http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:25:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Diwali and bright and prosperous New Year ahead. May your lamps burn ever brighter today and evermore. May Laxmi enter your lives without taking up the room that Saraswati must occupy.This year, with the markets in a nosedive, it may be that you will ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/10/27/may-your-lamps-burn-brighter/ As you may have seen on the trueroots homepage, trueroots International Calling Service is offering its best promotion: the Buy One, Get One Free. It’s their way to wish you and your family a bright and colorful Diwali. For the occasion, trueroots is offering a Buy One, Get One Free promotion until ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/10/22/trueroots-buy-one-get-one-free-promotion-is-back-2/ Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Navratri. Just as on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone’s Irish, during Navratri, we are all Gujju. For while it is celebrated in many parts of the country, no one does Navratri with as much panache as the Gujaratis. I recall wheedling out passes to some ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/29/nine-nights-of-rapture/  One of my favourite novels is Mary Margaret Kaye’s The Far Pavilions. An epic romance set in 19thcentury British India, the novel is, despite its unabashedly orientalistic tone, a heart-warming story of forbidden love against all odds. The aristocratic British army officer, Ashton Pelham-Martyn falls in love with the beautiful princess ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/26/english-babu-desi-mem/ As you may have seen on the trueroots homepage, trueroots International Calling Service is offering its best promotion: the Buy One, Get One Free. It’s their way to wish you Eid Mubarak and Happy Dusshera. For the occasion, trueroots is offering a Buy One, Get One Free promotion until October 2nd. For ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/26/trueroots-buy-one-get-one-free-promotion-is-back/  The Family Planning Association of the UK has earned the ire of British Indian parents with its latest information booklet Let’s Grow with Nisha and Joe. The Daily News and Analysis reports that the sexual health charity, in a bid to represent Britain’s growing multicultural population, decided to replace the ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/19/the-stork-brought-us-in/ Here’s wishing all our Keralite friends a very happy Onam! May this, the harvest festival, herald a harvest of fortune and felicity in your lives.Desi friends and relatives who have lived abroad for many years tell me that Indian festivals used to be rather difficult to celebrate outside India. Barring a few ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/12/onashamsakal/ One of the most popular desi tracks on the UK charts features none of the scantily-clad dancers, exotic locales or quaint videos that have become de rigueur in music these days. Instead, this unlikely hit features two firemen, some ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’, an important social message and a ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/09/a-smokin%e2%80%99-good-idea/ The next time someone feeds you a tired line about India or Indians being “conservative” or “backward”, here’s a rejoinder to leave them tongue-tied. One of the most popular Indian ringtones worldwide is the “condom a capella” (see report)! An imaginative composition produced by the BBC World Service ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/09/07/is-that-a-phone-in-your-pocket%e2%80%a6/ Tomorrow marks the beginning (for most Muslims) of the holy month of Ramadan. Considered sacred by Muslims primarily because it is the month in which the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, Ramada is also a time of austerity and self-discipline for Muslim people. Fasting from dawn ... http://www.trueroots.co.uk/blog/2008/08/31/time-to-get-chummy-with-muslim-friends/