At the peak
Chur Dhar, the highest peak in southern Himachal Pradesh, delights both the trekker and believer in you 
How close can one get to god? At 12,000 (11,965 to be precise) feet and in the middle of a hailstorm during the peak of summers, one sure is quite close. Chur Dhar, also known as Chur Chandni (bangle of snow), without doubt, affords a lifetime experience of faith and awe. As our cab from Chandigarh reached Solan in Himachal Pradesh (around 50 km), the whiff of fresh air from the surrounding hills warmed us up for the experience. From here we took a detour off National Highway-22 that leads to Shimla and beyond. 

(Middle) An inside view of Lord Shiva’s shrine at the peak and (right) People on the trek to Chur Dhar

Old for new
From electrical appliances to automobiles to smaller items such as watches or sunglasses, almost everything can be exchanged under various schemes these days
This one’s an interesting, and trust us, a fruitful exercise. Take a keen look at each and everything at home. Do not miss out on anything. Jot it down on a paper - sofa set, dinning table, and wall clock. Closer to the kitchen — refrigerator, oven, OTG (oven toaster griller), pressure cooker, frying pan. Back to the kids’ room - an old PC, old watch, old clothes, an old iron. In the garage - the old scooter…anything left? Now check out the things that can be exchanged for brand new ones. 

Veggie delight!
The chicken has turned vegetarian! Now, don’t jump out of your seats here, everything’s is as normal as it can get. Just that KFC has a green addition to its menu – The Veg zinger. Bigger and better, the vegetarian avatar of Chicken Zinger (already salivating?) offers the same crunchy experience! A completely vegetarian affair from storage, cooking to delivery - everything about Veg Zinger is 100% vegetarian. It brings alive the magic of exotic vegetables, with crunchy patty with the signature KFC hot and crispy taste, made with potatoes, cottage cheese, carrot, green peas, juicy fresh corn, spicy jalapenos, topped with fresh iceberg lettuce. All this put together in a sesame bun.

Gold rush
Diamonds have always been the most desirable jewellery for every woman. Considering the growing preference and love for diamond jewellery, Tanishq has announced an unbelievable discount of up to 25 per cent on all exquisite Tanishq diamond jewellery.

Shop shop!
City Centre DLF, Chandigarh  is adding an unparalleled array of exciting events and promotions to DLF Shopping Festival-2010, the month-long shopping and entertainment extravaganza being hosted across DLF Malls that concludes on August 15. The month long retail therapy promises tons of excitement with special offers, discounts and lucky draws to bring joy and delight to the vast numbers of customers who use this opportunity to shop to their hearts content and stock up on the most fashionable merchandise. 

Another milestone
Motorola, Inc, a global leader in mobile telecommunications’ Indian subsidiary, Motorola India Private Limited, has announced two new android-powered smartphones in India---Milestone XT720, one of the world’s slimmest 8 megapixel android smartphone and one of the first to come powered with a high definition video experience and a xenon flash in India, and Backflip with Backtrack, the world’s first reverse-flip design handset.

Dreams galore
Having established his credentials as a Hindi litterateur of merit and a pioneer in ghazal-writing, city-based poet Madhav Kaushik has achieved yet another milestone with his 21st book — Ek Adad Sapne Ki Khatir — a collection of love poems, which hit the stands on Tuesday. Decorated with state and national awards, Kaushik is also on the National Hindi Advisory Board and s member of the General Council of Rashtriya Sahitya Akademy. Kaushik’s literary creation Suno Radhika on women empowerment has been translated into ten Indian languages. Lifestyle catches up with him.

Extra class
Robotics, space science, exchange programmes, community service radio stations …extracurricular activities in schools are sure getting innovative
Singing, dancing, gardening, pottery…done and over with; scouts and guides, sports and games, declarations and debates…been there and done that! May be still doing and all of that. How about golf, robotics, swimming, tennis, space course, exchange programmes? Looks like extracurricular columns in school got exclusive and extraordinary. A random ringside view of some of the activities going on in school shows there's actually a lot going on out there. At Yadavindra Public School, Mohali, 40 national players is a 'by-the-way' statistics and then there are long hours especially for games and sports. 

Be busy, be happy
The key to happiness is to keep yourself busy in various activities, say experts. Even doing meaningless or unnecessary tasks makes you feel better than just sitting round getting bored. Being forced to wait for a quarter of an hour in the airport luggage lounge, for instance, leaves many of us feeling miserable. But if it was placed further away and we had to spend the same time walking there we would be much happier about it.

Net loss
Teenagers who spend excessive amounts of time on the Internet are one-and-a-half times more likely to develop depression than moderate web users, a study in China has found.

Read between the lines
Psychological scientists have discovered that reading-comprehension difficulties among children can be cured with intervention programs. Effective reading requires recognizing

Burning issue
It's not just the immediate danger of burning that's the worry -- in the long term, sunburn could actually double a teenager's risk of developing skin cancer, a new study has claimed.