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The Hindu : y>

Baldwin Girls’ High School, Richmond Road, hosted Panorama 2009, an interschool literary and cultural festival recently.

The festival, which was launched in 1990, aims to encourage a keen, healthy spirit of competition in co-curricular activities among high school students.

“Ours was the first school in Bangalore to initiate such a venture where talented students were given a platform to exhibit their inherent abilities,” said the Principal Indira Williams. This year, a few events were extended to include students of higher primary too.In all, students of 17 schools of the city took part in the two-day event.

The host school bagged the overall trophy but as a goodwill gesture, it was handed over to Presidency School, Nandini Layout, the runner up at the event.

(Input by Sudhindr.A.B.)

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The Hindu : SUDHINDR. A.B.

Students get a rare opportunity to learn the techniques of film-making.

For that perfect shot: A dream come true.

A unique opportunity came the way of students of the Ryan Group with the launch of the one-of-a-kind week long film production course. The media-club students of the Kundalahalli, Yelahanka and Bannerghatta branches attended this mega event. It was a wonderful chance for these lucky Ryanites of Std. V to Std.IX to get a hands-on experience under the guidance of the professional Ice-Plex Production Team from Mumbai.Air of excitement

For over a week, amateur cameramen, recording artists and lights-men, happily indulging in their creative pursuits and production managerial skills, besieged the Ryan International School, Kundalahalli campus.The mornings were devoted to technical know-how of audio and video recordings, colour mixings, framing and editing techniques. All too soon, the students were film-savvy, and were seen excitedly discussing the perfect shot they had always dreamed of and how they would execute it. The team leaders were busy filtering ideas and working out the feasibility of their ideas and the practicalities…arrangement for music, set designing, camera angles and scripting.Celebrations

The next part of the session was devoted to ‘World of Production’ and the students were taught film shooting. The team members were allotted duties like shooting, and slotted into the script writing team, in camera team, editors and so on.

By the end of the week, the children had produced a five-minute documentary, an ad film and a two-minute enactment, which was then screened in a celebratory ceremony. Certificates were awarded to the participants declaring them to be the ‘Savvy Media Smarts’.

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The Hindu :

Sir Gulam Noon, British Curry King, discusseshis recently released autobiography

Overcoming dark days Entrepreneur Gulam Noon

He left school at 17, but today he is the proud holder of five honorary doctoratesfrom five British Universities. He was a victim of racism often in the United Kingdom, but his corporate empire Noon Foods today employs 1,400 people of allraces across all nationalities. He is the man who chose food to win over the hearts of the people in the U.K., and was also mired in controversyover the cash for honours scandal in the same country.Most recently, he hit the headlines for jointly buying, with Nat Puri of the Purico Group, a series of letters written by Gandhi to Islamic scholar Maulana Abdul Bari and a signed piece of khadi at a Sotheby’s auction for 17,500 pounds.

Meet Gulam Noon, popularly known as Britain’s Curry King. He is the undisputed leader of frozen foods, especially non-vegetarian, and all kinds of sweets sold in the U.K. under Noon Foods.His life has not been free of hassles and controversies, and how he has put it all down in his autobiography, “Noon with a View — Courage and Integrity”, published by Penguin recently. The 205-page book has drawn positive reactions frompeople like British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his predecessor Tony Blair, and author Khushwant Singh.

Says Noon, “I thought the story of my life needed to be told — to make my grandchildren and those who want to settle in a foreign country understand that life is not hunky dory. I survived the onslaught of manmade disasters and controversies. Money never came to me like a curse but a blessing. In our family, we never fought for money but sacrificed it for each other. Today you see big business houses disintegrating only because wealthplays a divider. In my family, it only united us in adversity.”Early life

Noon can…More

The Hindu :

This fortnight at indiaplaza.in

Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Christopher Lee, Peter Mayhew, Jimmy Smits, Ahmed Best, Oliver Ford Davies, Temuera Morrison, Silas Carson

Director: George Lucas

Screenwriter: George Lucas

Composer: John Williams

Cinematographer: David Tattersall

Rs. 799

Just having watched the latest Harry Potter movie, “The Half-Blood Prince”, one deeply sympathises with actors who are stuck with being The One. Most movies in the fantasy genre feature a young, orphaned hero, who must complete a perilousquest to realise his destiny as the saviour of the world.

These heroes, are by necessity, flat uni-dimensional characters. It is the sidekicks who are, wicked, rounded and definitely more fun to be around. The hero just doggedly pursues his destiny with cryptic advice from wise, old people.

So you had Frodo listening wide-eyed to the white wizard Gandalf as Middle Earth seethes in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy or Harry Potter looking alternately grim and sulky listening to advice from his head master Dumbledore in his battle against Voldemort. There is also Neo looking blankly at the Oracle in the “Matrix” movies.

By some perverse twist of casting karma, the heroes in fantasy movies are invariably bad actors. With the exception of Elijah Wood (he played Frodo), everyone from Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter) to Keanu Reeves (Neo) are so expressionless that they can easily be lost in the special effects. Even Mark Hamill who played Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films was overshadowed by Harrison Ford’s charisma.

Continuing the tradition is the hopelessly-wooden Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, who is seduced by the dark side of the force to metamorphose into the evil Darth Vader. He is a distractingly bad actor. When he is making his life-changing choice, he screws his eyes and purses his lips to signify…More

The Hindu : y>Bangalore’s National Gallery of Modern Art, with its imposing architecture and intelligent display design, could well become the Mecca for the connoisseur, writes AYESHA MATTHAN

Photos: K. GopinathanBrush strokes The exhibits are a compilation of Indian visual and plastic arts from the 18th century to the present

A royal, 90-plus-year-old mansion with modern wings coated in white and artistic boards proclaiming “Signposts of the Times”, appear after a curtain of leafy trees on the serene Palace Cross Road. Almost eight years after the foundation stone was laid in 2001 at the proposed site, the third National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) opened its doors in February.

The former Mysore royal family property which was later owned by Raja Manikyavelu Mudaliar, the State government and then housed the United Nations Asia Pacific Centre for the Transfer of Technology (APCTT), was given to the Ministry of Culture in 1989.

Executed by the Central Public Works Department, NGMA had Venkatramanan and Associates as the architect consultants, with Naresh Narasimhan as the principal architect. With no branch director, director Rajeev Lochan who sits in NGMA, New Delhi, operates the Bangalore branch. He says the proposal for a curator/director is under consideration by the Ministry of Culture.

The local advisory committee comprises local artists Sheela Gowda, S.G. Vasudev, Balan Nambiar and Ravikumar Kashi, Laxma Goud and Ravindra Reddy from Andhra Pradesh, R.B. Bhaskaran former Principal of the College of Art, Chennai, and art historian Ajay Kumar from Kerala.

From the Bengal to the Mughal schools of art, Tanjore paintings to contemporary art of the last 25 years, the exhibits are a compilation of Indian visual and plastic arts from the 18th century to the present. Local artists represented include S.G. Vasudev, Yusuf Arakkal and Ravikumar Kashi.

Lochan says: “The art works presently displayed represents works of regional artists as well the masters in the making of Modern Indian Art from NGMA’s permanent collection.”…More

The Hindu :

Cinema can play a positive role in increasing awareness about mental health, sensitively

best of the pickAway from Her

Cinema moves people; its characters mirror our own while its scenes resonate in our minds. Not only does cinema give us an understanding of different people and distant lands, it also articulates our own desires and the mysteries of our own hearts.

Films like “A Beautiful Mind” (2001) and “15 Park Avenue” (2005) enlightened many of us about what schizophrenia really is. These films have helped the common person, to go beyond medical terminology and feel the despair of the schizophrenic.

Two films on Alzheimer’s disease received nominations in the 2008 Academy awards. Here is a list of eight Alzheimer’s films you must watch for a holistic understanding of the problem.

A Beautiful Mind

“Away From Her” (2007): Julie Christie won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Fiona, who voluntarily joins a long-term care facility to avoid being a burden on Grant, her husband of 50 years. During a 30-day recommended separation, Fiona’s memory of her husband deteriorates and she gets close to another man in the facility. How Grant deals with this dilemma forms the plot of the film.

“The Savages” (2007): Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman play the roles of two adult siblings who can’t get along. They have to reunite to take care of their father, who has dementia. The film got two Oscar nominations and one Golden Globe nomination.

“Aurora Borealis” (2006): Donald Sutherland plays a grandfather with dementia who claims to see the Northern Lights from his window. His wife (Louise Fletcher) hires a nurse (Juliette Lewis) who, with the grandson (Joshua Jackson), forges a friendship with Sutherland’s character.

“Thanmathra” (2005): Mohanlal gives a stellar performance as a father who wants his son to become a district collector. His family is shocked when he begins to lose his memory. Written and directed…More

The Hindu :

Gardening is a sure-fire way to gain good health and keep it too

PHOTO: K. ANANTHANSLOW AND STEADY Gardening is a great way to lose weight

Take it from one who has learnt the benefits of gardening the best way possible: me. Some years ago, I moved into a house up in the Nilgiris that was 102 years old and came with more than a half-acre of garden. There were lawns, flower beds, a strawberry patch, herb garden, peach, lime and pear trees and a rose round. I did not inherit all this verdure; some of it, I, with the help of an able gardener, built up from scratch. It was a lot of hard work, but immensely satisfying. What I did not realise at the time was it helped me shed excess flab and feel ever so fit.

There I was in my garden, weeding, pushing and pulling, pruning, trimming, hacking, planting. It was like taking care of a child, requiring constant care and attention. All that manual labour was helping me get in touch with parts of the body I had almost forgotten about. Year by year (we were there for three years), I was losing weight, and looking and feeling so much the better for it. Heading to the garden, hat on head and shears in hand was an excellent motivation to take in the fresh air. Lo and behold, my garden had turned into my personal gym!Outdoor gym

One of the great things about gardening is that it leaves you with no choice: you just have to move your body this way and that, kneeling, squatting, sitting on your haunches. Think about it. Going down on your knees to clean a particular square of a flower bed. Stretching sideways to pick a tomato or two from your vegetable patch. Basically what you are doing is bending and stretching exercises,…More

The Hindu :

If the pathways to stress are multiplying, there are equally innumerable experimental avenues where you can let go… even if it’s for a while

Therapeutic Doctor fish nibble away at your feet leaving them soft and glowing

Fish! Fish! Fish!” is the only thought nibbling at my mind as I make my way to the Kenko Refelxology and Fish Spa. I’ve already decided I care a damn for reflexology and an all-new ear-candling therapy on offer. It’s only fish, fish, fish all the way.

You’ve had pedicures where they soak, scrub, buff, clip, nip, paint and pamper your feet. But having fish giving you a ‘pedicure’ beats all that. (Sorry, all you pedicure specialists who slog thanklessly at feet all day.) Of course the fish can’t shape or paint your nails!

One doesn’t really expect to find peace, tranquillity, or a soothing ambience bang in the middle of the crossroads of Vittal Mallya Road and Lavelle Road. But Kenko manages that with flair, especially in their hush-hush reflexology section. (Weekends though, are noisy and bustling, I am told, with kids excited to see the thousands of fish.)

General Manager Sumini George says there are over 15,000 of these “Doctor Fish” spread over three areas in their tanks! Called the Garra Rufa species, these fish have a fancy for sucking on dead skin (they are teethless), and so provide for ticklish natural exfoliation. The result: Soft clean feet with glowing skin. The therapy has trickled down from Turkey, Syria, and Jordan to Singapore and Malaysia and has now come to India. The “doctor” bit comes from their apparent ability to cure minor skin ailments and even psoriasis. The water is treated and cleaned regularly to maintain hygienic conditions, they say.

(They plan to introduce a separate booth for those with serious skin conditions soon. They do not allow people with deep cuts and skin disorders…More

The Hindu : y>Rupali Goyal feels that the scourge of begging must be eliminated

Stuck at one of the many traffic intersections in the city, I peeped out of the window and saw a small aluminium vessel rising up and soon reaching up to the window level of the car. I saw a small boy holding the vessel and mouthing faintly, “Please give me some money, I have not eaten anything for two days.”

Such scenes are common in traffic intersections in cities across India. It is unfortunate that many children in the age groupfive to 15are caught in this web of begging.

Most of them initially view it as any other good profession, a source of earning some money and food, and to help their parents.This situation leads to many parents guiding their children and teaching them the tricks of trade, so that the family income could be augmented with minimum effort. Instead of training the children for this humiliating profession, an effort must be made to ensure that these children are provided adequate education facilities and taught some skills that will make themself-dependent and will release them from this self-deprecatoryprofession.

Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst? Pen it stylishly and you might get it published. Don’t forget to attach your photograph. And dash off your piece with your photograph. Email it tobangmetro@gmail.com or post it to MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road), Bangalore 1.

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The Hindu :

Is red wine better for you than white?

The claim

Red wine is better for you than white.

The facts

Summer is the season for chilled white wine.

But does red hold the year-round advantage when it comes to better health?

Many studies have shown that red wine has healthful compounds that are less abundant in white, including resveratrol, the heart-healthy substance derived from grape skins. Because white wine is produced with limited exposure to the skin, it contains lower levels of resveratrol, not to mention flavonoids, antioxidants, and the bitter-tasting tannins that are also linked to cardiovascular health.

According to studies, the wines with the greatest amounts of those compounds come from Sardinia, Spain and south-western France, in particular those from the grape grenache.

One caveat: A few epidemiological studies have compared white to red.Some have demonstrated an advantage for red, while others have not. One study found that red drinkers had a significantly lower risk of colon cancer.

But, the researchers later explained that among other things, the white drinkers were also more likely to smoke, which could have made the difference. The best answer may be to go with your palate, so long as you remember moderation.

The bottom line

On red vs. white, the evidence is mixed.

NYT

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