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The Hindu :

The Indian team did very well at the 13th Legacy Grand Aerobic and Fitness Championship in Nevada

Photo: Murali Kumar K.Three much Haritha, Megha and Sreemukhi

Aerobics, usually considered a fitness fad, is fast turning into a competitive sport. Credit for this especially in Bangalore should go to the Aerobic and Fitness Federation of India (AFFI). It conducted national championships in Bangalore in July and followed it up by sending an Indian team for 13th Legacy Grand Aerobic and Fitness Championship conducted under the auspices of American Aerobic Association (AAA) at Reno, Nevada in the United States of America in August.

The Indian team making its maiden appearance in an international event, made a good impact and won quite a few laurels. The team consisting of R.S. Haritha, Megha Rao and Sreemukhi won the gold in the trios contest while Haritha also topped in the solo competition. Shreyal Deshpande, with energetic and tricky moves, won the Junior World Fitness title and R.S.Haritha was placed fourth in the same contest.

The Indian girls were excited with their performances and attributed their success to hard training they had with coach, Manohar Kamath. “Even though, it was our maiden international contest, we were not nervous and we did well, thanks to the training of our coach,” said Shreya Deshpande.

“I am happy with the performances and we should send more athletes to international meets. We had a workshop here in July with our National championship, which was beneficial to our coaches and trainees,” Kamath commented.

Prabhakar, president of AFFI, said the association was planning to create a large-scale awareness for the sport by interacting with schools, colleges and corporates and holding demos. “This is a sport, which doesn’t have an age barrier. Anyone from six to 40 or 50 years can participate. In a way, it is the mother of all sports. Aerobics is a lot like…More

The Hindu : y>Jaishree Misra tells MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER arbitrarily slapping designer labels onto her novels smacks of artifice

Photo: rajeev bhattCelebrating friendship Jaishree Misra says her latest book, Secrets & Lies, is more about relationships rather than a whodunit

After the hectic research and writing of “Rani”, a historical novel on Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, Jaishree Misra decided to try her hand at something different. The result was “Secrets & Lies” (Harper Collins, Rs. 275) a racytale of four beautiful women and a terrible secret from their school days.

Jaishree, who moved to the UK in 1990 and has recently moved back to India, says “there is a bit of me in each of the girls in book. My love for English literature finds an echo in Anita, the BBC journalist, I am caring like Sam and ditzy like Bubbles. Perhaps I am least close to Zeba, the film star. There is a bit of me in Lily as well, who turns everything upside down for the girls in their last year at school. Like her, I too was a new girl in school after being the vice-head girl at Baldwins here. I have dedicated the book to my friend Kubra, whose lunch I would always eat. She used to get the most amazing crab curry!”

“Secrets & Lies” has an interesting genesis. “I started off writing a whodunit but changed my mind halfway as a murder mystery has very definite rules and there is no room for character development. I am more interested in characters than the plot. So while there are elements of a whodunit in the book, such as a murder and a closed circle of suspects, the book is more about friendship and relationships rather than about finding out the who, why or how of the murder.”

Jaishree admits to characters sometimes running away on the page. “You need to rein them in. But…More

The Hindu :

Biba Singh, a doctor in America, has notes on her mind

Disciple of the world Biba Singh

The norms of music are changing. Gone are the days when musicians would spend years at the feet of a guru, and followa strict regimen of riyaaz. Now music is not just supposed to be heard but seen, and the idea is to pick it up whenever, wherever possible. A case in point is Biba Singh, a U.S.-based medical professional who calls herself a self-taught singer. No guru, no ustad, no formal training, just her willpower has taken her through, she proudly claims.

In Delhi to release her debut album “Biba”, the enthusiastic singer says, “I do riyaaz twice or thrice a week. I don’t have any fixed time for it, I do it whenever possible. I have no guru as such, but the world is my guru. My mother who is not a singer herself motivated me a lot.”Both worlds

Biba, an MBBS now training to be a psychiatrist, is not ready to swap one career for the other. She says, “I spent 12 years to be a doctor. I cannot leave it at this juncture, and also back in the U.S. there is a lot of scope for psychiatrists.”

Along with medicine, she has been pursuing music. “I have been training from the age of seven. I did many cultural programmes and sang shabads at the gurudwaras. Though I have no guru, my mother always encouraged me. My father wanted me to be a doctor. He always wished that his daughter would follow in his footsteps as well as keep up her passion forsinging. We had Daler Mehndi as a family friend. He always encouraged me to sing and it was he who persuaded my father to allow me to do an album. I just love music. I have put in all my savings as…More

The Hindu :

Line sketches and paintings by Rahul Venkatesh capture moments of life

Random sketches For Rahul Venkatesh drawing is about keeping the energy and the thought flow going

He believes in drawing mindlessly. And, draws his references from mythology, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. “To me drawing is a lot about process,” says artist Rahul Venkatesh.

His works, a total of five sketches and five oil paintings are on display at his first solo exhibition at Chitra Kala Parishath. “It is about keeping the energy and the thought flow going,” he adds.

For instance, his gel pen sketch — a transmogrification of human forms, he says, is a random mishmash sketch, which took him about 45 minutes to complete. “I sketch when I am watching TV, while waiting at the railway station, I keep drawing all the time, it is one of my great loves,” he adds.Capturing chaos

The sketches are not concept-based, they are just pen and pencil works on paper, he insists.

In one of the sketches, a manifesto written in red fills the canvas and human figures and that of animals are superimposed on it to show the chaos, and the lack of order in space.

A ball pen sketch inspired by Laocoon, a figure in Greek mythology and serpents, represent sexual desire.Symbolic

In oil paintings, the first one is a sad face of an old man with jaws wide and drinking up a black liquid, a motif for death. And, the artist says it convey complacency. “I made this painting after my grandfather’s death. It is about loss of hope and there is no struggle against escaping death,” he explains. His paintings follow a linear narrative and they are inter-connected. The next one with a human figure on a death bed in a hospital set-up and looking ahead is about hope.

The younger generation is represented in the form of stone pillars. The…More

The Hindu :

Poojashree from Mysore, who took home the title at the recent ITF tournament in the city, believes in taking things one tournament at a time

Photo: K. GopinathanIdol talk Poojashree: ‘Sania is way ahead of us. Every Indian girl wants to emulate her and I am no exception’

The ITF women’s tennis made a welcome return to Bangalore, as the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association staged the Questnet sponsored the 10,000-dollar event last week. But what made the tournament memorable was a superb show by 19-year old Poojashree Venkatesh of Mysore. She took home her third title on the circuit. Winning at Bangalore, in front of the home crowd, was as Pooajshree put it “a special moment.”

Standing well over six feet, she is the tallest Indian girl on the circuit. Her double handed backhand and good first serve are her strengths, though she can work harder on her forehand and get quicker on court. “I am working on my weak spots and should get better with time,” says Poojashree.

Her father, Venkatesh, was an agriculturist, who played tennis in Mysore as a hobby and Poojashree used to accompany him. When she showed interest, Venkatesh encouraged her and taught her the rudiments of the game. Later, noted coach, R. Nagaraj, took over her training.

She made steady progress, winning sub-junior and junior level events and then making her mark in the AITA junior ranking and ITF junior events. She went on to win National junior titles, in all three sections — under-14, under-16 and under-18.

But what really mattered to Poojashree was playing good tennis at international level. GVK Group was impressed with her talent and decided to back her in 2007.

“GVK’s help meant a lot to me. It freed me from the burden of funding my travel and I could pick and choose my events and play abroad.” Poojashree had played junior Grand Slam events…More

The Hindu :

Sharada Srinivasan documents the history of traditional bronze images in photographs

Photo: Murali Kumar K.Educative Sharada says bronzes are sculpted in a different way in India. It is first imagined in the mind and then created

It’s an exhibition curated by scientist and dancer Sharada Srinivasan and it is on at Alliance Francaise. The exhibition, Sharada says, “celebrates the international year of Astronomy.”

Titled “Danse e-Toile: Nataraja et le Cosmos” (Dance of Stars: Nataraja and the cosmos), the exhibition ends today at 8 p.m.

There are 40 photos of various bronze images that are juxtaposed with pictures of Sharada’s dance postures. Thereare images by other photographers too.Cosmic dance

One interesting picture is taken by a scientist in the outer space with all his scientific gadgets which is placed with images of the Nataraja and is called the cosmic dance.

“This exhibition is a result of my two-decade research on the Nataraja bronze images,” says Sharada.

She takes you through her journey and says that she has tried to explain theacademic essence and the artistic aspect of the images. Sharada has documented the making of the traditional bronze images and also has images that show every step of making the bronze figurine .

“All the images are photographed by me during my journey. The bronzes are sculpted in avery different way in India. It is first imagined in the mind and then created.” Sharada has travelled to remote villages during her research.

She has also worked with museums and has taken pictures of ancient bronze sculptures.

She finds similarities between the traditional Nataraja images and thedrawings of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”.

There are a series of images that explains what goes into the making of the sculptures.

“There is a lot of science that also goes into this art,” explains this dancer, who also has used the image of a 11th century Nataraja bronze sculpture.Sharada has also dedicated…More

The Hindu : y>

In the mood Lovesick is part of the Best of Filmfest Dresden

A selection of short films, titled Love + Death = Happiness will be curated and presented by Robin Mallick today at 6.30 p.m. and tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the Goethe Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan.

The three-part series focuses on relationships and understanding, borders and boundaries etc. Part 1 of the series “ In the Neighbourhood” discloses numerous challenges to face with your neighbours. It also presents different techniques of animated film: drawn or puppet animation, clay animation, mixed techniques or 3D computer animation.

Part 2, “Walls around the World”, guides the viewer through a trip which starts in Berlin where one of the most famous walls was to be found onward to physical and psychological walls in Indonesia, on an Arctic island and at the Indo-Pak Border.

Part 3 is the Best of Filmfest Dresden: New Short Films from Europe. The Filmfest Dresden, which was founded in 1989 shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall is an international short film festival which showcases the best funded short film competitions across Europe.

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