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The Hindu : Virtual MechanicCar and bike questions? We have the answersI want to buy a Chevrolet vehicle but am unsure which one I should go in for. Shall I buy the Spark or the U-VA?SrinathIf you want a car that’s easy to park and drive and a car which is mostly going to be used in the city, we would suggest the Spark. The U-VA is bigger than the Spark, so we would suggest the U-VA if you are planning to travel on the highway as well.I drive a Tata Indica DL 2000 model. I want to buy a new diesel sedan and my budget is Rs 5-7 lakh. I will use the car for 25km each day within the city. My priorities are mileage, low maintenance costs, good visibility at the front and rear and a comfortable driver’s seat. I am 55 years old and 5.5” tall. Please give me at least two options.V C GnanarajAt your kind of mileage, you could also buy a petrol. Unfortunately, there isn’t much choice in the price bracket mentioned by you apart from the Indigo and the Logan. We suggest you go for the Logan. It may have boxy looks, but it is quite a capable car and fuel efficient as well. If you opt to buy a petrol, then you could look at the Aveo or the SX4 or even the Maruti Swift Sedan which is slated to hit the markets soon.I want to buy a new car and my budget is between Rs 3.5-5 lakh. I have shortlisted the Chevy Aveo U-VA, Hyundai i10, Swift and Wagon R. I will drive within the city and for 70km a week. I want a vehicle that is fuel efficient, comfortable, safe and one that has low maintenance costs. How much does the Chevy Aveo U-VA cost?Palvai SujeethOf the choices given, we would suggest the Swift; it is fuel efficient,…More

The Hindu : Five musicians from Canada held in thrall a small audience of about 150 people this Saturday. Catherine Potter, Bansuri player and disciple of Hariprasad Chaurasia, led the team of musicians comprising Bill Parsons on the guitar, Ravi Naimpally on the tabla, Thom Gossage on drums and Nicholas Caloia on the double-bass. One quaint instrument that few in the audience might have seen before—a little box called a kalimba—was used in one of the pieces performed. Its sounds mixed the timbre of string with the earthy quality of wood. Rattles and bells that seemed like dancer’s payals added to the range of sounds.The programme comprised, in the main, Potter’s own compositions. The Duniya Project has recently released an album in India, and is presently touring the country. The evening’s performance included Gori, a quick-paced, playful piece and Kutila, which includes a dialogue between drums and tabla. The repeated plucking of a single string on the double bass set off a deep, haunting reverberation.There were indications of musical influences from across the world—Balinese music and flamenco, energetic drumming and dialogue between the instruments, the mild-mannered tabla engaging with the powerful drums.The kalimba, an African instrument, was used largely to produce a short sequence of sounds repeated several times over—shut your eyes, and you see a merry caravan of camels swaying across the dunes. The East West Encounter 2008 is on at the Alliance Francaise until February 24. It is a site also for east-east encounters and west-west exchanges. In the audience on Saturday, to witness the Duniya Project from Canada, were the performers of the next day’s concert, the Galatea quartet from Switzerland.Brought to lifeGalatea is a name drawn from Greek mythology. The sculptor Pygmalion made a beautiful woman’s statue in ivory. So beautiful, he fell in love with it and pleaded with goddess Aphrodite to bring it to life. His pleas are heard, and he is…More

The Hindu : Nothing will get you attention on the road like being seated in a massive SUV. In August 2007, we drove the Volvo XC90 in the U.K. and at the time, the car hadn’t yet come to Indian shores. The XC90 has arrived here. Though an impressive SUV, it faces competition from the likes of the BMW X5 and the Audi Q7. Can the Volvo get past such tough competition and make a place for itself in the Indian market?All three SUVs here are diesel-powered and as far as visual drama or impact is concerned, all three will be sure to grab attention. The XC90 has a wide stance and exudes confidence; the BMW has sharp looks as well. However, of the three, it is the Q7 that will garner the most attention and might even invoke fear in the onlooker. And why not? It is a huge vehicle; more than 5 metres long that could easily fit into a living room. The X5 maintains the identity of the earlier car but has a bit too many derivates from the older version. Therefore, the new car can easily be confused as the older, face-lifted X5. At the rear, it is the XC90 that wins; its tall lights and the exquisite detailing make you go ‘wow’.Enough spaceThe XC90 is for those who prefer space more than others things. It has the width of the Volvo B7R (intercity bus) and it also has the most comfortable front seats of the three cars. But, while Volvo scores high on space, the best-quality interiors belong to the BMW. You won’t find any cheap bits on the X5 and the brushed metal, wood and leather are of top quality and everything is solidly built. The X5 comes with a chunky steering wheel and everything from the central console to the power controls works efficiently. The 5-series-like ‘tap-for-shift’ gear selector is almost…More

The Hindu : The car pulls up briefly at the makeshift wooden rack under a tree by the roadside.With the 100 rupee note held between the tips of the index and the middle finger, the arm stretches out the car window.Money and roses exchange hands, windows roll up and the car speeds off, its occupants already late for the wedding reception.So perfunctory and impersonal a deal – for something that brings so much joy and fragrance with them.Maybe that’s alright as a wedding gift where your bouquet would get piled up behind the newly-married couple’s ‘thrones’ with hundreds of others.Trendspotters say flowers are gaining favour as gifts. Different occasions, different audiences, different tastes… Hence different flowers.From anthurium, oriental lilies orchids and chrysanthemums to carnations and gladioli, the options are endless. If he says “she loves arranging flowers at home,” the suggestion would be to pack a bunch of long stemmed flowers of different varieties, says Prabhjot of Orchids Florists“Repeat customers customise their purchase to their audience’s personal preferences, moods, occasions etc, and we help them make their choice in an unhurried way,” she says.Flowers are fast replacing other traditional gifts like chocolate hampers, sweets etc. Flowers don’t offend the health conscious. And they convey only value and not price.Hence flowers can pass as a harmless, goodwill gift without the lurking suspicion of Rs. 500 notes being somewhere underside the box.And it’s not the flowers alone. The presentations have seen the creative juices flow.The base of the bouquet may be of naturally carved driftwood, tree barks, cane or bamboo baskets, folded mats, or glass vases. The shapes of the bases range from round to oval, from canoe shaped to tall tumbler shaped.The fillers – Causarina, Eucalyptus, ribbed palm leaves, asparagus, statis, Song of India… with painted dried plants, gauzed cloth, coloured dried bamboo twigs, dried coconut fibre… all these sprinkled with glitter jewel dust in shiny pink, red, blue.This…More

The Hindu : Hardly a week passes by without a book launch these days. But it does not necessarily mean availability of a good range. And herein, author-poet Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s new book, “Generation 14” becomes important. Pune-based Priya’s “Generation 14” is science fiction bordering on political satire.Her protagonist is a 14th generation clone tagged 14/54/G living in the 24th Century. Unlike her counterparts, she has a memory chip by default. Published jointly by Penguin and Zubaan, Priya says the book took almost eight years to complete. “I have been fascinated by cloning. Also, with our fast-paced life now, and the information overload, certain questions came up. Like, how does the information overload affect us? Do we have time to think?” elaborates Priya.Though Priya has already penned two novels and many poems, this is the first time she has tried science fiction. Though no names cometo her mindwhen talking about writers that might have influenced her, she says, “It is mostly films based on that genre”.Priya calls her narrative, “a book of speculative possibilities”. Being a poet, her lines are evocative, her style lyrical. Fascinated by our fables where all living beings talk, Priya, has given voice to a fish in Varanasi in the 11th Century, a parrot in the 1850s, a figure of a little boy in the Ajanta caves, etc. “This is to talk about our forgotten voices, how they lived, what they thought.”SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY…More

The Hindu : Prathibha Shankar, a student of commerce is of the opinion that “we probably understand history better through movies since motion pictures are way more interesting than lectures and text books.However, one cannot gain all knowledge from a historical movie as most of the content is edited and condensed. After all, one cannot expect to see or know everything in such a short span of time.”Whether it the boredom that arises from the utterance of the very word “history,” or the willingness to accept anything offered to us, such movies are a boon for filmmakers who can laugh all the way to the bank thanks to those who prefer their daily dose of history from a glitzy, glittery film rather than a tome….More

The Hindu : The flying machineThe new Nissan GT-R is powerful, fast and everything a sports car should beMy heart beat fast, there werebutterflies in my stomach and I was trying to breathe with difficulty, I whisked around the Sendai Highland Raceway in Japan seated in the new Nissan GT-R. The reason for my heightened state was the fact that the car Iwas in has 473bhp. 200bhp is fast, 300 needs your undivided involvement and every 50bhp after that is a big, big step up. Green light on the pit lane exit? Time to place the beautifully-made accelerator pedal into the carpet.The GT-R flies off the blocks and reels in the short straight — whaaam! It’s at the end of the straight even before my brain can catch up, and I pedal back a bit for the next few corners. Still, even when using only 80 per cent throttle, the GT-R is tearing towards the next corner, the rate of acceleration continuously flying up and up, never peaking, as the dual-clutch gearbox pre-selects the next gear and shifts up with zero let-up. It slams you back in the seat and pins you there, as you ride the stream of never-ending jet engine-like thrust! This sledgehammer performance is concentrated to the upper reaches of the power-band; the performance of the GT-R after 4000rpm is so strong, your gritty grin is part fear, part thrill. There is no way I’m using maximum available power.The twin-turbo 3.8-litre motor that powers the GT-R has been tuned to spin hard and fast and as a result, the car has brilliant straight-line stability, can get from 0-100kph in just 3.5 seconds and can go as fast as 312kph. In addition, the fact that it has a lightning-quick, DSG-style gearbox is also part of the reason for the fantastic pace this car has. Given the massive power this car possesses, it is a good thing…More

The Hindu : Outside, looking inC.K. MEENASanity is a question of degree. What is madness but a disruption of the norm? Society has little tolerance for deviantsThe thick, lightly-tinted, double-panelled glass door was closed and a lone employee, M, sat working inside, the light shining in her cabin. I was outside, half an hour early for a weekend film screening. No one else was around and so I thought I would say hello to M.I tried the door. It wouldn’t open. No lock was visible, but a blinking red light told me it was one of those new security systems. I didn’t remember it being there on my earlier visits when the door would be wide open and people wandering about. I moved closer to the glass and waved to M, who was in plain view. Couldn’t she see me? I knocked on the door as hard as I could. Clearly, she couldn’t hear me either.I sat, solitary, on one of the stone benches and stared at the wall. After a while I decided to go upstairs to sit in the auditorium. A similar glass door, but without a swipe-card system, was rock-solid shut. Had I come on the wrong day? It was only 20 minutes to the screening.I went back to meditating on the bench. After five minutes a young woman arrived. She wanted to meet M. “There she is,” I said, pointing, and as the woman automatically approached the door I added, “But you can’t go inside.” I gestured to the security device. She looked at her watch and said, “I’m supposed to meet her now.” We looked at each other and smiled. The absurdity of the situation had slowly dawned on us. So near, yet so far.Ask the watchman to call her on the intercom, I suggested. She went out to the gate and came back in saying incredulously, “He says nobody by that name…More

The Hindu : KN never received an award, nor can his work be described as path breaking,” wrote Praveen Bhargav, Trustee, Wildlife First, in Sanctuary Asia magazine reminiscing about Krishna Narain, a well-known conservationist who died in tragic circumstances on February 10, 2007. “He was just a simple individual who doggedly soldiered on for wildlife. He lived for wildlife and constantly dreamt about securing a future for endangered species.”The K N Memorial Nature Photo Exhibition 2008 organised by a closely-knit community of wild-life enthusiasts, photographers and other professionals who were close to Narain, concluded on February 10 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat. The exhibition which had three sections: Natural History, Wildlife Conservation and Forest Landscapes, was outcome of an all-India photo-contest which received more than 750 entries from two hundred plus photographers.On display was a wide range of animals and birds in their natural habitat. The spotlight was shared by two splendid photographs: S Mallikarjuna’s Black Buck (Albino) with Female (The Best of Show prize winner) showing the fastest of the Indian antelopes, and Debdoot Basu’s “Well Protected” presenting a chimp cuddling to its hairy parent (Additional Special Jury award.)Among other eye-catching works were Amitava Das’ “Bull Frog” Vijaykumar Prabhu’s mating tigers, Dhritiman Mukherjee’s Chinkaras in desert, M. N. Jayakumar’s picture of a sharp beaked and wide winged hawk, A. N. Siva’s flamingoes and Dinesh Kumble’s “Whispering Couple”.Murali Kumar K. of The Hindu had two arresting award-winning photographs at the show. In “Forest Disappeared” (Wildlife Conservation category), a lone elephant walking in a vast green field where the left over barks of recently chopped trees were evidence of deforestation. In contrast, his Best Flora Award winner, “Orchids of West Sikkim”, was a joyous picture of blossoming flowers.T. N. A. Perumal’s superbly lit and composed picture of Nigiri Tahrs against the setting of undulating hills, and Dhritiman Mukherjee’s aerial shot of Singalila National Park were among other pictures which made…More

The Hindu : Lucknow ’76”, a play set across 100 years of Indian history, from 1876 to 1976 opens at the M.L.R. Convention Hall, J.P. Nagar 7th Phase on February 13. Directed by Abhishek Majumdar, and devised by an ensemble of actors, the play looks at the lives of common people in Lucknow in 1876, when Queen Victoria took over from the East India Company as the empress of India and in 1976 when Indira Gandhi imposed press censorship during the national emergency. The play looks at the effects that history has on common people.The play will later go to Ranga Shankara on March 1 at 7.30 p.m. and March 2, 3.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.“Lucknow ’76” is in aid of Concern India Foundation, a non-profit public charitable trust which was started in 1991, to help make every underprivileged individual self-reliant. For tele-bookings call 98456 02265…More