Goa Wine Festival - Fly away to get flown away...

Goa has always captured the imagination of the new India with its unconventional and not quite like Bharat ways and attitude. Celebrating the glory of anything that is associated with alcohol is enough to raise the eye-brows of many who go gaga over tradition and culture in India. But breaking away from the views of these bigots comes again the Goa Grape Escapade, a wine fiesta that is celebrating its sixth anniversary this year.

Observed under the banner of The Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), Goa Grape Escapade is the Indian answer to the coveted Oktoberfest (beer festival of Munich), the famous Australian Beer Festival and many other in its category.

This four day long wine extravaganza starts on January 23, 2010 and is all set to host a bevy of wine manufactures of repute and recognition. Names like Kingfisher Bohemia, Indage Vintners, Four Season wines, Zampa wines and lot more will showcase their vintage collection of liquor in this mega show.

Wine connoisseurs from all over the globe flock to Goa to be a part of this unique event. This Goa wine festival is not only confined to the showcase of the finest wine; it accommodates the hugely popular grape stomping event where guests are requested to crush grapes with their feet to mark the commencement of the celebrations.

I remember reading this quote somewhere: "Making good wine is a skill. Fine wine is an art." Artists and poets are long influenced by the intoxicating creativity of wine. Great wine may make a way through your mind and psyche to bring out the long hidden wishes and half asleep dreams.

Well, I need not spend my words more as the zealots knows it all...

Heritage Pune, 2010

SPIC MACAY and ICCR joins hand to celebrate Indian Culture

Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth, widely and popularly referred to as SPIC MACAY commands a very special and significant mention when it comes to the rich Indian culture and art forms . Since its inception, SPIC MACAY has done a tremendous job in preserving and promoting the composite and diverse cultural bequests of our country to the youth through numerous festivals, events and concerts.

This time around its Pune's turn to get classy and coveted as SPIC MACAY in collaboration with Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) has organized Heritage Pune 2010. The fifteen day extravaganza commences from January 15, 2010 and ends on January 30, 2010. Sticking to the objective of SPIC MACAY, this series will be conducted in over 20 different institutions across the city with almost 40 concerts by 25 prominent artistes from all over the country. Heritage Pune 2010 is a free to all festival without any entry fee.

The festival gets a fitting flag off with a flute recital by none other than Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia at the College of Engineering, Pune. The highlight of the festival is to have an one on one interaction between the students and the artistes on topics like folk culture and art, classical music, theatre, yoga, meditation and so on.

Another aspect related to Heritage 2010, Pune is to showcase these cultural pearls to the foreign students studying in Pune. This will definitely help the process of cultural amalgamation and would facilitate cross cultural interaction.