1503), the cousins reach to embrace — but their bumps are in the way.By arrangement with the Spectator.1408), Elizabeth reaches to touch Mary’s swelling stomach, while her own is concave.Later paintings, inspired by growing Marian devotion, show Elizabeth kneeling before Mary.”Elizabeth’s words become part of the “Ave Maria”, and Mary’s words in reply to Elizabeth — “My soul doth magnify the Lord” — the opening to the “Magnificat” hymn.1505–1510), Mary and Elizabeth stand alone on a rocky outcrop.In the battle of the bumps, though, it is striking how often Mary is winning. It is a moment of shared joy.Falling between the artistically more popular scenes of the Annunciation (Angel Gabriel, ray of divine light, holy dove, bashful, slender Virgin) and the Adoration (shepherds, magi, stars, tumbledown stable, ox, ass, newborn baby), the Visitation is less often chosen as a subject. It is an unusually feminine White dyed fox fur faux fur fabric scene in the life of Mary.The Feast of the Visitation is celebrated on 31 May.1450), their words become scrolling Latin speech bubbles. They are buffeted, but hold hands, quite still in the storm.The Visitation, the moment of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth in Judea to share the news of her pregnancy, is perhaps the loveliest image in the c

In a stained-glass Visitation window from the church of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich (c.1399) has Mary and Elizabeth below a forbidding mountain, a presaging of Calvary, place of Christ’s later crucifixion.The artists who did choose it invest their Visitations with quiet grace.In Jacopo da Pontormo’s Visitation fresco for the Church of SS Annunziata in Florence (1514), Mary bends to steady Elizabeth, worried perhaps that she might not be able to get up again. So pleasing was this composition that carvers of limewood sculptures borrowed it for the folding wings of their altarpieces.In Rembrandt’s Visitation (1640), Elizabeth collapses on Mary, scarcely able to believe she really is pregnant, being so “well stricken” in years.The master of the Pfarrkirche Altarpiece at Mauer, near Melk (c.In the Visitation panel of the great limewood sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider’s altarpiece for the Herrgottskirche in Creglingen (c.In the sculpted Visitation of Reims Cathedral (c.Bump to bump they stand: Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, both pregnant, both apple-cheeked and glowing as expectant mothers should be.And what of the boys? Whether we can see them or not, they are the reason for Mary’s journey from Nazareth.In the manuscript illumination of the Visitation painted by the Boucicaut Master for the Boucicaut Book of Hours (c.Some artists, taken with the idea of the infant John leaping in the womb, actually show the leap. It is heartening to remember that bump iconography didn’t begin with Annie Leibovitz.

Churchmen, however, disapproved and these painted womb babies were banned at the Council of Trent.After the 17th century, sacred themes gave way to secular and the Visitation was seldom painted.1300–1305) and the way Elizabeth clasps Mary’s arms and looks into her eyes.In other Visitation scenes there is foreshadowing of future sorrows.1300–1340), or John kneeling with his hands in prayer, as in the courtly Visitation in the Kremsmünster in Austria (1460).What the women say is as important as their gestures are. The whispered intimacy of “I’m pregnant!” “Me, too!”Joseph and Zacharias stand sheepish in the background, as men do on such occasions. When Mary greets Elizabeth, the Gospel of St Luke tells us, “The babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Today, the bump images we see most often are the portraits and selfies of pregnant celebrities — from Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair to Beyoncé in her scanties on Instagram.One particularly lovely example is Master Heinrich von Konstanz’s walnut wood “The Visitation”(c. Melchior Broederlam’s vignette of the Visitation painted on the shutters of the Champol altarpiece (c. Mary rests her hand protectively on the top of her bump, while Elizabeth covers the lower part with her hand. The baby isn’t his in the conventional sense. Elizabeth wears the then fashionable “stomacher”, a piece of triangular fabric sewn into the front of the bodice to conceal the loosened lacing of expanding waists.  

The wind catches Mary’s draped mantle and blows it behind her. They fit together like yin and yang segments.On the Feast of the Visitation — or the next time a celebrity announces “Twins!” on social media — look at Giotto’s fresco Visitation for the Scrovegni Chapel (c.In Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut “The Visitation” from The Life of the Virgin (c. Joseph has more reason than most to feel left out. Sometimes Mary and Elizabeth embrace, sometimes they stand apart, sizing up each other’s bumps, happy and hormonal.1510) even pinched Dürer’s dog snuffling the ground around Elizabeth’s skirts.Joseph and Zacharias are absent more often than they are present. Elizabeth would have been more than six months’ pregnant with John, and Jesus two months incarnate in Mary’s womb.  

After so many “barren” years, here is Elizabeth, pregnant and beaming with the future John the Baptist. Mary and Elizabeth are given little cutaway “ultrasound” panels in their robes and, there, in a mandorla, or a nest of golden rays, we see Jesus giving a benediction and John waving in return as in the illuminated Visitation from a gradual in the Karlsruhe Badische Landesbibliothek (c. There is none of the fanfare of Gabriel, the pomp of the magi, or the bumpkin awe of the shepherds.Unlike the synthetic stars and hearts of social media, there is true joy. Zacharias has the look of a man overtaken by events. Artists couldn’t resist a hierarchy: the bigger the bump, the closer to God.1230–1250), Elizabeth, visibly more pregnant, looks almost put out that Mary has stolen her thunder.1310) in gilded robes with rock-crystal cabochons — polished gemstones — set into their stomachs like little peep-windows.

The Karni Sena may be a “fringe” group, but a member and office-bearer of India’s ruling party is not.It is said that if a frog is put in tepid water and then the temperature of the water is raised slowly, bringing it to boil, the frog will not jump out or try to escape the boiling water.  

But they did not take one major factor into consideration. While her voice may be lost in the cacophony of violent Pink embossed rabbit hair faux fur fabric outrage against the film, but nevertheless it is a voice.This raises a serious question. He has neither been removed from his post nor arrested for making such threatening statements. It’s another matter that despite all the hue and cry about the Prime Minister following the trolls, he did not unfollow his troll backers who proudly proclaim in their accounts the fact that the Prime Minister follows them.

Till the time of writing this article, no real action has been taken by the BJP against him. People who were never interested in “politics” earlier have started speaking out.India seems to be going through a phase of the boiling frog syndrome. Mob lynchings are becoming so commonplace that they don’t attract serious media attention any longer. First, the credentials of those who adhere to secular values are questioned, calling them “pseudo-seculars”; and then disparaged as “sickular”, now not only is secularism being trashed openly, but it’s almost become a term of abuse. That the people of India are not frogs, they are human and humane. The evolution of a narrative unleashed in gradual measures by extreme right-wing forces on the unsuspecting people of India shows an intricately formulated design that is calculated and deliberate.  

The killing of rationalists, questioning the credibility of each member of “award wapasi” protests, suppressing independent voices of dissent and targeting students who in any society are usually the most rebellious, blatantly communal and poisonous comments by leaders of fringe Hindutva groups as well as some elected ruling party members, all seem to be becoming a part of the everyday reality of “New India”.After the “celebration” of Gauri Lankesh’s murder by some sections of the Twitteratti (some of these accounts being followed by the PM himself), there was a spontaneous movement in the social media to “unfollow” Mr Modi. Yogi Adityanath was once seen as a “fringe” leader, but today he is the chief minister of India’s most populated state. One of the worst possible consequences of communal politics is that it desensitises, and ultimately dehumanises, people.The ultra-right-wing ideologues are operating on a grand narrative to change and destroy the social fabric of India. The vicious atmosphere of hate blinds some people to such an extent that reason and perspective becomes the first casualty. The social media is one platform that is being used effectively by ordinary citizens to raise their concerns and to protest against such atrocities. People have been put behind bars for comments far less offensive.  

How-ever, it was soon followed by a senior Haryana BJP leader, the party’s chief media coordinator in the state, who in his enthusiasm to see Bhansali beheaded doubled the bounty to Rs 10 crores. Are we becoming an intolerant society, and the acts and statements that manifest intolerance are a true reflection of our society; or are we in the process of being desensitised and lulled into complacency in small doses to such an extent that we start accepting the absurdities as real?However, a remarkable and reassuring outcome of this saga of intolerance is the gradual growth of a counter-narrative, not led by politicians, but something that is emerging from ordinary citizens. They are doing it by penetrating key institutions, false propaganda and blatantly divisive politics to polarise society. This is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to recognise or react to threats that arise gradually. Other than giving TV news channels a hot topic of discussion for a few hours, it did not create much of an uproar, and was dismissed by many as dastardly remarks by some fringe elements. What was earlier dismissed as “fringe elements” are now gaining ground, and moving towards occupying the central space of discourse. What’s bizarre about the incident is not just his statement, but the completely tepid reaction from the party he belongs to, that happens to be India’s ruling party. The “Not in My Name’ protests organised in different part of the country by concerned citizens saw massive participation. There’s no reason to believe that those who celebrated Gauri Lankesh’s murder, or for that matter, anyone’s murder, are people born with devil’s horns.The recent murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh was celebrated and justified by social media trolls, some of whom proudly claim to be “followed by the PM” on Twitter. In the raging debate over the film Padmavati, some members of Rajasthan’s Karni Sena announced a `5-crore bounty to behead director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and even threatened to chop off actress Deepika Paduk-one’s nose. In the Padmavati row, for instance, a lady from Rajasthan, herself a Rajput, emphatically spoke out against the movement and the recourse to violence by the Karni Sena, clearly declaring that the Karni Sena doesn’t represent the sentiments of all Rajputs. None of this is sporadic or spontaneous. They are doing it with cleverly planned measures by slowly raising the heat. There is an elaborate, well-planned strategy that is being administered slowly in a bid to desensitise Indian society, trying to legitimise certain acts and trends that would have been considered unthinkable even a few years ago. The scary part of this narrative is that the peripheral is gradually being merged into the mainstream.

They are gradually accepting the fact that looking good and vanity affairs are not just women’s domain. We ask the experts. For guys, one easy and simple way to wear shoes which have a slightly higher heel.For the braver lot, there Beige printed mink Faux Fur Fabrics always lace and wide-legged trousers that camouflage as skirts.

The MET gala is one of the most coveted fashion events of the year; and, this year we saw multi-coloured, flamboyant celebratory outfits from both men and women at the prestigious pink carpet. The success of these looks on men makes us wonder if this could lead to more gender-neutral trends in India as well. Actor Darren Criss wore blue nail paint and heavy makeup with his beaded Balmain jacket, Moschino designer Jeremy Scott wrapped in crystal body chain jewelley showcased his punk side and the most eye-catchy outfit worn by Michael Urie displayed half-male and half-female mashup with a metallic pinstripe suit and pink tulle gown.”. It’s about choosing what you find is comfortable and teaming it up with confidence. From the current generation, Ranveer Singh is one celeb who loves to push the boundaries and experiments a lot. It is also enabling people to enhance their sense of personal style, instead of sticking to the norms. Thanks to the 2019 theme Camp, Notes on Fashion, a vivid range of ensembles were in the limelight. It’s not very difficult to work in a little bit of funk into your wardrobes — think pop-coloured statement ties, shirts with anti-fit silhouettes and statement scarves. Karan Bhardwaj, founder, India Men Show, opines, “There is a collective shift in society where men are encouraged to shed machismo and be more sensitive towards women and society as a whole. Going the gender-neutral way has less to do with looking like a woman and more to do with freedom. The men at MET clearly pushed the boundaries and experimented with trends that were only reserved for women up until now. Tina Walia, an image consultant and stylist, elaborates, “Places like Punjab have both sexes from the older generation sporting the salwar kameez.  

Rajendra Agarwal, MD of Donear Industries, adds, “From monochromatic pairings, fabrics like ikat and crepe to pastels, bright colours, and futuristic styles – menswear is evolving constantly, with special focus on gender-neutral trends. Individuality is the best part about the unisex trend. So it’s not about what the garment is or its flamboyance – it’s about whether it suits your personality. Also given our rich heritage with men’s jewellery in India, men can experiment by wearing earrings and lighter statement pieces of jewellery to create that mix of gender styles. Fashion designer Jeetinder Sandhu suggests, “One can use softer and delicate fabrics and adapt them to classic men’s silhouettes for an interesting contrast of feminine meets masculine style. Trailblazers like David Bowie and Kurt Cobain embraced and celebrated fashion trends that challenged the gender norms of the time.”With the change in our outlook towards binary genders and the rise in androgynous fashion in India and around the world, men can now experiment with some style tips to embrace this cultural change.  This gives the entire industry a wider landscape for experimentation, innovative and gender-fluid designs whilst infusing creative expression in the world of fashion. Creative entrepreneur and style enthusiast Ishaan Bhalla highlights, “Gender is all in your mind, your personality matters more than the clothes you wear. However, young men have started to break the ceiling and are not afraid to experiment. Surprisingly, more than women it was the men at the event, who garnered all the attention for their unique gender bender outfits. Style expert Ritupriya from Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop, says, “Embracing the dichotomy of gender, although a recent idée fixe, is not a new idea per se.  

One can observe a greater invasion of pop culture in urban and rural centers, and youngsters are more exposed to global fashion which they find ‘cool.While Harry Styles shined in his pearl-drop earring and sheer lace blouse from Gucci, Jared Leto walked in crimson Gucci ensemble carrying his own “faux decapitated head” and Billy Porter made a grand Egyptian entry dipped in the top to toe gold bodysuit and wings. I feel it is time that more men experiment with their look and it would be fairly simple to do so if you # played with more colours and choose more patterns/prints (rather than boring solids) all the time.It is a great time to experiment with gender-neutral fashion, especially in India, given how art, fashion, and literature have embraced the entire spectrum of identities.”Gender fluid or neutral fashion is nothing new to our Indian culture as we have all seen images of male royalty dressed in angrakhas, anarkalis and churidar/salwars sporting gorgeous jewellery and no one can question their masculinity.’ There was a discussion at the recently-held India Men Show, where tech expert Rajiv Makhni revealed that he takes 3 hours to get ready and revealed that he wears makeup to enhance looks.

”When it comes to fashion, the degree of gender segregation has reduced exponentially, and going by the looks of it (literally), it is definitely a positive turn of the tide. Today, the beginning of those ideas percolate into a pearl drop earring flaunted by Harry Styles, or cascading bows on Alessandro Michele's suit.”Traditionally, men have been conservative when it comes to public appearances.”Androgynous fashion raised many eyebrows a couple of but now youngsters in India are opening up to off-beat and over-the-top styling elements, courtesy mainstream media and celebrities who promote comfort and fluid styling.

Whether olive drab or hunter, fern or artichoke, subdued shades of green were worked across everything from tailored pieces to smart-casual separates.The writer is a film maker, design junkie, marketing whiz with an eye for fashion, lifestyle and style. Remember, office parties are also a great way of impressing those that hold the puppet strings, with just how “well put together” you are.Designers like Stella McCartney, Ann Taylor, Ted Baker, Micheal Kors, etc; sit smack at the centre and here’s what their dishing out this festive season.  

This time, it was all about neutrals and muted shades, complemented by rich jewel tones. What we can do is give you a set of pointers on how to “kill it” by putting your best foot forward.What has changed drastically over the past years is the definition of appropriate work wear. To say military green is trending in menswear is a bit like calling the devout Pope a Catholic: from cuts to utilitarian details, battlefield uniforms have come to set the foundation of the contemporary wardrobe. These are your peeps, your competition, your break buddies, your car pool Miti Black Rabbit Hair faux fur fabric buddies; that you average 10 hour days with deadlines hanging over your heads like swords.

It’s holiday time and your work place is completely doused in revelry.Toned-down huesSyncing with the New York Fashion Week, forecasters at Pantone released their colour report for the season, predicting that the trending palette for fall will include dried herb, desert sage, stormy weather blue, oak buff, Biscay Bay teal, reflecting pond (a cool blue), cadmium orange, cashmere rose, amethyst orchid and marsala, the Pantone colour of the year for 2015. It’s no longer neck ties and corporate get up. We cover the top trends making impressions on the runway for AW15 work and party wear styles. Fall winter 2015 fashion trends across the globe embrace fabric, texture, fit and structure with more layers and festivity, but muted colours. Perception management people.. We all remember a “drunk Ruby” doing the Macarena from last year’s revelry! While we can give you the old “maintain decorum” speech, that’s pretty much all in your hands.  

You brave through together — the canteen food, evening rush hour, morning hangovers, afternoon lethargy, crisis meetings that never seem to end and endure together the excruciating (read with a grave and ominous baritone) “Death by ppt ”And now, you get to let your hair down and call it a year with your battalion — right  Wrong!Statistically, some of the most embarrassing moments in a person’s professional environment take place in a casual office party, leaving enough ammunition for a year full of gossip till someone tips the scales the year after. Designers seemed to agree, taking a break from sugary winter pastels and bright colour pops that were popular on fall and winter runways in recent years. Some of the leading designers in Europe and America have showcased outfits replete with textures muted colour palettes and layers. With most of the work places taking a “smart casual” approach to work wear, the mix of casual with a hint of formal is what does it.

"Once we were watching a cricket match together.The book features another interesting account, where Mehta talks about Gandhi& Bright feather blue alpaca faux fur fabric "cricketing calibre".However, the connections in terms of reciprocal impact were more intimate, the author writes in the book.Written by Kausik Bandyopadhyay, the book comments on the cricketing brawn and brain of the Mahatma, who, in the words a childhood friend, was "not only a cricket enthusiast, but wielded the willow too".New Delhi: Those familiar with Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography will know that as a school boy Bapu was averse to all forms of physical exercises.

He said the book is an attempt to identify these points of convergence and conflict through intriguing questions like: Did Gandhi ever play cricket? Did cricket ever figure in the Gandhian world of thought? What views did the most important man in the history of India's freedom struggle have on the game that dominates Indian national consciousness in the twenty-first century?Published by Rupa, the yet-to-be released book further navigates twists at Gandhi's most significant comment on cricket against the "communal" Bombay Pentangular tournament in 1940.According to Gandhi's high school mate Ratilal Ghelabhai Mehta, who has been quoted in the book, the political leader was a "dashing cricketer".A new book Mahatma on the Pitch: Gandhi & Cricket in India talks about how the father of the nation enjoyed and embraced the British sport, which went # on to become intrinsic to the national fabric of India.."This was because politics and sports go hand in hand in modern India.But, little is known about his fascination for cricket."

Many a time we played cricket together, and I remember that he was good at batting and bowling, though he had an aversion to physical exercises at school," Mehta said. In those days, there were ding-dong battles between teams of Rajkot city and Rajkot Sadar (camp area).The book begins with Gandhi's pursuit of the sport as a young boy and goes on to chronicle cricket's evolution in India.But, Bandyopadhyay points out that the real occasions of Gandhi's encounters with cricket were very rare, particularly beyond his school days.The book is available for pre-order online for Rs 395. The points of convergence and conflict between Gandhi and cricket, therefore, merit attention and exploration," Bandyopadhyay said."At a crucial moment in the match, as if through intuition, Gandhiji said that a particular player would be out and, hey presto! That batsman was really out," Mehta said.