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The Hindu :

Dark chocolate may harbour benefits for the heart

DECISION Not out

If you can handle the fat and calories, there may be a health benefit to enjoying dark chocolate on occasion. New research suggests that the cocoa may lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels while preventing diabetes and improving the health of blood vessels.

So, why not chow down on a candy bar or two every day? Here’s the rub: Scientists aren’t sure whether the downsides of cocoa consumption — such as potential obesity — could outweigh the benefits.

The research relied on mostly sugar-free dark chocolate, not the kind of chocolate normally found on the candy shelves. Participants who ate the chocolate, which contained cocoa rich in substances known as polyphenolic flavonoids, did better in several areas, including blood pressure. Levels of bad cholesterol went down in those younger than 50, and levels of good cholesterol went up.

The findings came from an analysis of data from 21 high-quality studies that included a total of 2,575 participants.

It remains unclear, the researchers said, as to just why chocolate appears to have the effect that they found. It’s also not known how much people would need to eat to get the benefits.

Then, there’s the cocoa itself, another possible complication.

“The research looks at the benefits of cocoa and used a very specifically prepared cocoa,” says Lona Sandon, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. “Cocoa is an ingredient of chocolate. How the cocoa is processed makes a difference in whether or not the chocolate drink or bar it is contained in will have health benefits.”

“In other words, not all chocolate or cocoa is created equal,” she adds.

Though chocolate in moderation may be fine for many people, Sandon says, there are better and healthier ways to boost heart health.

“Weight loss is king when it comes to preventing high blood pressure…More

The Hindu : BHUMIKA K.

Kickboxer Sindhu V. Kashyap shows BHUMIKA K. a move or two and tells her how it can make any woman confident, if she gives in to the power of technique

PHOTO: Murali Kumar K.CONCENTRATING THE FLOW OF ENERGY Sindhu says being prepared also involves the mind as much as it does the body

When Sindhu V. Kashyap gets ready to kick ass, you better scoot. The 25-year-old Bangalorean is obsessive about her kickboxing, and matches it with a fiery angst from within. She may not look matial-artsily lithe and agile, but one wrong move from you and her reflexes can cut across your senses in a flash.

“It’s not just about physical defence, but about having the right mentality and confidence,” she declares at the outset. A copywriter in an ad agency, it was over two-and-a-half years ago that Sindhu just wanted to do something. “I was into exercise and wanted to learn martial art. Then I realised karate wasn’t giving me any fun.” It was then that friends introduced her to Ashwin Mohan, founder of Independent Shootfighters Inc, the only mixed martial arts school in the city.

Kickboxing is a mix of different martial art forms all plugged into one, says Sindhu. Her guru believes no one single form is effective in self defence and so uses a combination of Tai-Chi, strikes, punches, kicks, Jujutsu locks, ground techniques from Brazilian jujutsu, Varma kalai, adi tada…

“The focus is on self defence and the class gives you what you want to get from it,” smiles Sindhu, Buddha-like, with the weighty statement she’s made. “At the beginning you are on a complete high. Then you take the techniques seriously because you know how deadly they can be. You get scared that you might cause damage where it’s not needed or intended.”

While Sindhu joined kickboxing just for the fun of it, it soon became an obsession…More

The Hindu :

Check out who’s ousted the popular pencil sketch icon Fido Dido

THE NEW FACE Sharman Joshi

When the lovable Fido Dido was launched in India as the 7UP mascot in 1992, he defined cool like no other.

In 2003, he came alive a second time with a new tagline, and a few ‘Fidosophies’. But what’s one to do when facing competition from a film celebrity? The pencil sketch has given way to Sharman Joshi as the new brand ambassador of PepsiCo’s lemon-flavoured drink. Ask Sharman about having replaced the cool quotient of the 1990s, and he says: “I was a huge fan of Fido Dido too. I never thought I’d be the one replacing him!”

The brand has also roped in film director Rajkumar Hirani to direct the commercials (two) around the theme Gussa Hatao, Chill Machao — the drink promises to cool you down when it matters the most.

Sharman says: “It is summer, and things tend to get hot under the collar. Worse still, there are moments of sudden provocation. The idea is to keep your cool and let the moment pass. Thinking without anger gives us immediate solutions.”

The first TVC revolves around a man who has mud splashed over him by a speeding truck, and gives the truck a chase on his two-wheeler to teach the driver a lesson! The second is about a fight that breaks out between two fans of rival soccer teams while they are watching a match. Interestingly, neither of them belongs to the countries at play.

Sharman says it was the brand and the fact that Rajkumar Hirani was directing the ads that hooked him. “After ‘3 Idiots’, this has been my first chance to work with him (Rajkumar) again. I also liked that the brand wanted to focus on a concept that should be popularised nowadays — anger management,” says the actor.

He confesses: “I had a foul…More

The Hindu :

India’s first touch table restaurant, Touche, serves every conceivable cuisine, from Mexican to Arabian

Touching base Caribbean chicken with spicy basil pilaf

Touch, order, confirm order, touch, play, touch… you can’t stop, it’s so much fun. I am at Touche — a fine dining restaurant in Indiranagar — that looks all sophisticated and formal with its swanky black-and-white interiors, but its touch tables… aah! That’s where the fun is.

I feel like a character straight of “The Matrix” when a smartly dressed waiter carrying a slim, digital tablet, asks: “Ma’am, may I confirm your order?” Wow!

I begin my meal with a mocktail, the mint tango, which is a swirl of mango juice, lime and mint. The ubiquitous taste of mango is heightened by the sharp taste of mint and the mild taste of lime. A must try.

There is a variety of cuisines from every part of the world that are on offer. It’s hard to choose. I order— via the touch table — for an assortment of starters. First to be served is the honey-glazed prawns. The prawns, tossed with honey, garlic and chilly flakes, are succulent and melt in my mouth.

Next, I sample nachos with butter fruit. There’s cheese and tangy butter fruit spread beautifully on the nachos. It tastes divine. The Malaysian chicken sauté served with peanut sauce follows soon after. It’s mild and interesting.

I try cheese and chilly vols-au-vent that are these cute, tiny fried cubes in the hollow of which cheddar cheese, cream and chilly is stuffed liberally. Very Mexican, I say.

Time for the main course. I order for a Caribbean chicken with spicy basil pilaf and a fish sizzler. The Caribbean chicken tastes lovely.

The portions are generous, so it fills your stomach nicely. The fish sizzler is a mix of different spices and herbs and is simply delicious. My stomach is full, but being a dessert person, I…More

The Hindu :

The nature of April Fool’s Day has changed over the years thanks to technology taking over our lives

Feeling heady Great fun

Those were the days when we found contentment in announcing a phoney spider or by feigning injury by spurting drops of ketchup on our knee and then saying “April Fool” when the ‘victim’ fell for the inane prank.

While the custom of fooling people on All Fool’s Day has survived the centuries, the kind of pranks played has changed considerably. From sending the unsuspecting on pointless errands to pinning “monkey” on a friend’s back, now, with the advent of technology in the form of mobile phones, the internet and social networking sites, physical presence isn’t required to make a fool of someone.

Bogus calls from ‘kidnappers’ and ‘hospitals’ are some of the typical types of pranks played. With the entire globe banking on the media for the latest news updates, television channels (yes, even the prim and propah BBC), radio stations and even newspapers have their share in fooling millions of people with a mere ‘out of the box’ headline or a Photoshopped image!

Google has managed to fool one too many with its spoofs. A few years ago, the supplement page of a newspaper contained a fictitious report that Veerappan was dead when in fact he was alive and kicking in some forest! Radio stations are the forerunners! While making a bakra of someone happens everyday on air, pranks pulled by RJs on April 1 on unsuspecting callers take the cake.

Priscilla Thomas, a student of marketing, is of the opinion that one doesn’t need to meet someone to have a prank pulled on them. “SMS, crazy Facebook status messages, etc have enough of a shock value.”

Concurring with her is Management graduate Suneil Gupta who says: “Now that we have phones, all it takes is a call to fool someone and with computers…More

The Hindu :

Designers Rahul Mishra and Rahul Reddy talk about their Autumn/ Winter 2011 collections to be showcased at the upcoming Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week

PHOTOS: SANDEEP SAXENA & PTILINE OF DIFFERENCE An outfit from Rahul Mishra’s Autumn/Winter 2010 collection; (right) Rahul Reddy’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection

It’s an affinity that, perhaps, springs from a shared name. On April 10, at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) in New Delhi, designers Rahul Mishra and Rahul Reddy get ready to showcase their Autumn/ Winter 2011 lines in a two-designer show together — again.

Rahul Mishra

Rahul Mishra, who since his debut in 2006 has kept fabric the nucleus of his designs, will send on the ramp a line tentatively called ‘31 Shades of Grey’. The NID graduate calls it “quite chic, with a very tailored look”, where techniques like warping have been used. He’s quick to add that despite the name, the entire collection is not grey-drenched.

“The entire colour story is achieved on the loom, while weaving. We haven’t used any absolute colour like black or red; the yarn is twisted in such a way that there’s a new colour when you weave it. All these colours that are otherwise impossible to achieve we are trying to achieve, like we have a story of red and pinks happening, a story of grey to white happening,” Mishra elaborates.

An interesting element to watch out for, he mentions, is level embroidery, where one pattern changes form to make something else, a “metamorphosis” if you may.

If one recalls, the designer’s Autumn/ Winter, which showcased at WIFW last March, ‘The Butterfly Effect’, also dwelt on the theme of metamorphosis. “The reason metamorphosis is again introduced here is so that it becomes a signature style of Rahul Mishra,” he says. “The collection has also got a new story — lineage. Different species from the same DNA. So although the fabrics development gives…More

The Hindu : y>

MELODY ‘n’ rhythm Venkatesh Kumar and T.A.S Mani

On the occasion of its first anniversary, Dr. R.B. Sontakke and Lata Rao trust for Universal music is organising a cultural evening, in which artistes from across the country will participate. For the morning session, Pandit Venkatesh Kumar will perform Hindustani vocal and will be accompanied by Pandit Ravindra Yavagal and Ravindra Katoti. This will be followed by a violin and slide guitar jugalbandi C.N. Chandrashekhar (violin) and Prakash Sontakke (slide guitar) accompanied by Ustad Fazal Qureshi and T.A.S Mani.

For the evening session, Pandit Milind Date, a disciple of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, will perform a flute recital and will be accompanied by Ustad Fazal Qureshi. The evening will conclude with T.A.S Mani’s rhythm ensemble “Tala Taringini”.

The function will be held at Seva Sadan, Malleswaram on April 2, 9 a.m. onwards. Entry free.

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Calantha Wardrobe is conducting a garage sale with discounts of up to 40 percent

Venue: 535, 12th Cross, 5th Main, HIG Dollars Colony, RMV 2nd Stage

Date: April 1 to April 3

Time: 9.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.

Contact: 23413810 / 40905084 / 9686402959

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The Hindu :

DJ Ravin, resident DJ of Buddha-Bar, Paris, describes his journey into music

On a spin DJ Ravin

With the giant Buddha that gazes down on everything and everybody swathed in crimson-hued splendour, Buddha-Bar in Paris is a revered institution. Opened in 1997, Buddha-Bar has grown to be the highlight of Paris’ night lights.DJ Ravin’s association with Buddha-Bar is as old as the establishment itself; he’s been resident DJ there since its inception. The DJ, now well-known for his mix of ethno-world beats, tribal, electronic and lounge, performed in Delhi last week. How is it to be a resident DJ at a place for 13 years? “It’s a unique place… Buddha-Bar. That’s why I was very inspired playing music there, because it was not only about where people come to eat or to drink — it’s more than that. It’s like a temple of lounge music,” he replies.

“And I like to decorate the place with my music… Playing music there is a big gift and also a big passion. It’s not only about playing music, it’s about creating an atmosphere.”

Hailing from Mauritius, Ravin was 11 when he moved to Paris with his parents — it’s been almost three decades now. The initiation into music, he frankly tells you, happened because school held no attraction. “I was very, very bad in school, so I focussed on music. I was always listening to radio stations, preparing for programmes, exploring all kinds of music. That’s why I quit school so early. My parents, however, were not happy.” Now they are.

After working in a record store for a while, Ravin started DJing at The Rex in Paris, before Buddha-Bar opened.

Ravin’s also closely associated with Paris’ fashion scene, having played at Jean Paul Gaultier’s show in Paris, besides DJing at private parties for brands like Armani and Bulgari. A significant part of Ravin’s discography has been the “Buddha-Bar”…More

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Reliance TimeOut will host the launch of first time author Aneesha Capur’s book “Stealing Karma”

Venue: Reliance TimeOut, Cunningham Road

Date: April 1

Time: 6.30 p.m.

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