Prince William and Kate Middleton’s upcoming trip to India in April seems to dig out the skeletons of the past in connection with Princess Diana’s solo trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra in 1992, which had added fuel to the fire in her crumbling marriage with Prince Charles.

The picture of Princess Diana sitting alone on the bench at the Taj Mahal is one of the iconic moments in the history of India’s most popular and top-earning monument in Agra. But it became the image of a lonely and depressed princess, which the global media used as a fodder to feed their stories about the fall of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage. On being asked how she felt being alone at the Taj Mahal which stands for eternal love, Princess Diana made her first public statement, “It was a healing experience…very healing,” hinting at her troubled marriage.

However, the bench at the Taj Mahal became an ideal spot for posing in front of camera and many foreign tourists have got themselves photographed on the bench with the monument of love in the background since then. Now Prince William along with Kate Middleton will visit the Taj Mahal to live the “Princess Diana moment” for a while in honor of the memory of his mother. “He feels incredibly lucky to visit a place where his mother’s memory is kept alive by so many who travel there,” said Jason Knauf, the communication secretary of Cambridge.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip traveled to India and visited the Taj Mahal in 1961 – IndianEagle

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India includes a visit to Mumbai’s Taj Palace Hotel besides a tribute to Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal. The royal couple from England will offer a wreath in memory of the victims of the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai during their visit to the Taj Palace Hotel where they are supposed to meet members of the staff who risked their lives to protect guests during the 2008 attack.

The Duke and the Duchess will attend a charity cricket match of young slum children at Oval Maidan, a large public park in Mumbai City and meet the representatives of three charitable organizations: Magic Bus, Doorstep and India’s Childline. It will be followed by a brief meeting with the representatives of SMILE, a charity that helps young people be employable by imparting skill-developing training to them. In the evening of April 10, the royal couple will attend a glittering dinner held by the film industry of Mumbai.

April 11, the second day of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India will see them at the India Gate in New Delhi where they will offer a wreath in honor of the Indian soldiers. Then they will visit Gandhi Smriti, a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, and take a walk through the last 144 days of Gandhi’s life from his bedroom to the spot of his assassination in the garden.

In the evening, the royal guest duo will grace a birthday party for Queen Elizabeth II with their presence at the residence of the British High Commissioner in New Delhi. Prince William will deliver a speech in honor of his grandmother to the invitees including VIPs from different walks of life. The next day they will attend a conference with NGOs in and around Delhi in the morning before they fly to Assam in northeast India.

On April 12, the couple will visit the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. One of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in India, Kaziranga National Park is famous for one-horned rhinoceroses. The third day of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India coincides with the celebration of the Assamese New Year called Bohag Bihu, one of the most popular northeast Indian festivals. The guests will be treated to spectacular music and dance performances celebrating the folk culture of Assam on this occasion.

On April 13, the Duke and the Duchess will take an open-air drive around the Kaziranga National Park and visit the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation where Prince William will speak about the scenario of rhino poaching in India. Their itinerary in Assam also includes a visit to the Kaziranga Discovery Centre build by Elephant Family that Mark Shand, late brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, had founded.

A meeting with a group of young filmmakers from Green Hub, an Assam-based local organization that imparts lessons on the art of filmmaking, will mark the end of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India from April 10 to April 13. On April 14, they will catch a flight to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan in Southeast Asia.

The royal couple of England will visit the Taj Mahal in Agra on return to India from Bhutan on April 16.

Travel Beats is a digital portal by IndianEagle for Indians and Indian Diaspora. IndianEagle, a leading US-India travel organization, publishes interesting stories and news about travel, culture, events, festivals and entertainment from India and USA.

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Though the Indian entries including the Marathi film Court for the 88^th Academy Awards are out of the Oscar nominations 2016, India does still have a reason to rejoice. Two NRIs – one Indian-American animator and one Indo-British filmmaker – made their way to the shortlist of entries for Oscar 2016.

Sanjay’s Super Team, animated short film by Indian American Sanjay Patel, and Amy, a documentary by Indo-British director Asif Kapadia, are among the Oscar nominations 2016 in the Best Animated Short Film and the Best Documentary Feature categories respectively.

Sanjay’s Super Team is one of the stories of East vs West, India vs America, and tradition vs modernism, which Sanjay Patel tells through the portrayal of a young Indian American boy of the present generation. The story of Sanjay’s Super Team is weaved around Sanjay Patel’s personal experience of how his love for western pop culture clashed with his father’s adherence to traditions. The cast of Sanjay’s Super Team features non-white characters in the lead. It is the first short film to talk about the Hindu religion in an animated fashion.

To say precisely, Sanjay’s Super Team among the Oscar nominations 2016 is a universal story of intergenerational differences, experienced by many Indian American teens in the communities of immigrants from India. Sanjay as a young boy is fond of cartoons, while his father tries to pique his interest in age-old Hindu traditions. This conflict puts Sanjay on a voyage into a world of comics where he comes across mythological characters with superhero qualities. He brings them alive through comic illustrations which his father also connects with.

“I am glad to be on the list of nominations for 88^th Academy Awards in the Best Animated Short Film category. My story is not only mine. It resonates with many immigrants in the United States. Sanjay’s Super Team has a universal message under the surface,” says Sanjay Patel with a beaming face.

Among the Oscar nominations 2016 in the Best Documentary category, Asif Kapadia’s Amy depicts the life and death of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. Released across the UK and the USA, Amy-The Girl Behind the Name has been acclaimed as the best documentary of the year and described as a tragic masterpiece. The film depicts Amy Winehouse’s struggle both before and after her career reached its zenith in the entertainment industry.

Amy earned Asif Kapadia a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 and won the Best Documentary title at BAFTA Awards 2016. It became the second highest grossing documentary of all time in the UK. Amy will compete with Cartel Land, What Happened, The Look of Silence, and Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom among the nominations for 88^th Academy Awards.

Of all NRI filmmakers, Asif Kapadia is a favorite of the Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom. His directorial debut The Warrior was filmed in the vast Himalayas and the arid desserts of Rajasthan. His documentary films including The Warrior, Far North and Senna have won awards at several international film festivals across the globe. Asif Kapadia is hopeful about Amy’s success in Oscars 2016.

When Indians rejoiced in the success of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire at Oscars 2009, the nomination of ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’ and ‘Amy’ among the finalists for Oscars 2016 should be a thing of joy for Indians. – IndianEagle

Travel Beats is a culture and entertainment portal for Indian diaspora by IndianEagle, a leading international US-India travel organization. It publishes interesting stories of India, USA, Canada, NRIs, aviation and tourist places.

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Among the Oscar nominations 2016, documentary film Amy by Indo-British filmmaker Asif Kapadia won the “Best Documentary” title at BAFTA Awards and the “Best Music Film” title at the 58^th Grammy Awards. Asif Kapadia’s take on the life and career of late British singer Amy Winehouse won the Best Documentary BAFTA award over other promising nominations including He Named Me Malala, Listen to Me Marlon, Cartel Land, and Sherpa.

At the Grammy Awards, Amy – The Girl Behind the Name won over its competitors: The Wall, What Happened, Miss Simone, Sonic Highways, and Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown. Filmmaker Asif Kapadia said that the “Best Music Film” title at Grammy Awards for his Amy documentary is the best tribute to Amy Winehouse, one of the biggest music icons in British history.    

Asif Kapadia’s Amy is one of the nominations for the 88^th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary category. A tragic masterpiece according to film critics, Amy – The Girl Behind the Name depicts British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse’s eventful life and career in the entertainment industry. It was also acclaimed as the best documentary of the year 2015.

In his acceptance speech at BAFTA Awards, filmmaker Asif Kapadia paid tribute to Amy Winehouse by crediting the trophy and the success of the documentary to her. Amy Winehouse, the first British female singer to win 5 Grammy Awards in 2008 for her Back to Black album, died at the age of 27 in 2011 as she succumbed to the life-taking effects of drug and alcohol.

We really fell in love with her when making the film and our aim and mission was really to try and tell the truth about her. To show the world what an amazing person she was, how intelligent, how witty, how beautiful she was, before it all kind of got out of control and went a bit crazy. – Filmmaker Asif Kapadia

Asiaf Kapadia’s documentary on Amy Winehouse has been a favorite of critics since its successful premier at the Cannes Film Festival 2015. However, Amy’s father Mitch is the only person who is indifferent to the success of the documentary and its director. He differs with Asif Kapadia and critics, calling it a disappointment.

It is the third time that Asif Kapadia made it big at BAFTA Awards. He has two more BAFTA awards to his fame: one for Irrfan Khan-starrer The Warrior in 2003 and the other for sports documentary Senna in 2012. The Warrior was his directorial debut filmed across the sand dunes of Rajasthan and the terrains of the Himalayas. Asif Kapadia’s Senna is a poignant portrait of racing driver Ayrton Senna, who died in 1994.

A London based filmmaker of Indian origin; Asif Kapadia has recently completed shooting for Ali and Nino, a period film based on a novel by Kurban Said. The film with an international cast is set in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Besides ‘Amy,’ ‘Sanjay’s Super Team,’ an animated short film by Indian-American filmmaker Sanjay Patel, is on the list of Oscar nominations 2016. Read more about Sanjay Patel’s film. – IndianEagle

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Bhakti Without Borders, a music album of Krishna bhajans (numinous songs or hymns), has challenged the widely prevailed notion that only India brims with devotion for Lord Krishna, a Hindu deity. This music album by a group of eleven musicians, better say Krishna devotees, from across the world is on the list of nominations for Grammy Awards 2016.

Bhakti Without Borders, an album of songs in eulogy of Lord Krishna, has been nominated for the 58^th Grammy Awards in the ‘Best New Age Album’ category. The album is aptly named as eleven musicians or Krishna devotees from India, America, England, Australia and Germany composed the songs in collaboration beyond borders. Madi Das, the executive producer of Bhakti Without Borders, is an ISKCON follower born in Germany and brought up in Mayapur.

Mayapur is one of the most popular tourist places near Kolkata. An ISKCON Temple is the center of attraction in Mayapur. – Indian Eagle       

One of the eleven singers who came together in a true display of brotherhood, love, harmony and devotion is an Indian, Gaura Mani, from Vrindavan Mathura. In an interview, Gaura Mani was quoted saying, “As I continue to perform Kirtan around the world, I pray that the transcendental sound vibration of Lord Krishna’s holy names will pour from my heart and I may continue to dive into the ocean of ecstatic bliss of my Lord Krishna.”

Though born in America, Gaura Mani calls Vrindavan her home. She developed a passion for voicing soulful mantras, devotional songs, and meditative prayers at a tender age. She is known for her mellifluous, intoxicating voice which she claims to be blessed with by her Lord Krishna. Her spiritual journey began when she met her Param Das, a preacher, musician and bhajan singer of international repute, in Vrindavan, India.

Gaura Mani and Param Das formed a rocking kirtan band, Vrajavadhus Kirtan. The band is named after a group of cowherd damsels (popularly known as Gopis in Vrindavan and in the legends of Lord Krishna). The band performs blissful bhajans across the world. Golden Jewel is one of the popular albums by Gaura Mani and Param Das. Their performance was a hit at the Festival of Chariots in Chicago.

The Bhakti Without Borders album is a rare mélange of various folk music genres, Indian bhakti traditions, and traditional music of Armenia and Ireland. The concoction of different musical traditions and trends has resulted in a euphoria that strikes strings of the heart and touches depth of the soul. The education of girls in Vrindavan will be funded with the profits from this album.

The female vocalists in the group of musicians behind The Bhakti Without Borders album are all Krishna devotees, who have been singing bhajans since childhood. Executive producer Madi Das said that it is the first music album in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition to be nominated for Grammy Awards. Bhaja Gobindam, a famous Bengali bhajan, is one of the songs in the album.

Gaudiya Vaishnavism came into being during the Vaishnava religious movement founded by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, in Bengal, India (1486-1534). – Indian Eagle

Sudevi Dasi, one of the singers from the USA, opines that Bhakti Without Borders also stands for the harmony of male and female voices across geographies as recording sessions took place in Los Angeles, London, Sydney and Germany. She says that some of the songs begin with male voice, while some pour out female voice. The nomination of Bhakti Without Borders for Grammy Awards bears out to women’s role in devotion and spirituality, according to Sudevi Dasi.

Travel Beats is a culture and entertainment portal by IndianEagle for the Indian diaspora. It publishes the latest news and stories about India, USA, Canada and NRIs.

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