SON ET LUMIERE The spectator gallery is under construction at the Government Museum as the city gets ready for its tale to be told in light and sound, reports Parbina Rashid City Beautiful is now all set to have its own light and sound show. Well, before you ask what historical facts this young city has to offer, let us set the record straight. This light and sound project, which is the brainchild of the India Tourism Development Corporation and is being executed by CITCO, is going to focus on the building of this 55-year-old history as well as its art and architecture. After all, Chandigarh has Le-Corbusier to boast of. SUPERSONIC: Artist Narender Thakur and his team work on the war footing to complete the spectators’ gallery. — Photo by Manoj Mahajan

Date with Dates Charanjit Singh Come New Year and everyone looks for the New Year calendar and diary. Despite the advent of the on-line communications, calendars continue to be excellent communication and promotional tool.  It makes for a good corporate gift at the beginning of a New Year to reach out to their customers; calendars being the most cost-effective way to keep the message alive for all the 365 days of the year, says Deepak Khanna of Chandika Press Limited who has printed calendars of various sizes and shapes at their hi-tech printing press. The catch, he adds, is that the calendar should have a unique theme, attractive design, and should be well produced. DESKTOP DESIGNS: Some calendars doing the rounds in the city

Gem of a trade
Sunaina & Rachna
Kamla often sits at by the table with her daughter Pooja in a corner outside a florist shop by Aroma in city’s Sector 22. Pearl, emerald, ruby, sapphire, jade stone…she has them all! Her table is almost every passing by women’s stop. On an ordinary table she sells stones so elegant that you develop instant admiration. Beautiful danglers, necklaces, bangles, attract a lot of popped up eyeballs. The Victorian designs she sells are extremely enticing and attract a lot of people.

From Rags to Riches Smriti Sharma His is a perfect ‘rags to the riches’ story. From being a non-descript singer in the city for six years to finally creating a niche for himself as a singer in the Hindi film industry, Krishna Beura has been through all. Voice behind the popular club and lounge numbers, Ishq Khudai, Rabba, Dum Ali Ali et al, calls himself lucky for the fact that he didn’t have to struggle for his first break but then ‘the real sputter these days begin after your first song come out’ he articulates. HOMEGROWN HERO: Singer Krishna’s struggle story makes an inspirational one for youngsters

Musical notes
UK based Kebi Dhindsa has come up with a foot-tapping pulsating album Yaar Rusda. Kebi formed his band KB & The Gang, in the mid-nineties when he released his debut album Open Your Mind to instant acclaim. Shaan Bhangra became a firm favourite for its heart-rending theme reminiscing the homeland of Punjab, and spurred on by that success the band were nominated at the prestigious annual Asian Song and Dance Awards.

Bhabhi makes a come back Dolly Sohi the charming and Strong Saroj is back on Bhabhi!! Saroj returns as a spiritual guide for the Chopra Khandaan, which is falling apart due to growing tension brewing between Nehal and Megha. Saroj’s exit from the show happened when she took up ‘sanyas’ and gave up on all worldly attachments. It is such a co-incidence or as one would you call divine intervention, that just when the writers of the show were itching to get back Saroj’s character on the show, that Dolly Sohi planned her trip to India. DOLLY GIRL: Dolly Sohi returns as the spiritual guide for the Chopra Khandaan in Bhabhi

MATKA CHOWK
Wanted
Sreedhara Bhasin
Since I have had the mind-racking task of composing employment advertisements for placement in newspapers lately – I started to look closely at the word so often used in ads – “Wanted.” We think a lot before adding qualifications to the word “wanted.” I started thinking - if I were writing an ad on behalf of our dear city – what virtues would I be looking for as qualifiers?

BON APPETIT A Date with you Kandla Nijhowne When the winter winds doth blow, we instinctively seek foods that will help generate warmth in our bodies. Shoals of vociferous vendours emerge in our lanes, beckoning us towards their tempting display/s of peanuts, rewri, gajjak, dates and featherlight slabs of puffed rice enrobed in melted jaggery. (Did I miss anything?!) Most of these are high in sugars and calories so even though we eat them because we enjoy eating them, the bonus is that they help thaw our insides! Of the lot, the dates go back a long way in history, and the date-palm is probably the most ancient cultivated tree in the world.

FILM REVIEW A salute to love Nikhil Advani’s multi-starrer Salaam-E-Ishq opened on January 25 at Batra, Fun Republic and Suraj Panchkula, has caught everybody’s fancy. The media attention was tremendous and the film provides good entertainment right from the fashion fraternity to actors to an average movie buff. Salaam-E-Ishq has six episodic love stories that strike beautifully with this film. Nikhil Advani, the directorial prodigy who rose to heights of fame with Kal Ho Na Ho has dared to blend six different love stories to provide entertainment. A scene from Salaam-E-Ishq

WRITE TO RENEE
Living life is an art
Dear Renee, I am a 23-year-old woman who is going through constant bouts of depression. There are times I feel I am completely fine, but at times I am completely low and down in the dumps as you would call it. I feel I can look at my own-self objectively and feel very sad. There are moments I can relate to, of extreme happiness and yet other moments of complete lack of joy.

• Health tip of the day