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The Hindu : y>Take a break and head for the spas

Refreshing Get the treatment and help the body de-stress

Nestled in the white sands of Utorda Beach, The Kenilworth Beach Resort in Goa is a 20 minutes drive away from Dabolim Airport and a 15 minute drive from the Margao Railway Station.

The “Agua Spa” at the resort provides an exclusive opportunity for men toreap the benefits of various treatments. The treatment involves an hour of therapeutic massage and 30 minutes of a cleansing and invigorating facial that leaves you refreshed. The package also provides a private changing area for men and separate sauna, steam and Jacuzzi facilities.

The cabin is made of pinewood to create a tranquil atmosphere. The relaxing aromatic bath and underwater massage treatment releases tension, and tones the body. The therapy helps calm the body and mind, provides a boost to the immune system and increases circulation and metabolism levels. It also helps alleviate back pain, enhance the immune system, exercise weak muscles, increase flexibility etc.The package costs Rs.3,500 plus taxes.For Reservations, call (0832) 6698888

*** Rejuve Spa at The Lalit Ashok in Bangalore will help customers rejuvenate with the Arogya monsoon package. Rejuve is a melting pot of Indian, European and Oriental influences, with beautiful gardens and outdoor yoga facilities. The detoxifying Indian clay body wrap and healing treatments are part of the “Arogya package”. The package nourishes, detoxifies and rejuvenates your body. It also includes Prakruti analysis by experts, a traditional Indian massage, Spa immune booster etc.. The package is available for Rs.2,500 at Lalit Ashok hotel. Call 30527777.

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The Hindu : y>Everyone’s lost between two earplugs, in their own musical world on the cell phone, finds RESHMA KRISHNAMURTHY SHARMA

Photo: V. GanesanPLUGGED IN When on the move or listening to that hit number with friends

The way we listen to music has changed over centuries and with rapidly mobile lifestyles, music on the move is getting jazzier and snazzier. Newer and technologically advanced gadgets seem to evolve just overnight. Listening to music on iPods is onetrend that has caught up with the middle class and upper middle class. But listening to music on the cell phone has no such class barriers.

Whether it is a teenager commuting by bus or a carpenter cycling by,a single woman walking alone on the road back from work or the dhobi who came home to pick up your clothes, they are all in a world lost between two earplugs. Listening to music on mobiles with ear plugs on is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Earplugs are the new best friends, who offer comforting and melodious company.

Part of everyday life

Says Abhijit Sharma, an architecture student: “Mobiles have become an indispensable part of many of us and that includes me too. The availability of music on mobiles is a boon for me as I listen to it at least two to three hours a day, especially when I am travelling — either riding my bike or driving my car.”

Getting addicted to music on the move is also an interesting phenomenon because it’s not just cut across class and economic barriers, but also across the age demographic. With mobiles getting more affordable by the day, tuning into FM stations on the mobile seems a more common use for the handset than to even make calls! Women, specially, somehow seem to find in their mobiles a constant and reliable companion when they are travelling alone in buses or walking down the road or for…More

The Hindu : SUBHA J RAO

It’s the best time for a couple, when they get to know each other and form the bond of a lifetime. Here’s how you can make your honeymoon a memorable one

Time it well

Preferably, avoid putting off your honeymoon for later. The period after marriage is usually the best.Plan in advance

That way, you can take into account each other’s desires and decide on a location accordingly. Whether it is sandy expanses, snow-clad hills or beaches.Going solo?

While it is fun to be on your own and explore a city and discover each other, going as part of a group can be a great experience too, especially if it’s a bunch of recently-married friends.Things to remember

In all the hustle-bustle of the wedding, don’t forget to make a proper packing list so that you travel in peace.

If you’re the romantic sort, carry along music that you both like.

Despite all the planning, things can go wrong. Take it in your stride. Something unplanned can be memorable too.

Ideally, use the services of a travel agent. That gives you enough breathing space to focus on just the essentials.

You might be on a budget honeymoon, but carry a little more money than needed. And, ideally choose all-inclusive accommodation – food, transportation, activities, etc.

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The Hindu :

Vajra, choreographed by Madhu Nataraj for Ganjam, brings in elements of Tantra, Kalari and Ninjutsu

CONFLUENCE Of various forms

It’s a rehearsal of “Vajra”, choreographed by Madhu Nataraj and performed by Natya Stem Dance Kampni. It’s 11 a.m. and the sun is blazing bright. Music starts and text appearing on the screen behind the dancers, gives you an idea of what to expect in the dance, making comprehension of the contemporary dance moves easier.Creative concepts

The music is an extraordinary blend of western and Indian classical. The dance is brilliant, making you like Madhu more in the role of a choreographer. She has great style and presents even simple concepts gracefully. She can sure make her students dance spectacularly.

The dance is divided into three parts and the best bit is “The Dance Of Light”, where the dancers, dressed in white, have torch lights attached to their arms and are carrying tiny torches in their hands. While the stage is dark, you see these ghostly figures moving gracefully with blinking lights. The lights in the hands are used creatively — the dancer illuminates only a part of her face or feet where she wants to draw your attention. That piece indeed is a luminous creation.

Madhu then sits down to explain how it all started. “The idea of ‘Vajra’ first came from Umesh Ganjam. He wanted us to do something with the vajra or the diamond,” she explains. Madhu then got involved in her research for the concept.

“Vajra itself means brilliance, enlightenment,” says this dancer-choreographer, who then interacted with various people who have written on diamonds. To get the idea of more deeply rooted into her soul, she did a solo piece called “Bindu” to internalise the research.

Once she was confident of what and how she would depict the concept through movement, she included her Stem Dance Kampni in the project.

“Dance for us does…More

The Hindu :

Justice Leila Seth on the many firsts in her career, children and more

Photo: Shanker ChakravartyTrailblazer Working against odds became integral to her personality

Defying age nimbly is Leila Seth. At 79, she looks back at a life lived well. The firsts to her name — the first woman judge of the Delhi High Court, the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court in India and the first woman to top the Bar examinations in London — sit lightly on her.

Leila has been quite the child of destiny too. With quiet determination, she made the best of opportunities She is thankful to her mother who wept and raised a furore when Leila, then a 15-year-old, informed her she wanted to be a nun. “I am glad I am not a nun,” chuckles Leila. At London, she enrolled for law “as the course did not require too much attendance.” She prepared for her bar examinations with a newborn at home. She accepts it was “bad planning.” However, when she topped the course, Leila says: “I was not even there to collect my degree as we had moved back to India.” After years of eventful practice in Kolkata and Patna, she and her husband moved base to Delhi in the 1970s. If working against odds became integral to her personality, her children too tested her with their “unconventionality” —The eldest is acclaimed author Vikram Seth, the second son a Buddhist teacher, and the daughter, an art director in films.

She is candid about the fears she and her husband had when her now-famous son declared he wanted to be a writer. “We were worried if he would have difficulty supporting himself.”In her autobiography, “On Balance”, Leila had admirably talked about Vikram’s bi-sexual orientation. But, she clarifies she was not the first one to reveal it.Leila says: “Vikram disclosed it in 1993-94 in an interview…More

The Hindu : y>

Rakshabandhan is a festival that promotes peace, and honours the bond between a brother and a sister. It is a tradition that is followed by many across the country, cutting across caste, class and religious distinctions.

A few days before the festival (Rakshabandan is on August 5), MetroPlus asks city residents on their views on whether this festival has managed to live on and continues to be significant in violent times like these?

Many people expressed that it was one festival that promoted goodwill, universal brotherhood and is significant, especially considering the aggressive times we arein. They felt that though the family system was facing many stress points, festivals like Rakhi helped in promoting traditions in a peaceful manner . Many saidthat such festivals managed to transcend physical boundaries and fostered a special bond.

Some felt that the festival has begun to lose its significance and had become more ritualistic.Though such festivals were important, they must not be reduced to mere ritual thread tying ceremonies is what others had to say.

We sample some responses

It has always been significant. It is simple and not very ritualistic. It also honours a very sacred bond and showcases the love and affection among siblings. It is important that such festivals survive in violent times. They must not lose their value.

Vijaykumar

IT professional

Rakhi is a festival that should always be significant since it deals with universal brotherhood, peace and harmony. It is a festival that transcends all man-made differences. Such traditions help the family members to show their love and affection.

Jigar

IT professional

Rakhi is an important tradition in this country. It is celebrated across the country and is very popular.

The festival is simple and aims at spreading love and universal brotherhood and is celebrated by everyone.

Ravishanker

Government official

Though it once held a great deal of importance, Rakhi has lost most of the sheen…More

The Hindu :

While Manav Kaul’s The Park dramatised the conflict between three men in a park, his Antaheen in Hindi illustrated hell as a the consequence of living an inauthentic life

Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.Promising Commendable performances kept the audience engaged

The Park written and directed by Manav Kaul and translated from Hindi into English by Deepa Gehlot, was staged at Kyra Theatre last week. The play explores questions of territoriality and displacement by dramatising the conflict between three men ina park as each attempts to oust the other for his own preferred place.

Questions of control over place are worked out by territorial claims over property. The play explores what counts as a marker of territorial entitlement — caste, city, region, religion? Or is it something more ephemeral? Some memorable scenes include a tentative moment where one of the characters, Madan, insists that he simply wants to sit on the park bench so that he can feel the drops of water splash from his colleagues’ freshly washed hair as she dries it in the balcony across the park.

Another character, Uday, is delusional after witnessing a traumatic scene of ethnic violence, yet the implications of this moment are untapped and awaits richer elaboration. Nawaz simply wants some peace to take a nap on the park bench while awaiting his son’s school examination results. Larger questions of political displacements loom over the play as characters invoke the trauma of forcible evictions suffered by political groups as diverse as Palestinians and Kashmiris, Tibetans and adivasis.

While the premise of the play is a good one, the idea was stretched out to over an hour, and began to feel repetitive .The idea needed more complexity, more layers of meaning in order to sustain audience attention.

In addition, the larger political allusions that the play analogises give the impression that attachment to the place is primarily an irrational and…More

The Hindu :

Frank Sinatra / Unique

Times Music

Rs. 395

Over a decade has passed since ’ol blue eyes, the legendary swinger Francis Albert Sinatra passed away, and many a random collection has made its way to the shelves.

This one is no different. Skimming through the track list reveals a much impoverished list, and one wonders why this bits-and-pieces collection goes by the title “Unique”.

This is an okay album for the uninitiated — to get a random, albeit incomplete, peek at the vast body of music this historical and Grammy-award winning — not to mention his unforgettable stint in movies — musician has left behind.

His colossal musical career lasted nearly six decades, though the image of him swinging stylishly in front of a studio microphone is likely to be remembered forever.

The album starts with one of those old and extremely popular numbers recorded by Sinatra in the Forties, in his formative Capitol record years, called “Stormy weather days” and “My funny valentine”.

Breezing through slower songs such as“These foolish things” (this one retains the line “the song that Crosby sings” that disappears in subsequent recordings), the album progresses into the cheerful recording “Blue skies” with the saxophone, accompaniments and the works. And just when you start feeling the music, even swinging a bit to those melodies, comes “You’ll never know” (the solo recording with the Bobby Tucker Singers providing accompaniment).

This Forties recording by Sinatra of “You’ll never walk alone”, immortalised by the Liverpool football club which adopted this track as its anthem in 1963, is uplifting.

The swinging “That old black magic”— which Sinatra cleverly improvised to “Jack magic” at some gala for Jack Kennedy — is followed by a jazzy piano version of “What is this thing called love” and later, an immensely romantic rendition of “Someone in love”.

The unmistakable Frankie number, written about his daughter Nancy “Nancy with a smiling face”reminds one of their…More

The Hindu :

Take in the sights and sounds of the Rhine and Heidelberg

PHOTOS: BY AUTHORCruising along The green waters of the Rhine are dotted with castles en route

The Germans love their alcohol. Which explains why on a Rhine cruise as early as 9.30 in the morning, a group of Indian tourists guzzle down mugs of beer and any other spirits the ferry has to offer. “The German effect you see,” grins anelderly gentleman as he sips on his white whine. The gentle rocking of the ferry, coupled with the breathtaking views outside, only adds to the intoxication.Making merry on the move

The majestic white double-decked ferry atop which we are perched is replete with a lounge area, restaurant, a bar and a café counter that never seems to clear up as people keep queuing up for a drink, snack or coffee.

Eating, drinking and posing for the cameras is on in full swing as the ferry meanders on the green waters of the Rhine, the most important river of Germany. Bright-hued buoys float about and the river is flanked by stones with numbers on either side. These numbers mark the distance of the river from its source in Lake Constance.

The view from the deck is fascinating but the chill breeze is freezing me to my bones, and to prevent myself from turning into a popsicle, I head inside. The ferry bobs delicately as a cargo ship carrying loads of cars hurriedly sails past, sending huge ripples our way. Our ferry, of course, is in no hurry and is as relaxed as the holidaying tourists aboard.

Apart from abundant greenery and ferries sailing by, the other thing you see at regular intervals are castles from medieval times, which, in spite of their crumbling facades, don’t fail to allure. The imposing ruins seated over hillocks bear witness to a bygone era and beam down at…More

The Hindu : y>

Get reel The collection is inspired by Love Aaj Kal

Jeanswear and Haute Curry have launched the “Love Aaj Kal” apparel line at Shoppers Stop stores. It provides patrons the opportunity to buy the youthful, hip and trendy tees of Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone) available from Rs.499 onwards.

Haute Curry offers the traditional bling look of Meera (Deepika) for Rs. 1,299. The range is also available online atwww.shoppersstop.com

The offer also provides customers complimentary “Love Aaj Kal” music CD with purchases worth Rs. 3,000 and above from i Jeanswear or Haute Curry. Till August 23, customers have a chance to win an original outfit from the film on purchases worth Rs. 4000 or above.

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