101 Things to Do While in Chengdu

Posted by Miya Yang • Friday, June 24, 2011 • Category: In Depth
There is loads of fun to be had during your time in Chengdu, whether you come for business, education, or leisure. To help you make the most of this "heavenly city" we have gathered together over 100 ideas into one handy guide. See how many you mangage to tick off before you leave - that is, if you manage to leave at all…

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Fasting in India - The Hindu Day Fasts

Posted by Rachayta Gupta • Tuesday, June 14, 2011 • Category: People and Places
Fasting is an integral part of Indian tradition. Fasting means holding oneself back voluntarily from eating something certain or even any kind of food for a definite period of time. In Hindi language it is called “vrat”. A fast can be partial or prolonged, e.g. for a duration of 24 hours. There are also some fasts in India which are observed for a week or more, examples being Navratri fasts, or Muslim fasts during Ramadan and Jain fasts. In Hinduism each day of the week is related to planetary constellations and devoted to a certain deity. These fasts are generally observed according to one’s individual needs. The day fasts can be understood in the following manner according to the different days of the week:

(c) by beggs
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/beggs/99275271/]

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Rediscovering My City – Guiding a Walk through Old Delhi

Posted by Rachayta Gupta • Monday, June 6, 2011 • Category: Crossing Cultures
I had never made the experience before of how it feels to guide somebody in a place that is so well known to me. On the 28th of May 2011 I held my first guided tour of my native place Old Delhi – and it gave me such a fresh feeling of being a representative of my culture and not just a sheer local of the place I have been living in for almost all the years of my life. If you ask locals of Delhi about Old Delhi, their first reaction often is a feeling of discomfort. It is a place which is mostly considered by people as a cobweb of streets that are overcrowded and where you can get lost easily if you walk alone and don’t know the place well. Even for me living in Old Delhi, before preparing for this walking tour, my locality was just so humdrum and tiresome – everything was so fatiguing to me.

(c) by Soham Banerjee
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/soham_pablo/427918971/]

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