to Delhi was his birth certificate prepared by the New Delhi Municipal Council. After receiving the birth certificate, the Pakistan President had thanked the NDMC for presenting him an important document which also fulfilled the wish of his mother, Begum Zarin.

General Musharraf was born on July 22, 1945, in Lala Girdharilal Maternity Hospital at Delhi's Kamla Market, then falling under the jurisdiction of the civic body. The NDMC had to search its old records to find out the real date of birth of Gen. Musharraf.

So, after much "hard work'' it is time now for the civic body to felicitate its four employees who searched through all the municipal records to find out the details about Gen. Musharraf's birth. A grand reception is also being planned to honour the employees who did the Council proud.

Though the civic body administration might have burnt the midnight oil searching through decades old municipal records for the Pakistan President's certificate, the fact remains that general public approaching the Council for some old records are made to wait for months.

Similarly, those applying for old birth and deaths certificates are also subjected to all kinds of harassment at the hands of the NDMC staff. And for the undue delay, the Council has a standard answer: the records are yet to be digitised and searching through documents will take a long time.

Sandeep Joshi

Translating magic mantra

As a small boy he would listen with rapt attention to Gayatri Mantra recited by his mother. Now at the age of 41, S.K. Solanki -- who claims to have derived inspiration and inner happiness by chanting the mantra over the years -- has translated this spiritual mantra into many foreign languages.

For the past 28 years Mr. Solanki has been working with single-minded determination to see that the magic mantra -- written in Sanskrit -- can be read by people across the globe by getting it translated and printed in various languages.

"In this painstaking effort I have been assisted by foreign students residing at the International Hostel in the Capital. Almost every Sunday I visit the hostel and some of these helpful students translate the mantra into their respective mother tongues. Since I own a publishing house, I have had no difficulty in getting them printed," adds Mr. Solanki.

"So far I have succeeded in translating this mantra into many languages including Japanese, Chinese, Swahili, Thai, French, German and Indonesian," says Mr. Solanki, who though not very fluent in speaking foreign languages can definitely read and understand their written texts.

Madhur Tankha

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