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The Hindu : SUDHINDR.A.B.

A combination of preparation and examination strategy ensured good results.

PHOTO: K.MURALI KUMARSuccess feels good: After extensive preparation.

The results of the ISC, ICSE and CBSE examinations were announced recently. It was celebration time at the schools that are part of The Hindu’s NIE programme. Many schools have achieved 100 per cent results and the authorities attributed the success to the team effort of students, teachers as well as parents.

The school toppers expressed their gratitude to the teachers and said that it was the encouragement and support of teachers that ultimately helped them to ace the board examinations.Teachers, guides

“My teachers were always there and guided me throughout in my academics. The worksheets, the monthly tests and the pre-board exams helped me to judge my writing skills and recognise my mistakes. I approached my teachers whenever I had doubts and followed all my concepts clearly,” said Varsha. S, the topper at Florence Public School.

“I never expected that I would top the school. I am very thankful to my teachers and parents for their continuous support. My teachers were very supportive and taught the subjects very well. They encouraged me a lot, cleared all my doubts and rectified my mistakes. They used to revise the completed portions regularly. The unit tests and monthly tests helped me a lot and finally the preparatory examinations geared me to face an examination of any standard,” said Shashank. K., the topper at Sri Kumaran Children’s Home.

“I used to study only for four hours every day and never attended private tuitions. The coaching at my school was excellent,” said Varsha. “Success is sweeter because the students were encouraged to participate in various extra-curricular activities through the year .

“Regular support provided by the teachers via remedial classes and extra classes along with a one to one interaction went a long way in building up the confidence of the students,”…More

The Hindu : y>

Graceful The exhaustive collection at Varsidhi

Varsidhi, a sari retailer, has launched a Kanjeevaram collection. The collection, “Weavers Melodies” is a tribute to the craftsmanship of the weavers and features a range of novel designs, dazzling zari work and unusual motifs. It also uses subtle double colours, traditional temple and Annapurna motifs, pale European colours, and geometric motifs.

The Kanjeevaram collection draws its inspiration from myriad sources such as paintings of royal families, art and geometry. It combines the inputs and creativity of young designers with the time-tested dexterity of traditional weavers.

Besides the “Weaver’s Melodies” collection, Varsidhi also offers a premium range of saris, bridal lehengas and dress materials. For more information, call 41478989 or visitwww.varsidhi.com

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The Hindu :

ISSUE Are women naturally wired to worry, or is it just an individual disposition? Or is it just their way of coping with multitasking?

Photo: AFPThe way to live Cliched as it may sound, don’t worry be happy

Women and worry — made for each other? Does it have something to do with the way they are naturally wired? Or, is it yet another instance of gender stereotyping?

Says Aruna Subramaniam, coordinator, Centre for Social Initiative and Management, a business school for social entrepreneurs: “We worry about the details and are given to a little nit-picking as mothers, career women and people who balance home and work. However, at a certain stage in life, say the forties, women tend to worry a little less.”

Drawing attention to the subtle difference between worry and anxiety, Meena Jain, psychologist and psychotherapist, says: “Women tend to get more anxious and tense about things. On the contrary, men don’t let emotions override everything else. They would ideally look at resolving a problem. Only if the issues are serious do they tend to worry. For women,concerns are momentary. But, they worry if carrying the burden of unresolved conflicts or are going through some major crisis at home — let’s say a child not doing well in school or some other problem. And this can affect their health.”

Says K. Latchumanadas, a senior consultant cardiologist: “Women usually worry about small things. If the son hasn’t come home on time or if the husband hasn’t eaten, it is enough to get them started. They are constantly worried about others. So much so, that even if they have a health problem, they will put off coming to the doctor if it is going to dislocate others’ routine. But men are more casual and analytical. Because of their hormones andsocietal conditioning, they feel they have be composed and in control even when stressed.”More committed<p…More

The Hindu : y>

Photo: K. GopinathanStarting early Into the world of mobile phones

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The Hindu : y>Cuisine Discover how this ingredient can transform common desserts

Honeyed Plum Crumble

Ingredients

Butter: 75gm

Plain flour: 150gm

Sugar: 50gm

Porridge oats: 25gm

Chopped, toasted hazelnuts: 50gm

Plums, halved and stoned: 900gm

Honey: 30-60 ml (2-4tbsp)

Rind of an orange

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200oC/ 400oF/ Gas Mark 6; rub butter into flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in sugar, porridge oats and hazelnuts. Place plums in a pan with 150ml water, honey and orange rind.

Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered, then transfer to an ovenproof dish and top with crumble mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden.Honey Almond and Paneer Phirni

Ingredients

Almonds: 20gms

Water: half cup

Milk: 3 cups

Cottage cheese (paneer), crumbled: 1 cup

Honey: 2 tbsp

Method

Soak the almonds in half cup water; microwave on ‘high’ for 30 seconds and leave aside; skin them and cut into thin slices.

Blend cottage cheese in half cup milk into a thick, smooth paste.

Heat the remaining milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to boil, then add the cottage cheese and milk paste stirring all the time; cook on medium heat until the milk turns into custard-like consistency.

Stir in the honey; transfer to serving dish, garnish with almonds slivers/silver warq; serve hot or chilled.Almond Saffron and Honey Milk

Ingredients

Milk: 2 cups

Pinch of cardamom powder

Crushed almonds: half cup

Honey: 2 tbsp

Saffron, dissolved in 1 tbsp milk: half tsp

Method

Bring the milk to boil, add a pinch of cardamom powder and simmer for two minutes. Reduce the heat, add crushed almonds, honey and saffron; cook for one minute. Pour into glasses; garnish with saffron strands; serve hot.Khoya and Honey Gajar Halwa

Ingredients

Red carrots, peeled, coarsely grated: 250 gms

Butter: 1 tbsp

Khoya, grated: half cup

Honey: 2 tbsp

Method

Put the grated carrots and butter in a kadai; cook on medium heat, tossing occasionally, until carrots are tender and the water released by carrots begins to dry up.

Add the khoya in a cut and fold method (dried reduced milk) and blend gently into…More

The Hindu :

A liberal dose of give and take is what will help a relationship last

Photo: K.R. DeepakBOUND BY LOVE Couples facing adversity together stay committed to each other

Okay, you saw each other across a crowded room, you met, dated, fell in love, not necessarily in that order. And now, the two of you get along superbly. You share ideas, emotions, insights.

Except colour-coordinating your clothes, you try and do everything in perfect synchronisation. The future dazzles in its promise.

Not to play Cassandra, but you two have just got across the smallest hurdle in embarking on a relationship. Now come the toughies — the hurdles that may seem small but can bedeadly in the path to lasting love.

Then again, once you have established that your relationship is not transitory but for keeps, it can be strengthened, it can fly high — good times and bad. All you need is to adopt some tenets.Sound idea

Don’t ever qualify your love. Statements such as ‘I love you but…’ are fraught with dangers. Emotions should not come with a qualifier.

Remember?‘I love you warts and all’. That is a sound idea, now. Don’t attempt to try and change your loved one, learn to love the traits, instead. Give up at least two major or minor peeves about your loved one. For good.

By which, we mean list out the two biggest bugbears in the relationship. It could be a habit of turning up late, carelessness or insensitivity.

After you make the list, tear it up and let it go — from your hands, from your life.Never put your partner in a spot. All too often, unwittingly or otherwise, one puts one’s partner in an uncomfortable place, causing anger or embarrassment.

Don’t for a moment think that if you reserve accusations for when the two of you are alone, then it is all right. It is not. Love, really, is…More

The Hindu : y>SOUND OFF! M.V. Achuthakrishnan feels that professionals must join politics to clean the system

As the dust settles on the election process, the players have begun the second round of calculations for grabbing various ministerial positions, even as the electorate carries on with its day-to-day existence.

Politicians who had greeted the voters with folded hands and a smile during the polls will consign them to their own fate.

Education should be the primary area that the new government must strive at improving to ensure that we manage to emerge on the top, on the basis of our knowledge.

However, though India is developing on many a front, when it comes to politics, no middle class parent wants their offspring to be a politician, resulting in India being one of the few countries that practices dynastic politics devoutly. We install politicians for life and build fine memorials, after their deaths, regardless of their contribution to society.The vast middle class remains broadly unrepresented in the political system.

Most of the projects planned for the common man remains on paper and ends up gobbling up loads of taxpayer money, enroute to becoming a liability. This disconnect of the middle class from politics is the bane of India. Indian parents should encourage children to enter politics to ensure that a certain degree of clarity emerges in the political system. Only if educated professionals take up politics, can the menaces of corruption, nepotism and communalism dealt with seriously. We can replicate the same model of IT education and training. Why not build an institute that can train politicians as proper professionals? An untrained politician is the same as a captainless ship being buffeted by storms in the high seas.

We must practice lasting moral values such as encouraging and rewarding merit, self respect, and integrity and strive to bring about a genuine desire to contribute to common welfare.

Do you have anything…More

The Hindu :

INTERVIEW Ruskin Bond’s stories continue to enthral readers across generations

bond to be cherished Ruskin Bond says he has so much more to write about

Ruskin Bond’s stories are imbued with a gentle humour, warmth and kindness that have made them loved by generations of children and adults. And speaking to the author recently on the occasion of his 75th birthday (May 19), it was clear that those qualities are as much a part of the man himself, as they are of his work.

“I don’t want to see another cake for a year or two,” he tells me ruefully when we finally get to talk. Getting hold of the author has been rather difficult, not because he’s unapproachable. Far from it. It’s just that he’s been flooded with calls and visits from well-wishers and fans alike. And they all brought him cake. “I’ve eaten so much — and I’ve already been told I need to lose weight!” he says. “But the more thoughtful young readers gave me pens because they know I still write by hand.”Young fans

He talks about his young fans often during the interview, and his fondness for them is apparent. He tells me, for instance, about the little girl who came up to him and said, “Mr. Ruskin Bond, I really like your ghost stories, but your ghosts aren’t scary enough.” “She told me, ‘Why don’t you make them scarier?’,” he chuckles in amusement.

“I guess kids want more hair-raising stuff!” And then there’s the little girl he met in a Delhi school. Asked what she thought of him, she said: “You’re not a bad writer,” he recalls. “I took it as a wonderful compliment.”

A Ruskin Bond story never ends on anything but a gently optimistic note, and I realise that this is part of the way the author views the world. I ask him, for example, how the…More

The Hindu :

Here’s a story of crime and rebirth eyeing the global market

Thriller drama Shahjahan and (right) a scene from the film

Call it the “Slumdog Millionaire” effect if you will, the global spot light on Indian films shines a shade brighter.

A whole bunch of made-in-India movies tried to grab eyeballs at Cannes this year. Amidst big productions such as “Kambhakkht Ishq”, “Kites” and the likes, a small film (produced with a budget of Rs. 5 crore) was busy eyeing the global market.Good ol’ formula

Its director Mohammad Shahjahan shares something in common with Danny Boyle. He, like Boyle, assisted Sir Richard Attenborough.

Shahjahan’s film, “Karma: Crime, Passion, Reincarnation”, claims to have given a new twist to tried-and-tested reincarnation stories we’ve seen in innumerable films from “Kudrat”, “Karz”, “Om Shanti Om” and others.

Shahjahan’s project, shot in Ooty, stars Claudia Ciesla (yes, the lady who was clicked with Abhishek Bachchan at Cannes), Alma Saraci and Vijayendra Ghatge among others, and has been written by Vivek Singhania.

“The idea of karma is deeply rooted in Indian philosophy and has a great recall value. The plot puts normal people in abnormal situations. It’s an international film set against an Indian background, for which I wanted an amalgamation of Indian and global talent,” says the director, who previously directed the Aamir Khan and Neelam starrer “Afsana Pyar Ka”.

Obviously, we wonder why he hasn’t been at the helm after having assisted Ismail Merchant, Richard Attenborough (for “Gandhi”) and David Lean among others.

“It has taken me a long time, I admit. In between, I directed a film called ‘Buland’ with Salman Khan. It never saw the light of the day. It was disheartening,” he says.

“Karma…”, he says, is a “tightly-woven drama targeting multiplex audience.”

Apart from theatrical release worldwide, the producers are keen on tapping Europe’s DVD market.

The film will be released in English and Hindi soon. “We screened the film at…More

The Hindu :

INTERVIEW Resul Pookutty’srhythms of life andjoys of food

Photo: V.V. KrishnanListeners’ choice Oscar winner Resul Pookutty

India’s Oscar hero Resul Pookutty has found that being famous can be hard work. Between appointments, Resul is famished, and so when he settles down for the chat at Delhi’s The Ashok, “I’ll have lunch — whatever that means,” he declares, dispensing genially with the ritual of looking over the menu. At the Sagar Ratna restaurant, lunch means a South Indian thali, all vegetarian. Resul says he was a “hardcore vegetarian” for two years. “Then I toned down, because my wife, bechari, she had a hard time! But I’m not too much of a meat eater. I eat fish. Being from Kerala, if you don’t eat fish, it’s blasphemy!”Sense of rhythm

Resul opts for buttermilk while waiting for the thali. Buttermilk may quench his thirst, but there is no dousing the fire within the man for whom “life in general is finding a sense of rhythm.” Ever since he joined the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, for a PG course in film studies with a focus on sound, back in 1991, he has been exploring sound at levels ranging from the physical to the metaphysical. “Being a Physics graduate, sound was my obvious choice,” says Resul, “but I realised at the institute that sound was not what we thought it was.”

Film sound looks at various aspects, he explains: “The actors’ performance, the ambience, creating the soundscape — and, you’re using music.” Exposed to international film productions during his studies, he noticed “those were very close to life” whereas Indian commercial films were less so.“The visual aspect of a film is spatial — horizontal — whereas sound is spherical. It’s in your imagination. The visual element you are seeing, it’s almost tangible.”

Sound, he says, is “very interior. So I am constantly thinking how I can…More