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The Hindu : NEWSCANRoofBird’s projects on cardsRoofBird.com, India’s first exclusive residential real estate web portal, has announced its plans to tie up with more than 100 reputed property developers during the next one year.The aim is to promote residential projects through its end-to-end online marketing services.RoofBird’s services portfolio is custom-built for developers and offers a dedicated website for each developer and detailed listing of their projects in the online portal, high visibility in search engine results,e-mail marketing services, enquiry generation and offline customer support services.“We have already tied up with close to 40 reputed property developers and these developers have listed about 100 residential projects coming up across major cities. Given the nature and trend of the current drive, the total number of property developers at RoofBird.com will be increased to about 150 by the end of this year,” says Premkumar Ponniah, CEO & Founder Director, RoofBird Online Services Pvt. Ltd.Contact: 91 99406 62447….More

The Hindu : Organised jointly by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, CII and the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, the first national urban water and sanitation awards saw some exciting projects emerging. On May 15, a total of 16 projects from 11 towns which made it to the final list were presented to a panel for prioritisation.The Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran based in Mumbai came out with a brilliant model of turning an intermittent supply into a 24/7 affair. Based on Indian conditions and using the development plan of the town, existing distribution networks and leakages can be identified and remedial measures initiated. In Badlapur town close to Navi Mumbai, such a project is under implementation and already seven of the 34 wards have 24/7 water supply. Pressure has been reduced in high pressure areas. Unaccounted-for water has been significantly reduced.A project for Kulgaon-Badlapur saw rainwater harvesting systems being implemented for 40 societies to enhance the groundwater table and to provide additional water for residents. These two projects saw the town winning the top award this year.Simple methodUttaranchal has many stream-fed water sources. The water from them is drawn using boulder-filled galleries but there are many problems with such galleries such as high turbidity in the water and the high cost and quality required for construction.By using an innovative perforated pipe buried below stream level and with filter media on top, water is drawn below the stream and taken for further treatment to be supplied to towns. A local innovation, this project drew commendations for its simplicity and appropriateness for the local condition.Surat Municipal Corporation came out with three projects designed to help the 3.25 lakh citizens access better quality of water. The municipal corporation re-engineered its distribution to save energy, put in place an online water quality monitoring system and reworked its operations and maintenance practice. With dedicated teamwork and commitment it has been…More

The Hindu : Madhu Natraj took to dancing at a very early age. With Maya Rao, noted Kathak dance exponent for a mother, Madhu “learnt dance through osmosis. I grew up in the green rooms and to the sound of music and dance. By the time I was 15, I was saturated with dance because of the politics of the art. It drove me away from the form,” says Madhu, who then studied commerce and journalism.In spite of all this she was still drawn to dance. “It is like dance chose me.” Though she has her foundation in Kathak, Madhu is more known for her creative movements and contemporary dance.“My first exposure to contemporary dance was in Delhi where I met this dancer from America who asked us to create 20 movements with just the index finger and 20 movements using just three joints in our body! That you could something like that led me back to the eternity of creativity. I returned and started training myself in choreography. I did debut as a Kathak dancer, but continued my explorations in the contemporary form.” Madhu then took off to the US to further study this style.It was during her stay there that she decided “to create something like this with our own movements, one which is based in our own roots. Then there will be Indian contemporary dance”. Madhu was back in the city with the ambition to create her own movement vocabulary and started STEM Company (Space, Time, Energy and Movement) in ’95 and later started the Natya Stem Kampni. “There was no contemporary dance company when we started, though there were some solo performers. When we got on stage, we came in for tremendous criticism, as anything new is not welcomed easily. It has been a long and lonely journey,” she recalls. Even after having travelled the world over with her contemporary dance, Madhu still returned…More

The Hindu : TabbulehMynt,Taj West End, Race Course Road, BangaloreFrom the environs of his live kitchen in Mynt, Chef Ahmad creates his delicious Lebanese fare. The signature Tabbuleh here makes for a lovely, fresh salad filled with healthy ingredients. The combination of bright green flat parsley which is carefully chopped, flecked with tomato, onion, broken wheat, lemon and salt can be a wonderful summer salad or side dish and served garnished with sliced tomatoes and lemon wedges.Price: Rs. 525 + taxes, per portionBottomline: It’s a delicious, fresh and healthy way to enjoy Lebanese fare….More

The Hindu : NEWSCANRoofBird’s projects on cardsRoofBird.com, India’s first exclusive residential real estate web portal, has announced its plans to tie up with more than 100 reputed property developers during the next one year.The aim is to promote residential projects through its end-to-end online marketing services.RoofBird’s services portfolio is custom-built for developers and offers a dedicated website for each developer and detailed listing of their projects in the online portal, high visibility in search engine results,e-mail marketing services, enquiry generation and offline customer support services.“We have already tied up with close to 40 reputed property developers and these developers have listed about 100 residential projects coming up across major cities. Given the nature and trend of the current drive, the total number of property developers at RoofBird.com will be increased to about 150 by the end of this year,” says Premkumar Ponniah, CEO & Founder Director, RoofBird Online Services Pvt. Ltd.Contact: 91 99406 62447….More

The Hindu : Daryl Hall and John Oates were raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. At age four, Oates moved from New York to Pennsylvania and at age eight began playing the guitar. His other-half, Hall, meanwhile, studied voice and piano. As teens the duo frequentedthe Philadelphia ghettos, where they joined the doo-wop groups. Hall met Oates in the later part of 1967 when his group The Temptones and Oates’ group, The Masters, competed in a battle of the bands at Philadelphia’s Adelphi ballroom and in order to escape the gang fight that ensued, shared a freight elevator.Hall formed Gulliver, a group that recorded one LP in 1969 and was joined by Oates before the outfit disbanded. Oates had earned a degree in Journalism at the Temple University on the weight of which he travelled to Europe to pursue his personal interests. Hall momentarily became a studio musician, singing backup for the Delfonics, the Stylists and the Intruders and upon Oates’ return, the two decided to team up. In 1972, they released their debut album Whole Oates, a folky compilation that did not cause a rumble. Their next offering, the R&B- oriented, Abandoned Luncheonette, yielded She’s Gone, a flop for the pair but a number one hit for the Tavares six months later. In 1974, they recorded War Babies, a concept album which displayed a drastic departure from their earlier efforts.Daryl Hall John Oates was brought forth in 1975, which contained a number four hit Sara Smile, that was written for Hall’s collaborator/ girlfriend, Sara Allen. With the release of Bigger than Both of Us, the two previous albums went gold.The aforementioned album eventually became their first platinum LP and contained their first number one single, Rich Girl. The late seventies noticed a commercial slump for the duo and a decision was taken to self produce. The consequence, a platinum issue called Voices, that returned them to the singles…More

The Hindu : Allepey fish curryIngredients:Fish (cut into cubes of 50 gms) 1 kgOnions sliced 200 gmsTomatoes sliced 150 gmsCurry leaves 15 gmsCoriander seeds 50 gmsCumin seeds 10 gmsPeppercorn 05 gmsFenugreek seeds 02 gmsCoconut milk 1 1ltrCoconut oil 100 mlChef Uday Shanker Shenoy was born in Srinagar. The love of food and travel got him into hotel management in Bangalore and he joined The Oberoi, Bangalore, as a trainee assistant chef. He trained in some of the best restaurants in the country. Being from the Canara coast, seafood is very close to his heart. Indian spices too are something, which holds his curiosity and passion. He desires to explore this world and experiment with its unlimited powers…Method:Heat 50 ml of oil and add the cumin, methi, peppercorn, dhaniya, dry red chillies, and remove from fire once these crackle.Cool and grind to a fine paste. In the remaining oil, add the curry leaves, sliced onions, ginger juliennes, sliced tomatoes, turmeric powder, and chilly powder.Add the coconut milk and bring to a boil.Add the fish cubes and simmer the flame.Cook on low flame till the time the fish cooks.Adjust salt….More

The Hindu : The phrase ‘settle down’ is a bit of a far flung for DJ Stella Nutella. Born in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, little did she know that one day she will be one of the most sought after DJs in the world. After conquering 10,000 destinations across25 countries, this glittering star of the international psy-trance scene has arrived in Bangalore, through an artist representation agency.She has already played at a gala of a wide-reaching music magazine and is looking forward to record with some local artists.After shifting base from North Sweden to the French Alps to Tenerife, and trying her hands at things like snowboarding and dolphin cruising, DJ Stella braved the London Underground scene.Perhaps her adventurous heart was the motivation behind her journey from Ornskoldsvik to Stockholm as a teenager to buy records of acts like Cure and Kraftwerk. Though, becoming a mixer was never her childhood dream.DJ Stella, who is not a big advocate of genre-based music, likes playing a mix between progressive trance, house, electro and techno and is inspired by the likes of Depeche Mode and Front 242.She believes that the current electronic scene has immense potential — specially with artists like Trente Muller, Sander Vandoorn and Bookashade — but she is also declaratory of the fact that the music industry is in a crisis situation.“Piracy is spreading like plague to all corners of the globe. This is like the Black Death of the music industry. Artists have stopped reaping benefits from their hard work. However, the brighter side is that making music has become easier. Anybody with access to a computer can develop their own tracks with the aid of software,” opines DJ Stella.International recognition has made her work schedule busier. But that has not stopped her from attaining a unique degree in song-writing and music production from a renowned Swedish University to better herself for the industry.This experience has given her the…More

The Hindu : Organised jointly by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, CII and the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, the first national urban water and sanitation awards saw some exciting projects emerging. On May 15, a total of 16 projects from 11 towns which made it to the final list were presented to a panel for prioritisation.The Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran based in Mumbai came out with a brilliant model of turning an intermittent supply into a 24/7 affair. Based on Indian conditions and using the development plan of the town, existing distribution networks and leakages can be identified and remedial measures initiated. In Badlapur town close to Navi Mumbai, such a project is under implementation and already seven of the 34 wards have 24/7 water supply. Pressure has been reduced in high pressure areas. Unaccounted-for water has been significantly reduced.A project for Kulgaon-Badlapur saw rainwater harvesting systems being implemented for 40 societies to enhance the groundwater table and to provide additional water for residents. These two projects saw the town winning the top award this year.Simple methodUttaranchal has many stream-fed water sources. The water from them is drawn using boulder-filled galleries but there are many problems with such galleries such as high turbidity in the water and the high cost and quality required for construction.By using an innovative perforated pipe buried below stream level and with filter media on top, water is drawn below the stream and taken for further treatment to be supplied to towns. A local innovation, this project drew commendations for its simplicity and appropriateness for the local condition.Surat Municipal Corporation came out with three projects designed to help the 3.25 lakh citizens access better quality of water. The municipal corporation re-engineered its distribution to save energy, put in place an online water quality monitoring system and reworked its operations and maintenance practice. With dedicated teamwork and commitment it has been…More

The Hindu : Miso soupA Japanese staple; in its simplest version, it consists of a stock (dashi) to which softened miso paste is added. The choice of miso (a thick paste made by fermenting rice, barley and soya beans) determines the colour and flavour of the soup, with darker pastes having a more robust, saltier flavour. The common dashi stocks are made from dried sardines, kombu (dried kelp), smoked bonito or dried shiitake mushrooms. To this may be added solid ingredients such as vegetables (potatoes, carrots, seaweed), tofu, or meat, which are simmered in the stock. Rice and miso soup is a very popular breakfast in Japan….More