Daily Pampering: Oberoi’s take on India

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you’re going to go all the way to India, you need to make the trip worth it. So, don’t waste your time thinking about short stays. Oberoi Hotels & Resorts is offering a new deal: “Oberoi Exotic Vacations. From April 16 to September 30, 2010, you’ll be able to spend at least eight nights at one of its properties in India and enjoy breakfast for two every day, an additional room for two kids (free), a car to take you from the local airport or train station to the hotel, yoga sessions and a 25 percent spa discount. Stay at least 10 nights, and you’ll be upgraded to a suite automatically (based on availability, of course).

You’ll have your choice of cities in India. Oberoi properties in New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ranthambhore and Kolkata are participating, as well as the Wildflower Hall, Shimla in the Himalayas. Packages start at $3,050 for an eight-night stay. If you’re paying to go all the way to India, do it big.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Lindsay Lohan rescues child laborers in India…or not

by Katie Hammel on

Looks like miss Lindsay Lohan has gone on a little “liecation” recently.

The actress/singer/celebrity trainwreck posted a message on Twitter that made it sound like she personally took part in a raid that saved child laborers in India while there filming a documentary for the BBC. “Over 40 children saved so far…Within one day’s work…This is what life is about…Doing THIS is a life worth living!!!”

But according to the New York Daily News, the charity that performed the raid in New Delhi said Lohan wasn’t even in India at the times. A rep for the BBC came to Lohan’s defense and said that her tweet never said that Lohan personally was there. It’s all just a misunderstanding, she said.

Maybe…or maybe Lindsay just didn’t follow Scott’s advice about how to create the perfect liecation and not get caught.

Pilots and crew brawl at 30,000 feet because of a flight attendant

by Jamie Rhein on

The wide open skies turned into the Wild West on an Air India flight when the pilots and crew started fist-fighting. The plane was heading to New Delhi from Sharjah, UAE when the altercation that had started before the plane took off heated up.

This was not a remake of the 1980’s movie Airplane, although the scenario that unfolded at 30,000 feet sounds as if it could be. Picture an Airbus A-320 bouncing around in the skies, if you will.

The fight started when one of the pilots supposedly molested one of the female flight attendants. In response to the allegation, the pilot and the co-pilot and two of the crew members threw punches in a display of fisticuffs that began in the cockpit and spilled out into the galley.

As they looked on, the 106 passengers probably wondered what the heck was going on and who exactly was flying the plane, as in should one of them offer to take control.

By the end of the incident that has subsequently grounded the four brawlers, one of the female flight attendants and one of the co-pilots did end up with bruises. There is an investigation as to what happened exactly. Sorting out who did what may not be all that difficult considering there were eyewitnesses.

I’m wondering if beverage service was disrupted. It sounds like this would have been a flight to add popcorn into the snack option. You can read more about this truth is stranger than fiction story here.

Julia Roberts angers villagers in India during a Hindu holiday

by Jamie Rhein on

When Julia Roberts and her film crew took over a temple in Pataudi, a small town south of New Delhi, India last week, the locals weren’t too happy about it. Perhaps if the timing of the temple’s film shoot for “Eat, Pray, Love” had been better planned there wouldn’t have been an issue.

Instead, it seems that the folks who scouted out the temple as a location didn’t do their homework about when taking over the temple would be less problematic for the people who use the temple for it’s original purpose–praying and worship. Navaratri, an important nine-day religious festival was happening at the same time of the filming of Robert’s latest project.

This snafu created a mess of bad feelings.

Coinciding with the beginning of autumn, Navaratri’s purpose is for people to worship manifestations of the Divine Mother. It’s one of the most important Hindu holidays. Because Julia and her gang had taken the temple over, no one was allowed in, thus the villagers weren’t able to worship there–something they’ve done every Navaratri, I’m sure, ever since the temple was built.

Navaratri is centered on three Hindu goddesses: Durga, the warrior goddess; Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity; and Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. If they had been able to access the temple, the villagers would have been offering prayers for the protection of health and prosperity.

Ironically, it seems as if Roberts has been able to access the power of two of those goddesses–Durga and Lakshmi just fine which possibly has led the villagers to wonder if she is making a movie that ought to be called “Eat, Pray, Love–but Not Here.”

The goddess that Robert’s and gang should have spent a little more time accessing is Saraswati. Knowledge about a culture goes a long way when traversing holy ground.

Hopefully, Roberts and the producers have figured out some way to make amends. At the time of this BBC article, the people in charge of filming weren’t talking about the issue. The villagers certainly were.

Yesterday, Navaratri ended with Dussera which celebrates the victory of good over evil and the motherhood of God.

In case any location folks want to film in a Hindu temple, here’s a link to the BBC resource, “Religion and Ethics tools.” It tells when the Hindu holidays will occur through 2013.

Crane falls in India: A thought about geography lessons and missed opportunities

by Jamie Rhein on

Tucked into the news this morning, in the midst of seemingly endless Michael Jackson news and the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, was a quick story about cranes falling over in India. The cranes were being used to clean up the debris caused from a flyover that had collapsed.

It wasn’t that a flyover had fallen, or that cranes had tipped over that had caught my attention as much as the words “in India.” If you’ve ever looked on a map, you know just how big India is. As a person who lived there for two years and managed to see quite a bit, even according to Indians, I can vouch for the diversity and expansiveness. As much as I saw, I only saw a fraction of what India has to offer.

When the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007, the news didn’t say that a bridge collapsed in the United States. The specific location was noted. I would bet that when the news about that bridge was announced in India, The word “Minneapolis” was part of the footage.

It can’t be that the name of the city would take up that much extra time? Or that people in the United States wouldn’t be interested in the particular name of the city in India. It’s one I would hope they’d recognize if they heard it. One would hope. It’s the capital.

New Delhi. That’s where the tipped over cranes are—along with the collapsed flyover and the six people who died because of the first mishap. With the cranes collapse, four people were injured. Here’s the article about the accident in the Times of India.

Perhaps the reason why Americans, like Kellie Pickler, for example, do so poorly in geography quizzes is that opportunities to educate us get lost in the shuffle of other news. Michael Jackson, from what I’ve heard, took loads of Xanex. And in case you didn’t know, Neverland is in California, and Michael isn’t buried there–supposedly.