Knightley Suka Lelaki Menangis

Keira Knightley

LONDON: Bertentangan dengan ramai wanita lain yang cenderung memilih lelaki gagah, pelakon kelahiran Britain, Keira Knightley, sebaliknya tertarik dengan lelaki yang tidak segan menunjukkan emosi mereka dan menangis.

“Dalam skrin hari ini, jarang dapat menyaksikan lelaki yang gagah dan kuat. Anda dapat melihat lelaki kurus dengan wajah lembut. Bagi saya, perkara paling menonjolkan kelelakian yang boleh dibuat mereka ialah menangis kerana dia satu-satunya yang faham dirinya,” kata aktres itu.

Knightley, 24, yang kini asyik dilamun cinta dengan Rupert Friend, turut menegaskan dia tidak boleh menjalin hubungan dengan mana-mana pasangannya dalam filem kerana mereka tidak melihatnya sebagai bakal kekasih.

“Saya tidak boleh bercinta dengan mana-mana pelakon utama yang menjadi pasangan saya dalam filem. Mereka selalunya bertukar menjadi abang,” katanya.

Bintang Pirates Of The Caribbean itu juga tidak sehaluan dengan ramai selebriti Hollywood lain kerana benci menggunakan internet untuk menghasilkan blog sendiri – kegemaran bintang di pusat pengeluaran filem terbesar dunia itu.

“Saya bencikan internet. Saya mendapati ia tidak bersifat kemanusiaan untuk selalu memeriksa e-mel atau laman web sosial yang semakin menjadi aliran terkini,” katanya.

Bintang Hollywood seperti Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears dan Hugh Jackman tidak menyembunyikan kegemaran mereka menulis blog, lapor akhbar The Sun.

Knightley turut tidak mengendahkan status bintangnya dengan berkata: “Saya bukan selebriti. Saya tidak keluar dengan rakan sambil menekankan saya ini selebriti dan saya tidak minta dilayan seperti ratu.” – Agensi

Berita Harian

Actor Ashton Kutcher, CNN In Twitter Duel

WASHINGTON – Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher has challenged CNN to an online duel.

The star of the television series “That ’70s Show” and husband of actress Demi Moore is in a race with the 24-hour news channel to see who can be the first to amass one million followers on micro-blogging service Twitter.

Kutcher, whose Twitter handle is @aplusk, threw down the gauntlet to the Atlanta-based Cable News Network earlier this week after noticing that he had nearly as many followers on his Twitter account as CNN.

“I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as an entire media company can on Twitter,” the 31-year-old Kutcher said in a video posted to Qik.com explaining his decision to take on CNN.

The actor said that if he reached one million followers ahead of CNN he would “ding, dong ditch” the house of CNN founder Ted Turner — ring his doorbell and then run away.

Turner does not actually own CNN anymore but the network good-naturedly took up the challenge and taped a video response by talk show host Larry King.

“Hey Kutcher,” King said. “Are you putting me on? Are you kidding? Do you think you can take on an entire network?

“Do you know how big we are? Do you know what CNN is? Kutcher, you’re playing out of your league. CNN will bury you,” King joked.

Kutcher has since promised that if he beats CNN to one million followers he will donate 10,000 mosquito nets to a charity fighting the disease in Africa and give his millionth follower a copy of the videogame “Guitar Hero.”

Videogame publisher Electronic Arts has also gotten into the act, announcing — on its Twitter feed, of course — that it would put Kutcher’s one millionth follower in a Sims videogame and give them all of its 2009 titles for free.

At noon (1600 GMT) on Thursday, CNN’s breaking news feed on Twitter — @cnnbrk — was leading the popularity contest with 966,363 followers to Kutcher’s 953,268.

In a twist to the race, CNN acknowledged that it had not even owned the @cnnbrk account until this week and that it had only acquired it on Wednesday, from a British Web developer.

Kutcher, who has long had a passion for high-tech gadgets and regularly appears on panels at Web 2.0 conferences across the country to discuss “New Media,” said he views his popularity as evidence of the rise of social media.

“I think it’s a huge statement about social media for one person to actually have the ability to broadcast to as many people as a major media network,” he said in a YouTube video.

“I think it sort of signifies the turning of the tide from traditional news outlets to social media outlets, social news outlets,” Kutcher said.

“With our video cameras on our cellphones and our picture cams and our blogging and our Twittering and our posting and our Facebooking we actually become the source of the news and the broadcasters of the news and the consumers of the news,” he said.

Kutcher is one of many celebrities who have adopted social networking tools such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook in a bid to shape their own image and bypass the tabloids.

Moore, Kutcher’s wife, is also on Twitter, sending out the updates of a maximum 140 characters under the handle @mrskutcher. She has nearly 550,000 followers herself.

In his race to one million followers, Kutcher sailed past another notable Twitter user — pop singer Britney Spears, who has more than 915,000 followers.

Unlike Kutcher and Moore, however, most of the updates on Spears’ Twitter feed are from her publicist. – AFP/sh

Channel News Asia

Demi Moore Halang Wanita Bunuh Diri

Demi Moore

WASHINGTON: Aktres Demi Moore menggagalkan cubaan bunuh diri seorang wanita yang menghantar mesej menerusi khidmat mikro blogging Twitter kepadanya menyatakan rancangan mencederakan diri.

“Saya akan kelar tangan dengan pisau besar dan tajam agar tidak membuang masa,” kata mesej yang menggunakan nama @sandieguy kepada Moore.

“Harap anda bergurau,” balas Moore yang menggunakan nama @mrskutcher.

“Selamat tinggal, saya akan bunuh diri sekarang,” kata @sandieguy

Suami Moore, pelakon Ashton Kutcher menulis dalam feed@aplusk Twitter bahawa isterinya dan pengikut Twitter yang lain melaporkan ugutan bunuh diri itu kepada polis di San Jose, California.

“Isteri dan pengikut lain menelefon Jabatan Polis San Jose. Wanita itu berada di hospital sekarang” tulis Kutcher.

Seorang jurucakap polis San Jose, Jermaine Thomas mengesahkan kepada ABC News bahawa jabatan itu menerima beberapa panggilan berhubung ugutan bunuh diri terbabit.

“Kami mengesan subjek dan dia tidak cedera. Konsep Twitter ini sangat baru, ini adalah kali pertama ia membantu kami menghalang jenayah,” kata jurucakap itu. “Kami menahan individu itu untuk penilaian.” Thomas enggan mendedahkan identitinya namun berkata ia adalah seorang wanita.

“Konsep Twitter ini sangat baru, ini adalah kali pertama ia membantu kami menghalang jenayah sebenar,” beliau menambah. “Ia mungkin menjadi satu lagi alat untuk mengetahui apa yang berlaku di luar sana.” -AFP

Berita Harian

Willis Kahwin Model Pakaian Dalam

WILLIS dan Heming berkahwin di Kepulauan Turks dan Caicos, Caribbean pada Sabtu lalu.

LOS ANGELES – Selebriti terkenal, Bruce Willis menikmati percutian bulan madu setelah mengahwini kekasihnya yang juga model pakaian dalam, Emma Heming pada Sabtu lalu, lapor sebuah akhbar semalam.

Willis berkahwin di rumah miliknya di Kepulauan Turks dan Caicos, Caribbean.

Majlis itu dihadiri oleh sejumlah tetamu khas termasuk bekas isteri Willis, Demi Moore dan suaminya, Ashton Kutcher.

Hero Die Hard berumur 54 tahun itu mula berkenalan dengan isterinya yang berumur 30 tahun menerusi seorang kenalan sebelum mereka keluar bersama pada tahun lalu.

Seorang pegawai publisiti Willis berkata, pasangan itu akan mengadakan majlis perkahwinan menurut undang-undang sivil apabila mereka pulang ke California kelak.

Willis dan Moore berkahwin selama 13 tahun sebelum berpisah pada 2000.

Tiga anak gadis mereka, Rumer, 20, Scout, 17, dan Tallulah, 15, turut hadir pada majlis tersebut. – Agensi

Kosmo

Bruce Willis Ties Knot With Underwear Model

LOS ANGELES – Film star Bruce Willis, 54, of “Die Hard” fame, has tied the knot with model Emma Heming, in a Caribbean island ceremony attended by his ex-wife Demi Moore and their three daughters, his spokesman said Sunday.

Moore’s husband, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher was also at the event in the Turks and Caicos islands, the spokesman said.

Heming, 32, is a model for the racy “Victoria’s Secret,” line of lingerie.

US television said the A-list celebrity guests included pop queen Madonna.

Moore, 46, was married to Willis from 1987 to 2000. The couple had three daughters, Rumor, 20, Scout, 17, and Tallulah Belle, 15.

After her marriage to Willis broke up, she married Kutcher, 31, in 2005.

– AFP /ls

Channel News Asia

Demi Rayu Peminat Fanatik

DEMI bersama suaminya, aktor Ashton Kutcher.

DEMI MOORE dilaporkan telah merayu kepada seorang peminat fanatiknya supaya tidak menjalani pembedahan plastik untuk kelihatan sepertinya.

Demi telah mendapat tahu seorang wanita berumur 29 tahun, Lisa Connell yang mengidap kanser telah bercadang untuk menjalani pembedahan plastik sebelum dia meninggal dunia.

Lisa dikatakan mahu mati dalam keadaan cantik dengan wajah mirip dengan bintang pujaannya itu.

Demi yang menulis dalam rangkaian laman web sosial Twitter berkata: “Saya berharap dapat menghubungi wanita bernama Lisa Connell yang mahu menjalani pembedahan plastik untuk kelihatan seperti saya dan saya tidak menggalakkan Lisa melakukan pembedahan tersebut. Wajahnya sendiri dah cukup cantik!”

Lisa yang didiagnos mengidap kanser pada 2006 sebelum ini dilaporkan sanggup berhabisan sebanyak AS$60,000 (RM210,000) untuk menjalani pembedahan menyedut lemak, pembesaran payu dara, pembentukan semla kedudukan gigi dan menegangkan semula kulit, terutama pada bahagian wajah.

Kosmo

Drew Barrymore Terus Bersama Charlie'S Angels

BARRYMORE (kanan) bersama Diaz dan Liu (kiri) dalam Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle.

LONDON: Aktres terkenal Amerika Syarikat, Drew Barrymore memperkuatkan khabar angin bahawa filem ketiga Charlie’s Angels mungkin dibuat selepas mengakui dia sedia terbabit jika ia menjadi kenyataan.

“Saya memang suka jika ia (Charlie’s Angels 3) dijalankan. Filem sebegini mungkin agak rumit tetapi menyeronokkan,” lapor The Sun yang memetik Barrymore, 33, sebagai berkata.

Dia berganding dengan Cameron Diaz dan Lucy Liu dalam dua filem berkenaan sebelum ini yang meraih lebih AS$400 juta (RM1.3 bilion) kutipan di seluruh dunia.

Charlie’s Angels bermula sebagai siri televisyen pada 1970-an sebelum ia difilemkan pada 2000. Barrymore, Diaz dan Liu sekali lagi terbabit dalam filem itu pada 2003 berjudul Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle yang turut dibintangi Demi Moore.

Selain itu, ada laporan mengatakan dalam filem ketiga, seorang aktres baru akan muncul.

Khabar angin menyatakan, Penelope Cruz mungkin menjadi aktres keempat selepas Barrymore secara terbuka mengakui kagum dengan pelakon Sepanyol itu.

Pada masa sama, laporan lain pula mengatakan Barrymore dan Diaz semakin tidak rapat malah tidak bertegur sapa ketika menghadiri parti anugerah ‘Golden Globes’ baru-baru in, kata sumber kepada majalah OK.

“Di majlis itu, Drew lalu dekat Cameron dan tidak langsung memandangnya. Memang ketara mereka bukan lagi rakan rapat,” kata sumber itu.

Satu lagi sumber rapat Diaz pula memaklumkan bahawa aktres berkenaan berubah sejak bapanya meninggal dunia.

“Dia sudah berubah menjadi seorang yang lebih serius. Drew boleh berjenaka begitu saja tetapi Cameron tidak lagi begitu,” katanya. – Agensi

Berita Harian

Cinta Kontra

Oleh Shamshul Azree Samshir
sazree@bharian.com.my

Jarak usia bukan penghalang sulam kasih

IBU bapa menjadi setengah gila, anak manis dipinang orang sebaya, hendak diberi pun salah, tak diberi pun salah, kata dan nasihat sudah tak guna…

Begitulah, bait lagu Cinta Kontra dendangan Anita Sarawak yang cukup popular pada awal 1990-an. Lagu itu mengisahkan penerimaan sebuah keluarga terhadap cinta yang disemai si anak yang berusia 15 tahun dengan lelaki yang boleh dipanggil bapa.

Lagu berkonsep humor yang menjadi ‘forte’ Kak Nita sejak dulu jelas menggambarkan senario yang dilihat dalam masyarakat sekarang. Sedar atau tidak, semakin ramai pasangan memilih calon isteri mahupun suami yang memiliki jarak usia berbeza.

Apabila menyentuh soal perbezaan usia, bukan jarak umur setahun dua menjadi perbandingan kerana ia hampir tidak dirasai pasangan. Sebaliknya, jangan terkejut, ada jejaka terpaut dengan pasangan senior yang usianya 10 tahun lebih tua daripada dirinya sendiri.

Mengapa agaknya jejaka terpaut dengan wanita lebih berusia? Apakah memilih pasangan bercirikan mummy figure mencetus aliran baru dalam masyarakat? Bagaimana pula ceritanya wanita yang terkesima dengan lelaki yang mungkin layak digelar bapa sendiri? Soal hati mungkin sukar dimengertikan…

Dua tahun lalu, apabila vokalis No 1 negara, Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza Taruddin yang ketika itu berusia 27 tahun mengumumkan hatinya terpaut dengan Datuk Seri Khalid Mohd Jiwa, masyarakat memberi pelbagai reaksi. Jarak usia 10 tahun antara pasangan itu menjadi topik hangat di mana saja baik di pejabat atau warung kopi kerana mungkin peminat mahu Siti mencari pasangan seusia.

Umumnya, berkahwin dengan pasangan lebih berusia bukanlah sesuatu yang pelik di kalangan masyarakat kita terutama jika wanita itu berusia muda. Namun dek empunya nama Siti Nurhaliza, tentulah reaksi yang dilihat berbeza. Begitu juga ceritanya apabila ratu jazz negara, Sheila Majid menikahi pemuzik, Acis. Namun siapalah kita untuk mempertikaikan soal pilihan hati, biar tua atau muda, tentunya pertimbangan sudah dibuat sebaik mungkin sebelum janji diikat.

Kecenderungan berkahwin dengan pasangan lebih muda ketara dilihat di kalangan selebriti Hollywood. Perhatikan saja pasangan Madonna dan Guy Ritchie. Walaupun mereka dalam proses perceraian, istana cinta mereka bertahan hampir 10 tahun. Jangan lupa kasih antara Michael Douglas dan Catherine Zeta Jones serta siapa tidak kenal pasangan sensasi, Demi Moore dan Ashton Kulcher?

Dalam konteks masyarakat Melayu, lelaki cenderung memilih calon isteri berusia muda. Jika tidak terlalu muda sekalipun, jarak dua atau tiga tahun dianggap paling ideal. Dorongan memiliki isteri berusia muda bukan sekadar tarikan fizikal si gadis yang membuatkan lelaki gila bayang, namun sesetengah lelaki bijak menimbang faktor kemampuan isteri melahirkan zuriat.

Bagi lelaki berpandangan jauh, wanita muda yang memiliki tubuh sihat mampu melalui proses semula jadi sebagai ibu – bermula dari proses awal kehamilan, melahirkan anak, berpantang dan membesarkan cahaya mata. Dalam hal ini, sudah tentu wanita muda memiliki kelebihan dari aspek kekuatan fizikal. Malah wanita muda lebih subur berbanding wanita berusia.

Dalam hal ini, lelaki terutama yang mendirikan rumah tangga pada usia lewat, sudah pasti tidak mahu mengambil risiko gagal memperoleh cahaya mata jika menikahi gadis berusia – walaupun kadang kala faktor cinta membenamkan segalanya.

Sehubungan itu, lelaki yang berkahwin pada usia lewat cenderung memilih gadis muda berusia antara 25 hingga 30 tahun sebagai calon isteri. Pilihan ini semata-mata mahu memastikan keharmonian rumah tangga yang dibina. Lelaki berusia yang mempunyai alasan tersendiri berkahwin lewat, sudah tentu mahu memastikan isteri mengisi kekosongan usia yang ditinggalkan dek bekerja keras membina kerjaya dan cita-cita.

Lelaki yang mengorbankan mungkin lebih separuh daripada usia membina karier selain mengumpul harta sebagai jaminan masa depan, tentu mahu ‘keremajaan’ diri yang hilang, dikembalikan dengan pasangan muda. Lumrah orang muda, keseronokan meniti hari lain rentaknya berbanding mereka yang berusia. Jika ditanya, lelaki berusia mengakui kembali ceria menikmati hidup, melakukan pelbagai aktiviti selain khayal dilambung ombak cinta dengan si dia yang lebih muda.

Begitulah senarionya jika bercinta dengan pasangan muda. Secara tiba-tiba, sifat keanak-anakan kembali mewarnai hidup dan tentunya kekosongan hidup sebelum ini kembali terisi. Lelaki berusia tentu berasa diri kembali muda hingga auranya boleh dilihat melalui penampilan. Jika dulu warna kusam memenuhi koleksi pakaian di dalam almari, kehadiran buah hati berusia lebih muda menjadikan lelaki lebih berani mencuba warna lebih daring seperti merah atau fesyen seluar potongan terkini.

Dalam keadaan berbeza, ada juga teruna memilih gadis berusia. Jarak usia berbeza hingga 10 tahun tidak pernah menjadi penghalang kepada hubungan pasangan ini. Si jejaka mungkin memerlukan seseorang yang bersifat keibuan kerana dirinya anak ibu. Lelaki seperti ini dahagakan kasih sayang wanita matang yang tidak terlalu beremosi berbanding gadis sebaya jejaka terbabit.

Sebenarnya, ada dua senario apabila kita membincangkan isu wanita dari kelompok usia lewat 20-an dan 30-an ini. Kumpulan wanita ini sama ada mereka mencapai tahap kematangan hidup atau tidak terlalu memikirkan soal remeh temeh, atau kelompok ‘terdesak’, beremosi dan kuat cemburu. Dalam berdepan dengan gadis dari kumpulan usia ini, jelas pembawaan diri dan keserasian antara dua insan menjadi teras dalam hubungan.

Wanita matang lazimnya tidak melatah apabila berdepan krisis dalam hubungan. Mereka lebih cenderung mengambil sikap terbuka, diplomasi dan menggunakan alasan logik jika berdepan dengan sebarang masalah. Wanita matang banyak memikirkan pro dan kontra sebelum sesuatu tindakan diambil. Jika teman lelaki berusia muda menimbulkan masalah, wanita matang bijak mengatur strategi mengatasi kemelut yang dihadapi.

Wanita matang sentiasa mengingatkan diri mereka berhubung faktor usia dan kedudukan mereka dengan pasangan. Selalunya, wanita matang bersedia menghadapi sebarang risiko dan tahu langkah yang perlu diambil. Wanita matang juga memilih tidak memberi segala-galanya, jiwa raga mahupun harta apabila menjalin hubungan dengan lelaki muda.

Perunding Motivasi dan Presiden Pertubuhan Perunding Latihan dan Motivasi Muslim Malaysia (Tamrin), Dr Tengku Asmadi Tengku Mohamad, berkata wanita berusia rata-rata sedia menerima kehadiran lelaki muda sebagai calon suami asalkan individu terbabit memenuhi kriteria penting.

“Wanita berusia sedia bercinta dengan jejaka muda asalkan lelaki itu matang fikirannya, berperasaan, bertolak ansur, memahami dan bersifat romantis,” katanya kepada XY – Ikon Lelaki.

Dr Tengku Asmadi berkata, lelaki muda pula cenderung memilih wanita berusia atas faktor kestabilan ekonomi dan kerjaya wanita terbabit; kematangan diri; lebih mengambil berat dan memahami; lebih bertanggungjawab selain tarikan batiniah.

“Bagi lelaki, wanita berusia yang mencapai kedudukan ekonomi dan kerjaya yang baik memudahkan mereka membina rumah tangga. Semua sudah ada, tidak payah bersusah-susah… Bukanlah bermaksud hendak mengikis atau menumpang, tetapi soalnya banyak perkara atau beban terlepas jika wanita terbabit sudah mencapai tahap kehidupan stabil,” katanya.

Dr Tengku Asmadi berkata, masyarakat sekarang menerima pasangan yang berbeza jarak usia kerana perubahan gaya hidup selain pemikiran lebih terbuka.

Ditanya apakah faktor ‘mummy figure’ mendorong lelaki mencari wanita lebih berusia sebagai teman hidup, beliau berkata:

“Saya tidak nampak itu faktornya… Kalau berlaku pun, ia hanya kebetulan. Saya tahu ada lelaki yang memperisterikan wanita lebih tua bukanlah anak emak. Mereka sebaliknya lelaki sejati dan mampu berdikari.”

Dr Tengku Asmadi berkata, jika lelaki memperisterikan wanita berusia, tanggungjawab lelaki sebagai ketua keluarga tidak harus berpindah ke wanita.

“Kena pastikan jangan sampai tugas sebagai ketua keluarga berpindah pula kepada isteri. Sebelum berkahwin kita kena jelas, jangan sampai peranan berpindah pula kepada isteri nanti jadilah pula queen control,” katanya mengingatkan kaum Adam tanggungjawab sebagai ketua keluarga masih berada di bahu mereka walaupun isteri lebih berusia.

10 sebab kenapa pilih pasangan berusia?

Matang – pasangan berusia baik lelaki atau wanita bijak dan tidak memandang remeh perkara penting dalam mengurus rumah tangga.

Stabil – pasangan berusia sudah mencapai tahap kehidupan stabil baik dari aspek kerjaya dan ekonomi.

Berwawasan – pasangan berusia mempunyai wawasan dan hala tuju perkahwinan serta masa depan.

Pelindung – ada individu mencari pasangan yang mampu memberi perlindungan baik dari aspek fizikal dan emosi. Lazimnya mereka yang berusia memenuhi kriteria ini.

Tidak terlalu beremosi – pasangan berusia lebih rasional dan tidak terlalu mengikut emosi dalam menghadapi sebarang situasi.

Pandai jaga hati – pasangan berusia lebih dulu makan garam dan pandai melayan kehendak hati selain mengawal situasi.

Penyayang – sesuai dengan usia matang, pasangan berusia lebih penyayang dan sensitif dengan kehendak si dia.

Pandai bawa diri – pasangan berusia tahu usia mungkin membatasi pergerakan dan tingkah laku tetapi mereka pandai membawa diri demi menjaga imej, reputasi dan kerukunan rumah tangga.

Setia – pasangan berusia lebih setia kerana fokus hidupnya hanya pada si dia dan tidak memikirkan perkara bukan-bukan yang boleh mencemar kesucian cinta.

Berpengalaman – apa lagi alasan terbaik? Pengalaman tentunya mematangkan diri menjadi insan hebat untuk menyayangi dan disayangi. Ini tidak boleh dijual beli!

Tip berkasih dengan pasangan berusia mengikut Dr Tengku Asmadi Tengku Mohamad

Jika anda lelaki muda beristerikan wanita berusia, pastikan jangan sampai tanggungjawab ketua keluarga berpindah kepada isteri. Hak dan tanggungjawab lelaki sebagai ketua keluarga tidak pernah berubah biarpun mengahwini wanita berusia. Lelaki perlu jelas dengan peranan mereka bagi mengelak diri menjadi mangsa queen control!

Sebagai lelaki muda, anda perlu cepat belajar dan matangkan diri. Belajar dari mereka yang berpengalaman mengenai ilmu berumah tangga. Lebih elok, timba ilmu sebelum berkahwin supaya rumah tangga harmoni.

Suami berusia muda perlu faham bahawa Isteri berusia kadang kala sensitif dan cemburu kerana bimbang suami mungkin cenderung memikat gadis lebih muda. Suami perlu lebih sensitif dan menjaga hati isteri yang berusia.

Berita Harian

Weekend Watch: Catch This Bike GP 'Live'

The 2008 MotoGP World Championship will be aired ‘live’ from Sepang (RTM1, Sunday, 3.05pm).

IT’S an adrenalin rush of a race yet again for sports fans this weekend.

The 2008 MotoGP World Championship motorbike race at the Sepang International Circuit will be aired “live” on Sunday over RTM1 at 3.05pm.

There will also be the delayed telecast of the Formula One race in the F1 Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit over the same network at 11pm.

Two reality shows are returning for their new seasons. They are Carrefour Duniaku, which kicks off tomorrow over TV3 at 7.30pm and My Starz LG, to be aired also over TV3 on Sunday at 10pm.

The 12-episode Carrefour Duniaku is sponsored by the Carrefour Hypermarket and features several elimination rounds.
The winner gets to upgrade his or her existing mini market or open and manage a new outlet, Carrefour Express Store.

My Starz LG is a talent-search reality show for the next young showbiz sensation.

Over ntv7, the fourth season of Grey’s Anatomy ends tomorrow. It comes on at 9.45pm.

This second of a two-part special entitled Freedom – Part 2 sees a couple undergoing surgery, Alex breaking up for the first time, and George getting a second chance, among others.

If you’re still in the Raya mood, catch Syawal Bersama Anuar Zain tomorrow (TV9, 8.30pm), where the award-winning crooner joins his fans and family members in a showcase featuring festive songs and chart-topping hits.

Guest artistes include Rem, Deja Moss and Siti Sarah.

TOMORROW

Midnight Movie (RTM1, 11.30pm) –

A Few Good Men

In this dramatic courtroom thriller, lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a navy lawyer who has never seen the inside of the courtroom, defends two stubborn marines accused of murdering a colleague.

Starring Tom Cruise, Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore.

Bollywood On 2 (RTM2, 12.30pm) –

Just Married

Two strangers become husband and wife after an arranged marriage and go on a honeymoon where they discover each other’s idiosyncrasies. Starring Fardeen Khan and Esha Deol.

Saturday Nite Special On 2 (RTM2, 9pm) – How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days

An advertising executive cuts a deal with his competitors in order to win a coveted project – he must make a woman of their choice to fall in love with him in 10 days.

In comes a writer who is on an assignment to pen an article on how to lose a guy in 10 days. Starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

Panggung Sabtu (TV3, 2pm) – Krrish

Dr Siddhant Arya recruits a superhuman named Rohit Mehra to build a computer that can forecast the future. This leads to Rohit being killed in an accident.

However, Rohit has a son who inherits his powers. Starring Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and Rekha.

Hong Movie Saturday (ntv7, 11.45pm) – Always On My Mind

When a shady newscaster is diagnosed with an incurable disease, he turns to his family for help. A satire on the excesses of the media, it stars Michael Hui and Josephine Siau.

Chinese Movie (8TV, 8.30pm) – Lavender

An angel lands up in the home of a woman named Athena.

In order for the angel to survive, he must receive love from people. However, Athena isn’t in the mood to love as her boyfriend had just died.

Starring Kelly Chen and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

SUNDAY

TV3 Cinema (TV3, 12.30am) – Timeline

A group of archaeologists and combat experts use a “3-D fax machine” to time-travel back to France in 1357 to rescue a trapped member of their group.

They have to fend off marauding hordes at war with British invaders and race against the clock in the process, with increasing numbers of them falling victim to the violence. Starring Paul Walker, Gerard Butler and Anna Friel.

Sunday Day Time Special (RTM2, 3pm) – Faith Of My Fathers

A movie adaptation of Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain’s best-selling autobiography Faith Of My Fathers, this film chronicles his experience as a navy pilot, his years as a prisoner of war in then North Vietnam and how it shaped the man that he is today.

Starring Michael Arata, Joe Chrest and Erin Cottrell.

Pesona 3 (TV3, 3pm) – Dewi Cinta

A tale of two star-crossed lovers, the story opens with Dewi, who is upset and heartbroken over her boyfriend.

She tries to commit suicide but is saved by a mysterious young man. Starring Fauziah Ahmad Daud, Azmil Mustapha and Richie Ricardo.

Sinema (TV9, 10pm) – Deejay

A radio deejay has a fan frequently calling in to her show.

One day he invites her for a date. But instead of turning up, she gives in to her shyness and asks a friend to fill in for her.

Starring Norsheha and Nazril Yusof.

New Straits Times

The Genre Benders

The genre benders
 

To stand still, it seems, is to move backwards. The most fascinating observation comes to light in conversation with some of the best up-and-coming artistes today – they’re all intrinsically aware they are part of something big. Expansive talk of musical ideology is peppered with the terms “revolution”, “sea change” and “catalyst”. But it’s far from fanciful. They point to their own stories as solid evidence.

Less than half a decade ago, a rundown of India’s top performing acts would reveal each could be neatly categorised. A similar exercise today is an exercise in futility. There’s never been shortage of experimentation, but never has it come across the board.

Arguably the most lauded proponents of this revolution, Shaa’ir and Func are barely over two years old, but widely considered the flag-bearers of a new wave of urban Indian music. The New York/Mumbai twosome of Monica Dogra and Randolph Correira are the first to admit their success is down to a unique sound that borrows elements from many roots.

“We thought to ourselves,” recounts Monica, “Why does everything have to be black or white?” So off they went, creating shades of grey.

Monica brings in the vocal tradititions of soul and spoken word. Randolph, a Pentagram member for the best part of 15 years, is responsible for the guitar licks and electronic wizardry. The composite result claims no association to any single archetype, and deliberately at that. “Before we ever performed together, we discussed our philosophies. We both had ideas about how we wanted the Indian musical scene to grow. Two years ago, we couldn’t have done what we’re doing now,” says Monica. And it’s hard to argue. The debut album brought much recognition.

But what has sparked acceptance of this genre-transcendence? The answer to this particular shift, however, is very intriguing.

Percussionist Vivek Rajagopalan, dismayed at the apparent reservation of commercial success solely for film music, set about marrying his one-too-many influences in a commercially viable format. Having grown up on Carnatic, Hindustani classical as well as jazz and folk music, he allied this already swollen repertoire with electronica and drum and bass. Vivek recognises audiences have matured – appreciation of his own myriad genre-jumbling is testimony. If music must be considered a business, it’s a comprehensive reversal of the “Customer is King” adag
.

For Ashutosh “Ashu” Pathak and Dhruv Ghanekar of Smoke, a Western symphonic meets bebop meets Indian classical meets electronica and blues act, music is indeed a business. They’ve composed for everything from films to brands, but as partners on Blue Frog Records, they’ve signed many of the best such emerging acts, including their own. This new wave of musical mish-mash, owes much to a global phenomenon.

“There’s a large market for such music internationally – NRIs are taking to it because it gives them music that’s come from home, but appeals to their international tastes at the same time. Not to mention urban India itself – people are looking for different things to listen to right here,” says Ashu.

There’s ever-declining regard for “world music” acts. “The reason many artistes are blending different styles is that their approaches are global. They’re not restricted by being Indian. They incorporate influences from all over the world, but feel no compulsion to put in a tabla beat just to project their Indianness,” Ashu adds.

“R.D. Burman did the same all those years ago,” Dhruv points out, “He packaged influences from many styles and put them together on many of his songs. It’s the same philosophy you might say, but of course, film music is very different.”

It’s an interesting yet ill-fated choice of example. For there is an argument to suggest disdain for comparison with the best of the best is a crucial factor in driving this process of genre reinvention.

“You could be a great guitar player but you’ll never be a Jimi Hendrix,” says Suman Sridhar of Bengaluru duo Sridhar/Thayil. “We incorporate all of our influences because it’s a non-committal way of bringing everything into the process.”

Suman believes an acceptance of their own “limited” musical gifts results in a continued penchant to borrow and lend from many distinct musical disciplines. “Since you’re not going to be better than the maestros, this is a way of making something that will not be reproduced by anyone. It’s not about being a virtuoso,” Suman adds.

While she does the singing and midi samples, Jeet Thayil lends guitar and gravelly vocals. “For me, it’s a way to keep ourselves interested,” he says, “But it’s also a means of being contemporary. You have to evolve.”

But there’s also the admission that an aversion to genre templates is not easy to pull off. “Just being cutting-edge, forward-thinking artistes today is risky,” says Monica, with no hint of apology. And this risk is voiced in no uncertain terms by opposition from “purists”. There’s a degree of sanctity about each musical discipline, they say.

“It’s a shame, this need to compartmentalise music. People forget it’s record companies who push these divisons, so CDs can be stacked on different shelves,” says Dhruv. These artistes explain how a holier-than-thou reluctance to move away from genre traditions has been stagnating Indian music. “It’s born out of a certain snobbery,” says Jeet, “Who’s to say jazz is superior to folk so the two must not be amalgamated? I think of myself as a mongrel – I take whatever I can from wherever I can.”

What remains true is that these artistes live a dog’s life no more. With endless permutations of musical montagery, this generation of urban artistes should turn predecessors to a new generation of musicians. In the process, the lines of musical construct should be blurred even further. Just don’t call it fusion.

‘Conscience is sole religion’
 

Though I don’t believe in being ritualistic, I do have faith in the existence of the Almighty. God to me is a force which comes from deep within. That force to me is the true spring of passion and conviction. I feel that our conscience is this spring of conviction and God resides in it. Religion to me is a personal and close equation between an individual and God. As I grew up, my views on religion completely changed. And a chain of incidents brought about this change in my philosophy of life and thinking.

When I was a kid, my neighbour never ate any meals in our house as he was from a Hindu family and we were Muslims. I always found it very hurtful, but my mother would ask me to ignore it, as it would only cause pain.

After a few days, my neighbour’s son met with a fatal accident due to drunken driving and died on the spot. Before anyone else, my family assisted them. Be it emotional support or daily requirements of food and other needs, my family helped them in every possible way.

This incident brought me closer to God and at the same time drew me away from religious practices, which are forced upon us, without even understanding their importance and value.

That one incident made me realise that had religion been a stumbling block in our eyes, my family would not have helped. It made me believe that blind faith in anything takes people away from truth, duty and goodness.

They are never able to discover the real meaning of life and they only live their life believing self-defeating half-truths. For some, religion only means a path towards a safe spiritual harbour. I feel that religion for some is like “opium”.

Having faith in God makes me have sublime faith in myself. I am Muslim, but on many occasions, it becomes difficult for me to strictly follow the prayer schedule.

However, I never forget to establish a personal contact with the Almighty. I believe in a personal equation between a person and his Creator.

As a strong believer in God and a disbeliever in fanaticism, I feel that religion is becoming a habit for fanatics that eventually becomes addictive. For a true believer, this intangible power called ‘conscience’ is the only religion one must follow.

But since we all need to put down every belief in quantitative and tangible forms, we have very conveniently created religion, which is not the end but rather the means by which we satisfy our spiritual needs.

Why is there so much violence?
 

It is because of the teachings of non-violence. For 5,000 years people have been taught to be non-violent; they have learnt the trick of pretending. And all that has happened is that they have repressed their violence. They are sitting on volcanoes – any excuse, any small excuse, and the violence is triggered. And then it goes on spreading like a wild fire.

Whenever there is a Hindu-Muslim riot, you can see the real faces of the people of this country – murderous. This violence erupts again and again in this country because of the wrong teaching, which is based on repression. Whenever you repress something, it will come up again and again.

I don’t teach non-violence

All I teach is how to be aware, how to be conscious, how to be, and without thoughts. And then life starts changing of its own accord. I don’t teach you non-violence. Non-violence has been taught down the ages in this country and people are not non-violent at all. In fact, it is difficult to find more violent people anywhere else than in this country. Everyday, in every possible way, violence erupts – any excuse is enough. And buses will be burnt and people will be murdered, and the police will have to fire.

I teach you awareness, not repression

That’s why I don’t talk about non-violence. I don’t say, “Don’t be violent”. I only say, “Be alert, be aware”. Whatsoever you are doing, do it with such care, with such meditativeness, that you are absolutely there, in it, involved; that you are not just making some empty gestures. Your presence is there and that very presence brings an alchemical change. You will never repress, you will never sit on a volcano. And the more you become aware, the more your life will attain to silence, peace, love. They are by-products of awareness.

Don’t desire to impress others

In the name of non-violence, in the name of love much violence can be done to people. Tao says: in any way, the desire to impress the other, the desire to change the other, the desire to do good to the other, is violence. There should be no desire. And this is the beauty – when you don’t desire to help the other, others are helped. And when you don’t desire to impress them, they learn out of their own insight. They are never pressed. They are transformed, but not because you want to transform them. Your simple presence with no pressure is a great transforming force.

Courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

Dead twin rights a wrong
 
By Veenu Sandal

It is an intriguing story of love that began on earth – the United Kingdom to be precise – and ended on earth, but in revenge taken by a non-earthly form. The brothers – let’s call them Mark and Malcolm – were more than just look-alike twins. Even their voices, mannerisms and tastes were the same.

Unless they were both standing together, even their parents had difficulty distinguishing one from the other. When standing together, it was easy to make a distinction because Mark, who was about 40 minutes older than Malcolm, was also slightly taller. As luck or destiny would have it, the twins fell in love with the same girl – let’s call her Susan. Both courted her passionately and in the early days, Susan admitted to friends that she was often confused between who was who. But over a period of time, as the interaction grew and she became more familiar with them, she developed her own code for identifying them. For example, Mark was somewhat slower than Malcolm when it came to eating food and held his knife and fork in a way that was somewhat different from Malcolm. Then again, Mark sometimes tilted his head at a certain angle when listening to people talking. There were other differences too, but they were all very minor and till a particular brother identified himself, Susan could never be hundred per cent sure of who she was with when meeting them separately.

Gradually, Mark won her over through sheer persistence combined, naturally, with other affinities. At first, Malcolm went into a major depression at his rejection.

At times, he would be angry too, “Why did it have to be this way?” When his parents and friends pointed out that Susan could only have chosen one of them, it was of little consolation to Malcolm. Many wondered whether Malcolm would attend Mark and Susan’s engagement and the subsequent beach party that had been planned. Everyone was relieved when Malcolm not just made an appearance, but appeared in good spirits, mingling and frolicking with Mark and Susan and the other guests on the beach. Both the brothers, and Susan, loved the sea – having lived not far from it since childhood – and were very good swimmers.

As the evening moved towards night, guests who lived some distance away began to leave. The last to leave were the twins’ parents and when they called out to Malcolm, who was relaxing lying half in and half out of the water, he just waved, indicating that he would come later. Mark and Susan saw off their parents, saying they too would be home after having one final swim along with Malcolm, if he cared to join them.

Nobody knows what actually happened but that one final swim turned out to be not just final, but tragic.

Mark and Susan, still in a state of shock related how they, along with Malcolm had entered the sea and swum just a short distance when a huge wave appeared from seemingly nowhere and engulfed them before carrying them outwards towards the sea with great speed and force.

Experienced swimmers though they were, getting back to shore was a grim battle. By now, the fading evening light had been replaced by the inky darkness of night. It was only by calling out for each other that they were able to be together and it was only then that they realised one of them – Malcolm – as it turned out – was missing.

Though a search of the sea was made as soon as possible, Malcolm was never found. With just one of them alive, the story of the twins and the confusion that often went with their identification had ended. But curiously, the doubts remained. It wasn’t just Susan but others too who noticed that in his behaviour, this was a somewhat different Mark from the one they had known before the tragedy occurred – certain mannerisms seemed more like Malcolm’s. But then everybody reasoned, it was probably on account of the shock and grief at losing his brother that changes had occurred – in fact it would have been unnatural if no changes took place.

Tragedies always leave a mark and who could be more strongly bonded than twins? While Susan concurred with this thinking and tried to accept the changes, she was greatly disturbed by two things.

One, why did Mark no longer wish to talk at all about the past they had spent together? Two, they had exchanged engagement rings on that fateful evening. How did Mark’s engagement ring get lost?

Mark reasoned that in battling the waters to get back to the shore, it must have slipped off his finger. That was, of course, very possible and was probably what happened but Susan couldn’t get it out of her mind that the ring had been an almost perfect fit, like hers.

She too had battled the waters but her ring had not slipped off. Still, there seemed to be no other explanation and she gave Mark a new engagement ring but with a heavy heart.

Somehow, she confided to a friend, something seemed to have died within her and snuffed out her happiness. Mark’s parents too, wise in the ways of the world, sensed that all was not right and suggested that the couple should get married earlier than planned despite Malcolm’s demise. With everyone’s consent, the memorial service for Malcolm, planned to be held on the same beach and around the same time that the sea had claimed him, was preponed by a few weeks. It was a sad, solemn occasion but, amongst other moving things, the shimmering reflections in the sea of the candles lit in Malcolm’s memory looked ethereally beautiful. The shadows played on the sands too and touched off tiny points of light.

Mark and Susan were standing together, arm in arm, gazing out at the sea, each lost in thought, perhaps of that fateful engagement evening, perhaps of what now lay ahead in their lives. Suddenly, there was a loud exclamation. Mark had disengaged his arm from Susan’s, and was walking away from her, out into the sea. And he wasn’t alone.

Someone who looked very much like him and had put his arm around him was taking him, firmly, relentlessly, into the sea. “It’s Malcolm, returned from the dead,” somebody whispered, but loud enough to be heard, “and he’s taking his twin brother with him.” As had happened earlier, a huge wave seemed to appear from nowhere, and the two brothers – the living and the dead – were swept away from view to the stunned amazement of others, the memorial candles were extinguished, and in that profound instant, both Susan and the twins’ parents knew the truth – a truth they had suspected, but been reluctant to put to the test.

It had been left to the dead brother to right a terrible wrong. On the engagement day, it was Mark who had drowned in the sea, not Malcolm. With the quick thinking of a disappointed lover who sees hope once again, Malcolm had seized the opportunity and claimed that he was Mark. But Mark, though dead, was obviously determined not to allow this impersonation to succeed and made sure that the woman he loved didn’t marry the wrong brother.

There were no DNA tests in those days and this was a complex instance in any case as twins were involved. Apart from the other intriguing aspects of this story, the two notable things from an objective point of view are that Mark didn’t haunt the couple or his parents as a ghost. It was almost as if he planned and chose the moment, and what he did was swift and short. “I’m dead, and you’re passing yourself off as me, especially before the woman I love῅not done, brother,” seemed to be the crux for his action.

Secondly, Mark didn’t just appear as a shadowy form – he was clearly recognisable. And this brings us to an important question: do we have a free will after we die, and if so, to what extent?

By all accounts, there are rules in after-life, but what governs who can return to earth while still in the other world to take revenge or right a wrong or fulfill a wish? Many of the revelations connected with this are fascinating. Read about them in the next column.

I’m a hopeless romantic
 

When a relationship fails to work out, it doesn’t necessarily have to be one person’s fault. I have taken a lot of blame for my relationships turning sour and I used to keep finding fault with myself. It’s not really the best way to deal with things, because you carry guilt and ill-feeling to your next relationship, and every one of them after that.

My relationship with Vikram (Bhatt) was a different one. I have learnt a lot while I was in it and I don’t regret a single moment of it. There was no acrimony involved when it ended, and we are the only two people who know what exactly went on. So all that speculation about what really happened, is of no use. As long as we both know the truth, we are doing fine.

Vikram will always remain an important part of my life, and is still there for me as a true friend. We had a truly mature relationship, and I have grown a lot with him. it’s sad that it had to end, but then that’s life. But since it was all amicable, it has helped me move on in life with a clean slate and start afresh.

I am a hopeless romantic, and have always fantasised about the knight in the shining armour who will come on a horse and sweep me off my feet and walk with me into the sunset. However, in my case, the horse is replaced by a Ferrari, which is Kanav’s (Puri) obsession, but I am willing to settle for that.

Though we are in the early stages of our relationship, I am true believer in the this-is-meant-for-keeps theory. You can’t get into a relationship thinking it might or might not last. In that case, you are always holding something back. in case it doesn’t work out you end up being hurt. Self-preservation doesn’t work in my case. It’s all or nothing for me.

I was told, that sort of a thing scares guys off, especially the kind that likes to take things slow. But I am glad Kanav can deal with me and my fairy tale romance. In fact he just fits in perfectly. And even if he has any issues, he doesn’t let it show (laughs).

Each day is a learning process, and we are finding new things about each other every day, which is exciting. He deals with my madness calmly, and I need that calming factor in my life. There is still a lot that we have to know about each other, and marriage is certainly not on the cards at the moment. He understands what my career means to me. I am at a stage in life where I can afford to choose the work I want to do, and he lets me be when it comes to work.

the toughest phase in my professional life was when I wasn’t sure of what I was doing. After the first couple of hits, I got addicted to success and everyone told me I needed to cash in on it. I was being flooded with film offers and I did practically every film that came my way, because I wanted to make the most of it. I was working three shifts a day, and I got completely lost in the bargain. I am not very proud of some of the work I have done and it took me a lot of hard work to recover from that.

The turmoil I went through when things went wrong with my family was something I wasn’t prepared for. If it wasn’t for my friends who stood by me at that time, I would have been shattered. I don’t like talking much about it today, as a lot of ink has been spilt on it already. But like they say, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. That’s what I am today – very strong and capable of taking on any challenge in life.

There are people who think a reconciliation with my parents is possible, now that I am not with Vikram. To set the record straight, Vikram wasn’t the reason for the estrangement. and in this case, a reconciliation is never possible.

Brains or brawn?
 

While it seems we’re having one of our periodic moan-fests about the state of modern women – plastic surgery, Sarah Palin, cooking skills and feminism to name a few bones of contention – I thought this week we’d tackle a topic a little closer to my heart – men.

What type of bloke tickles a modern woman’s fancy? It seems the results aren’t quite what you might first have predicted.

According to a recent poll carried out by NBC’s Today Show titled Geek or Meat, it’s actually those geeky blokes that modern women are choosing over their meatier counterparts. From a poll of 24,325 respondents, 40 per cent of women said they’d pick brains over brawn any day with only a measly 12 per cent acquiescing to the age-old axiom that there’s nothing sexier than a toned male body.

Ashton Kutcher (the much younger husband of actress Demi Moore) managed to prove this isn’t so when he summoned a bunch of lovable geeks to star in his hit television series Beauty and the Geek, which aimed to transform geeky gents into modern-day Lotharios with the help of their very busty, mostly blonde, not-so-smart assistants.

The result of Kutcher’s social experiment? While he proved that geeks can in fact make Playboy-esque women laugh, squeal and wish they were a tad smarter, the show proved that everyone (no matter how many beauty pageants they’d won) has the same fears and hang ups as the next person, no matter how confident and charismatic they appear externally.

“No matter how good somebody might look on the outside, they have their insecurities inside,” Kutcher quipped during an interview about the show. “We’re all the same. We’re all wonderfully flawed individuals … We’re all beauties and we’re all geeks.”

One Ask Sam reader and self-confessed geek Jack, recently suggested to me in an email that since geeks have become the new bloke du jour, why not flip Kutcher’s social experiment on its head?

And it seems women would be a whole lot more satisfied in the bedroom with more geeky types around to pleasure them. Yep, according to websites Wired and craiglist, expounding the benefits of dating a geek, blokes with brains make better lovers because they’re into things like role-playing, sexy interaction via techno-gadgets (flirting via Skype, Twitter and blogs), will get things done around the house expertly and without complaint “so there’s more time for lovemaking” and – bonus – “they wear cool glasses”.

Geeks are also great at remembering important dates such as anniversaries and birthdays, they think, read, talk and research enough about sex to know how to please a woman (or so they say), plus, they’ve seen enough porn to ensure they won’t be shocked by any exotic requests you might have.

And the best part of all? According to the craigslist article, it’s this:

“They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than ‘Damn baby you got a fine ass!’ Believe me.”

Sounds good to me …

The writer is an author, columnist & dating expert (You can mail your responses to asksambrett gmail.com)

‘It’s great to have Arjun in my life’
 

Arjun came into the house on October 4, 2007. We celebrated his home-coming with a birthday like carnival atmosphere and it was fantastic. It really feels great to have someone like him.

He talks so much. He is like every other child who has many questions to ask. He loves watching me on television, reading my interviews or seeing my photographs in the newspapers. He excitedly mutters – ‘this is papa, this is papa’. It feel wonderful when he says ‘papa’. He has also been to my dancing classes and sees me teach dancing.

I wouldn’t say that life has changed in this past year. I would say that he has changed me a lot. I feel like rushing back home at the earliest now. I have also reduced partying as he is home and I want to spend time with him. And that’s not because I have to but because I want to.

There are cynics who say that I am a busy and that I can’t take care of a child. Well, even women work late in a city like Mumbai. But then I am much more relaxed during the day when my child is free as my classes starts only in the evening. So I take him out in the mornings.

There were some magical moments – seeing him talk, the first time he called me ‘papa’ or being in the swimming pool for the first time.

To be honest, the initial days were very difficult. There were a lot of problems in the adoption process itself. The Indian constitution has a clear clause, which says that a single man can adopt a child. There are some guidelines, but it is possible. it is a little strange that nobody has ever exercised those laws.

people never really knew how to go about things. Even people in the system are ignorant. For example, when I went to apply for Arjun’s passport, they were pretty unsure. they had seen applications without the father’s name but they never came across forms without a mother’s name!

The problem is that it’s more difficult to scrutinise a man. Thankfully, everything went off well for me.

things have changed a lot after that for other people too. The court in Mumbai now has some 12 cases registered by single fathers who want to adopt kids. the Delhi court has eight cases and the Bangalore court has five cases registered. My lawyer keeps updating me about all this. A lot of people say that I have inspired them to take this step.

A single parent has the same responsibilities as regular parents – just that they take on a double role. but a child never really demands anything more than your love. loving your child comes naturally to you, it’s not a duty.

There is also a wrong notion that a father may not be as close to a child as a mother is. look at any couple, you will find that the father is as loving.

After the story of Arjun’s adoption came up in the media, my inbox was flooded with mails and calls kept pouring in. Men, women and couples wrote to me saying that they want to adopt a child as well. Even my friends talk to me about it. I never thought an adoption case could wake so many people up.

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Charm of the ancient haveli
 

The photoshoot of my April 2006 India Fashion Week collection called, “Parchment Blues: Inked in Ikat” is undeniably my favourite.

Photographer Ravi Naik managed to capture the subtle texturing, layering and other nuances with remarkable acumen. The angles, the lighting caught the details of the garment.

We shot in an old abandoned haveli. Its walls were testament to the layers of history it had witnessed. It was a perfect backdrop for the collection.

The model for the shoot, Vipasha Agarwal, managed to emote the individual I wanted to portray through this collection – someone with tremendous strength and yet, a certain vulnerability. Someone with a strong sense of purpose and passion for what she does. And yet, highly sensitive.

She also has an aura of mystery about her, which helped. Sometimes things fall into place and there is a magic in the moment that one cannot describe.

I cherish the time spent walking through the rooms of the ruined haveli, marvelling at the interiors.

I feel so happy when I remember those moments I spent styling the look, discussing it with a friend who understood the feel of the collection and helped conceptualise it.

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Mobile multi-tasking
 
By Naresh Sadhwani & Deepak Jhangiani

Each passing day is like another nail in the coffin of the stand-alone AV players. The MP (Micro Processor) technology and the Flash Memory cards have unleashed unlimited power to the mobile phone and in the process relegated the conventional AV players into oblivion. And even in the mobile arena the battle hots up with different models offering different and newer configurations and features.

Apple’s release of the touch phone was not just a revolution, but a trend-setter which has opened up the field to more varied and complex functional advantages of the mobile.

Mobile multi-tasking is the new buzz word in techie street and the mobile phenomenon is on the move, from being everyone’s pet to morphing in its new avatar as a computer for all hands.

Thanks to the super software designs now a multi-tasking phone can play music, record video, double as a photographer and a postman, can pass of itself as a computer and is first on the wish list of all mortals tech or untech.

Presently, the max utility features in a single mobile phone available in the market are:

1) Palm top organiser 2) SMS 3) Multimedia player with digital sound clarity and pseudo surround 4) Bluetooth enabled 5) Voice activated dialling 6) Data and voice roaming access 7) High speed modem, and 8) Mega Memory and above all high speed net browsing.

The latest entrant in this mobile technology race is the search giant Google who joins the race with Apple and Blackberry from the fruit basket, Google from the software world and Nokia from the hardware segment. Very soon mobiles will be bought not for their brand value but for their functionality and utility.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Plasma, LCD screens… What next?

Once again we take you for a joy ride into the near future. Now the FEDs hard on the heels of the popularity of the new and advanced LCD screens in the Indian markets is the news of the new technology waiting in the wings to usurp the title of “New and Advanced”. Field Emission Display, or FED as they are called, is out to give the just introduced market favourite LCDs a run for their money. Field Emission Display is a technology that uses a grid of carbon nanotubes to emit the electrons that excite phosphor dots in order to create the image.

Readers are invited to email their queries/suggestions/comments to sadhwanis@vsnl.com

Slices of history
 

Where else would you see Nehru gently stroking grandson Rajiv’s cheek before leaving on a trip abroad, Mahatma Gandhi collecting money for the Harijan Fund in New Delhi, or the iconic photograph of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Gandhi arguing at Jinnah’s residence. These episodes of history were memorably captured by photo journalist Kulwant Roy from 1940-1960.

Many such images are on display at the exhibition titled, “History in the Making, The Visual Archives of Kulwant Roy” at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi.

This treasure trove of photographs was opened by Aditya Arya, a photographer, nearly 24 years after it was handed over to him by his uncle Kulwant Roy, who passed away in 1984.

The exhibition has been curated by Sabeena Gadihoke and Aditya. It features a selection of the collection.

Aditya is at peace now. “I am feeling relaxed,” he said, the morning after the exhibition was inaugurated.

Aditya is back to shooting after almost a year. “I had taken a break to set all this up in December 2007. There is a lot more to be done, unfortunately, I am restoring mamaji’s (Kulwant Roy) photos all by myself along with 3-4 people, there is no institution backing me. This is somebody’s lifetime of work, somebody who has shot for 40 years, and we are giving people a glimpse of his collection through this exhibition. We are making new captions and putting the other photos in new envelopes,” he said.

Aditya is aware that he may not be able to continue his work for long, as there are many more boxes to be opened, many photos to be digitally restored and new labels to be created. One whole floor of his house is devoted to this purpose. He explained, “There are a lot of pictures of Gandhiji from 1930s, which we are trying to figure out how to restore. The French cultural attache, who had come to the exhibition, has shown interest. She will help us get in touch with people in France, who can restore as well as retrieve the photos, and the exhibition can travel to France as well.”

There were offers to hold the exhibition abroad. Responding to this, Aditya said, “There were many offers to take the collection abroad, but this is our history, how could we sell it? You cannot break the collection.”

He also talked about the Aditya Arya Archive. He said, “This archive seeks to restore, collate and annotate the historical images of Kulwant Roy. The archive also seeks to provide a similar platform for such photographic collections. We would like to actively encourage the archiving of pre and post-independence photography, both amateur and professional.”

He reasons, “Why should we depend upon historians alone? We need visual historians too. These are people who have captured moments of history through their lens. I like to see history rather than read about what happened in the past.”

Speaking about his favourite photograph, Aditya said, “There are two actually. One is of Gandhi coming out of a third class train and Nehru stepping out of the first class. Gandhi always travelled by the third class, he’d travel by the fourth class too, if there was one. The picture speaks volumes about him.”

Reminiscing how his mamaji discouraged him from becoming a photographer, Aditya said, “He led a fulfilling life, but at the end of the day, he never made money. Today it is different, photographers back then slogged. They didn’t have the technological advancement that we have today. They had to shoot the perfect shot in limited time, but they were bright, so they survived.”

The photo of Gandhi arguing with Jinnah is among the rare photographs in the archives of Getty Images.

The photograph was earlier attributed to a stringer, and Aditya has rightfully restored Roy’s name in the photo credit.

He said, “I am glad that the credit has come to the Kulwant Roy Association of Photos. There was always an authorship issue, why shouldn’t an Indian be recognised for his work? We have also had great photographers in India.”

So, does he think that he opened the boxes too late? Aditya said, “I opened the boxes at the right time. It made sense to me 25 years later. But there is a lot of work to be done, this is just the beginning…”

Preity wants to rediscover herself
 

Preity Zinta is just back from the ‘Unforgettable Tour’ and she is already one busy lady. She has started working on the promotions of her upcoming films and of course, is planning for the second season of IPL.

When asked about the tour being a washout at some centres, Preity gets defensive. “That’s just rubbish,” she exclaims. “When Mr Amitabh Bachchan says the shows did well, who is anyone else to challenge that? In today’s times, with the presence of the media all around, it’s not easy to lie about these things. If the shows didn’t do well, then everyone would see that,” she says, defiantly.

“And again, I didn’t go on these shows to achieve something. It was like a family picnic for us. I have always been good friends with Ash, but on this tour she really took care for me. It’s rare for another actress to pamper you so much,” she quips.

But what about her friend SRK, who’s on the other side of the fence, where the Bachchans are concerned. Didn’t she ruffle his feathers by going on Big B’s show?

“I don’t think Shah Rukh is that kind of a person. He is a complete sweetheart,” she clarifies. “He’s never said, ‘don’t do this or don’t do that’, and neither have the Bachchans. I don’t think there are any ruffled feathers anywhere,” she says, animatedly.

In her upcoming movies, be it Jahnu Barua’s Har Pal or Deepa Mehta’s Heaven On Earth, Preity’s clearly steered towards the offbeat.

“As an actor one needs to challenge oneself. Maybe some actors don’t feel the need. I did. My work was getting affected because I was doing the same things over and over again. I had reached a point where I would go on the sets and think, ‘Why am I doing this?’ It’s not like my life revolves around movies. There’s something new always. I asked myself, ‘why wasn’t I doing the same with acting?’. And I realised, it is because I never grew up in this setup. I never claimed that I wanted to die at 80 with make-up on. But I knew that when I look at my body of work, I want to see something creative. I needed to get out of that jaded phase I was in, and rediscover myself. Har Pal and Deepa Mehta’s film Heaven On Earth helped me do just that. Heaven῅ is the most difficult film I have ever done, and Deepa has taken me places that I never thought I could reach, as an actor.”

With films still happening, for Preity, so is her first passion, cricket. “Actually, traveling comes first,” she exclaims. “But yes, IPL is going to get bigger and better this year. so I have to be better at my game too. Unfortunately, they still won’t let me play,” she quips.

So is marriage with Ness on the cards soon?

“I will get married the day this country stops obsessing about it,” she exclaims.

Hooked on to reality
 

The other day, I stumbled upon a gem on UTV Bindaas – Cash Cab -Meter Chalu Hai. It’s the desi version of an Emmy Award winning show. The format is fantastic – a yellow-black cab in Mumbai picks up unsuspecting passengers and, en route to their destinations, the cabbie asks them G.K. questions – what is haldi in English, name the longest epic poem etc.

Each correct answer is rewarded with cash. Participants get two help lines – call a friend, or shout out questions to people on the road. I haven’t yet seen participants get anything but completely bewildered looks from people on the street.

The cab itself is awesome – garish leopard-print upholstery, hidden cameras (which sometimes catch kissing, fondling couples), crazy disco lights and a huge digital count-down on the ceiling.

The programme gets its edge from its anchor – the inimitable Uddham Singh (real name, Munish Makhija), in his famous Haryanavi Jat avatar, complete with mental one-liners and happy gaalis with bhootni ke (loose translation, he who was born to a bhootni) being ubiquitous. He’s brusque, witty and astonishingly on the ball given that he can’t predict who’s going to jump into his cab next. Mostly, it’s jaw-hurting laughter, but sometimes shocking too.

In the episode I saw, two stud-type guys, fully engrossed in their conversation, get into the cab. Not realising that something’s amiss, they continue chatting:

‘Arre yaar, saari raat barbad ho gayi… ‘she was strange’… ‘I just want a chance to walk the ramp. ‘Ek baar model bana de bus…” ‘Forget all this… just remember to keep a chattri…in this dhanda just do what you are told. I had an aunty who gave me so much money, a car…’ Cabbie whispers into the camera, ‘Listen carefully, they are gigolos.’

When conversation in the back-seat starts getting too risqu
, our cabbie switches on his psychedelic lights and announces, ‘You are on national TV.’ Confusion… shock… shouting, arms flailing, the studs somehow dash out, trying desperately to hide their faces. Oh, reality television bites, and how.

Talking of embarrassing moments, did you watch Bigg Boss 2 on Colors last week? It was a stunning moment when Raja Choudhary returned after his jhoota-mootha eviction. For three days, he had been secretly watching the housemates bitch about him and plot against each other. He walked in like a Santa Claus in black, carrying everybody’s deepest, darkest secrets. And like a good Christmas baba, he quickly emptied the ‘goodie’ bag. Sambhavana Seth was shocked. Rahul Mahajan and Payal Rohatgi hairan-pareshan at being found out. And Ms Diana Hayden finally lost some of her accent with the mild jolts she got.

After some exhausting bitching and fighting, Raja celebrated his estranged wife’s b’day with candles and a song, Jane kahan gaye voh din… Tears rolled down his cheeks – very touching. So what is it about reality shows that make them so compelling? Is it the promise of full emotional exfoliation, per episode – flirting, fighting, crying, soul-baring confessions?

Or that it’s a little more thrilling than eavesdropping on your neighbour’s familial squabbles, but much less taboo than voyeurism? Well, it’s all this, and more. Enjoy while it lasts. We’ll analyse later.

Content is king for audience
 
By Vikram Bhatt

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the world this week. Or should I say, the world of movies this week. Yes sir, me is ecstatic with the happenings of the past few weeks and no, I have not found a new girlfriend yet. unfortunate but true. So I will have to talk about movies and more movies.

The reason for my euphoria, without much ado, is that according to me, this September is the turning point in film history. this is no tall claim but a statement soaked in truism. The audience has turned the tables on everything that we have ever known about cinema. Now the filmmaker proposes and the audience disposes.

It has always been said, that the Ramadan period is a slow period for films with Muslim audiences staying away from theatres, that films without stars will find it hard, that films without successful music will not fetch many viewers, that political turmoil affects movies, that films fail in bad weather and so on.

But this September, all this happened and the audiences have given cinema a new perspective. It is time the producers and the great corporate machine take notice that nothing can defeat movies with content.

On August 22 came Phoonk and succeeded, Rock On rocked the BO on August 29. Then came Wednesday on September 5, which engaged the audiences. on September 12 came 1920, which succeeded. On the September 19, came Welcome to Sajjanpur, which still maintains steady collections as I write this. Five Fridays in a row saw successful films.

Study these Fridays and you will see that Ramadan started very soon after Rock On released. Then on the Saturday that my film released, there were blasts in Delhi and Ganpati visarjan in Mumbai on Sunday.

Sajjanpur released in Shraad. Rains have been incessant through the country, not to mention the floods in Bihar and yet, these films worked.

Study these films and you find that none of them had any huge cast to boast of. also, except Rock On, the music in none of the films, including my own, made a mark. and yet, these are successful films and now, in film parlance, cut to Id.

The stage was set for the clash of the Titans, Kidnap and Drona. I read on Taran Adarsh’s website that approximately 40 crores and 50 crores were riding on both films respectively. So it was a weekend where almost 90 crores were riding on two movies. That would roughly allow to make a Wednesday 30 times and 1920 about a dozen times and yet, I am told that both these films did not find favour to the tune of the money spent on them. Here is a great cast, great budget, the great Id and the Gandhi Jayanti weekend and yet not great news!

This is a September that has taught the film industry the lesson of a lifetime – content is king. So don’t believe that any star is king. A good film will survive no matter what and that is the rule of the business. And so I’m happy῅ lesson learnt.

Dying of the light
 

I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him,” the book begins. Julian Barnes, an atheist turned agnostic, has decided at the age of 62 to address his fear of death – why should an agnostic fear death who has no faith in an afterlife? How can you be frightened of Nothing? On this simple question Barnes has hung an elegant memoir and meditation, a deep seismic tremor of a book that keeps rumbling and grumbling in the mind for weeks thereafter.

Thanatophobia is a fact in his life – he thinks about death daily and sometimes at night is “roared awake” and “pitched from sleep into darkness, panic and a vicious awareness that this is a rented world… awake, alone, utterly alone, beating pillow with fist and shouting ‘Oh no Oh no’ in an endless wail”. He dreams about being buried and “of being chased, surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned, of finding myself bulletless, held hostage, wrongly condemned to the firing squad, informed that there is even less time than I imagined. The usual stuff.” He imagines being trapped in an overturned ferry. Or locked by kidnappers in the trunk of a car that is then driven into a river. He imagines being taken underwater in the jaws of a crocodile.

Beyond the big knock-down stuff, he dreads the diminution of energy, the drying-up of the wellspring, the fading of the light. “I look around at my many friendships, and can recognise that some of them are not so much friendships any more as memories of friendships.” He has seen his parents through their decline and deaths – “however much you escape your parents in life, they are likely to reclaim you in death” – his father, a teacher of French, felled by strokes, reading the M
moires of Saint-Simon, at the end still tyrannised by his wife “always present, nattering, organising, fussing, controlling” – a few years later, his mother in a green dress, in a wheelchair paralysed on one side, “admirably unflinching, and dismissive of what she saw as falsemorale-boosting,” and what he sees there is hardly comforting.

Religious faith is not an option. “I had no faith to lose,” he writes. “I was never baptised, never sent to Sunday school. I have never been to a normal church service in my life…. I am constantly going into churches, but for architectural reasons; and, more widely, to get a sense of what Englishness once was.”

The Christian religion has lasted because it is a “beautiful lie, a tragedy with a happy ending,” and yet he misses the sense of purpose and belief that he finds in the Mozart Requiem, the paintings of Donatello – “I miss the God that inspired Italian painting and French stained glass, German music and English chapter houses, and those tumbledown heaps of stone on Celtic headlands which were once symbolic beacons in the darkness and the storm”.

Barnes is not comforted by the contemporary religion of therapy, the “secular modern heaven of self-fulfilment: the development of the personality, the relationships which help define us, the status-giving job, the accumulation of sexual exploits, the visits to the gym, the consumption of culture. It all adds up to happiness, doesn’t it – doesn’t it? This is our chosen myth”.

So Barnes turns toward the strict regime of science and here is little comfort indeed. We are all dying. Even the sun is dying. Homo sapiens is evolving toward some species that won’t care about us whatsoever and our art and literature and scholarship will fall into utter oblivion. Every author will eventually become an unread author. And then humanity will die out and beetles will rule the world.

A man can fear his own death but what is he anyway? Simply a mass of neurons. The brain is a lump of meat and the soul is merely “a story the brain tells itself.” Individuality is an illusion. Scientists find no physical evidence of “self” – it is something we’ve talked ourselves into. We do not produce thoughts, thoughts produce us.

“The ‘I’ of which we are so fond properly exists only in grammar.” Stripped of the Christian narrative, we gaze out on a landscape that, while fascinating, offers nothing that one could call Hope. (Barnes refers to “American hopefulness” with particular disdain.)

“There is no separation between ‘us’ and the universe.” We are simply matter, stuff. “Individualism – the triumph of free-thinking artists and scientists – has led to a state of self-awareness in which we can now view ourselves as units of genetic obedience.”

All true so far as it goes, perhaps, but so what? Barnes is a novelist and what gives this book life and keeps the reader happily churning forward is his affection for the people who wander in and out, Grandma Scoltock in her hand-knitted cardigan reading The Daily Worker and cheering on Mao Zedong, while Grandpa watched “Songs of Praise” on television, did woodwork and raised dahlias, and killed chickens with a green metal machine screwed to the doorjam that wrung their necks.

The older brother who teaches philosophy, keeps llamas and likes to wear knee breeches, buckle shoes, a brocade waistcoat. We may only be units of genetic obedience, but we do love to look at each other. Barnes tells us he keeps in a drawer his parents’ stuff, all of it, their scrapbooks, ration cards, cricket score cards, Christmas card lists, certificates of Perfect Attendance, a photo album of 1913 entitled “Scenes From Highways & Byways,” old postcards (“We arrived here safely, and, except for the ham sandwiches, we were satisfied with the journey”). The simple-minded reader savours this sweet lozenge of a detail. We don’t deny the inevitability of extinction, but we can’t help being fond of that postcard.

“Wisdom consists partly in not pretending anymore, in discarding artifice…. And there is something infinitely touching when an artist, in old age, takes on simplicity…. Showing off is part of ambition; but now that we are old, let us have the confidence to speak simply.” And so he does. In this meditation on death, he brings to life, in short sure strokes, his parents, Albert and Kathleen.

“She lay in a small, clean room with a cross on the wall; she was indeed on a trolley, with the back of her head towards me…. She seemed, well, very dead: eyes closed, mouth slightly open, and more so on the left side than the right, which was just like her – she used to hang a cigarette from the right corner of her mouth and talk out of the opposite side…. I touched her cheek several times, then kissed her at the hairline. Was she that cold because she’d been in the freezer, or because the dead are naturally so cold?… ‘Well done, Ma,’ I told her quietly. She had, indeed, done the dying ‘better’ than my father. He had endured a series of strokes, his decline stretching over years; she had gone from first attack to death altogether more efficiently and speedily.” In her effects he finds a full bottle of cream sherry and a birthday cake, untouched.

I don’t know how this book will do in our hopeful country, with the author’s bleak face on the cover, but I will say a prayer for retail success. It is a beautiful and funny book, still booming in my head.

ῠ

Vanity (Un)fair
 
By Sunil K. Poolani

Vanity publishing is today an inevitable and dominating phenomenon worldwide – and a multibillion dollar industry, to boot. It has had existed from ad memoriam. Take the vedas or the Ramayana to the Holy Bible and the Koran῅ they were all sponsored trips; by word of mouth or by somebody patronising them to get to the masses.

It is another matter they were done for spiritual (then) or materialistic (mostly now) reasons. Almost all the texts of writing (well, novel-writing was a very 18th century occurrence) were all funded by patronising kings or dukes. Now, a nostalgic trip. I was a kid once and I, even today, lucidly recall how a failed poet tried to get his work published by local magazines; he was a bit successful in that effort. Then he dreamt of compiling his collection of verse in a book. For which, there were no takers in the fledgling publishing arena in the then Kerala.

His cousin, who had made his fortune from the oilfields of Persia, helped fulfil the poet’s dream. The poet used to pedal his bicycle, peddling his ware, from house to house, village to village, and finally from town to town; and in just three years’ time he had almost sold more than 10,000 copies – a quite surprising incident even by today’s standards as even our Shobhaa De does not sell that much. I still preserve the poet’s book; then priced a mere Re 1.

From the backwaters of Kerala to Andhra Pradesh and then in Delhi and Maharashtra I have witnessed, and sold too, copies of several amateur writers’ ambitious works. Some of them, I can proudly claim now, are today household names. And, I have to cheekily admit that my first two books, a collection of poems in Malayalam (when I was 16) and a jointly-written booklet on the Narmada movement (in the early 90s), were funded by either my dad or from my meagre salary as a hack.

Personal vignettes apart, in the present days vanity publishing is not an unashamed business to indulge in, as it used to be, say, a decade ago. With an increasing number of publishers only catering to a clientele who are mostly cretins, a good literary work would not have seen the day of light if not for vanity/subsidised/sharing-costs publishers.

By hook, line, and sinker many aspirant writers want to get their works published – and around half of them feel deceived after self-styled publishers lure the poor hopefuls by offering them instant stardom and high royalties in return, but, alas, they eventually get fleeced. Should the writers bite the bait sans thinking aloud? Never.

Writers should be careful about what they are getting into before shelling out hefty amounts to the tricksters in the game. And it is also advisable to think twice before paying money to unknown ‘publishers’ in the US or the UK who just send you ten copies of ‘print-on-demand’ books, and you can kiss goodbye to the ‘rest’ of the copies.

As a publisher I had, and continue to, publish certain books through the subsidised route (mainly poetry and fiction) as these titles, in all probability, would not assure much returns, forget making profits. I had always made it a point to clear whatever royalties the writers are entitled, too. But the problem with subsidised or vanity publishing is the writers sit in the driver’s seat as they think the publisher is at their mercy. And they do not realise that no publisher – and that includes the best in the profession (Penguin, Rupa) – cannot assure which book would sell and which one would bomb.

Discretion is the name of the game, here.

Tailpiece

A couple of years ago, a big Indian publisher brought out a book which they termed the biggest thing that has happened in the Indian literary history. Printing of a book is pittance, but not the PR costs. Since this young and handsome guy from Mumbai had enough khandani money to indulge in this tamasha, his PR firm, in tandem with the publisher, roped in several ‘intellectual’ books page editors of reputed magazines and newspapers to write favourable reviews.

One of them flew down from Delhi, was accommodated in a five-star hotel in Mumbai, interviewed the author, and devoted three pages for the book (interview; excerpts) in his magazine and called the 20-something as the next inheritor of Marquez. The book bombed, thank you. But not after he becoming a household name in Malabar Hill families and in Page 3 circuits.

The writer is the publisher and managing editor, Frog Books, an imprint of Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd, Mumbai. Write to him at poolani@gmail.com

Gondolas & good food
 
By Christine Pemberton

It had all seemed quite straightforward during the pre-flight briefing with the pilot. After describing how balloons operate and how the flights are manned, the pilot had said that the wind conditions appeared favourable, but that if they were too strong in the morning the flights would have to be cancelled. He reminded everyone to dress warmly, to bring cameras, and just as the meeting was closing, he added, “Don’t forget to bring a hat.” For the sun, you presume.

Now it is 5 in the morning in the Masai Mara. It is still dark. Inside the lodge one solitary light is on. A small group of sleepy people stand around, drinking a cup of coffee. There is the sound of a jeep pulling up outside, a cheery “Good morning to everybody. Come on, let’s go” and you climb in, shake hands with your balloon pilot and set off for the launching area. Just before you leave, the pilot asks, “Did you all remember to bring a hat?”

It is still dark when you arrive, but it is a scene of activity already. The balloon is stretched out on the ground, the padded basket or gondola, which will be your base for the next hour lies on its side, and the crew are busy getting the gas burners ready.

The pre-dawn air is chilly, but the sky is beginning to get light as the crew begins to inflate the balloon. First, cold air from a fan is blown inside the balloon, and once it is half inflated, the crew ignites the gas burners. There is a loud rushing sound and flames shoot up into the balloon. As the air inside heats up, the balloon slowly rights itself until it is vertical, and is being held down by the crew just long enough for the passengers to scramble aboard the wicker gondola. The pilot gives one last glance to check that all is in order, the crew releases the gondola and you slowly drift up into the air and off over the Masai Mara.

The gondola is divided into sections, which are well padded and with handles. When the pilot turns on the gas, there is a loud hissing noise and it is suddenly very hot. You realise why he had suggested hats to protect you from the heat from the gas and not from the sun.

As the balloon drifts along, the sky getting lighter by the minute, you pass over a Masai “boma” or village, its encircling protective thorn bushes looking like a pattern on the ground. Then the serious wildlife spotting begins: giraffe, elephants, a long line of wildebeest moving in single file. A quick movement in the clump of trees over which you are floating and the pilot says excitedly.

The noise from the gas burners alternates with total silence, as the balloon drifts along following the air currents. Dawn is the optimal time for balloon flights since the hot air inside the balloon is lighter than the cool early morning air. The hotter the air in the balloon, the quicker it rises. The cooler the air, the quicker it descends. The pilot controls the altitude by controlling the air temperature inside the balloon.

What he cannot control is the direction in which you fly. You simply drift along as the morning winds decide. Down below, you can see the support vehicles following. As no one yet has any idea of where the balloon will come down, the crew (and your breakfast) must follow as you lead.Everyone is engrossed in the stunning panorama, the few trees below making beautiful abstract patterns against the dusty land. More giraffe and wildebeest, another herd of elephants, impala, gazelles, and all too soon, the pilot says, “I think we’ll land over there.” Over there is a flat empty expanse of land.

“Why don’t you all sit down and hold onto the straps?” he suggests, having already outlined the emergency procedure to follow, should the balloon tilt over on landing. It does nothing of the kind of course, simply bouncing once or twice before the ground crew grabs hold of it.

Out you all scramble and suddenly you’re in the middle of a hive of activity. Tables have been set out, food has appeared from nowhere and a smiling cook, complete with white chef’s hat, is standing at his portable stove asking, “How do you like your eggs?” Juice, coffee, and a glass of champagne follow. As you sit there, the sky by now a deep blue, figures appear on the horizon, seemingly out of nowhere. Masai tribesmen march briskly towards open your open-air restaurant, and sit solemnly in a circle, a polite distance away. They have come to see the spectacle and also to try and sell souvenirs to the day’s champagne-for-breakfast crowd.

The balloon pilot makes a beeline for one old man, and opens negotiations for a Masai spear. A cup of coffee later and the price has been fixed. But the pilot realises he has forgotten his wallet. No problems, smiles the old Masai man. He will come to watch the balloon show tomorrow morning, and collect his payment.

Getting there

By Air: Kenya has a good network of domestic flights, with carriers including Kenya Airways, Air Kenya, Mombasa Air Safari, Fly 540, Safarilink. and East African Safari Air. These airlines service the coast, major game parks and Western Kenya. Domestic air taxes are included in ticket or charter costs.

By Road: Visitors to Kenya can drive using an international drivers license. Driving is on the left hand side and drivers should give way to traffic on their right. Distances are measured and signposted in kilometres and petrol/diesel sold by the litre.

By Sea: The Kenyan coast is open to both commercial and private shipping. There are several popular anchorage points for yachts including, Mtwapa, Kilifi, Mnarani, and Lamu. Those landing should process immigration locally

Tourist information: Kenya Tourist Board
Kenya-Re Towers, Ragati Road
PO Box 30630-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 271 1262
Fax: +254 20 271 9925

BKenya offers the traveller a wide range of accommodation options. From youth hostels to five star luxury suites, from pitching your own tent in the wilderness to relaxing in a private beachside villa, the possibilities are endless. The experience of enjoying unparalleled luxury, fine cuisine and world class service while surrounded by the wonders of the wild makes Kenya the ultimate destination.

Foodie’s day out in Chandigarh
 
By Marryam h. Reshii

When one talks of great food places in North India, somehow Chandigarh doesn’t readily come to mind. However, for a Delhiite like me, it is on the way to hill-stations like Shimla and Manali, and of late I’ve started trying to spend more time in Chandigarh just because of one reason, and that is the food.

Why they keep their restaurants such a state-guarded secret is something I’ll never fathom. Other cities with far less to boast of cry themselves hoarse, praising their so-called attractions. Yet, I’ve never heard anyone – either in Chandigarh or outside it – ever talking about Whispering Willows, a sort of club cum farmhouse on the outskirts of the city.

Inside it, Bedouin Lounge, done up like a part of exotic Arabia, serves some of the most authentic delicious food. Many are the evenings when I’ve sat on low seating, with the aroma of other people’s sheeshas filling the air, and looking at a wedding going on outside. You can’t hear a sound of the wedding (mercifully!), but you can see the sparkle of saris and the twinkle of tiny lights illuminating the venue, and you feel you are in a dream world.

The other of Chandigarh’s places that is more than adequate for a quick bite on the journey from the (comparative) gastronomic desert of Manali back to Delhi is Backpackers, a small, noisy caf
 where the irritating wait for a table is worth it. Small and crowded at whatever time of the day or night you visit, it was probably conceptualised as a young, trendy person’s hangout zone, but has been co-opted by people of all ages and that is what I love the most about Chandigarh. You’ll see grey-haired aunties tucking into the surprisingly authentic Quiche Lorraine at Backpackers, not the least fazed by blaring reggae, and you’ll spot trendy 20-somethings at Tehal Singh’s iconic dhaba which has, over the years, metamorphosed into a family diner.

My favourite eating place has to be Orchid Lounge. An oriental restaurant divided into a well-appointed drawing room area, complete with fire place and bar, and a conventional dining area, I’m not sure if I like it for the food – the Crispy Fish with Mustard and Green Chillies – or the delicious feeling of anticipation that comes when you’re off on a holiday. And as I’ve only visited Orchid Lounge en route to a long weekend, it’s something I’ll never be able to figure out.

The best part of Orchid Lounge is the faces of the serving staff as they crowd around our table and make us feel like visiting dignitaries. They never fail to exclaim on how tall the children have grown, and that’s been since the time that my now teenage children were tiny. All around us, other customers consist of three generations of cultured local families, out for a quiet glass of beer. That’s something you don’t get to see too often outside Chandigarh: grandfather and grandson sharing a Kingfisher.

marryam08@gmail.com

Fundamentals
 
By Senjam Raj Sekhar

Every year around October, hundreds of students across India descend to an oasis in the desert – the campus of BITS, Pilani. This year also Oasis, the much loved inter-college festival is on from October 20 to 24. There are several quizzes on usual and unusual topics. Along with a general quiz, there are quizzes on journalism, poetry, audio visual and weakest link (after the TV show). The most interesting quiz is what is called Vice, the bad habit quiz, described by the organisers as the quiz on everything “your mommy warned you about”.

If you are in Mumbai on October 18, you can go to Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay for Ludus Magnus the Business Quiz to be held as part of the annual festival. The quiz will be open for both corporates and students. Mixed teams are allowed. Quiz starts at 4 pm.

Write with your suggestions, questions (with answers) to D4/11 (GF), Exclusive Floors, DLF Phase-V, Gurgaon-122 002 or email senjam@gmail.com

This week’s theme is on biscuits. It has been called Twice Cooked after the literal meaning of the word “Biscuit” in Latin (Bis meaning twice and Coctus meaning cooked).

Twice Cooked

1. Which chocolate biscuit is named after a royal house that reigned over Spain, France, Navarre and Luxembourg at various points in time?
2. Which is the largest selling biscuit brand in the world?
3. What in a digestive biscuit is supposed to make the biscuit digestive?
4. Kayani Bakery was started by Hormuz and Khodayar Irani in 1955, in Pune. What is this bakery’s most famous biscuit named after the town in England where Charles Darwin was born?
5. Why is a thin Arrowroot biscuit called Thin Arrowroot?
6. This biscuit originated in an Italian monastery, was first sold by two Carmelite nuns. It was later adopted by the Jewish community because it had no flour or leavening and could be enjoyed during the eight-day observation of Passover. Which one?
7. World’s first sweet and salty biscuit was introduced in 1972. Which brand?
8. Which biscuit is named after Grand Duchess Alexandrovna of Russia to commemorate her marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria?

Anything Goes

1. Who was the first person other than the head of State to appear on a stamp? (N.V. Suguna, Chennai)
2. The largest riverine island in the world is also home to Vaishnavite monasteries. Name the island. (Ravikumar C. Jolarpet)
3. Who are known as or called as ABCs in USA? (U. Narasimha Murthy, Secunderabad)
4. In one of the most lopsided finals in Women’s Grand Slam Tennis Steffi Graf defeated this player 6-0, 6-0. Who was the player and where did it happen? (Dr Ravi Bhatia, Udaipur)
5. Madhusudan Singh are the first two names of which contemporary cricketer? (Sanjay Nair, Noida)
6. Who is the first actor in Bollywood to have a trademark of her name, to prevent it from being misused? (Sushil Kumar Poddar, Kolkata)
7. Which river divides the Hungarian capital Buda and Pest?

Funda of the week

Complete the list with one more name: Linda Lingle, Ruth Ann Minner, Jennifer Granholm, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, M. Jodi Rell, Christine Gregoire. (Sanjay Nair, Noida)

Sarah Palin. They are all serving woman governors of United States. There are eight women currently serving as governors. They are Linda Lingle (Hawaii), Ruth Ann Minner (Delaware), Jennifer Granholm (Michigan), Janet Napolitano (Arizona), Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas), M. Jodi Rell (Connecticut), Christine Gregoire (Washington) and Sarah Palin (Alaska) (Parvinder Bhatia, Jamshedpur)

Answers

Twice Cooked

1. Bourbon biscuits are named after the House of Bourbon
2. Parle G
3. Sodium bicarbonate or baking soda. Digestive biscuit has baking soda in it and it was believed that baking soda aided digestion.
4. Shrewsbury biscuit. Shrewsbury is the town in Shropshire, England where Charles Darwin was born
5. Arrowroot is a starchy powder obtained from the rhizomes of the Arrowroot plant. Arrowroot is added to Arrowroot to biscuits make it firm. Thin Arrowroots contain two per cent arrowroot
6. Macaroon
7. Krackjack introduced by India’s own Parle
8. Marie biscuits named after Maria Alexandrovna

Anything Goes

1. Benjamin Franklin whose portrait featured on the 10c stamp issued by the United State in July 1847
2. Majuli on Brahmaputra
3. American born Chinese (they are US citizens)
4. Natalia Zvereva at the French Open in 1988
5. Monty Panesar
6. Mallika Sherawat
7. Danube

 
 Features of the Week
 
 

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