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The Hindu :

FOOTBALL The all-girl team Space Jam added colour and spice to the 6v6 tournament

Girl power Sangeetha, captain of Space Jam plans to put up a better show next time with more intensive training

One need not be Ronaldo or David Beckham to play international football. Even if you are just novice and wish to live a dream, you can just do that, thanks to a phenomena called Budweiser 6 v 6 football championship.

The six-a-side championship, which is gaining a world-wide popularity, gives a chance to the best team from each country to play against other international amateur teams in the world finals which is hosted abroad. The 2009 final is scheduled at Old Trafford, the home ground of Manchester United, from May 25.

The Indian team gets to play 14 other foreign teams there, train in Old Trafford, meet with Man U legends and a conducted tour of the hallowed arena. It is indeed a dream that can come true for all aspiring amateur six-a-side teams in India and last year’s finals, which was also held at held at Old Trafford saw a team from Mumbai making the trip. This year, the lucky team could be Bangalore’s Red Devils, which won the regional final at Bangalore. The national finals, scheduled at Hyderabad on March 27 and 28, features eight qualifiers, from Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Goa.

Budweiser has been the official sponsor for the FIFA World Cup. It also sponsors the English Premier League. In India, Budweiser sponsors the Mumbai super league and supports teams in Goa.

The first the Budweiser Cup in India held in 2008 received an encouraging response and the turnout this year, has exceeded the expectations.

What makes six-a-side, player and spectator friendly is its compact concept. It is like the 20/20 version of cricket. Each game lasts 15 minutes with seven-and-a-half minutes in each half. The teams can…More

The Hindu : y>Food will be the central axis in Eat Like the French

Wishdom Productions is presenting “Eat like the French”, a unique multi-dimensional theatrical experience, comprising a play with food as its central axis, and a post-play food and wine tasting event to complete a tantalising experience.

The play “12000 little pies and other delicacies” is an adaptation from the book, “The Physiology of Taste” by a 19th century writer, epicure and gastronome, Brillat-Savarin.

Sustained by four greedy women, or ‘gourmandise’ from the book, the play attempts to unravel the perception of the French as a somewhat snobbish and high-browed race and their pseudo scientific relationship with the culinary arts.

The enticing narrative is peppered with vivid and humorous descriptions of recipes, their preparation, and the effect they have on the human spirit, mind and body — and is relayed through a delightful smorgasbord of dialogue, costume, music and imagery.

Set in an era when French society was moving on from the cultural and socio-political chaos of the past, the play offers Brillat-Savarin’s ideas on food preparation and its role in life and philosophy.

And in doing so educates the viewer about the true nature of gastronomy, which is essentially the point where food fuses with the fine arts.

“Eat like the French”, adapted and directed by Claire Denieul will be staged on March 27 and 28, 7.30 p.m. at Ranga Shankara.

Tickets, priced at Rs. 350 include play and post-play tasting experience. The play is supported by Air France, Bouvet-Ladubay, UB and Four Winds. Call 26592777/ 26493982. Visitwww.indianstage.in

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The Hindu :

INSTITUTION A peek into a 32-year-old play home, and Uma Aunty

Photo: Murali Kumar K.Impulse start Uma Shankar started Bambi out of her passion to share knowledge with children

There is no board to tell you that it is a play home. Just a homey garage brimming with toys, little children screaming, jumping and laughing. That’s Bambi Play Home, on Police Station Road, in Basavanagudi.

The place was started by Uma Shankar, “out of an impulse and sheer passion for knowledge. I am a book worm and read voraciously. I felt I had to share all this knowledge with little children. I could take up a regular school teacher’s job, but as my children were very young, starting this play home in my own space was the best option,” says Uma, who started Bambi in 1977.No rhymes here

“As I was not into this for money, the fee was Rs. 25 in those days and now it is Rs. 500. I started by giving away just a few brochures and in the first batch itself I had 30 children, probably because the concept of a play home was new and I was the first or the second one to have such a place,” recalls Uma, who is the wife of S.P. Shankar, Senior Counsel, High Court of Karnataka.

There are 30 children even today — in the age group of two-and-half and three-and-a-half — who call her “Uma Aunty”.

She asks them to tell me whatever they know and they rattle off the names of the seven wonders, the continents, Prime Minister of India, rivers of India, biggest bird in the world, biggest flower in the world! That is not all, they even will tell you where silk comes from, how silk is made and what silk worms eat!

How do they remember these things? “I have developed my own method. I don’t believe in teaching…More

The Hindu : y>Michael Hirst, the creator of the resplendent saga The Tudors, tells MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER the series is a drama not a documentary

Marrying man Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer)

A young, dashing King Henry VIII is in France to sign the Treaty of Universal Peace. The French king presents him with a valuable neckpiece. Henry graciously accepts wryly commenting: “I only have this pie to present to you.” A courtier brings the pie. The puzzled king cuts the pie and birds fly out of it! Does the scenario remind you of the four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?

This is not a document on the history of nursery rhymes (that ditty is supposed to be a code used by pirate ships ). This is a scene from the television series “The Tudors.” Creator Michael Hirst is very clear on the brief he was working on. ‘“The Tudors’ is not a history lesson,” Hirst says over telephone. “It is a drama. When you write drama, you have to compress the timeline, otherwise the series would have gone on for 40 years!”

Hirst insists he has “not taken great liberties with historical facts. But I have changed certain things for the dramatic tension. Let me give you an example. According to history, Cardinal Wolsey was ordered back to London in disgrace and he very conveniently died en route. This is a shame for a dramatist. So in ‘The Tudors’ I had Wolsey, brilliantly played by Sam Neill, commit suicide. This also allowed Wolsey to have a final communion with god.”

Henry in “The Tudors” is very different from the popular image of a gouty, red-haired monarch. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (remember him as the dishy coach in “Bend it like Beckham”?) plays the king. “I wasn’t interested in the older, fatter Henry,” Hirst explains. “I wanted a young, handsome, virile Henry who has…More

The Hindu : y>

Water scarcity has begun to emerge as a major issue in the city. With the massive population explosion, lakes and other water bodies that provided water to the city have started to dry up during the summer months, resulting in the crisis. Metroplus asks city residents on what they feel must be done to ensure that this issue is sorted out and Bangalore does not face water scarcity. Many felt that adoption of schemes such as water harvesting would help in enhancing the low ground water levels in the city.

Many residents also felt that the population explosion and the resultant development activity that has resulted in concrete structures coming up even on lakes, results in many ecological and environmental problems.

Many feel that restrictions must be imposed to curb such unbridled construction activity and ensure that natural resources like ground water are not affected.

Many felt that clearing lakes and cutting down trees has also been responsible for the sad situation. Most people felt that preservation of water must be paramount and even suggested a water cess to prevent useless wastage of water. We sample some responses

Water harvesting is the best way to solve such crisis. I feel that uncontrolled development is to blame for this crisis and a coherent water policy must be drafted by the government to ensure that Bangalore does not face a water crisis like Delhi.

Melvin

Student

We are heading for a water crisis in the summer months. I feel that unless measures such as water harvesting, conservation projects and schemes for replenishing groundwater levels is undertaken, the crisis will take a turn for the worse.

Lionel

Engineer

The government must clear sewage lines and impose huge cess on wastage of water. People must also take the initiative and ensure that they minimise wastage of water. Apartment blocks must encourage water harvesting projects to stave off any crisis.

Neelkanth<p…More

The Hindu : y>

haute wheels Take a sneak peek into next generation transport

Nextworld reveals the most spectacular experiments by scientists all over the world to deliver some of the most amazing products with the aim of making life easier and more luxurious in the future.

The episode of “Future Cars” puts the viewers in the driver’s seat of super-charged vehicles, which can go faster than the speed of sound, morph from a streamlined roadster to a luxury sedan on voice command and cruise over land or underwater. Explore some of the most astounding vehicles of the future tonight at 9 p.m. on Discovery Channel.

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The Hindu :

Stand up comic, Papa CJ, feels audience participation is crucial for success

Photo: V.V. KrishnanGrin and bear it Papa CJ

A chance entry into a comedy contest in London, tickled Papa CJ’s funny bone. In the city as a part of a nationwide string of shows, he talked about his tryst with comedy. The show managed to win him a great deal of acclaim. He decided to leavehis plush management job in London and pursue a career in stand up comedy. “I had studied management in London and worked with a consulting firm for nearly five years. I was very bored with that job and decided to give stand up comedy a try.”

He feels that stand up comedy performances needs a live audience as it “helps a great deal in performances, since you can build your act based on audience reactions. It cannot work without the participation of the audience.” He adds, “You are dependent on audience involvement for the success of your act. If a comedian goes on for an hour and the audience is detached, the show will be not be a success. I feel that spontaneity and a connect with the audience is needed to make a show work.”

The ace comic feels Indians cannot take a joke on themselves.

“Our sense of humour works as long as another person is being targeted. The moment we are targeted, we take offence at every small issue. We are a nation of cynics, but have a spectacular lack of a sense of humour.”

He admits that most of the gigs and acts are mostly extempore. “I usually start with light jokes and gradually move on to the explicit jokes. The crowds will be shocked and may not react well, if you start with the explicit ones first.”

NIKHIL VARMA

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