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The Hindu :

Breathe in the crisp mountain air, and bite into luscious home-grown apples at Raju Bharati’s homestay

Photos: By AuthorIn Nature’s midst Gushaini is in the verdant folds of Tirthan valley

The cold mountain waters gurgled past unhurriedly as I struggled to rest atop a weather-chiselled rock on the river bank. I then turned my attention towards the water dancing around my ankles, deliciously cold and refreshing, as I dipped my feet into the Tirthan river.

I breathed in the crisp mountain air and sipped fragrant tea, reclining languorously on my chosen rock to lazily read a book. My friend chose to stare into the beauteous sights surrounding us, mesmerised. It was unthinkable that only a day before we were breathing in Gurgaon’s polluted air and nearly decomposing in the sweltering summer heat.

Mountain hamlet

We were in Gushaini, a tiny hamlet nestled in the verdant folds of the Tirthan Valley in Kullu district. This mountain hamlet would have been like any other village that dots the hills and mighty mountains of North India, if not for Raju Bharati, an enterprising man who has converted his house into a delightful homestay for those longing to live close to Nature.

Raju Bharati’s cottage is partially hidden under lush mountainous foliage and across the Tirthan river; therefore, it is not very easy to spot. A wiry man, Raju Bharati informed us that we had to make our way to the cottage by pulling ourselves across the river on a metal basket that dangles on a one-inch thick wire. To glide across a frothing river on a rope pulley, with the mountain breeze whipping my hair, was an unprecedented experience. I felt like a free bird. The cottage looked as if frozen in time; the air smelt of mellow sunshine and cinnamons, and pretty butterflies fluttered among the violet mountain blooms. Our double bedroom was made up of wood and…More

The Hindu : NANDINI HEBBAR

Meditate upon the beauty of a stone. Don’t get it? Like all things Japanese, Suiseki is about appreciating nature and the beauty of the humble and the common, writes Nandini Hebbar

THE PERFECT STONE Love of nature is an essential part of the hunt

While rocks, especially the cut-polished-until-glinting variety, are synonymous with the rich and the famous, they are seldom associated with Zen or minimalism. However, as interest in Suiseki — the art of collecting and appreciating stones — spreads, many have found themselves in the search for elusive rocks that replicate cascading mountain ranges or self-contained islands in miniature.

Emphasis on beauty

Initially a Chinese export into Japan during the reign of Empress-Regent Suiko (593 – 628 A.D.), Suiseki became an inextricable part of Japanese culture similar to poems, songs and paintings. Felix G. Rivera, author of the book “Suiseki: The Japanese Art of Miniature Landscape Stones” describes how Suiseki evolved in the country: “The years saw Suiseki’s influence on poems written by Zen priests, as they remained the arbiters of Suiseki taste, developing an approach that was religious, philosophical and moralistic. In time, Suiseki became an integral part of the tea ceremony, especially wabi-sabi, which emphasised the beauty of the humble and the common, and what could be more commonplace than a stone?” he asks.

Common though they may be, majestic toyama-ishi (mountain shaped), intricate shimigata-ishi (islands) and tamari-ishi (water pool stones), found their way into the tokonomas (display alcoves) of famous shoguns, daimyos and samurai where they occupied the pride of place alongside a bonsai or flower arrangement and a single scroll.

S. Ravi Kiran, a bonsai artist from Bangalore, came across the basics of Suiseki at a talk by visiting bonsai teacher Ponnuswamy from Coimbatore. Dipping into the Internet for more information, he became fascinated with the collections of mountain-shaped stones of Suiseki artists worldwide and began scouting for stones…More

The Hindu : y>

Action hour The heroes return

From February 16, gear up for an epic drama that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. “Heroes” returns with the fourth season It will be screened every Monday to Thursday at 10 p.m. only on Star World.

As the dust settles from last season, our heroes attempt to get back to their ordinary lives. Claire discovers that her biggest challenges are forgetting her old life and starting college. Hiro Nakamura goes back to his old life in Japan, and discovers that he has a terminal illness. Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) returns to work as an ordinary New York City EMT, but uses his abilities to save lives. Nathan Petrelli, returns to the Senate and begins to notice strange changes and new abilities . Matt Parkman returns to life as an ordinary family man . But, as the heroes soon discover, it is not easy to go home again. They will face one pressing question: how do extraordinary people lead ordinary lives?

The biggest challenge for the heroes this season is a strange and dangerous carnival comprised of a travelling band of outsiders with powerful abilities, led by a charismatic and powerful leader, Samuel (Robert Knepper). They will ask the same basic questions: Who are we? What does having powers mean to the world?

<FONT …More

The Hindu :

Oh, there’s plenty around to leave you pooped. But then, thankfully, there’s so much more that can keep you chirpy all day

Photo: Murali Kumar. KA MORNING WALK Works like magic

Targets, household chores, family, shopping, payments, animals, beach-cleaning, tree-saving — our life’s just too full. As the day wears on, you are worn out — by late afternoon you’re ready to quit and collapse on the sofa. Call it the 4 o’ clock syndrome!

“If we manage key energy drainers — anger and anxiety — well, we can keep our energy level up,” says Sumitra Seshan, COO of a company.She takes five minutes off every hour “to break the monotony of desk-work”. E-mail, voice mail, IM, BlackBerry, conference calls — multi-tasking too is a drag on energy. “We aren’t meant to sit hunched for long hours,” says Phani Raj, orthopaedic surgeon. “Muscles contract when you slump; affecting blood flow. Poor posture is linked to higher cholesterol levels and heart disease that work-outs cannot control.” So, sit up, and stretch.

Get some sunshine

Ensure your home and office are free of toxins — cleaning liquids, insect repellents and mosquito sprays release chemicals; so do photocopy machines. Inhaling them continuously overloads the body’s detox system, leaving you drowsy and disoriented. Also, staying under artificial lights can have a ‘jet-lag-like’ effect on you. And, leave your shoes outside. Grow indoor plants. Step out for sunshine and fresh air. Take brief walks. “I go for a 45-minute walk in the morning ,” says psychiatrist Lakshmi Vijayakumar. “My day dawns when silence is broken only by birdsong.”

Visual clutter is another energy thief — it makes you anxious about cleaning up. De-clutter!

More importantly, watch what you eat. A big meal can empty your energy, particularly one that’s carb-and-calorie-rich. Eat light meals, spread them out. Drink plenty of water or sugar-free tea through the day to keep energy levels steady.

“Clichéd, but…More

The Hindu :

Studies reveal amazing communication abilities of the energetic bees

Photo: K.R. DeepakGracefulBees inform one another about the exact location of the source of food simply by dancing in circular sweeps

Bomb detection expert, plant breeder par excellence, creative dance communicator, olfactory signal recognition wizard — inspiring guide to Nobel Prize winner Karl von Fritsch and to savvy artificial intelligence researchers working on expert systems for vision — the geniuses we are talking about are the energetic and industrious bees. Bees are said to have amazing abilities which the scientists have begun to explore and understand. Bees can see in colour, recognise human faces, hear sounds at frequencies much lower than what human ears can detect and have an extraordinary sense of smell. The remarkable olfactory abilities of bees have got scientists thinking and working. Tim Harmann, Principal Investigator of the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has successfully trained honeybees to detect TNT (Trinitrotoluene), C4 and TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) explosives. If a particular explosive for which the bee has been trained to detect is present, the bees stick out their tongue.

“Mama, are those bees dancing?” Asked Arjun excitedly when he saw a cluster of bees flying gracefully in big sweeping circles. Suvarna, a biologist who had just finished teaching her children about the dance of the bees nodded in agreement. Amazing isn’t it? Bees inform one another about the exact location of the source of food simply by dancing. Karl von Fritsch was awarded the Nobel Prize for successfully interpreting the dance language of the bees.

This ability is considered by biologists to be an extremely sophisticated form of communication in the animal world. Von Fritsch noted that the pace at which bees dance as well as the direction which they faced in relation to the sun gave a clear identification to the other bees about the location of…More

The Hindu : y>

Crime has increased over the past few years in Bangalore. The growing disparity of wealth and the high unemployment rate among a section of the population is responsible for this rise in crime. Better policing is the need of the hour and must be put in place.

Sayed

Businessman

Politicians of all hues are responsible for patronising and shielding many criminals. They also do not give any support to the police and ensure that these lumpen elements are used to fulfil their goals. The police must be given more teeth to deal with it.

Sunil

MNC executive

A s with any other city in the throes of rapid development, the crime rate in the city has also seen a phenomenal increase. Murders, petty robberies, muggings that were once-in-a-while occurrences in Bangalore has begun to impact everyday life. MetroPlus asks city residents about the spiralling crime rate in the city and the manner in which it can be combated. Most residents felt that growing economic disparity and unemployment rate has forced many youngsters to take up crime, helped by the fact that policing was lackadaisical.

Many city residents see this as a far more deeper problem: they feel it is orchestrated by political parties to achieve their own ends. Therefore, most often these issues remain unaddressed, and these goons are out in the open. In this game of hide and seek, the police are reduced to mere spectators of political dramas. On the other hand, they also demand that the police department raise its bar and make sure that criminals are brought to book and do not succumb to political pressures. Some felt that though the situation in Bangalore was better than most other Indian cities, at no cost criminals should be allowed to hold a city to ransom. We sample some responses

Successive governments and politicians have encouraged small-time thugs and goons, which has resulted in the growing criminal…More

The Hindu :

Cotswolds is straight out of story-book villages so reminiscent of Enid Blyton

Photos: By AuthorPerfect driving holiday Scenic roads in Cotswolds.

Remember those Enid Blyton books that most childhoods have been filled with? Besides enthralling adventure and fairy tales, they present a pretty picture of rural England.

They tell of old mills made of honey-coloured stone, open meadows and deep-blue ponds lapping against grassy embankments. The houses had tiled or thatched roofs with pretty picture-frame windows.

When she described a sunny day in a place such as this, I remember wishing I could jump into the book and be there.

My childhood wish came true recently when I drove to the Cotswolds. Besides being gorgeously attired with story-book villages and pretty flower gardens, the Cotswolds also feature some superb driving roads. So, when I had the Porsche Panamera 4s for a driving holiday, this is where I headed without hesitation.

Village vistas

The scene you see above is one of the most magnificent vistas of a village called Little Slaughter. Despite the gory name, it is a quaint and charming place. A wetland, upon which this village lies, was called ‘slough’ or ‘slothre’ in medieval English — hence the name. This picturesque village sits beside the little Eye stream, and as I was taking the picture above and admiring the simple rusticity of it all, I realised that I was indeed inside an Enid Blyton story.

The stream running through the village is crossed by two small bridges and the local attraction is a converted mill (with the chimney) with an original water wheel, selling local crafts. To give you a geographical fix on this region that has been officially designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Cotswolds extend across a narrow band of land east of the M5 motorway, stretching as far as Oxford at their widest point.

The quintessential British Public House or Inn.

Little…More

The Hindu :

Divya Dutta’s next Punjabi film, Sukhmani, talks about the essential goodness in everyone

PUNJABI FAVOURITE Divya Dutta

All set for the release of her next film “Sukhmani- Hope of Life”, Bollywood siren Divya Dutta is as pleased as punch with the way life is unfolding for her. Having been in the industry for a decade now, Divya talks about her journey thus far, the slew of projects she has lined up and what she hopes for in the year 2010.

In a telephonic chat, Divya elucidates on what her upcoming film is about. She says: “Manjeet Maan’s Punjabi venture, ‘Sukhmani’ is a movie that shows the audience that goodness resides in each one of us and this goodness isn’t something that goes unnoticed. Although it is a simple story, I like it because nothing about it is pretentious.”

In “Sukhmani”, Divya plays a Kashmiri woman who has a tragic past. “My character is a woman of few words, which is quite unlike who I am in real life. So it was quite challenging to shun the talkative me whenever I was shooting my scenes,” she quips.

Anyone who’s watched the Aircel ads that Divya has been part of is bound to find it unusual to see Divya speak so little, relatively!

On working with Juhi Chawla, Divya exclaims: “It felt so good to act with one of my favourite actors! We got along like a house on fire because we’re both so chatty. We would chill out together after our shoots in Kashmir. We visited the Dal Lake together and quite often we would dig into pakodas, sip some hot chai and just crack up thinking of something funny.”

“Working with Gurdas Maan has been a wonderful experience. He is a simple person and is good fun,” Divya adds.

Learning new language

Ask her why she invariably happens to be a part of Punjabi projects such as “Shaheed-e-Mohabbat”, “Des…More

The Hindu :

Kaya offers total skincare solutions for those with the time and the inclination

Pretty smooth If your face is your fortune

Beauty is serious business for the people at Kaya. The place has fresh flowers floating in pretty, antique vessels.

You are given a questionnaire first that asks you many questions about your daily skin care regime, which you have to answer diligently and put your signature at the end.

With the first step accomplished I am ushered into the photo room.

I sit there with my face fitted into a machine that will scan the “quality” of my skin. It reminds me of an x-ray room. Once the image is taken, the machine will give the result of my skin — its texture, percentage of wrinkles, bacteria on face etc.

I know the results even before they are out, and my guess is right, my skin is absolutely imperfect! Now I have my report and am sent into another room where I meet the skin specialist. “Based on this report we will provide you with the treatment,” says Dr. Satish V.K. “The good news is that your skin is not damaged much by UV rays. But there is bacteria on your skin and your wrinkle percentage is high.”

Photo facial

As I listen to him, I try and pull my cheeks to see if it feels flabby. As I am sitting there, my mind does a fast forward and it is at the market surveying anti-ageing creams and I curse myself for not taking my skin seriously.

“So I am going to prescribe the everyday radiance for you,” says the doctor. “We will start with the derma-abration, which is polishing your skin and removal of dead skins, followed by the photo facial, a laser therapy to tighten your skin and end with a fruit face mask.”

Now I am ushered into another room. I lie down and the trained…More

The Hindu :

Dolores O’Riordan – No Baggage

EMI; CD; Rs. 395.

Before reuniting this year with the popular Irish rock band The Cranberries, its lead vocalist Dolores O’ Riordan made good use of the long break to put together two solo albums. While “Are You Listening?” did well, “No Baggage” proved to be more promising with a certain degree of brightness and (true to its word) no luggage of the past. Dolores aims for new peaks as she moves out of her comfort zone of slick pop numbers into brighter, unorthodox styles. More confident and uplifting than her previous record, the album broadens her artistic scope. It brings in a blend of world beat music accompanied by folk/spacy rock cemented with her beautiful voice.

Maybe “Some mental anguish in my head, wake me up I am not dead” is not the right set of words to start with, the first track “Switch Off” unleashes a flurry of charging guitars and a ringing chorus leaving one adrift in Dolores’ evocative vocals.

“Skeleton” turns the music a notch up with Dolores’ eccentric lyrics racing in with dreamy overtones. Every note, rift and rhythm in the right place, her endearing voice and style drives home her alternative rock origins. “It’s You” tramps along with offbeat drums and a simple rhythm, yet is a lyrical ode to her parents and children. Though a theme touched upon often, Dolores’ voice casts a spell that leaves the tune lingering long after the song ends. In original alternative rock style, “The Journey” blends an intense melodic synchronicity with spiritual fervour. Clearly aiming to the heavens, Dolores voice takes you to a high never experienced in her songs before. Her eerie voice creeps in with a mystical piano progression and an accentuated guitar in “Stupid”. As she whispers ‘Sing me a love song’ in this harmonious track, she carries the lull onto “Be Careful” which…More