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

I am on the lookout for a sedan, SUV or hatch-back that provides good storage space. My budget is Rs. 8 lakh.I will be using the car for long-distance drives and it should therefore have good levels of comfort.Other things that I am looking for in the car are dual airbags and alloy wheels with tubeless tyres.I am looking at the Maruti SX4 and the Honda City. Do both cars have good resale value? I would greatly appreciate your suggestions.

Anoopchand

Considering your requirements, we suggest you go for the SX4 rather than the City.

The SX4 is more spacious and comfortable than the City on long journeys.

You will have to stretch your budget a wee bit for the SX4 ZXi variant – which comes with alloy wheels and two airbags. Both cars have decent resale values.I have been driving an Esteem for the past 10 years and have driven 50,000 km. I now want to go in for a new model. I love the drive and feel of the car but I am clueless about new models.Please suggest a suitable substitute?

Veejai Janardan

The Swift Dzire would be a car that you’d definitely be most comfortable with.

Plus points of this car are, just like the Esteem, it doesn’t burn gaping holes in your wallet with maintenance costs and it is a reliable car.I want to buy the premium hatchback i20. Should I buy the fully-loaded version of i20?Are the additional features such as alloy wheels, ABS, Automatic Climate Control, remote key entry, airbags, etc. worth paying for? Also, what will be approximate resale value of the car after a few years?

Kiran Mangipudi

As compared to the standard (Magna) version, top end variant of the i20m, the Asta(O), comes with features that are well worth paying for.

When purchasing the higher variant you must keep in mind that…More

The Hindu :

Dakshayini Gowda’s Sanchali is a museum where kids can touch artefacts and ask questions

DAKSHA’S DICTUM Mixing museology with archaeology

Lissom, delicate, elfin, these are the adjectives that come to mind when one first meets Dakshayini Gowda. But as the saying goes, do not judge a book by its cover and soon one is on Daksha’s train of thought, fascinated with the manner in which she has used her post-graduate degrees of museology and archaeology to create a hands-on museum on various historical periods of civilization.

Named ‘Sanchali’, which means movement in Sanskrit, the idea is to bridge past civilizations with modern day living through her workshops, says Daksha.

To hit the reverse button on Daksha’s life, she graduated out of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath and then went on to the Baroda College of Fine Art where she says: “with no set pattern, just an over-riding interest and a passion, I enjoyed doing a masters in both museology and archaeology. It was then that I decided to revive traditional Indian art forms and use them to bring history out of the museum and into schools”.Memories of museums

She had terrible memories of being taken to museums on her school trips as a child and constantly being told “Don’t touch”. This was the source of her inspiration. Her stints at the Centre for Vernacular Architecture, Bangalore, and Upasana Design Studio in Auroville also helped, and she began Sanchali to revive traditional art forms and make museum learning more interactive. “Starting with the Indus Valley Civilization I have taken art from various periods and in non-school settings, and brought various civilizations alive with my art work and talks.” The big difference from a museum is that children are allowed to touch and ask questions, breaking down barriers in communication.

Setting out the various terracotta artefacts of the Indus Valley Civilization for me to view, a whistle…More

The Hindu : y>The SUV will showcase Volvo’s all-new look

The Volvo XC60 is being readied for its launch in India this September. Its elder brother, the Volvo XC90 is already on sale in India, but the XC60 previews Volvo’s all-new look.

The XC60 shares the same five-cylinder diesel and 3.2-litre straight-six petrol engines as the XC90 and S80 but for India, it is the diesel which will lead the XC60’s foray. The diesel engine will be mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. This version is front-wheel drive only, and is cheaper into the bargain. The XC60 also previews a lot of new features, including what Volvo likes to call the ‘floating console’.

The centre console has the climate control buttons embedded in it, while the space behind the console is hollow and can be used for storage.

The XC60 will go head-to-head with BMW’s X3 and the recently-launched Audi Q5, but could be slightly cheaper. But what remains to bee seen is if Indian consumers will pay a premium for an SUV with a two-wheel drive.

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The Hindu :

Author-photographer Amano Samarpan talks about the dangers of man and the resourcefulness of birds

PHOTOS: AMANO SAMARPANPicture Perfect A sarus crane and a grey-headed fishing eagle

“Indian Birds in Focus,” by Amano Samarpan published by Wisdom Tree is not just a picture-perfect book but also an S.O.S. for action. The author-photographer zooms high at a crested serpent eagle sunning itself on a treetop.

He focuses his camera low at a desert wheatear, wearing a pirate’s mask, stiff at attention.

Through intimate photographs and brief captions of birds in nine different habitats, Samarpan shows how “the fate of birds acts as a kind of barometer for the human race.” Over 10 per cent of the wild bird species in this country are threatened according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, he warns. “To ignore their fate is to ignore the potentially devastating consequences of our actions.” While based in the U.K., Samarpan has been visiting India for over 30 years. In his own time, he has seen bird-rich areas disappear.

“I used to watch white-rumped vultures from my hotel room in the centre of Delhi and then suddenly, within a few years, they became endangered and were seldom seen anywhere.”

Another casualty of our brick and mortar lives is the house sparrow. Samarpan’s first encounter with Indian birds was with the jabbering joyous munia. He remembers his first day in Delhi when he tried sleeping off jetlag. He was soon interrupted by the tweeting of a flock of sparrows that were making a racket and exploring his prostrate body. “It was a delightful introduction to India and something I had never experienced before.” Today, the sparrow is seen in fewer numbers, he explains, because of the concretisation of cities.

As we cement our houses, we deprive the humble sparrow of its thatched habitat. The book frames this bird’s dilemma in a photograph of it peeping…More

The Hindu :

Nasreen Munni Kabir has managed to persuade Lata Mangeshkar to tell her life’s story in her own way

THE MAKING OF THE MAVERICK Artist M.R. Achrekar’s portrait of Lata Mangeshkar from the book. Author Nasreen Munni Kabir (below)

Speaking to Nasreen Munni Kabir is a lesson in wit and wisdom. The words flow with the natural ease and grace of a raconteur. The depth in her response comes from her immense knowledge, and tons of patience; assets that have come handy time and againfor the London-based filmmaker-author. With works on Guru Dutt and Javed Akhtar already in the kitty, she is now working on a book on Raj Kapoor’s “Awaara”.

In what is probably a first for Indian publishing, she has just come up with a conversational biography of the one and only Lata Mangeshkar, a lady who opens up as easily as a shy kid in nursery class. Yet Nasreen has managed the almost impossible, nudging, cajoling, even gently persuading the veteran to take a long, long trip down memory lane and tell her tale to her fans in her own voice. Yes, in “Lata Mangeshkar…In Her Own Voice” (Niyogi Books), Nasreen gets arguably the greatest singer of the 20th Century to talk of things comfortable as also subjects uneasy, of her father who did not have a very high opinion of film music, her sister Asha Bhonsle and the so-called sibling rivalry, of Shanker-Jaikishan and the Filmfare Award controversy.

Far from taking credit, Nasreen merely says, “It was not very challenging. Lataji has such a fabulous memory. She is an engaging conversationalist. Very intelligent, she does not suffer inane questions.”Little-known nuggets

Nasreen claims the best part of doing the 260-odd page biography, rich with rare photographs, was that she got a peek into the little known world of Lata Mangeshkar, the person. “I asked her what aspect of her personality is present…More

The Hindu : y>Melissa Soalt trains women to turn their fear into fire.With the right skill and will, women can defend themselves, the fierce self-defence exponent tells BHUMIKA K.

Photo: Bhagya Prakash k.Fighting spirit Melissa Soalt believes that if attacked, women should become savage beauties

When “Dr. Ruthless” answers the phone, it’s a sweet voice with an even softer disposition that I encounter across the line. I’ve read about her, and the website of this women’s self-defence expert is dominated by phraseslike “fierce and female”, “Neander babe”, “beast girl”, “go ballistic”, “use dirty tactics”, “take control”. I’ve seen fighting pictures of her and does she look formidable! And then when I meet her, I’m stumped by the contrasting package that Mellisa Soalt is. She’s about five feet tall, has a petite yet sinewy frame, and is quite comfortable kicking ass and wearing jewellery.

While I tell her that it is reassuring to see that such a tiny woman has become emblematic of physical power, she gives me one of her favourite lines: “It is not the size of the woman in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the woman!” Melissa’s approach to self defence is really about breaking stereotypes. That women are small, defenceless, don’t have it in them to put up a fight…

“It goes against the grain for most people, especially women, to resort to violence. The trouble is also the hesitation that comes from fear. I am a non-violent person and believe in the least harm. But if you are attacked, you have to become a savage beauty,” she tells me at some point in the interview. “I take the cringe response out of you. Everyone has the killer instinct in them. I believe that half the population in the world should not live in fear of the other half.”

She believes that a woman’s nurturing and aggressive natures were seamlessly entwined…More

The Hindu : y>

Photo: ShamasunderClose up Catch a glimpse of life in the wild

Wishbone is organising a tour to Sakleshpur and the Kadamane estates from June 12 to 15. The trip includes a tour of the Kadamane estate, a low elevation tea estate with more than 6000 acres of tea plantations. The trip will also include a day-long trek through the forest and a night camp in the wild, weather conditions permitting.

The estate forests comprise elephants, leopards, gaurs, bear, sambhar, civet cats and a host of other species. Accommodation will be provided at the Estate Bungalow. Call Kaushik on 98861-69698 for more information on the tour.

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The Hindu : C.K. MEENA

Shredded nerves, vague diagnosis, no solution in sight. It has to be a system crash

Last fortnight my computer was running a temperature. It curled up into a ball, shut its eyes tight and refused to stir out of bed. Now, my bedside manner is most unsympathetic. I frown. I shake my fist. I utter foul imprecations. Such behaviour isn’t exactly calculated to make a patient recover.

It’s up and about now. A part needed replacement, was all. How simple I make it sound! You very well know that the treatment was prolonged and agonising — ten days and shredded nerves, in my case. Most of you reading this are crash survivors. Am I right or am I right? “Serious system error”: when the dire message comes up on your screen you hope against hope that it will go away if you ignore it. But it never does, does it?

For a month I had pretended not to notice the warning symptoms: slowness, shortness of breath, fainting fits. Time came when I had to call the company. But it doesn’t just dispatch an engineer instantly. You have to prove that you deserve one. This can be achieved by convincing a series of call centre employees that your problem cannot be solved on the phone. When the engineer finally arrives you breathe a sigh of relief, but you shouldn’t breathe too soon, for he tells you precisely nothing.

“What’s the problem?” you ask. He mutters something you don’t catch. “What?” you ask. He mutters another word which sounds completely unlike the first. He then gives you a minor heart attack by speaking casually of viruses. When you protest that you’re adequately protected he decides there is a problem with your “earth”. This, it seems, has ruined your motherboard. It has a three-year warranty and fortunately your system is only two years old.

Off he goes, promising…More

The Hindu :

Honda CBR1000RR is compact and high on performance

The CBR1000RR is really compact and belies its massive 1000cc engine capacity. Honda have done a lot to separate the Fireblade from the competition by designing the bike without the angular, mean lines that dominate most other rival litre-class superbikes. This is a motorcycle with softer, friendlier lines that many have come to admire.

A notable feature of the 1000RR, is that it concentrates its mass low and close to the centre of the bike, and the factory has laboured hard to keep its weight to a bare minimum, so crucial on these kind of built-for-speed machines. The CBR’s front fairing gives the bike an aggressive stance, with twin headlights glaring out of an aerodynamically shaped snout. Front turn signal indicators are located on the smart, really high-quality stalk-mounted mirrors, which show clear rear view at all speeds. A thoroughbred motorcycle’s characteristic instruments bay sits just under its low-set visor, with a huge analog rev counter filling up much of the bay, and digital speedometer offset to the right. The turn signal warning icons are smartly placed on the periphery of this single-pod fascia, while within the rev counter sit a low-fuel warning lamp, neutral, high beam and bright redline warning lights.

The CBR leaves one headlight on all the time, with the rider only able to command high beam. The grips lend a nice feel to the rider’s palms and the bike has smartly buffed levers, with the front brake offering reach adjustability. The Fireblade utilises Honda’s proven thief-repelling Honda Ignition Security System (HISS) that won’t allow the bike to start without its original set of keys.

The CBR1000RR’s engine and curved radiator sit semi-concealed beneath its distinctive bodywork, with its massive frame running back to expose itself just under its long tank section. With a glinting paint job, superb attention to detail and nice…More