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The Hindu : y>

Hit the road Tough rides

There will be a display of All Terrain four-wheel drive cars, smart vehicles and super bikes at the Lifestyle Exhibition, Palace Grounds.

The organisers say that this is the first time that the four-wheel drive mountain cruisers and jungle safari cars are being showcased. These, they add, can give you a smooth ride on slushy tracks, jungle paths and hill valleys. There are 50 cc mini bikes, four-stroke super bikes for children and adults. Besides this there are also snow mobiles and adventure sports vehicles.

The Lifestyle Exhibition is on till February 15.

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The Hindu : y>

SOULFUL SARIS Mukesh revives ancient printing techniques

Serenity will host an exhibition of saris by Mukesh from February 11 to 13. Noida-based designer Mukesh brings his famed block-printed fabrics and saris to Bangalore after a year.

In his new collection at Serenity, which includes silks, crepes, cottons, kurta sets, kurtis, and dupattas, he has been inspired by the weavers of Benaras and the Jamevars and Dorukhas of Kashmir, which translates into a rare collection.He has used the sari as his canvas, printing with sterling silver and 22 carat gold, reviving an old technique of Dakhni printing.

Fifty-four-year-old Mukesh is a graduate of the Delhi College of Art, and was keen on painting till he started writing a book on the pagadi (turban) and jewellery traditions, which seemed to lend themselves to fabrics as well. His saris today are coveted pieces — each one is printed with a number of blocks effectively placed in a classical style.

Mukesh began his career designing and printing saris in 1984. His first major collection inspired by the Jamevar, was for the Central Cottage Industries Emporium in Delhi. He also worked with Martand Singh, for the Visvakarma, and worked on the Dakshin Kshetra and Uttar Kshetra Collection.

He also collaborated on a Puddupavu and Kovil Collection for Co-optex in Chennai. For 25 years, some of the most beautiful printed silks and cottons available at Cottage Industries and different stores were designed by Mukesh. The enthusiastic response to his work, especially among the discerning clients including Shubha Mudgal and Delhi CM Sheila Dixit inspired him to set up his own label, which has a large number of admirers.

His exhibition is on at Serenity, No. 8/1, 5th Main, Jaymahal Extension between 10.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. Call 41279127

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The Hindu : y>Car and bike questions? We have the answers

I am looking for a diesel SUV/ car which is comfortable, economical, low in maintenance and fun to drive. I drive approximately 3,000 km per month in and out of city. I test drove VW Jetta Automatic and Captiva manual . Should I wait for VW Tiguan / Range Rover Freelander / Hyundai Santa FE to be launched in India? Price is not an issue.

Vishal Bhushan

VW cars are good but are expensive to maintain. It would have been easier if you had mentioned a budget. Nevertheless, the BMW X3 diesel makes good sense. You could even look at its bigger brother, the X5 diesel.I would like to buy a new car, and my budget is Rs. 6 lakh. I will drive it for more than 150 km a month, within the city. I have narrowed down my choice to Swift, U-VA, i20.

Rajesh Keshriya

Go for the Swift ZXi (petrol). If you want a bigger car, then i20 will be a good buy.I can’t decide between Santro Eco and Wagon R Duo. Can you give the pros and cons of both?

Anand

The LPG kit on the Wagon R is quite driveable. However, we are yet to drive the Santro Eco. Apart from the engine, the Santro scores over Wagon R in terms of space and practicality.My budget for a new car is around Rs. 10 lakh. Which car should I buy? Is Honda City I-vtec good? Is there any other car within my budget.

Tejas solanki

For your budget, City offers the best overall package. The SX4 is not as fuel-efficient or as well-built as the City, but is comparatively inexpensive to maintain. As is Verna. The Fiesta is a driver’s car, and is the car to buy if you love driving.I have a Tata Indica Turbo, 2006 model. I now want to buy either…More

The Hindu :

Writer, director, columnist and now jury member, Vikram Bhatt has done it all

Multitasking mantra Vikram Bhatt

Vikram Bhatt is shocked at the moral police threats of playing killjoy in Bangalore. “What are you girls doing? How can someone hijack one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country with this kind of regressive thinking? It is shocking.”

After he simmers down, Vikram talks of his latest film “Shaapit.” “It is the third of my horror trilogy, after ‘Raaz’ and ‘1920’.” The 40-year-old director who has made his name with nifty little thrillers, says that he did not conceive of the movies as a trilogy. “I have been lucky twice, so now I am pushing it.” Vikram does not wish to comment on “Raaz 2”. “I have not watched the film. I just did not have the time, have been flooded by work. That’s all.”

Apart from ratcheting creating tension on celluloid, Vikram writes a weekly column which he says helps him be a “world citizen. It is important not to be insular. I look at the column as a platform of responsibility and a means to set the record straight for those that do not have a forum to do so.”

Vikram is also a jury member for 1takemedia’s short film competition ( www.1takemedia.com). “It is a great platform for experienced filmmakers to interact with upcoming filmmakers. Short films are difficult. It is easy to make a point about the Holocaust in three hours in a ‘Schindler’s List’. It is a lot tougher to do it in ten minutes.”

Vikram, who hopes to watch all the film in the competition, says he is looking for “Coherence over pretension, innocence over experience and the ordinary in extraordinary settings.”

“Shaapit”, which means “the cursed will be a first for adventure horror in, if I might use the term, Bollywood. Think ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ meets horror. The…More

The Hindu : y>Buyers now want a car with the space, comfort and luxury of a midsize saloon. Shapur Kotwal takes a look at the premium hatchbacks Skoda Fabia and Hyundai i20

Photos: Himanshu PandyaSmooth driveIt’s the ‘made for Europe’ credentials of these cars that dictated their build quality and equipment

With growing affluence comes a certain maturity in taste. A case in point — the Indian hatchback market. There was a time when you couldn’t sell a hatchback for anything above Rs 4 lakh. Saloon carswere always considered better value than premium hatchbacks, which cost the same, if not more. Today, many customers buy what they need and want, not what society dictates. The all-important boot or ‘third box’ doesn’t have the same importance it once had. In fact, cars with a boot are more difficult to park and manoeuvre in our increasingly congested cities. What a lot of car buyers now want is a car with the space, comfort and luxury of a midsize saloon minus the boot. That’s where the premium hatchbacks come in. They are not bought just for fuel economy or price but for the practicality they offer without sacrificing the feel-good factor.

Hyundai’s new i20 has been conceived to pamper customers in Europe, so was the Skoda Fabia. It’s the ‘made for Europe’ credentials of both these cars that dictated the level of build, quality and equipment they come with. But in India, can the i20 displace the Fabia, which in recent times has carved a small but important niche for itself? Will the valets be impressed?Inside out

It may be alright for cheaper hatchbacks to look boxy, dumpy and ugly. However, the pair before you wouldn’t be able to live down an unattractive fender. No issue here. The i20 is one of the better looking Hyundais. It has a purposeful stance, no sacrifice to cab-forward practicality and stylistic cuts and…More

The Hindu :

Satish Bhojanna and his brother started tinkering around at home with clocks and mixers.They went on to have a racing team and now run Down Town Works

PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHYCHANGING THE ATTITUDE TOWARD MECHANICS Satish Bhojanna

When brothers Satish and Shekar Bhojanna were children, they fiddled around with their clock, mixie, watches, TV, music system and radio. Satish, who is now Director, Down Town Works, says: “We were very inquisitive and before sending out anything for repairs, we would open the devices up ourselves and try and see what the problems were.”

When Satish was in class IV and Shekar in class X, they started fiddling around with their father’s scooter, a Lambretta. “One day, it didn’t start and we decided to dismantle it before sending it to the mechanic. After checking every part, we realised it was a loose wire. We refitted everything, and that’s when we learnt the workings of that scooter inside-out.” Shekar, who was interested in racing, was presented with a Yezdi. “He started reading up on it, and experimenting practically and in the process, developed a scooter.”

So every night, after their father went to bed, they wheeled out the scooter 2 to 3 km away. “In those days, Bangalore was a very quiet place, and any slight sound could be heard for quite a distance away!” They would even hide the bike in their bedroom and garage at night, and begin work on it. “Only our mother would know and scold us for the mess we’d created, the next morning.” Their father, a silk industrialist, called them grease monkeys and wondered how his sons were interested in becoming mechanics. “There is no respect in the line,” he would tell them.

At that time, in the early 80s, they didn’t know how to tune a carburettor and somebody helped them. “We started doing up bikes and began racing and…More

The Hindu : C.K. MEENA

SOCIETY Hijackers of culture come in different colours but they have the same, boring aim: to tell us what to eat, what to wear, and even whom we should have as our friends

Photo: Mohammed YousufSTAND UP FOR YOURSELVES Taking personal freedom for granted is easy

She must have been in her late sixties, this short, wiry woman in a cheap silk sari I saw one afternoon in the bus. Probably Dalit, definitely working class. She had just attended a wedding in Ulsoor. And she was drunk. Pleasantly high, giggling forno particular reason, and mildly teased by the relatives who accompanied her.

The dimwits who claim to protect Indian culture will never confront her and say, “This is improper behaviour.” Know why? Two reasons: First, they dare not, because she would let fly the ripest abuses at them. Second, they do not consider her a worthy representative of our culture. “How else would a lowly woman like her behave?” you can hear them say with a sneer.

She is beneath their notice. You, a middle-class higher-caste woman, are the object of their inspection. Only you are capable of bringing down our culture because only you are responsible for holding it aloft. Take a bow. Isn’t it an honour? To be an icon, like Mother India? No? I thought not.

So let’s cut the crap, shall we? From the smelly outpourings of windbags who get free publicity every day, let us try to extract a sweet whiff of commonsense. Time we took a rational look.

First off, this column was never meant to be a podium behind which I stand and hector you. So do forgive me this once for donning my teacher hat and lecturing you urban youngsters, particularly the women. Arch your neck like a swan and look at yourself through the eyes of the world outside. Next, twist your neck back in place…More

The Hindu : y>Valentine’s Day is around the corner and AYESHA MATTHAN gauges the mood amour in the time of moral policing

Photo: R. RavindranStraight through the heart Heart break hotel

In a few days from now, on Valentine’s Day, the Sri Ram Sene’s threat to target couples who dare express their love in public will run on national television like a broken record.

Out on bail, Pramod Muthalik and his brothers-in-arms will hold protests outside schools, colleges and hostels. Couples found dating will either be married or tie rakhis.

Greeting card and gift shops with their marketing gimmicks have been forewarned as well, and might have to peep with bleeding red hearts from behind half-closed shutters.

Parks, pubs, malls and motels will be patrolled by the self-styled guardians of Indian culture, who, like similar elements in Mumbai and Meerut, will not have anything to do with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Friendship Day or New Year’s.

Columnist and author of “Spouse: The Truth about Marriage”, Shobhaa De feels: “It is more of cultural terrorism where a group of misinformed, misguided people take it upon themselves to ‘reform’ society, generally women who step out of the boundaries society prescribes.” She states that the moment such individuals get away with pressure tactics, an awful message is sent out to society at large and women in particular — behave, conform, or else.

“This sort of behaviour is typical of patriarchal societies. Fanatics who attack women are cowards — frustrated men who hide their lechery under the guise of ‘correcting’ women. I would call these right wingers the real sex offenders in our midst, who insult Indian women by their beastly conduct. They deserve to be publicly whipped.”

Coming to ‘marketing gimmicks’ and ‘vulgar’ Western festivals, history professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Tanika Sarkar points out that “while we seem to be aware of gift-giving only during Valentine’s Day…More

The Hindu :

Motoring GS 150R is a well engineered motorcycle, with good finish and strong build quality

Photo: Kunal Khadse

Sure, its common knowledge Yamaha’s FZ-16 and YZF-R15 sit leagues higher than rival 150cc motorcycles. And the TVS Apache RTR stands out with an out and out sporty feel. But these up-market products aren’t cheap and don’t make veryfuel efficient options either. Which leaves some scope for other 150cc bikes to carve themselves a niche.

Suzuki’s been laying low in the Indian two-wheeler market, slowly digging in its heels with gradual progress, their previous launch — the 125cc Access scooter — having received an encouraging response. The Japanese makers often make safe, conservative entries into new markets, and the latest GS 150R fits in with this ideology.

Can the GS 150R fill in the blanks between the emerging segment of up-market 150’s, and the other usual suspects such as the more commuter-friendly Hero Honda Hunk, Bajaj Pulsar 150 DTS-i and Honda Unicorn?

The GS 150R looks best viewed from either the front or rear, with smooth, conservative lines and its GSX R lineage rather easy to catch at both ends.

As with most new Indian models, the bike conceals elegant, flowing five-spoke alloy wheels, the handlebar and its engine in a mean shade of black. Rubber boots have been clamped on to protect the front fork tubes from harsh Indian conditions. Clued in enthusiasts shall spot the Suzuki in the GSR’s distinctive and sporty headlight cluster. Twin city lights sit besides a bright halogen bulb equipped main headlight. It’s also among the few bikes that provide loud twin horns.

As expected from a Suzuki, the GS is a well engineered motorcycle, with bright paint, good fit-finish, strong build quality and top drawer rubber and plastic parts. The GS 150R comes with a nice seat, and excellent riding position that keeps a rider comfortable and free from aches and pains…More

The Hindu :

There is a general lack of awareness about the goodness of organic food. Read on to know the what, how and why of it

Photo: K. AnanthanOne step at a time It is easy to go organic

The best gift that we can give to family and friends is the gift of good health. Last century we have seen the rise of innumerable diseases like diabetes, cardio- vascular and cancer. Children are going into puberty earlier, girls with menopausal problems and infertility, youngsters with depression, mood swings, chronic fatigue, aggression and attention deficit syndrome are on the increase? Why? The biggest culprit is the food we eat.Cocktail of chemicals

Today we are being fed on a deadly cocktail of chemicals, pesticides, fungicides, full of addictives genetically modified, pumped in with hormones, topped with processed flour high sugar and salt.

This is bombarding our brains and body. In Europe a test done on 11- year- old Mollie detected with 54 chemicals in her body, the cause of all these diseases. Chemicals affect the neuro functioning of the brain and the memory empowering function of the central nervous system. What’s a possible solution? Organic food.

‘Organic’ means ‘living’, food that is grown without any additions of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. There are no growth hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, dyes, chemical coatings or irradiation and no genetic engineering. It is nothing but pure food – the way nature designed it.Benefits

Organic food is wholesome, live food, absolutely safe. It isnutritious, protects us against diseases, stops toxic overload in our bodies, retains authentic taste and flavour of the food. It is value for money as you save on medical bills because your immunity is higher and your vitamin mineral absorption is better than the rest. Organic food costs more but remember charity begins at home. The 20 per cent more would contribute extensively to the well being…More