Mistress of Spices
Karen Anand is here to make our men cook
Food has its own language that only the palate can understand. And, for the grand dame of all things edible, Karen Anand, her tryst with gourmet food began while she was studying in Paris. In the city for a cookery event, Carlsberg, Men Can Cook, the lady with formidable culinary expertise talks about everything fare 'n' flavoursome.

Mutual admiration
Sundeep Sikka, the finance wizard, shares a rock solid connection with City Beautiful
Think striped shirt, blackberry, a tie as corporate as it can get, business management for a resume and mutual fund for a curriculum vitae. Nothing official about it! How do you get ferociously executive men with stiff neck corporate culture to talk about all things not even tangentially concerning business? Formidable?

Call of the nature
Vivek Trivedi's mobile exhibition focuses on various environment issues
Those flow charts, pictorial graphics and a few cutouts on environmental issues along with a printed report on Al Gore presentation would have not made much sense to a layman, had it not been for Vivek Trivedi, doing the explanations.

A visitor takes a look at the environmental messages at the exhibition

Alcohol allowance
Study says giving money to your teenagers for buying alcoholic drinks can actually help them
For all those who missed the latest episode of Dus ka Dum featuring Fardeen Khan and Ajay Devgan, here is a rapid recap of something really interesting that happened. Host Salman Khan came up with the question, "What percentage of kids had consumed alcohol or smoked without the knowledge of their parents during teenage?" The answer of a considerably high percentage of kids was followed by confessions made by the actors. All three of them had confessed that they got drunk during teenage years and strangely another accord was, "being caught by parents who advised them not to indulge in it without their knowledge."

Taken for a ride

Enjoying the balmy weather, this man takes a camel ride at Rose Garden in Chandigarh. Lifestyle photo: S. Chandan

Here come the songbirds
The 32nd Chandigarh Sangeet Sammelan begins on Friday
Music, especially the serene Hindustani classical music, excels all other arts as a mode of man's direct response to the call of the beautiful," maintains the former bureaucrat and music proponent, N. Khosla, president, Indian National Theatre (INT). This undeniably is the guiding belief for us that in the classical music sammelans in the city, we will be assured of the best Hindustani music.

Singletons!
Does the ‘single’ tag play havoc on one’s psyche? Here are a few brave hearts who are happily single and not willing to mingle
Do you find it ironic that the word ‘single’ when added to your relationship status, always comes coupled with a set of problems? To each, there own. In college, being single is tough, thanks to peer pressure but once you cross the golden age mark (for marriage in India), it’s a crime. The trauma of running out of reasons why you are not ‘settled’ or choose to ‘die alone’, your personal decision becoming a matter of public discussion and the tag of being ‘irresponsible’ with life. Life’s hard for singles? May be, but they sure don’t mind the challenge. As the gap between singles and marred, oops, married people close up, the benefit seem to be shifting towards the so-called loners.

Dillogical !
Science of frivolity
What has emotions to do with data collection and sampling? Or, compatibility compared to chemical reactions? What if the passage to your divorce crosses through a maternity ward? Whacko? No, I am not, thank you. Psyched out? Maybe, not from an overdose but the helplessness to understand the claims and startling revelations in the name of research.

It’s time to be happy
Life expectancy changed because people changed the way they lived," said Dr Lauren Carstensen. "Now that we're here, we have to keep adapting. We are in the middle of a second revolution and it's up to us to make adulthood itself longer and healthier," she added. Dr Susan Turk Charles, of the University of California, Irvine found that except for people with dementia-related diseases, mental health generally improves with age.

Blame it on booze
Alcohol and drug use are known contributors to teenagers engaging in dangerous practices like unprotected sex, multiple partners, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and drug overdose. Yet, research suggests that fewer than half of paediatricians report screening patients for substance use and at-risk sexual behaviour.

Relatively speaking
Singularly yours
Amongst words like marriage, coupledom, live-ins, special someone, can you be single and happy?

Awesome foursome

Actors Amol Palekar and Shabana Azmi along with film maker Yash Chopra, and Amit Khanna announce the Mumbai Film Festival schedule, opening with Steven Soderbergh’s film The Informant at a press conference, in Mumbai on Tuesday. PTI Photo

Guidelines for love
Want to spice things up in life? Barbara and Allan Pease's new book may come handy in making love life peppier.

Much ado about nothing
For Salman Khan, fight with SRK is a petty issue
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan is tired of the media giving "national importance" to his differences with Shah Rukh Khan. "We do not talk to each other but why make a national issue out of it", asked Salman.

Cause ‘n’ effect
Big B is happy with the result of his polio campaigns
Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who had campaigned for polio vaccination, is happy that his "tireless" efforts have yielded results and the actor has hinted that he may carry on with the project. "I have worked tirelessly for the eradication of polio in certain distinct parts of our country. I am informed that in UP and in Bihar, the two prominent regions where polio still abounds, the number of polio strains that were at one time six in number, have now been reduced to just one and for this they have been complimenting our rigorous campaigns," Bachchan wrote in his blog.

Akshay, a fashion disaster?
With his outlandish dressing sense, Akshay Kumar could be a strong contender for the world's worst-dressed men list, at least that's what the editor of a British magazine believes. Jeremy Langmead, editor of Esquire magazine, has said that the 42-year-old Bollywood action hero might be one of India's most successful film stars, but he doesn't score too well when it comes to style.

Wrong timing
Bollywood actor-producer Sohail Khan, whose Salman-Kareena starrer Main Aur Mrs Khanna received a lukewarm response at the box office, feels that film's Diwali release clashing with other big movies was the "biggest mistake". "To be honest, we got poor response for the movie in the initial days of its release. In the first two days the collection touched 30-40 per cent," Sohail said.

Another reality show
After the success of Indian Idol and Kaun Banega Crorepati, popular American series The Apprentice is the latest to join the bandwagon of reality shows ruling the small screen in the country. The Apprentice, which originated in 2004 in the US with the winner getting an initial pay packet of 250,000 USD and a chance to run one of the companies of business mogul Donald Trump has travelled worldwide with different versions and will be launched next year in India.

Lovelorn Rushdie
Controversial India-born writer Salman Rushdie is still obsessed with his ex-wife model Padma Lakshmi, two years after the couple's split, says his former lover and actress Pia Glenn. The 32-year-old Broadway star said she was dumped by Rushdie in June, after more than a year of dating, because he has still not got over the Indian beauty. "He would talk about Padma day and night. He felt hurt and betrayed by her. He would talk about her so much that I’d to ask him to stop. We had a few fights and he would get angry and then it would be difficult to calm him down," Glenn said.