Karan Sharma gets ready for the ‘shots’. — Photo by Vinay Malik

YOU’RE PIERCED!
All of life’s experiences must mean something, so here’s a culture-vulture that is bound to leave an indelible mark, literally! Body art alias body piercing is the city’s next big thing and the young are turning out in droves to ‘mark’ their lives. Indeed your parents may think you have decided to turn tribal in rebellion but hey it is all about “self-expression” as the youngsters will tell you. So leave the fuddy-duddies behind and get with ‘it’ says 20-year-old Natasha Kaur. For this student of engineering living in Mohali a stud-pin on the eyebrow and pink cross on the belly says it all. “It looks good because it is all about how you feel and what life is about for you,” she says philosophically. In fact, she feels “closer to life” having had the piercing done.

Autumn Theatre October marks summer’s end and offers a brief respite before the onslaught of winter. It is a month of many festivities. Close home it is the month this time of Dasehra, Diwali, Karva Chauth and Id. Away in the West it is the month of Mop Fairs on Old Michaelmas Day, St. Luke’s Day, Punky Nite when pumpkins are carved into Jack O’ Lanterns and of course the famous Halloween Night and the English Pudding Day. It is also the month for sipping apple cider and Perry, a fermented drink made of pears.                  TOUCHING MOMENT: Uzra Bhutt and Gursharan Singh

Art of abstraction There is tremendous joy in Madan Lal’s art and that vitality is infectious. While his works illustrate life, weaving a single thread of thought across a particular series, not necessarily joyous, the sense becomes clear and he achieves what he wants to say with a passion that is unmistakable in his very unique style of painting. For Madal Lal is an artist whose eloquence is unambiguous. From ‘Abstractions from Life’ in 1996 to the ‘Journey towards other Planets’, currently on show in the city, Madan Lal has become, if possible, more prolific and more persuasive. GOOD MORNING: Madan Lal starts his work at crack of dawn and thus the sense of colour is fresh and heightened

Rang De Basanti Salaam What does Rang De Basanti mean to you? Has it affected you in any way on a personal level? We got together to make a movie but the story is such that it touched each one of us and changed our lives in some way or the other. We used to get into discussions, which used to make us think. We all changed a bit while making this movie, it led us to question a lot of things that we see around us and take for granted. I think it has affected the audiences in the same way. Rang De Basanti – The color- Basanti or Yellow stands for sacrifice and the title implies that one is ready to be washed in the colors of sacrifice.

Colouring the Oscars
UTV’s Rang De Basanti has been chosen as India’s official entry for the Academy Awards. The film made a place for itself in the hearts and minds of millions of people all around the world and is now claiming its rightful place.

Co(s)mic success Rammit Walia has a fixed gaze. Many thoughts race in his mind as he keeps tapping his foot. Is he another newcomer trying to make it big on the silver screen? All doubts rest as the firmness in his voice surprises you. He is no novice but a well-grounded and intense actor. All this comes from his fourteen years of training in the live theatre medium in Delhi. Waiting for the release of his first Punjabi film Mannat this week this true blue Dilliwala is ready to take on the Mumbai filmdom. Life for him is ‘on the move’ says Rammit as his eyes give away the passion he has for acting. Ready to move to Mumbai, Rammit says, “Films do not mean a goodbye to theatre.” “ I will be bringing Chunav Ek Murga Beeti, a play directed by me and based on a short story by Sharad Joshi, to the city in the midst of the election fever this year.” The ease in juggling these roles comes from desire to do good work. Rammit is an actor with a conscience. “An actor cannot survive in a amoral vacuum. Acting with a message of hope gives it a meaning.”                                                                         REAL THING: Rammit Walia

Anything for passion Till date I don’t consider myself a rallyist. Five minutes behind the wheel and there is an absolute metamorphosis. I drive, not for some vague competition but sheer pleasure and absolute bliss.” smiles Delhi-based rallyist Divya Miglani, in Town on Thursday to be a part of the Raid-de- Himalaya rally, one of the toughest in its class in the world. For someone who’s burnt tyres in several rallies across the country, including prestigious ones like Desert Storm in Rajasthan, Divya insists that more than speed, rallying is all about mental-make up.                                                                  IN BLISS: Divya Miglani

Let me love again…
Please release me, let me go
For I don’t love you anymore
And to live with your love will be a sin
So release me and let me love again
— Engel Bert’s lyrics
Karan Johar’s latest flick may have sent shock waves and led middle-class, urban Indians to believe infidelity as yet another fallout of our morally corrupting times, but the truth has more to it. Even if they live in a deeply traditional society, the nature of beings rarely changes. Infidelity has always been around; it is as old as mating. And science has supported that human beings are many-partner animals.

Campus Cafe
Saving grace
Young exhibitors, getting the hang of style on the college and varsity grounds, are burning mid-morning calories in cramming more than just the works of great scholars. Fresh out of schools and colleges, the younglings are learning their p’s and q’s, besides the “History of English Literature” and so many other subjects in finishing schools across the city.

• Health tip of the day

• TAROT TALK
  What the cards say today...
  P. KHURRANA