For your far-away bro
Anandita Gupta

For the Pogo brigade
They’re practically growing up together— playing pranks, having pillow fights, chatting up a storm and reading Harry Potter. At times, they are at war— pining, eating their hearts out and weeping uncontrollably, till of course, they make up. And then, they start missing each other terribly. Well, the Hum Tum being talked about are the town’s kiddo-siblings.The lives of these kids are all about fun together— be it their birthday blast or the good old Rakhi. Rightfully then, playful is what’s setting this year’s kid’s rakhis apart from the previous years’.

STEP OUT On the right trek  Yana Banerjee-Bey

It’s  the peak of the trekking season and I have had queries from trekkers about blisters. So here are some tips. Buy proper trekking boots, not Hunters, as the cloth rubs against the soft skin above the heels and causes blisters. Buy footwear after noon. Your feet are bigger then! Generally, the right foot is half a size larger among women while the left foot is larger among men. The larger foot must be comfortable. The other can adjust. If painful blisters are threatening to cut short your mountain hike, worry not. There are ways to get rid of them

Rising Star
Best foot forward 
S. D. Sharma
With a series of performances in the country and abroad, city-based folk singer and dancer Kanupriya has a reason to be proud. After all, she is only 18 and she has been popularising Rajasthani and Haryanvi folk dances and music in Japan and Mauritius for several years now. Her dancing ability came to light when she performed on a Rajasthani song at an inter-school competition and won the first prize. Presently under the tutelage of Harjinder Kaur, this BA student of MCM DAV College has bagged a prize in ghazal singing at the zonal youth festival-2007. She is just back from Nagoya, Japan, after a series of musical performance. Born into a family rooted in traditions of music, she imbibed the nuances of Haryanvi and Rajasthani folk music and dance from parents Jyoti Jaipuri and Arjun Jaipuri. But her mentor and guide K.C. Sharma, a former bureaucrat and acclaimed folklore genius had a profound influence on her chosen field.

Take a ride on Azaadi Express
Star Plus is on a celebration mode and rightly so. As this year India completes its 60th year of freedom. So the channel will telecast Star Azaadi Express, a power-packed programme on August 15. The show salutes the spirit of freedom, unity, integrity and solidarity through various performances hosted by comedy king Sajid Khan and the most loveable Baa, aka Sarita Joshi, of Baa Bahoo Aur Baby. Various exciting acts and performances strung together by Sajid Khan and Sarita Joshi will also have Bollywood and telly world’s who’s who, including Govinda, Dia Mirza, Reitesh Deshmukh, Geeta Basra, Anita Hasnandani, Eijaz Khan and Sanjeeda.

Cool Stuff

• Menz Only
• Technology
• Shoe Care
• Beauty

Fun on rent
Saurabh Malik
Movie buffs are now the heroes. Sitting in their living rooms with their feet on the table, they can actually order around VCDs and even DVDs. And, the stuff will be delivered at their doorsteps. Pronto. That also without extra costs! And making them real-life protagonists is Seventymm — the country’s ‘largest organised movie rental service’. Right fellows! All you have to do is to subscribe to the service by paying a monthly rental of as less as Rs 199. Once a member, you will be able to order home delivery of movies right from the ones on Ramayana to Tom and Jerry. As of now, there are over 2,500 such champions in the city alone. In India, the number is as high as 30,000.

The Inside Story
Saurabh Malik
Brought to the city all the way from China, even Thailand and Korea, via Mumbai, the stuff is pushing the expensive Indian counterpart out of the closets. And, is openly on display not just in elite the ‘malls’ across the city, but even in kiosks! That’s right! You can ask for the unmentionables in the little shed at the corner of your sector’s rehri market. Or else, you can shop for it in style at sophisticated garment houses and lingerie-special stores. Initially, there was just one in Sector 16, but now nearly half a dozen exclusive innerwear outlets have popped up in different parts of the city. Among the latest in the range of stores, taking fashion to the core so manifestly, is Inner Secrets.

Get leather-wise 
Anandita Gupta
You’ve spent around an hour at the parlour pampering that footsie of yours with a feels-like-heaven pedicure. As you finally decide to sink your feet into those leather shoes you walked here in, you suddenly want to be a buy a new pair. You’ve indulged yourself and satiated your foot fetish, so why get into that muddy pair? But, then you just can’t kick away those expensive leather heels and buy a new pair each time you find your shoe possessions ugly. So, stop fretting and start investing time in the maintenance of our shoes. Here are some handy shoe-care cues, straight off the shoe racks of the city’s shoeholics.

Crunchy-munchy Cookies
Purva Grover
Almost as a ritual, each summer we would pack our bags for a refreshing sojourn to nani’s house. And as soon as our cousin brigade got together, we would begin serious planning to take over nani’s kitchen for the next two months. Dipping plain aata biscuits into a hot cup of Horlicks, dripping malai over chocolate flavoured cookies, and topping the home baked ajwain biscuits, hmm…till today there is nothing better than those wonderful kitchen smells. Fast-forward to 2007, and all you got to do is just fetch a box of assorted imported cookies from the store next door. So is it that the homemade cookies have lost their charm and place in the brand race? Not really, says the city’s food charts.

MIRROR IMAGE: Le Corbusier’s architecture makes for a perfect reflection, too! A foreign couple pauses to take in the surroundings in front of the High Court Complex.

BON APPETIT 
Kandla Nijhowne
The cool customer
We grew up doing sentences with ‘cool as a cucumber’ in the English class. Once we grew up, we entered the beauty parlour and had slices of them patted onto our eyelids, enforcing much deserved rest. A good source of Vitamin A & C, the cucumber has acquired a degree for fanning the heat out from the body. It has bleaching properties, helping chase away batwings from under those peepers. Lets get the peepers reading up some cool, cucumber recipes!