MYROYALS BLOG: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

NEXT DAY AFTER THE WEDDİNG OF ZARA PHİLLİPS & MİKE TİNDALL

British Royal Family leave Holyrood Palace after the marriage on Saturday between Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall,

photos(daylife:getty images)

Club News

Rainbow Stamp News : August 2011 Issue No. 44

Hi ! I have just published August Issue of Rainbow Stamp News on Blog. It can be viewed at following link :

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Philatelic Tributes to Munshi Prem Chand and Mohd Rafi ..

Today is Birth anniversary of Munshi Prem Chand, greatest writer of Hindi – Urdu literature and Death anniversary of Mohd Rafi, finest singer Indian Cinema . Philatelic Tributes to great legends of Literature and Music.

Munshi Premchand (July 31, 1880 – October 8, 1936) was a famous writer of modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is generally recognized in India as the foremost Hindi-Urdu writer of the early twentieth century. He wrote novels, stories and dramas. He is known as "Upanyas Samrat" which means a great emperor among novel writers.

His real name was Dhanpat Rai but he is famous with his pen name of Premchand or Munshi Premchand. He was born in Pandepur , a village near Banaras (now Varanasi). His early education was in a madarasa under a Maulavi, where he learnt Urdu. In 1919, while he was a teacher at Gorakhpur, he passed his B.A., with English, Persian and History.

He pioneered the new art form - fiction with a social purpose. He wrote of the life around him and made his readers aware of the problems of the urban middle-class and the country's villages and their problems. He supplemented Gandhiji's work in the political and social fields by adopting his revolutionary ideas as themes for his literary writings. Premchand was a prolific writer.

Premchand wrote about three hundred short stories and fourteen novels, as well as many essays and letters, plays and translations. Many of Premchand's stories have themselves been translated into English and Russian.

Godaan (The Gift of a Cow), his last novel, is considered one of the finest Hindi novels. The protagonist, Hori, a poor peasant, desperately longs for a cow, a symbol of wealth and prestige in rural India. The story depicts the human beings' deep-rooted beliefs, and their ability to survive and uphold these beliefs despite great misery

In Kafan (Shroud), a poor man collects money for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food and drink.

Premchand died in 1936 and has since been studied both in India and abroad as one of the greatest writers of the century.Three of his novels have been made into films.

Mohammed Rafi

Philatelic Tribute to the Legendary Indian Playback Singer, Mohammed Rafi whose rich melodious voice, attract the older and the newer generations day by day.

Mohd Rafi was one the most versatile singers of Hindi Cinema. He was born at Kotla Sultan Singh, a village near Amritsar in Punjab. Rafi, whose nickname was Pheeko, started singing by imitating chants of a fakir in his village. . Rafi learnt classical music from Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and Firoze Nizami.

Rafi's first public performance came at the age of 13, when he was allowed to sing at a concert in Lahore featuring K. L. Saigal. In 1941, Rafi, under Shyam Sunder, made his debut in Lahore as a playback singer in the duet "Soniye nee, Heeriye nee" with Zeenat Begum in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch (the film was released in 1944). In that same year, Rafi was invited by All India Radio Lahore station to sing for them. He made his professional debut in the Shyam Sunder-directed 1941 film Gul Baloch and the Bombay film, Gaon Ki Gauri, the following year.

Rafi also did brief roles in movies like Laila-Majnu (1945) and Jugnu. In Laila-Majnu, he was seen singing ‘tera jalwa’ as a part of the chorus.In a career spanning about 40 years, Rafi sang over 26,000 film songs. His songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans, and from slow melancholic tunes to fast and melodious fun filled songs. He sang in many Indian languages.

Royal Fashion Awards: Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall's Wedding

My favorite Twitter hashtag for this event has been #BigFatScottishWedding. There's no better summary of this perfectly royal non-royal affair. We've got new clothes, old clothes, hat madness, players going rogue, and awards galore:

Best Repeat

The Duchess of Cambridge

As predicted by everyone (give the reader to your right a pat on the back), Kate repeated yet again today. But if you're gonna repeat, this is the way to do it: we've seen this before, more than once, but not so recently as to smack us with a case of déjà vu, and she's spiced it up with a new chapeau. A new chapeau that I love, by the way. But then again, I love anything that inches us closer to a proper hat and away from forehead-bolted fascinators. (P.S.: Yes, I do know some of these ladies and gents have Scottish titles. We're gonna keep it simple, though.)

Best Try

Princess Beatrice

Vibrant color: check. Excellent detailing: check. Shiny new outfit made special for your cousin's wedding: check. That usual Yorkie desire to reach in and tug the jacket for her: check. Upturned teacup hat: check with accompanying tears. Good try, though, Bea. (Interesting tidbit: both York girls were dressed for the day by Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser and designer. Granny's solution to avoiding another airborne commode seat debacle?)

Worst Butt Bow

Princess Eugenie

It's like she saw how often you lot have been chatting about butt bows, and thought: "I'll show them!" Either that, or somebody's mum got hold of Ms. Kelly. Is this the biggest butt bow you've ever seen? Seriously, this can't be comfortable to sit in.

Best Explosion

The Duchess of Cornwall

Well, somebody had to bring the crazy in hat land. And this repeated detonation of prairie wildlife will do just fine. Really, though, she wore my favorite choker ever, so my hands are tied.

Worst Straight Jacket

Princess Anne

I see the beginnings of a kicky coral party dress under there...shame she topped it off with such an ill-fitting upholstery remnant. She does get extra cute points in the mother of the bride category: see her waving Zara and Mike off here. Awwww. Now, that's one proud mama.

Best Rule Breaker

Lady Sarah Chatto

Me: I thought you weren't supposed to wear white to a wedding.

Lady Sarah: I know, but there was an emergency. I look really good in white.

Most in Need of Some Rule Breaking

Autumn Phillips

Speaking of Autumn...this is just a business suit topped with a beach hat! It's like the wedding guest equivalent of what she did with her own wedding gown: business in front, bow in the back. Perfectly appropriate, but kind of sad at the same time.

Most Typical

Queen Elizabeth

Per usual, the Queen is classy and so forth. But: tremendously typical for such a special day. A second candidate for Autumn's prize, I feel.

Best Dressed

The Countess of Wessex

You guys, I think I'm developing a bit of a girl crush on Sophie here. She's my best dressed of the day, not just for her lovely pale pink ensemble with a hint of a sparkly party dress underneath, but for her overall efforts these past months. I'm loving it!

Best in Gents: Elder Generation

The Prince of Wales

Left to Right: the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, Tim Laurence

I sort of love it when Prince Charles insists on marching to the beat of his own drummer and wearing his all-gray morning suit. Don't ask me why.

Best in Gents: Next Generation

Prince Harry

L to R: the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Mike Tindall, Peter Phillips, Dave Clark

Well, they all look dashing, groom included. (With a special welcome to Princess Beatrice's boyfriend, Dave Clark, who was looking chummy enough this weekend to earn a spot amongst the royal men.) But come on...it's Harry.

Who made your best and worst dressed lists for Zara and Mike's wedding?

Photos: Getty Images/Daylife/PA/Daily Mail/Mark Cuthbert/ABACAUSA.com/Matt Keeble/Splash News/Reuters/Picture Press Europe/SIPA

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall's Wedding: The Bride and Attendants

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall tied the knot in Edinburgh today, and as expected, the bride wore a Stewart Parvin creation. The gown, from one of the Queen's favorite courtiers, was a traditional yet unfussy look for this athletic royal bride.

The ivory dress is made of silk faille and silk duchess satin. Silk tulle sleeves cap a structured corset bodice with an empire waist detail and chevron pleats. The bodice ends with inverted pleats opening into a bell-shaped skirt with a contrasting band at the hemline. The full skirt includes concealed pockets.

On the back of the gown, fabric-covered buttons extend all the way to the hemline. The dress doesn't have much of a train, all the better I suppose since Zara didn't have much assistance exiting the car and entering the church. Underneath it all: Jimmy Choo shoes.

She wore a cathedral-length silk tulle veil that included a voluminous blusher covering her tiara for her entrance. And as it turns out, my tiara dreams came true: she borrowed the Meander Tiara (also known as the Greek Key Tiara and other such variations) from her mother, the Princess Royal. (See full details on the tiara here.) She also borrowed a pair of her mother's diamond earrings. (Hat tip to @liltinglimes on Twitter for recognizing them from Anne's famous Vogue cover.)

Zara's hair was done by Evangelos Tsiapkinis from the Michael John salon (which, correct me if I'm wrong here, was the same salon that did Princess Anne's hair for her wedding way back when), and Bobbi Brown did her makeup. The hair, makeup and tiara are my favorite part. Stunning.

In many ways, this dress reminds me of Zara's sister-in-law Autumn's wedding gown. It's not particularly unique, nor is it extremely memorable. But it suits the bride, and as with Autumn, the same rule applies: she's glowing and happy, and that overrides everything else.

Zara was accompanied by her maid of honor, Dolly Maude, wearing a dove gray Stewart Parvin gown in duchess satin, and four bridesmaids wearing white dresses from dressmaker Sue Palmer with button closures on the back and sashes with bows. The page boy wore a Balmoral Tartan kilt.