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Eco-sensibility
As high fashion goes green, from
its techniques to the warp and weft of the organic fabric, we try and
find out how India’s ace designers are promoting sustainable fashion
in their own way
Swati Rai
Eco-friendly
is more than just a
password to the exclusive club or a mere fad for some designers. With
their avant garde ideation, metods of production, sourcing and ethical
eco-friendly practices, these designers and houses are clearly a sign
of the changing times.
Arts
An architect remembers
Balkrishna Doshi’s engaging
book of memories brings Le Corbusier, the master architect who was a
major influence in his life, as a warm and humane being, aware of
himself but divested of any aura
Francois
Truffaut, the great
filmmaker, once said: "Every film should have a beginning,
middle, and an end. But not necessarily in the same order." One
could say this of Balkrishna Doshi’s highly engaging, inward-looking
book of memories, ruminations, self-examination: Paths Uncharted.
That it has a movingly simple beginning is clear: "I grew up in a
joint family in a modest house in Pune", the famous architect
says.
broad brush
Fitness
Feel-good habit
The secret to being physically
and mentally fit is to stay active and work out regularly. The key to
stay motivated is making exercise a pleasure rather than a chore
Everybody
knows the practice of
productive physical exercises is great for your health and wellbeing.
It can boost your flexibility, strength, stamina and metabolism and
put a smile on the face.
Skin saviours for a rainy
day
During the monsoon, humidity can
play havoc with your skin causing many infections. All these problems
can be avoided by following a few simple skincare guidelines
Dr Anup Dhir
Showers,
heat and humidity during the monsoon can make the skin prone to
infection and irritation. The humidity increases sweat and oil
secretions and raises the risk of skin problems. The basic texture of
the skin also gets considerably changed. The normal skin becomes oily
and the oily skin gets oilier. Whereas the dry skin has its own
complications, because dryness is a sign of dehydration, the problem
of lack of vitamins needed for skin repairing gets worsens.
Society
Vanishing Great Indian Bustard
Population of the Great Indian
Bustard worldwide has been put at less than 300, making the majestic
bird the rarest among all bird species inhabiting the Indian
subcontinent. ‘Let me fly’, says the bird and we should listen
Lieut-Gen (retd) Baljit Singh
Encouraged,
no doubt, by the Supreme Court judgment of April 16, 2013, which is
loaded in favour of implementing such conservation-enabling,
management practices which will staunch the decline in and eventually
stabilize the populations of all critically threatened species of our
wildlife, the gutsy Bina Kak, the Minister of Forests, Rajasthan,
moved with alacrity. Within days, she put in place "Project Great
Indian Bustard" (GIB), a bird endemic to India whose numbers have
dwindled abysmally to about 200, only. It was but natural that
Rajasthan should have taken the lead as currently the bulk of
surviving Great Indian Bustards inhabit that state. The project launch
was conveyed through an excellent photo-image of one majestic-looking
GIB female, taking up one half page of The Hindu (June 6,
2013), showing the bird pleading as it were, with her fellow
countrymen: "Let me Fly", that is, asking simply for the
fundamental Right to Life.
travel
Towering glory
San Gimignano, with its lofty
towers, has made its way to the Unesco heritage list as well as the
itineraries of most tourists travelling to the Tuscan region in Italy
Tanushree Podder
The
tiny town with a few
thousand inhabitants was teeming with as many tourists that weekend
morning. Brandishing cameras, using their umbrellas as walking sticks,
they clambered the steep, cobbled lanes echoing with the babble of
tongues.
Globetrotting
Entertainment
Women’s inner yearnings
Female characters in European
cinema aim to move beyond their confines, seeking answers to some
universal problems
Ranjita Biswas
Eyes
are the window to the
soul, a tool for a perceiving the outer world. For Pilar, a rather
unobtrusive homemaker of Toledo, Spain, in the film Take My Eyes,
her world revolves round her husband Antonio and seven-year-old son,
Juan. Even then, she is compelled to flee her home with Juan, even
forgetting to change her bedroom slippers, to her sister’s place,
unable to bear the repeated physical and mental abuse of Antonio. She
discovers a new world as she starts working in a museum. Her sister
pleads her to leave Antonio. Yet Pilar retains hope, her love for
Antonio still intact. So she gives in when he cajoles her, asks for
forgiveness; he even goes to anger therapy sessions. But it takes only
a short time after return for Pilar to discover that Antonio was as he
was, still abusive, still inhumanly possessive — not allowing her to
work, not allowing her to find her space. It opens her eyes, and she,
at last, dares to defy him, leaves her home forever.
Chang pas revisited
Filmmaker and biker Gaurav
Jani’s latest docu-drama Motorcycle Chang Pa depicts a
year-long journey across the high altitude Changthang desert in the
Himalayas
Surekha Kadapa-Bose
Living
for nearly a year with the
nomadic tribe Chang pas of Changthang, in the high altitude desert of
the Himalayas where wind speed reaches 70kmph and the temperature
plummets below -15º C, filmmaker and biker Gaurav Jani has done it
all. He has documented the everyday lives of a nomadic tribe who live
in the world’s most inhospitable abode and move from place to place
in search of grasslands with their brood of yaks.
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