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The Hindu : Women on Wanderlust (WOW) is organising a six night-seven day tour for women travellers to Turkey, starting April 19 from Mumbai.The tour will include Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia, Grand Bazaar, a belly dance, a full day city tour including Blue Mosque, Suleymeniye Mosque, Hippodrome and Topkapi Palace.Then there’s a visit to Kayseri and Cappadocia, which is home to a bizarre field of anthill-like cones, rock-hewn churches and underground cities where Christians once hid to avoid persecution.The tour then moves to Konya and Pamukkale to see a geographical fairyland that the Turks have dubbed “cotton castle”. Also on the cards is a visit to Mevlana Museum.A half day tour of Denizli and then a drive to Kusadasi for a little bit of “people watching”, this leg of the tour takes you to the place situated on the west coast of Turkey.Kusadasi is one of the most attractive coastal cities of the Aegean Sea. Palm-lined boulevards lead to perfect beaches where you can look out for the sailing yachts. Then move to Ephesus, the best-preserved classical city on the Mediterranean and perhaps the best place in the world to get the feeling for what life was like in Roman times.The last day takes you to Izmir, Istanbul, and back to Mumbai.The package costs Rs. 71,950 per person on twin share. Single occupancy is Rs. 7,500 extra. The package includes two nights in Istanbul, one night in Cappodocia, one night in Pammukale, two nights in Kusadasi. All meals will be provided on the tour. Morning tea/coffee, mineral water and any other food and beverages, apart from those indicated are extras. There will be an English-speaking guide. It also includes all transfers, excursions, sightseeing as per WOW itinerary, and international flights ex-Mumbai and internal Turkey flight, all taxes, and Turkish visa.WOW buddy Aparna will accompany the group from India. The fare does not include telephones calls, insurance, laundry, tips,…More

The Hindu : For the love of teachingTeacher Veni Sukumar is angered by a quote on one of the most revered professions and rushes to defend itYesterday I came across a quote purportedly said by an eminent personality. It said “People who can – achieve, but people who can’t – teach”. Being a teacher and loving my profession, I took it as a personal insult and so here I am venting my ire.Isn’t the quote very presumptuous? Agreed that knowledge can be gained through books, but who will decipher it to us? Let’s start with who is a teacher. The dictionary says it’s one who imparts information and skills to people on a subject. Isn’t that a very insipid and watered down version of actuality? Apart from teaching a subject, a teacher also grooms students to face real life situations. If we have a lot of achievers today, it’s because they were groomed properly by their teachers.So many successful people have been teachers in their lives.Einstein, Gregor Mendel, and closer home Dr. Radhakrishnan, Sir C.V. Raman, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, were not only teachers par excellence, but also achievers extraordinaire. So how can I ever agree to that comment?I take the liberty to change the quote as “Those who can – achieve and those who love – teach”.Teaching is one field where the criterion is not the degrees you garner, but love for the subject, for the profession and for the children, which matter a lot.The best part of this profession is that one doesn’t age mentally because one is always among children.The subject and topic may be the same but the response is always varied. Hence there is no diminishing utility or ennui as in other professions. I end this tirade with another quote of my own — “Those who can – achieve, those who are blessed – teach!”Do you have anything to say? About the state of…More

The Hindu : Vaishali Bisht is presenting an evening of theatre – “Face Off” – based on the various phases of a woman’s life and “Write, Right and Rite” – dealing with today’s world of infinite choices this evening at 7.30 p.m. at Ranga Shankara, No. 36/2 8th Cross, J.P. Nagar Phase II. “Face Off” is a set of five dramatic sketches – “One” will focus on a divorced woman who is caught between her own traditional and modern outlooks. “Waiting for Mr. Right” is an exploration of a woman’s expectations set in the luxury and languor of a zenana boudoir. “Man of my Dreams” is a comic monologue of a teenage girl who has to deal between social acceptance and the need for recognition and love.“Tit for Tat” looks at the predicament of a woman in the corporate world where success and growth are defined by masculine values and standards. “An Affair to Remember” looks at romance from myriad emotions. “Write, Right and Rite” looks at a writer who is frozen in the stranglehold of writer’s block and attempts to choose her path along with the many parts of herself who emerge as characters, each one eager to be the one who will dominate Prerna’s choices and actions.For details and tickets, call 26592777/26493982….More

The Hindu : Nicole Kidman is set to be the latest pin-up girl of Indian fashion. The stylish Oscar-winning Australian actor wore the creation of designers Rahul Jain and Gunjan Arora for a cause at a fashion show in Melbourne.“The Golden Compass” star with other celebrity models walked the ramp last week. The auction proceeds of which willbe donated to the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.The designer duo is obviously elated at the red-headed Kidman modelling their creation. “She wore a long ladies’ jacket, more like the Indian sherwani. It had a variety of colours, the base of which is blue with red and yellow,” says Rahul.The Indian touch was accentuated with the large black bindi the actor wore. The dress worn by Kidman with 16 others were auctioned off after the show.Rahul and Gunjan have worked on a new theme for the Australia show. They have given a different slant to their artistic experiments for the collection.Called “Wearable Art,” the range is meant to be a merger of art and fashion. The thread is integral to the collection which will resemble works of art, says Rahul. “The thread does the function of a brush and makes the outfit look like a painting. The 17 outfits on show include gowns, saris, jackets and dresses. They will have threads of different colours and hardly any embroidery,” explains Rahul.“We have experimented at a different level for this collection,” he adds.The designers, already in Australia, are content to be part of a noble cause. “We have been exporting to Australia for a while now and the buyers there have really liked our products,” says Rahul on the charity show to be choreographed by Shiamak Davar.The duo also showcased 36 garments under the creative category at the WIFW, drawing from the colours of Kathakali and rangoli.P. ANIMA…More

The Hindu : The anxious mother could barely keep her composure when she told me about her 13-year-old son’s educational progress. Despite an above average IQ, he was not performing well. He had aversion to writing that impacted his class-room learning. She said her son had no sense of time, she not only had to dress him but also pack his bag to get him in school on time. He had somehow managed at the primary level but as he came into secondary school, studies became more difficult.He believed that he was being treated differently by the teachers and other students. Nevertheless he had managed to cope until his exclusion from cricket and football. The group of boys with whom he wanted to be involved felt he lacked the skill. They excluded him from the game and he became aggressive. The mother was concerned about his destructive behaviour, abusive language, mood swings and unwillingness to do homework. The comprehensive psycho/ educational assessment identified him as Dyspraxic.Dyspraxia is a motor planning disorder. Motor planning or “praxis”, is the ability of the brain to conceive, organise and carry out the sequence of un-familiar action.Praxis enables us to deal with the physical environment in an adaptive manner. In Dyspraxia Syndrome, there is a reduced ability to carry out non-learned movements even though adequate physical and conceptual ability exists.According to Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist, the child moves from the sensory motor period to preparation period in the second year of his life. For this transition to occur successfully, the child must first master the ability to imitate. In a typically developing child we take it for granted.Imitation is essential for the development of praxis, and difficulties with praxis and motor planning problems affect a child’s ability to learn through imitation.They cannot learn through actions demonstrated to them and since much of early childhood learning is done in this manner, they miss…More

The Hindu : ‘Awww, what dear little feet!’ ‘What a charming nose, just like his grand-father!’ ‘Look at those long fingers, she’s sure to be an artist!’ Really, people can come up with flattering lines when they come around to see a newborn child.While it’s actually quite diverting, especially when you’re a completely-exhausted-from-the-whole-childbirth-thing mum, to have people gush over your baby, it’s a bit disheartening, later, to realise that not one of them had the guts to call a spade a spade… no, no, no, we’re not suggesting that people say the baby looks perfectly cross-eyed or has a face like a shrivelled, red walnut (that would be very rude, even it were true, no?) But, it would’ve helped had they lightly touched upon what you were in for; that parenting isn’t all cooing, contented babies and happy beaming parents.Life changesBecause, beyond the obvious sleepless nights, relentless crying and the feeling of helplessness, you also come to realise that the initial, deliriously-happy new mum/dad frame of mind does not last forever; in fact, many mums can – and often do – actually have the blues! ‘You know, everybody told me only about the overwhelming happiness when you see your little bundle of joy but I don’t remember being warned about all the changes you could expect in your life. Forget make-up, I had to religiously time everything, even my loo-trips and showers, around the baby’s feed and sleep time!’ reminisces Anupama Ajay, mum of a four-year-old girl.A quick trawl through the world-wide-web revealed that a whopping 80 per cent of new-mums suffer from the blues, albeit in varying degrees. Oh yes, it does seem like a ridiculously high number – then again, how many mums do you know haven’t gone through spells of acute stress/ weeping/ moodiness/ irritability/ can’t-cope-with-this-for-a-second-longer kind of feeling?“When I had my first child,” says Swapna Menon, “I bounced back physically and emotionally quicker than…More

The Hindu : All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association (AIACA), a membership-based apex body for the handloom and handicraft sectors is hosting an exhibition of a range of Craftmark certified handmade products like salwar kurtas, mini kurtas, stoles, dupattas, bags, soft furnishings in hand embroidery, patchwork, block prints, weaves and hand-crafted coconut wood products. The Craftmark certification programme is an initiative to help Indian craft workers and craft organisations to take advantage of economic opportunities in the domestic market and break into mainstream retail markets.The exhibition will see craft groups from Assam, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka like Aagor from Bongaigaon in Assam, 80 per cent of which come from the poorest section of the Bodo tribe, supported by the ANT, Dastkar Ranthambore which comprise women artisans in the villages around the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan, Kala Raksha, an NGO in Kutch, Gujarat, who preserve traditional arts of the Kutch region, Sadhna, an NGO from Udaipur who work with women artisans and Chaya Nisarga who make a product range made of coconut wood. The exhibition is on from March 19 to 23 at Serenity, No. 8/1, 5th Main, Jayamahal Extension, off Nandidurg Road from 10.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. Visitwww.craftmark.org…More

The Hindu : At the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 08, fashion took centre-stagesome days. The event hogged headlines for the wrong reasons, be it the flipped shoes or slipped dresses.With the event beingheld for the second time at Pragati Maidan, there was surely an air of familiarity about the place. “I think we are set this time,” Rathi Vinay Jha, Director General,Fashion Design Council of India,was too eager to agree. However with a few shows rolling in almost an hour late, there were criticism aplenty. “It is badly managed,” fumed Sunil Sethi of the Alliance Merchandising Company. “The event did not offer anything exciting. We are looking for that spark,”said Sethi.At the centre of action the talk for most part focussed on the wooden benches that welcomed the frontrow audience. The FDCI decision to categorise the designers into contemporary, creator and synthesis/ heritage segments, did not seem to have paid dividends. While a few designers clearly did not belong to the category they showcased under, the technical distinction between the three too remained hazy. “I think a few designers did not abide by the categories,” says Jha.Finally, when the lights zoomed in on the runaway, there were those who believed in the spectacle and those who made their clothes speak. Tarun Tahiliani’s finesse with drapes stood out, and the show will be remembered for visual splendour. Rohit Bal’s “Ashta Dhatu” with his metal-hued garments created an other-worldly feel, while Ritu Kumar attempted the unexpected. Manish Arora, with his blinding bling, went the warrior-princess-meets-Disney way and continued his hit run with international buyers.In terms of trends, fashion commentator Harmeet Bajaj felt no real movement on the ramps even by the fourth day. “No clear trend has emerged so far. It is pretty anarchic in nature and everyone has done their own thing. It was really, really wide in terms of prints and colours. The silhouettes were mostly…More

The Hindu : A 12-year old boy in Shechen Monastery, Nepal sits by the side of his elderly tutor.A pigeon flies in and sits on the elder master’s head. He remains unperturbed.The pupil is delighted at this unexpected turn of events.The alert photographer clicks; capturing not an image but the decisive moment itself for posterity.This was way back in 1996. Ten years later Belgian photographer Martine Franck recalled the experience in The Guardian. “I was there for an hour, just sitting quietly in a corner, observing. I never imagined for a second that the bird would perch on the monk’s head. The picture is somehow a symbol of peace, and of young people getting on with old people.”When she returned from that trip to Nepal and showed the picture to close friend, photographer Josef Koudelka, he said: “Martine, if you brought only this one picture back from India your trip was worthwhile.”Such is the power of Franck’s best shots. The 70-year old photographer was born in Antwerp and spent her childhood in the US and England before studying art history at the University of Madrid and Louvre School in Paris. She became a member of the first Vu agency in 1970; married the famous photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson the next year; and helped found the Viva agency in 1972.As a frequent traveller, Franck has photographed unique people, situations and communities across different cultures. Franck’s trips to India (including Karnataka) and Nepal, have also resulted in a fine body of work. Franck’s photographs have been exhibited since early 1980s across the world. She has also published more than 20 books which have won critical acclaim.Rare opportunityTasveer’s exhibition of Martine Franck’s photographs provides a rare opportunity to Bangaloreans to view and enjoy the work of this acclaimed maestro. The show has a number of spell-binding black-and-white pictures revealing many locales, moods and emotions.If French theatre director, Ariane Mnouchkine, is caught deep…More

The Hindu : Barbara Millicent Roberts, born March 9, 1959 at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Height 11.5 inches tall, bust 36 inches, waist 18 inches and hips 33 inches. Long, curly eyelashes, big eyes, a killer figure and a fashion sense that turns girls into fashion-designers. She is every little girl’s favourite adult play toy and the most prized gift at any urban, privileged girl’s birthday party. She is Barbie.She’s always in the centre of controversy – always getting her manicured hands, blow-dried wavy hair and pedicured feet in some plastic mess. Ruth Handler, who noticed that her daughter Barbara assigned adult roles while she played with dolls, recommended to Elliot, her husband and co-founder of Mattel Toys about the concept of an adult doll.Mother of eight-year-old Tara, E. Cherian recalls, “I was uncomfortable with the fact that you’re giving a young girl a fully-developed woman as a doll.”Across culturesFrom the all-American blue-eyed blonde, she started fitting into cultural moulds post-globalisation. While she was the charming black-haired, brown-eyed Monica for Indians, or African-American Christie, the body is the same — big eyes, long legs and tip-toe feet that slips easily into high heels.Says psychologist Manika Ghosh: “Duplicating the supposed European body type in other cultures has created havoc for the physical, mental and reproductive health of women.”Sukanya Anand, mother of ten-year-old Anahita says that though she didn’t believe in indulging her daughter with Barbies, she did not deny Anahita either.“I didn’t want her to lose out, but fortunately, she didn’t become obsessed with the doll as it was not cuddly.”Anahita recalls: “I liked playing with them because I could change their clothes and she could move around.” Sukanya and Cherian feel if one denies Barbies to girls, there is a chance of a rebound reaction, as children would anyway come across the doll thanks to peers or the media. She loves to shop; dress…More