London Diary

Ashes get Fry'd'

Most British Indians would fail the Lord Tebbit's cricket test where he said 'the loyalty of British could be measured by who they supported in international cricket matches', when it comes to India playing. But that does not hold true when the Ashes are played. Leading up to the Ashes, hopes were not high, but as the tournament began, and England's magnificent performance took centre stage, all cricket fans united behind Alistair Cook's team. Interestingly, Stephen Fry, a known cricket fanatic had recently teamed up with MCC, the custodians of the Ashes to create a video animation, borrowing inspiration from Monty Python's Flying Circus — in which Fry calls the Ashes a love story of how a small perfume jar became the Small But Special symbol of the rivalry between England and Australia. Last week, Fry made a different note. He posted on twitter: "If I weren't already married, I think I might propose to @StuartBroad08 or, if turned down @joeroot05." Wonder what his 27 year-old husband Elliot Spencer would say to that! One of Britain's celebrity power couples, the pair were spotted taking a romantic stroll in New York recently, where Fry was shooting for the future blockbuster The Brits Are Coming. 

Porn and politics

Since the news of porn ban in India broke, jokes have been circulating everywhere. Buzzfeed UK published a series of mostly funny twitter comments, including, by one Jose Cavaco, who posted: "I knew it. The porn ban is a hoax. See for yourself. Close your eyes. Imagine porn. It's still working." All of us know about some Indian politicians caught watching porn in the assembly but it seems to be normal practice pretty much everywhere. More than a year ago, the Palace of Westminster released records that gave figures for porn watching in the British parliament, with wide variations, ranging from 114,844 in November to 15 in February. The decline in February was because that's when parliament is in recess. Nearly 300,000 "attempts to access websites categorised as pornography" were made from computers within parliament in the past year, official records showed. The staggering figure, comes to an average of more than 800 per day. It covers devices linked to the parliamentary network, including those used by MPs and peers, their staff and other employees. Not surprisingly, officials sought to play down the significance of the total, insisting it was inflated by pop-ups, auto-refresh and other web design features and did not reflect deliberate efforts to access sexual content.

Match for Muslims

Internet dating has become a common phenomenon the world over. Right from various speed dating sites to Tinder and the popular Indian ones like shaadi.com, there are several speed dating events for Asians in this country. But a young Muslim former investment banker in London, Shahzad Younas, 31, saw great scope for encouraging Muslim dating after he found that his young Muslim friends were finding it difficult to find marriage partners. His research showed that existing Islamic marriage websites were not really effective, as most were either very slow, unproductive or expensive. During his research he found that marriage websites among young, professional Muslims were becoming less popular, with some having a "bad reputation" and attracting people who were "not seriously interested" in getting married.

So he went about, not just helping but making a business of it and created MuzMatch, a mobile app which he says "caters for any Muslim looking to get married". The app, available for iPhone and Android devices, was modelled after Tinder to make it easy to use and allows users to customise their preferences, search for prospective partners based on their locations, and includes the "swipe right" feature to show interest. According to Younas, MuzMatch uses features akin to a matchmaking event at a mosque including giving an option of whether someone wears a hijab or is looking for a devout Muslim and other such specifics according to the faith. Once a right match is made, users have the option of including a relative to act as a custodian for women looking to get married. Apparently, since its launch at the end of last year about 12,000 Muslims have signed up to it and over 100 have met their life partners through the app.

India at Edinburgh Fringe

The Edinburgh Fringe festival is on in full swing. And there are several Indian participations. Gurpal Gill, the London-based stand-up comedian is making his debut at the festival. His act is an elegantly interlaced character comedy, stand-up and film as he unravels the heroic story of India's Strongest Man (1982) and the pathetic story of Gurpal Gill (2015). The festival will also be treated to a musical meeting of Swedish waltzes and polkas and Bangalore passion, grace and fire in a superb communion by Nordic Raga which was nominated in the category of Cross Cultural Project of the Year at the National Folk & World Music gala of Sweden, earlier this year. The group experiments with bringing more improvisation into Nordic folk music. For this they use models of improvisation in classical Indian music, but use Nordic scales and rhythms. Interestingly they are also premiering the Indian Carnatic violin music being performed on the clog fiddle, a traditional form of violin made of a wooden shoe, traditionally only found in Southern Sweden. Then there is a performance from India, Ticket to Bollywood. The performance is staged by artistes from India showcasing a Bollywood experience. Conceptualised and directed by Shubhra Bhardwaj of Ferriswheel Entertainment, the show encompasses the gamut of Indian culture with its glitzy costumes and jewellery, dazzling colours and the visuals and sounds of Bollywood.