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The Hindu : SUDHINDR.A.B

The Hindu Young World painting competition was an inspiring and challenging event.

Photo: K. Murali Kumar.PLAY OF COLOURS : At the competition.

The Hindu Young World onthe-Spot Painting Competition2009 held recently gavean opportunity for participants todisplay their artistic talent. About500 children in junior and seniorcategories participated in the 18thedition of the event.

The winners are

Madhu.M., a student of PremierHigh School, Bangalore won thefirst prize in the junior category.The Std.VII studentsaid she foundthe topic “My School” easy. Madhureceived a cash prize of Rs. 3,000and a certificate.

Pooja. S. Kanade, a student ofMKET’s LK English MediumSchool, Harihar in Davanagere district,won the first prize in the seniorcategory. The Std.IX studentis a veteran at the competition. Shesaid the topic “City Traffic” was abit tough. “I visit Bangalore quiteoften and it triggered my thoughtprocess while painting,” she said.

Pooja received a cash prize of Rs.5,000 and a certificate.

Kodru Anvita, a student of SriKumaran Children’s Home(CBSE), Bangalore, won the secondprize in junior category. Shewas given a cash prize of Rs. 2,000and a certificate. P. Varshitha, astudent of Maharishi Vidya Mandir,Hosur in Tamil Nadu won thethird prize. She received a cashprize of Rs. 1,000 and a certificate.

In the senior category, AnaghlaAravind, a student of Sri Vani EducationCentre, won the secondprize. She received a cash prize ofRs. 3,000 and a certificate.

Lakshmishree. A. J. S., a studentof Bethesda High School, Bangalorewon the third prize and wasgiven a cash prize of Rs. 2,000 anda certificate.

Choodamani Nandagopal, Dean(Humanities and Social Sciences),Jain University gave away theprizes.

She urged parents to motivatetheir children to choose a career oftheir choice. Senior faculty membersat Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat,Babu Jattakar, NagappaBadiger and V. R. C. Shekar, andtheatre person Shantaraj. R., evaluatedthe paintings. They appreciatedthe blend of technique andconcept in the paintings.

The finalists included childrenfrom Tumkur, Davanagere, Hariharand Bellary in Karnataka, Hosurin Tamil Nadu and Hindupurin Andhra Pradesh. The event wassponsored by Lotte Caramilk andPepsico Cheetos.

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The Hindu :

The core values of Rajshri remain the same, says Sooraj Barjatya

Eyeing new vistas Sooraj Barjatya

“C inema is going out of the reach of common man. At one time, films were a source of affordable entertainment even for small-time businessmen and clerks. Now, with the steep rise in admission rates due to multiplexes, cinema is going beyond the means of common man. It’s time then to shift focus to television which is becoming a preferred and affordable means of entertainment,” feels noted film director Sooraj Barjatya.

Rajshri Productions has been known for decades for giving family films with traditional Indian values. The production house has now ventured into television to tap the same middle-class audience with its unique brand of soaps.

Talking about their new serial “Yahan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli”, which is being premiered on Zee TV, Sooraj says, “Though we have shifted focus from films to television, the core values of the banner shall stay the same. Our films are family oriented, show the aspiration of the middle class. I am very much excited with the episodes and the show will definitely touch audiences’ heart as it has got a strong soul. I asked Aloke Nath to do a role that will remain in the memory of the audience forever, even more than Haveli Ram of ‘Buniyaad’. There are some shows with which you get involved and some where your soul gets involved. This show is one of them.”

Though Rajshris have come to television, they are not bidding adieu to films. They have three films lined up for 2010.

Though Sooraj Barjatya will not be directing any one of them he will supervise the projects. One of the films will also launch his niece as a director.

S.M. AAMIR

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The Hindu :

Why is it important to make fruits part of our daily diet?

Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.GOING BANANAS Cricketers Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh munch on a banana during a training camp

We manage to eat our daily requirement of vegetables. But fruits? If you are like me, you would average just a single serving of fruits, that is, one serving a week! All that changed recently when I happened to meet an occasional fruitarian; a still supple and sharp-sighted 85-year-old woman, lady who beamed with health like a Kashmir apple.

Some people think vitamin pills can substitute for fruits. “That simply won’t work. Fruits are loaded with over 400 phytonutrients, antioxidants and anticancer ingredients, apart from vitamins and minerals. Our bodies need all of these,” says Nirmala Jesudason, consultant dietician. We need to eat five to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday. A ‘serving’ roughly translates to one medium-sized apple or mango or, in the case of cut fruits — a small cup full. “We don’t enjoy the good health our ancestors did. A major reason for this is we don’t consume fruits,” says Dr. V. R. Seshadri, ayurvedic consultant.

But there is such a thing as when, what, and how fruits should be eaten. Fruits such as jackfruits are difficult to digest and need to be eaten on an empty stomach or before a meal. In fact, most fruits, with the exception of mango, banana and papaya, need to be eaten before meals or on an empty stomach, or along with the meal, not after it.

Fruits and your constitution

Not all people can eat all fruits at all times either. Ayurveda lays great emphasis on the physical constitution of the individual, which it classifies into pitham, vaatham, and kapham. An imbalance in pitham, vaatham and kapham makes the body susceptible to disorders. “People with kapha bodies should avoid watermelon and guava, which increase…More

The Hindu :

Chess queen Tania Sachdev is always at the helm, be it the black-and-white squares of the chessboard or the varied hues of life

Poised to excel Tania Sachdev finds men more rationalPhoto: Shanker Chakravarty

A ppearances can be deceptive. As Tania Sachdev walks into an upmarket restaurant, her moves are akin to a svelte model sashaying down the ramp. No wonder, she proved to be a darling of shutterbugs at the just concluded Fashion Week in Delhi where she walked the ramp for designers Sanjana Jon and Ashima-Leena. There is every possibility of the photographer getting carried away all over again as one turns the discussion to the moves the 23-year-old is really known for. “I don’t fit the image of a chess player that people have in mind. I don’t come from a conservative family and as long as my family is with me and I am delivering results, nobody should mind,” says the woman grandmaster, who topped the Asian championship last year.

Tania agrees it is not just her fashion statements that put her in a different league. “I have always been a hyperactive child. It is only at the chessboard that I find my balance. I don’t meditate as much as I should. And when I am free, which is hardly the case, I want to try 20 different things.” Tania recalls how her parents introduced her to chess. “They were trying different ways to make me sit at one place. Chess happened to be one of them. None of them played chess at any level.”

The world realised her forte earlier than she herself did. “I have been playing and winning since the age of eight but I realised the importance of what I was doing when I won the Under-16 Asian Championship in Tehran. “When the national anthem was played, I felt for the first time that I love…More

The Hindu :

Abhishek Majumdar’s new play An Arrangement of Shoes was read out to an interested audience

Photo: Murali Kumar k.IMPROVISATIONS Abhishek: ‘I have been influenced by music and not theatre’

A bhishek Majumdar the playwright, paced around barefooted, jeans rolled up, fitting the stereotypical image of a theatrical personage, waiting for his audience to roll in. A voice lisped ‘teshting, teshting’ into the mike, while the audience slowly filtered in, making a beeline for a cup of coffee and cookies before settling down. The drizzle outside, added to the cozy ambience for the reading of Majumdar’s new play – “ An Arrangement of Shoes” organised by the Toto Funds the Arts.

Obviously still in draft form, the “play” could have easily been mistaken for a short story and a very interesting story at that, revolving around an obsessive, compulsive shoe stealer/collector. Mazumdar had divided his whole play into what he called ‘beats’ and even though it was a long reading, the audience listened to him, in complete silence. He conjured up word pictures effortlessly – “imagine her running around with a knife and a green scarf, cutting mice halal.” Or “Daadijaan secretly sang odes to the sugar cane and the sugar levels rose according to the growers.”

Later Swar Thounaojam, a Bangalore-based playwright who is currently teaching a theatre programme at The Valley School in Bangalore, asked Majumdar if the protagonists in his play were fictional or derived from links to real people in his life. Mazumdar like any artist said that he did use real life characters, whom he came across sometimes in everyday life, but some of them were actually fictional.

Swar also noted that Mazumdars earlier work — “Harlesden High Street”, which won the Hindu MetroPlus Playwright’s Award 2008 was a structured play, while “The Land of Ups and Downs”, which was long-listed for the same award in 2009 and “An Arrangement of…More

The Hindu : y>FASHION The country’s first men’s fashion designer, Krishna Mehta, tells BHUMIKA K. designing for women would have been too easy

PHOTO: G. KRISHNASWAMYDIFFERENTIATOR Women’s clothes must have a sensuous quality, says Krishna Mehta

Exposure. That’s what matters.No, we’re not talkingskin show here, though it isthe world of fashion we’re talkingabout. We’re talking of thefrog getting out of his well kindof worldly exposure, to realisewhat you can do, and figure outways to beat your limitations.And with good instinctiveGujarati business acumen backingher, designer Krishna Mehtadid just that. How else wouldyou explain India’s first mensweardesigner who started outwhen there was just one fashiontechnology course in the country?With 27 years of design experiencebehind her, and stillraring to go, Krishna Mehta is aclassic example of the old-worldhands-on designer who’s beenthrough the floor of the weavingmills, worrying about dobbies asmuch as she worried about silhouettesto get on to the ramp.She studied fashion design in1978 and then seriously studiedweaving traditions and techniques.

And when she marriedinto a family of garment exporters,she started going to thefamily’s factory everyday, tolearn cutting fabrics from themasters. “I was a fabric specialist,”the 49-year-old Krishna explains.She was in Bangalore toreceive the BeYu FashionAward 2009 for her outstandingcontribution to the Indian fashionindustry.At the family’s factory shemet buyers who asked her tocheck out what was happeningat Premier Vision, an internationalfabric fair in Paris. “I usedto go there, write down newweaves in a format of crosses,because there were no cameras!Then I would go direct to Coimbatore,have it woven, and get itready before the Italians,” shesays, the excitement of theachievement shining throughher eyes.And so the warps and wefts ofher life in the world of fashionshaped up. Her brand “KrishnaMehta” was established in 1988.”I jumped into a bed of roses,”she says of her smooth entryinto the feisty fashion world.”It’s been a cakewalk for me.There wasn’t so much competition.No one pulled each otherdown.even if we faltered andfell down, we had time…More

The Hindu : y>

War of Worlds Watch the latest Ben 10 adventure

The live action movie based on the adventures of the famous alien-morphing boy hero, Ben 10, will premiere exclusively on Cartoon Network on November 28 at 6 p.m.

“Ben 10 Alien Swarm” is directed and produced by Alex Winter, who also directed Cartoon Network’s first Ben 10 live-action movie, “Ben 10: Race Against Time”. The new movie follows Ben as he breaks ranks from the Plumbers (a secret organisation that battles alien forces) to help Elena, a mysterious young woman from his past to uncover an alien threat to our world.

Ryan Kelley (“Prayers for Bobby”) stars as the 16-year-old Ben Tennyson, with veteran actor Barry Corbin (“No Country for Old Men”) starring as Grandpa Max. Galadriel Stineman (“Junkyard Dog”) is Gwen, Ben’s super-powered cousin, and Nathan Keyes plays Kevin Levin, who has joined Ben’s team. Join the group as they battle the aliens only on Cartoon network.

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The Hindu : y>Anupama Gopalan feels that Indians must abandon cricket and play a sport followed by the entire world

Our obsession with cricket seems never ending. In the recent one-day series featuring India and Australia, all the centres were packed with spectators. Even if we were to become world number one in the sport, why should we as a country be so obsessed about this game? The ‘world champion’ in cricket has no meaning at all. Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the only countries that play the game on a professional level, unlike soccer and tennis that is played and followed by millions across the planet.

Most of the planet is unaware or not interested in this sport. When we say V. Anand is a world champion at chess, he can stand up and say that he plays a game that has a fan base across the planet. Football and many other sports manage to evince much more support across the globe and boast of a duration less than a t20 cricket match.

Should we not encourage youngsters to become interested in football than cricket? If we start to provide professional training to young footballers, we could produce the best football teams on the planet.

We should play the sport the world plays and try achieve greatness in that sport, rather than being too concerned about rankings in a sport played by a very small section of the world.

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. And dash off your piece with your photograph. Email it to bangmetro@gmail.com or post it to MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road), Bangalore 1.

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The Hindu :

What to, what not to? That’s the dilemma haunting men when they choose gifts for women

PHOTO: ARUNANGSU ROYSIMPLE IS GRAND Sometimes, just a rose can work like magic

What women want by way of a thoughtful gift has often been the subject of much debate and speculation. And it’s an issue that leaves men clueless. Many have tried figuring out — taking a shot in the dark or a calculated guess — and failed somewhat…

Entrepreneur Viji Kalyanasundaram says her husband doesn’t have a clue about what she wants. “He seems to think I generally don’t like what he gives. I tell him even a single rose’d do.”

Hurdles aplenty

Says architect Paul Jacob: “Many a time, I don’t understand what my wife wants. That’s the first hurdle. The next is the doubt whether she will like what I have bought.” According to him, the limited gifting options complicate the exercise. “There’d be an element of surprise, if there’s a huge variety in our stores. Such as in Brazil — interesting little balls made of coffee / fruit seeds, cinnamon barks with pretty patterns and textures, and smelling good, or the beautifully-cut cilantro rings. We may never find similar things back home. Of course, these days I play it safe — if there’s an occasion, I give her the cash.”

Varinder Sahney, who runs a corporate gifting business, concedes that men being at sea while choosing gifts for women is pretty normal. He says the men may be caught between worrying about the wife’s expectation and the fear of the gift being rejected. “Putting oneself in others’ shoes is not easy.” Then, of course, is the challenge of coming up with something one hasn’t gifted before. “Men go for cosmetics or jewellery, as it makes the job easier. Dress materials may be a safe bet, but not dresses, due to the fit. And, the same…More

The Hindu :

The queen of slimming counsel, Vandanaa Luthra, is concerned that people are getting too obsessed with looks

Photo: S.R. RaghunathanCATCH ‘EM YOUNG Vandanaa Luthra believes schools should have nutrition lessons

What strikes you when you meet Vandanaa Luthra more than her youthful looks is her steely determination. Her relentless drive has enabled her to transform her beauty business Vandanaa Luthra Curls and Curves (VLCC), into a mega venture spanning not just India but the Middle East and beyond.

Though in the beauty business, Luthra appears concerned over people’s obsession for looks. “It is very annoying to hear about zero sizes and treatments that should not happen. A visit to the beauty salon once or twice a month is fine, but the rest of the beauty care should come from oneself. Simple things like under eye massage, using fresh cream on the face, eating plenty of leafy vegetables and fresh fruits are basics you can follow to sport a healthy beautiful skin,” said Vandana, in the city recently.

While discouraging Botox treatments and strong chemical peels, which, she contends, are done in her salon only on request, she says it is preoccupation with looks that prompts clients to opt for such treatments.

Different approach

As for teens and young adults using heat treatment, bleaching and colouring of hair to sport a different look, she blames parents for allowing their wards to go in for such beauty therapies. “We actively discourage heat treatment and chemicals that can damage hair follicles especially when young. When such treatments are given, we try to ensure the roots are not damaged and advise use of two shades — highlight without injuring hair roots.”

VLCC is synonymous with slimming and weight loss. Weight loss here is achieved not through rigorous exercise outdoors or by sweating in a gym but “in comfort where the client is lying down for 45 minutes and is simultaneously counselled…More