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The Hindu : y>Maruti Suzuki-Autocar India launch a nationwide contest

Maruti Suzuki and Autocar India have joined hands to make Indian roads a safer place by instituting the Maruti Suzuki-Autocar Young Driver 2009 contest.

The competition will involve a nationwide search for India’s best young driving talent.The contest is open to all individuals, between the age of 18 and 30, with a valid Indian driving license. Competitors should log on towww.youngdriver09.zapak.com to register and take the online theory test. Competitors will be tested on their knowledge of traffic rules, awareness of road safety and knowledge of their cars. Phase one of the competition will end on the midnight of February 8. Contestants who make itto the next round will be intimated through e-mail or SMS.

The second phase is a simulator test that will take place at 11 of the Maruti driving schools across the country — Mumbai, Delhi (Gurgaon), Delhi (Faridabad), Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad, Indore and Cochin. The selected contestants can go to thenearest Maruti driving school between February 12 and 23. The contestants will have to bring their driving license to the event and make their own travel arrangements.

Thirty finalists will be flown to Delhi between February 28 and March 1 and hosted by the organisers of the grand finale. During this final stage of the evaluation, which will take place at the Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) in New Delhi, there will be an actual driving test under the supervision of Maruti’s driving instructors and judges from Autocar India. Drivers will be evaluated on parameters such as smoothness, vehicle control and presence of mind during emergency situations.

The winner will be adjudged as ‘Maruti Suzuki-Autocar Young Driver of 2009’. He will be the ambassador of safe driving and will be promoted by Autocar India and Maruti Suzuki on numerous platforms. What’s more, the winner will also take home a Maruti Suzuki…More

The Hindu :

Mikael Akerfeldt, the frontman for the Swedish death metal band Opeth, says he likes to combine styles

Photos: R. RaguStar performer Mikael Akerfeldt

Mikael Akerfeldt is really quite a pleasant guy. Has a wife and a couple of kids he’s devoted to, is self-admittedly laid-back and easy-going, and has a wonderfully dry sense of humour. It just so happens that he’s the front man of the iconic Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth, and is given to writing and singing about, well, death.

The Grammy-nominated group performed at the grand finale of IIT’s Saarang — their first show ever in India — before a sea of screaming fans.At one point in the evening, Mikael drawled, tongue firmly in cheek, “Our next song is pretty melodic, and its lyrics are about death. The previous song was about death. And our next song is… also about death.”

The wry commentary, of course, didn’t change the fact that the music which pounded out of the speakers all night was incredibly intense — ominous, dark, angry music that matched the gothic imagery which that painted the video screen behind the band. Or, the fact that Mikael himself transformed into a growling, darkly magnetic presence on stage as he performed.

But he wasn’t kidding about the melody. One of the things that has made Opeth’s records stand out in the genre is their use of clean vocals and genuine melody interspersed with the raging harshness of traditional death metal.

“I grew up with the metal bands of the 1980s, but somewhere along the line, I got interested in and started listening to a lot of other music, and that made its way into ours,” Mikael, the group’s songwriter, commented. “I love death metal, but I want to combine styles for my own growth.”

It was easy to see why the band inspires such a rabid fan following among the black T-shirt wearing,…More

The Hindu :

Veenapani Chawla believes that the strength and uniqueness of theatre in the times of cinema come from the live performer and her true presence on stage

PHOTO: T. SingaravelouDeep impact Veenapani Chawla: ‘Theatre has a powerful impact on the spectator’

For the Managing Trustee and Artistic Director of the Puducherry-based performance company Adishakti, Veenapani Chawla, theatre is a ‘synaesthesis’ of the arts. In town for the Adishakti Retrospective supported by Himalaya Herbal Healthcare and organised by India Foundation for the Arts which staged “The Hare and the Tortoise”, “Impressions of Bheema” and “Rhinoceros”, Veenapani says: “On the stage, each art form conveys significance in its own unique manner, making it important that the actor is also a musician, puppeteer, dancer etc.”

Elaborating on the blurred lines between the performing arts, she feels that “the contemporary mind is able to take in more viewpoints at the same time. It is the vision of being able to see the same thing from all angles and distances. Any modern creative work therefore must try to reflect this protean nature of truth and reality.”

The significance of the merging of the actor as both performer and puppeteer in “The Hare and the Tortoise (THATT)” in particular, allows “the transition from one form of expression to another to become visible, so that there is a kind of seamlessness and aesthetic unity to the whole. There was also a preoccupation of the piece revolving around being inside or outside a given system. In that sense, there was a parallel play on being off and on stage.”

The importance of the physical as opposed to a speech text in the play stems from a direct and fresh experience and performance of reality. “I believe that the strength and uniqueness of theatre in the times of cinema is the live performer and her true presence on stage. It has a powerful and sensorial…More

The Hindu : y>

Driving Styles..

One hand on steering wheel, one hand out of window

—Sydney

One hand on steering wheel, one hand on horn

— Japan

One hand on steering wheel, one hand on newspaper, foot solidly on

accelerator

— Boston

Both hands on steering wheel, eyes

shut, both feet on brake, quivering in

terror

— New York

Both hands in air, gesturing,

both feet on accelerator, head turned to talk to someone in back seat

— Italy

One hand on horn, One hand greeting, One ear on cell phone,

Foot on accelerator, Eyes on female

pedestrians, Conversation with someone in the next car

—Welcome to India

(Source: The Internet)

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The Hindu :

Dhruv Ghankekar raps on his new album and the evolution of jazz

Going solo Dhruv Ghankekar

Dhruv Ghankekar has donned many roles in the music industry. He plays the guitar, and is a composer. He also worked on the musical score of “Drona”. He has launched his debut solo album, “Distance” recently. In the city for ajazz festival, Dhruv was eager to talk about his latest album and his musical journey. He says, “It is my first solo album. I am very excited. Most of the compositions were composed many years ago. I had written most of these songs, but never recorded.”

He adds, “My friends asked me to release my solo album with these compositions. The music does not belong to any particular genre as such, though it does have some jazz influence. It is a broad mish-mash of various musical styles.” Dhruv feels that jazz is a niche genre, though it is gaining acceptance among music lovers, cutting across age barriers.

“Jazz was always meant to be a niche genre. Its visibility in symbols of popular culture had peaked in the 60’s. Musical styles keep evolving. Jazz is also an evolving culture. People prefer music, which they can dance to these days.

“As a child, I liked listening to all forms of music. I received some formal training in classical music. It helped me grasp musical styles better and gain a toehold, when I began to study music professionally. Many films, especially in Bollywood use classical music in the musical scores.”

About his initiation into jazz, Dhruv says, “I started listening to jazz musicians, only when I went to study music in the United States. My musical style is inspired by the jazz heavyweights such as Joey Red, Scott Henderson and many others.”

He feels that composing music and bringing out an album is very different. “When you are working on a album alone, you…More

The Hindu : y>The attack on women in a pub in Mangalore throws up complex questions, not merely those of religion and gender, writes AYESHA MATTHAN

PHOTO: k.r. deepakSelective westernisation Girls just cannot have fun

When the Sri Ram Sene unleashed a mob of 40 on young women at a pub in Mangalore, the nation sat up. A spate of debates and discussions followed on national television. The pub was highlighted and the attack on four girls and boys from different religious backgrounds was not.

Women and men have been attacked in Meerut, Mumbai and Mangalore and more. There have been 11 such incidents of vigilante moral-police attacking men and women, reported between July and December ’08 in Mangalore.

If the justification of drinking alcohol lies in a weekend break for urban, middle-class women, then Lankesh editor, Gauri Lankesh and Vimochana member Shakun say that drinking has been a culture for Dalit women who form the labour class, mainly because of their hard lifestyle. “Drinking is not a crime,” Gauri elaborates. “We all seem to have this association of women who drink as vamps.”

Commenting on media attention on the Mangalore pub attack, she says: “After being picked up by the national media, the attacks have become a class issue, concerning affluent women.” Both Shakun and Gauri maintain that this incident has been isolated to highlight the attacks against women who drink, and not violence against women as a larger social issue.

Asha Jayaram, 26, says, “I look at the incident purely as violence against women, and will not categorise it as a class issue. I have always been stared at or received comments when I drink alone or go drinking with women friends. Post these attacks, I am forced to dress conservatively.”

Though Asha is aware that she is compromising on her principles, she feels she has no choice. “They want to take away a woman’s right to choose….More

The Hindu :

Ki Baat Hai intends to bring back the sitcom culture

Photo: Sandeep SaxenaMaking it happen (From left) Sumeet Raghvan, Ali Asgar, Juhi Babbar, Anant Mahadevan and Swapnil Joshi

Like fashion, entertainment also works in cycles. A few years ago nobody was ready to touch comedy, today nothing can touch the genre at its top slot. So when Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment decides to test the soapy waters of television, it chooses to play by the mood of the moment. Shah Rukh relies on his mentor, Aziz Mirza, who has brought out “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi”, and poured it into the proverbial new bottle. We know the association of Mirza and Kundan Shah, who directed the “Yeh Jo Hai…” go back a long way and so quite obviously, the series on NDTV Imagine is called “Ghar ki Baat Hai”.

Replacing the legendary cast of Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat, Rakesh Bedi and Satish Shah are the present masters of comedy, Sumeet Raghvan, Swapnil Joshi and Ali Asgar. Juhi Babbar makes her small screen debut. If in the original Kishore Kumar rendered the title track, this time it is Sukhwinder Singh. Mirza will provide only creative inputs, the series director is Anant Mahadevan, who is celebrating 25 years of association with telly with “Ghar Ki Baat Hai”. “I wanted to celebrate by reviving a classic. ‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ was among the first serials out of Doordarshan in the sponsored category. I have worked with Shah Rukh and Mirza sahib in ‘Circus’. In a sense life has come a full circle for me.”

“It is an attempt to bring back that classic sitcom culture. We will try to find the fun element in something realistic and believable without hurting anybody’s sentiments.” He refuses to term “Ghar Ki Baat Hai” a remake. “The characters are the same, the concepts are fresh,” he insists.

A look at the…More

The Hindu :

Silk Fab at Basava Bhavan with 98 stalls offers a wide choice of saris from across the country

Photo: Murali kumar k.Highly decorated The award-winning design

It is raining silk at Basava Bhavan, which is hosting an exhibition called Silk Fab organised by the National Handloom Development Corp Ltd. and sponsored by the Development Commissioner (Handlooms), New Delhi. The specialty of this show is that there are 98 stalls and they offer a wide choice of saris from across the country with traditional motifs and prints in all kinds of silks.

“No matter how the fashion trends change,” observes H.M. Sharma, the man in charge of the exhibition, “saris are still very much in vogue. We have women of all ages buying them wherever we have travelled with this sale.”

He takes you around and talks about some of the best varieties of products displayed at this sale. There are saris from Gujarat. “These are in demand. They are handmade from scratch to the bead and crystal works. These saris are priced at Rs. 1,600 upwards.” This stall offers a range of tie and dye saris too. “Earlier this work was done only on white base material but now we have saris with the same work on contrasting shades,” he explains.

We then move on to the Molakkalmuru stall from Karnataka. The attraction here is the yeradu kanasu saris. “These saris are made after the famous Kannada film by the same name and they are still a great rage.” Made in pure silk, they come with zari borders and in very traditional patterns and designs. These saris are priced at Rs. 2,500 upwards.

The Kashmir stall is quite interesting. This section offers loads of saris and dress material with thread work on georgette silks, silks and crepe silks. The specialty of this section is the collection with the chain stitch embroidery on bright, contrasting fabric. The…More

The Hindu : y>Ismat Apa ke Naam will be staged today

Play time Ismat Khanum Chughtai’s words come alive

Puravankara is presenting Motley’s “Ismat Apa ke Naam”, in support of the India Foundation of the Arts and in association with Tata. Starring Naseerduddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah and Heeba Shah, “Ismat Apa ke Naam” is aseries of three short stories by the famous Urdu writer Ismat Khanum Chughtai (1915-1991) — “Gharwali”, “Mughal Bacche” and “Chhui Muee”.“Ismat Apa ke Naam” is a celebration of a writer whose work is never dated, a reminder of the still unexplored dramatic possibilities of Indian fiction, and yet another chance to witness the work of an actor-director who keeps seeking ways to reinvent the magic of theatre.

The performance is also supported by hospitality sponsor Chancery Pavilion, travel sponsor Kingfisher Airlines and ground sponsor Cafe Coffee Day. Limited donor passes are available for Rs. 2000 and Rs.1,000. For corporate or group bookings, call 23414681/82/83. All Friends of IFA get a 10 per cent discount on tickets. Passes for Rs. 500 are available at the following Cafe Coffee Day outlets: Jayanagar Garla Garnet (65391012), Koramangala BPCL (64541184), Indiranagar 100 feet road (64528290), Lavelle Road (64511535), Brigade Road Windsor House (64541160) and Super Market in Fifth Avenue, Brigade Road (25581248). You can also book online atwww.indiaplaza.in. For more details, visitwww.indiaifa.org The play will be staged today at 7.30 p.m. at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall

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The Hindu : y>

Will it win An exciting moment in Slumdog Millionaire

Pix, an english movie channel has bagged the official telecast rights of the BAFTA Awards 2009. BAFTA is a British charity that hosts the annual award shows for film, television, television craft and video games. The award function is well recognisedand will be followed in India, as the much-feted “Slumdog Millonaire”, India will compete for top honours at the awards.

Pix will showcase the entire event live from the Royal Opera House in London at 5.30 a.m on February 9. A repeat telecast will be aired at 10 p.m. on the same day.

As part of the upcoming event, Pix will screen a BAFTA movie-marathon till February 9. It will include movies like the AIDS drama “Philadelphia”, “Trauma” and the rousing musical “Chicago” starring Richard Gere as the singing dancing lawyer matching steps with Rene Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones. Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” will be aired on February 8 at 11.30 p.m while “The Queen” starring Helen Mirren about the tumultuous week following the death of Lady Diana in a car crash will be aired on February 9 at 8 p.m.

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