Ooh la la la

I freely admit it--I have a fascination with India. Though I've never been (I am planning a trip, however) I am in love with the art, culture, music, history, and spirituality of India. I am especially fond of "Bollywood" film and soundtracks. I have an extensive A. R. Rahman collection which never leaves my I-Pod.

I suspect that I am not alone in this obsession, so I thought I'd pass along a link to a new 13 episode TV show called "Ooh la la la." This is a Indian reality TV show where A. R. Rahman judges contestants to find the next big-hit band for his recording label. The website posts the episodes for free viewing, and there are downloads and lots of other fun stuff.

In the same vein, I would also like to recommend the Internet music station, DeSi-RaDiO. This is an awesome station for those of us the enjoy Hindi and Urdu music. After you register you can request songs from their extensive library, engage in chats with other members, and watch the weekend movie. Its free and a lot of fun.

Lastly, since I do want to visit India, and I want to thoroughly enjoy all that this amazing country has to offer, I have been VERY SLOWLY attempting to learn Hindi. I have several books, Pimsler CDs, and there is a terrific website that has really been a great help. Its called A Door Into Hindi and it was developed by a doctoral student with the University of North Carolina. This is a free program which starts with the Devanagari script and teaches writing, reading, and understanding though listening. It is by far the best free language-teaching program that I have found.

I hope these suggestions lead other like me to wonderful new discoveries. If you have a favorite Hindi/Indian website, product, etc. that you would like to recommend to me, please leave me a comment. I would love to expand my repertoire.