Meet the grandpals
Anandita Gupta

They were perhaps the most enthusiastic cheerleaders at your first-ever cricket match. He still remembers your winning the third prize at the college ballet recital. She’s pasted all your school play photographs neatly in a scrapbook (which she makes it a point to flaunt among all her visitors still!). And yes, they travelled all the way to your outstation hostel (armed with a dabba full of ghar ka achaar, mango chutney and ready-to-eat goodies) when mom-dad called up to say they couldn’t be there for your convocation.

Together, they’ve been a sport throughout — right from helping your mom hold your tiny body the first time in her trembling hands and toilet-training you to helping you with your spellings and enhancing your story quotient (how can we ever forget those bed-time story-sessions?). Enriching your lives with hours of conversation, unlimited companionship, pats on the back (even for most ridiculous of achievements!), melt-in-the mouth delicacies, tightest of hugs and sloppy kisses— they are your pride, joy and support— all rolled into one—— your grandparents. Especially, today, with working couples gripped by time-crunch, grandparents are indeed a child’s biggest support system.

So, this Grandparents’ Day, we salute these loving souls, and talk to the city’s gang of cool grandmas and grandpas, who love to hang out with grandchildren!

76-year-old Mahinder Kaur from Chandimandir recalls sharing a slice of her post-50 life with 11 grandchildren, “How can I ever forget those cooking sessions with these naughty bunch of kids. They simply loved my besan barfis and pao bhaji, but wouldn’t spare me unless I leant to cook their fast food as well. No wonder, they’d make me a part of their cooking disasters— pizzas, noodles, manchurian et al.”

Agrees Manimajra-based maternal grandpa Narender Prakesh, “ My eldest daughter was into teaching and so, I’d often pick my grandkids from school. Together we’d all go for movies, lunches and evening walks. The cutest thing was that these kids awakened the child in us. At times, when these lil’ ones had had a tough day, we’d even do couple dance to see them gurgle. And guess what, my grandchildren would tease me by associating me with the most wicked ‘old buddi’ in neighbourhood,” he can’t help a naughty smile.

Retired principal teacher Pearl Chimni from Mohali- phase 9, is yet another lifeline for her growing up granddaughters Palak (12) and Ada (6). “Both my children are working couples with packed schedules. So I ensure my husband and I are there for our lil’ grandaughters. During winters, we take them for long afternoon walks in the gardens and follow it up by a lunch-out at Oven Fresh or Salad Bar. Summers see us all enjoying boating at Sukhna, followed by a bhutta-session.”

Retired principal Sudha Nayyar laughs aloud, merriment ringing in her voice, “My two greatest fans in the world are my two grandchildren, aged 4 and 7. We watch Pogo together and (wait for what’s coming!) I do cycling with them too. I’m a fun-mate for them and they’re crazy about my loud laughter and dosas and chanas.

Yes, Gen Y grandparents are having a rocking time with grandkids; giving the grandchild the best gift ever— the gift of his/her time!

One is 6, the other 60, & yet they are best pals. On Grandparents’ Day, a high five to the absolutely huggable dada-dadi & nana-nani brigade

Bond it tight 

Hey dada-dadi/ nana-nani, here’s how to bond it right with your lil’ grandkids.

 Best foot forward
Archana K. Sudheer & Aman Minhas

Don’t diet, eat well, have lots of water, work hard & party harder... Living life queen size is the mantra of these models. In town for a fashion show 

Swinging and shaking to the tunes of Ya Ghali, trying to match steps with each other as the choreographer yells instructions over the mike, gobbling up morsels of food on one hand and trying to appease the media on the other; this bunch of models were in the city for a fashion show.

Showcasing Delhi-based designer Sonia Sharma’s collection, the show will have six rounds of costume display and four rounds of jewellery.

Seeing them toil and sweat with numerous rounds of practice and blaring music, one realises that modelling is no child’s play.

One can’t credit these models enough for staying so fit and looking their best at all given times. We hung around to take a feeler of how things were being managed at the city, that the choreographer Vinay Gupta and the models unanimously pronounce as clean and a pleasure to visit.

Looking at their lean bodies, we must mention they all love food and one is compelled to prop the obvious question. We got an unusual reply from a confident Kajal Shrivastava (18), who features in the pop-video by Dilbagh Singh oh! Tina, oh! Tina, “eat healthy, don’t diet and drink lots of water.” On how they manage to keep their skin clear in spite of extensive travel, the girls unanimously voice, “Use toner and sunscreen.” Pallavi Roy from Bihar, who has been modelling for almost three years now, pipes in, “cleanser works for me.”

Not just Kajal, but others are also venturing into the big glam world of movies. Simran Sachdeva, Gladrags Supermodel - 2003, has already stepped into greener pastures with Hamilton Palace opposite Mimoh – Mithun’s son – due for release in February. She loves her work and says that Gladrags has been a turning point in her life.

Walking the ramp is also local girl Salina Parkash. Having done her college from Government College- 11, Salina loves the feel of working in the city. This Delhi-based beauty has acted in two serials - Hasratei for DD Urdu and Mission Fateh for Sahara Manoranjan. To add to her accomplishments is a PhD in Kathak that she is currently pursuing from Punjabi University.

So what do these beauties with brains do in their free time (which is rarely)? Their interests range from painting, singing, dancing, swimming and loads of fun stuff. Says Pooja Chowdhary from Agra, currently working on a flick titled Cafeteria, “I dive into the pool at the first given opportunity.” Adds Salina “I would also love to learn to play the sarangi, which I have heard is a very difficult instrument.”

After the entire fun ‘n’ frolic, we ask them what advice they would give to the aspiring local models. Localite Salina advises, “Understand your work carefully and minutely before venturing into it.” Simran drops a pearl of wisdom, “Don’t get impatient, someday success will happen.”

Their success sure is a motivation to all. No pain no gain. As they walk the ramp, the city beautiful will surely become city colourful.

 Rephrasing the folk idiom 
S.D. Sharma

Thespian Sanjay Sahay and the young and talented Layak Hussain in action at the Rashtriya Natya Parv

Because of its rich cultural heritage nourished by the visionary seers with their intuitive wisdom, India was extolled as the Vishav Guru but unfortunately, the culture comprising of the moral, social or aesthetic values today is our lowest priority, the young Udaipur-based theatre director, Layak Hussain gives us a piece of his mind. An alumnus of NSD with MA(Hons) in Economics, a diploma in HRD and NSD fellowship in theatrical elements in Muslim rituals, he has 45 directorial assignments and the creative writing of eight plays to his credit. Ably supported by actor wife Anukampa, textile designer Hussain has sculpted and directed plays with socio-cultural relevance.

In city for presenting the play Poster for his theatre ensemble Performers’ Udaipur, at the Rashtriya Natya Parv-2007, he shared his experiences with Life Style, especially on the tribal folk theatre in which he’s carved a niche.

The Indian theatre in totality, can be defined as the folk or Sanskrit theatre weaved into the Indian thought and lifestyles, with the navrasa of music, dance and regional folk idiom, claims Hussain. He believes that while the classical Sanskrit theatre is a vestige of the past, the folk theatre has maintained its survival, getting itself enriched from contemporary innovating theatre forms. Supplementing his viewpoint, he disclosed that the proliferation of any unique art form , like the one that is patent of the Bheel community, has not been grasped  even by their fellow tribes. Hussain is deeply involved in interpreting and resurrection of the Turakalgi and Kripyani khyal tribal forms.

“It is the amateur theatre practitioners who have kept the theatre alive in India as the professional theatre is limited to Maharashtra and Bengal only,” signs off Hussain.

lifestyletribune@gmail.com

 Out to make a difference

“Theatre should be loyal to its language, people and social realities. It must become a parliament of sorts where burning issues are debated and settled,” says Gaya-based thespian Sanjay Sahay.

First Day First Show
Dhamaal
Rollercoaster ride with lovable Rogues
Rajiv Kaplish

must watch

‘‘Let comedy be our inspiration,’’ seems to be the resolve of Mumbai’s movie monarchs. Partner, Heyy Baby and now Dhamaal. Out there, it’s a hilarious world now. Fun is in the air. All you have to do is to submit to the naivety of four wannabe conmen, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Ashish Chowdhary and Riteish Deshmukh, who are foolish to the point of being lovable and a greedy cop, Sanjay Dutt, and ride a comic rollercoaster in search of a hidden treasure. So what, if it has been inspired by It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World?

Director Indra Kumar gives such funny twists and turns to the madcap narrative that you tend to forget the original Hollywood caper.

It is devoid of any actress, has no surfeit of songs and plastic fights. Sanjay Dutt, too, is not the real hero. The laugh riot almost entirely belongs to the clownish brigade led by Warsi. His tomfoolery has the audience in splits right from the beginning. Riteish’s antics do not border on the obscene. His encounters with a gang of dacoits are particularly hilarious. With a straight face, Javed Jaffrey impresses with his breezy banter. However, it is Ashish Chowdhary who surprises you with his frothy comedy. The sequences featuring him and Asrani, who plays his father, are full of mirth. The scene in which the two are caught in a plane running out of fuel and are engaged in conversation with the air traffic controller leaves no comical possibility unexplored.

Sanjay Dutt’s brush with a bunch of funny kids one of whom is dressed as Himesh Reshammaiya is straight from the heart. See the movie for the lovable rogues, if not for anything else.

Showing at: Fun Republic, Nirman

Darling
Ludicrous horror

AVOIDABLE

You can compare Ram Gopal Varma with a Transylvanian vampire, his fangs dripping with fresh blood every week. If he sucked our blood with Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag last week, he does it with Darling this week.

Treading the spooky track, he turns a fan of Patrick Swayze starrer Ghost and invents a tale of a spirit of a dead woman, Esha Deol, haunting her former lover, Fardeen Khan, who had refused to leave his wife, Isha Kopikkar, and his child for her.

As the apparition of the dead woman springs up from nowhere, the audience, instead of feeling horrified, bursts into laughter. So much for horror.

Fardeen individually sheds more tears than the entire cast collectively does. The more he tries to look frightened, the more ludicrous he appears. Most of the time, Isha Kopikkar looks like a bar girl on her day off and frets and fumes at every possible opportunity. Before her death, Esha Deol’s aversion to clothes seems to be growing. After she dies, the actress stubbornly refuses to give even a flicker of meaningful expression on her face.

Showing at: Fun Republic, Neelam

write to Renee 

at lifestyletribune@gmail.com or C/o Lifestyle, The Tribune, Sector 29-C, Chandigarh

I am a 19-year-old college going girl and live with my parents. I have a 24-year-old brother who simply hangs around the house. He wakes up at around three pm, lazes around, makes a few phone calls and heads out for an evening with friends. I get extremely irritated with him specially as my parents do not seem to say anything to him. They give him money whenever he asks for it. On the other hand, I am supposed to be the performer. I must get good grades, be a good person and do all the right things. Is this called partiality? I feel my brother is either depressed or suffering from some mental disorder. Or is he just spoilt?

 Matka chowk 
All’s fair in love & parking wars
Sreedhara Bhasin

Everything is fair in love and war, and in Chandigarh parking lots. In war there maybe some moral codes of conduct. You might shoot the enemy but cannot shoot the same man when taken as a prisoner. In the parking war that is raging in our city every day – sab chalta hai – it knows no bounds, no dignity, no fellow-feeling and definitely no semblance of ‘Do the right thing.’

I used to be amazed and then outraged by the almost maniacal behaviour of parking seekers. Now, I am collecting classic examples.

I was at sector 17 the other day. The almost extinct parking spots were frightfully congested. I had come early and was about to leave, when the rush was getting as dense as the weeds in Sukhna. The minute I got into the car and my lights came on, there formed a beeline of cars behind me that seem to number is hundreds. Cars came from the left and right – jamming the lane so fast and furiously – that I felt like a piece of meat in shark-infested water. There was no question of my getting out now! I still made a futile attempt to reverse out. The Maruti behind me had two young boys. They inched in, further blocking me. At that point, I emerged from my car in an attempt to educate them about motion and space. I was about to open my mouth when one of the boys eagerly came up to me and said: “Ma’am, main aapki car nikal dun? And without a word from me, he jumped into the driver seat of my car and started to change gears – with great difficulty. I heard my gearbox screech! At that I came around and heard myself screaming at the top of my voice: “Out! Get out of my car!” He stepped out, looking aggrieved, and said: “Gussa kyun kar rahe ho ma’am, aapse to ye nahi hoga.”

However, there was more to learn. I was at the Peshawari parking lot on a Saturday evening. The parking lot was as usual flowing over. People had double-parked everywhere and out came a Santro. In the melee that followed, a sturdy and brave woman came closest to the spot while the Santro driver was reversing out. I was on the other side of the lady and had full access to the empty spot. But, I still have some morality when it comes to parking. I waited, while she looked at me anxiously and showed me her hand in a ‘stop’ gesture. While I benignly waited and she further maneuvered, in came a large car from my left and shot right into the just emptied spot.

I can go on. But, need I narrate more?

 Wedded to glamour 
Saurabh Malik 

Bridal Asia CEO Divya Gurwara on fashion trends for the brides of today. The show begins October 16

Photo by Manoj Mahajan

Accustomed to taking their own decisions, prospective brides are nowadays tying knot with glamour without really parting ways with tradition in bridal wear. So while the lehanga retains its rich look with all those bold and beautiful embellishments, the fit is getting tighter. And then you have all those backless cholis showing the front side of fashion.

Another “real big” addition to the wedding wear is suits. And, that’s our own Punjab ‘s contribution to the entire affair. While it was mostly saris for the brides until about two or three years ago, suits are now adding oomph to her trot down the aisle like never before.

The wedding season is round the corner and even before you realise, the night sky will be illuminated with firecrackers celebrating the dawn of a new era in the lives of the couples. In the midst of all the preparations for the D-day, we chat up Bridal Asia ‘s CEO Divya Gurwara. She was in town on Saturday to announcing the holding of their annual exhibition at Delhi from October 16. The young honcho, is a proud Punjabi at heart and knows everything about bridal fashion, even the stuff that’s tailor-made for our Punjabi kudis. Here’s what she has to say about the trends that promise to add bling to the matrimonial vows.

Traditionally chic

The brides of today are working, financially independent, and with well-toned bodies. They take their pick of trousseau. No wonder, the stuff they prefer is contemporary, yet conventional, with loads of style. And, it aims at giving a younger and more present-day look to the bride.

“Take a look at the lehangas,” she smiles. “They are still as fresh as ever, though the fits have been altered to make the brides look up-to-minute. Then there is another change. Some girls, particularly the working ones, prefer to go in for the lighter version of this customary wedding wear so that the stuff is not relegated to recycle bin of memory, and closet, after the big day”.

In suits, the embroidery may have changed from dabka work to sarvoski, but the traditional Punjabi outfit is still very hot, and current. You even have international buyers picking up the suits, and the designs, for offering the stuff across the seas.

Exotica

Marriages at locations far from the home-crowd too have made a difference. You only have close relations at the ceremonies. As such, the pressure on the bride to be heavily decked up is definitely light, though the dresses are still rooted in tradition. “The concept has also lead to the introduction of interesting apparel in wedding wear,” says Gurwara. Quoting an example, she says, “If the marriage is at a location like Goa, you actually have the bride going in for beach wear along with the other dresses.”

Dazzling affair

Antique jewellery may not be new in wedding ceremonies, but it is definitely in. “For example, kundan is the gem of any bride’s eye. The precious stone is bedazzling the crowd like never before,” she asserts with a smile. This is not all. You have so many brides actually going in for antique jewellery that’s hallmark of Jaipur jewellers. And then, how can you forget diamonds? The sparkling rocks, cut and polished to perfection, continue to be a bride’s best friend.

So gals, get ready to live happily ever after with the feeling of looking like the “bride of the moment” by putting on the conventionally modern stuff. All the best and happy marrying!

saurabh@tribunemail.com

 Jailbird sues Hallmark

Paris Hilton has sued Hallmark Cards for using her image and her catch phrase ‘That’s Hot!’ on a greeting card. In the lawsuit, filed on Sep 6 in Los Angeles, the socialite claims that Hallmark invaded her privacy, reports E! Online. The suit claimed Hallmark created a greeting card that said “Paris’ First Day as a Waitress” and features a picture of Hilton’s face on a cartoon waitress serving food that says: “Don’t touch that, it’s hot. What’s hot? That’s hot.” According to Hilton’s complaint, the card went on sale earlier this year and can still be purchased for the give-away price of 2.49 dollars. The heiress is seeking at least 500,000 dollars in damages and an injunction on Hallmark that prevents them from using her image or name. — ANI

 Little Interview
I am a struggler, not a star 

From Tere Mere Sapne to Circuit, and now creating Dhamaal as an actor, anchor and a complete entertainer, Arshad Warsi has come a long way. He had his share of ups and downs till Munnabhai MBBS happened. The actor is now eagerly looking forward to Munnabhai Chale Amerika, set to be released late next year.

 Battle of voices 

You can actually make your voice be heard above the din created by all those bathroom singers striking a sour note with the audiences. Just set your vocal cords right and sing yourself to glory by participating in the harmonic race for Awaaz Punjab Di.

Sound of music
Smriti Sharma

Life is like a piano… what you get out of it depends on how you play it

Keyboards might be easier to play and more stylish, but when it comes to emoting feelings, nothing beats the piano

As a musical instrument a piano might look bulkier and flat, but it’s filled with sounds, notes, colours and most of all, feelings.

It was their zeal to spread the sound of piano that made Kwi Suk Kang and her husband Jong Mun Oh to make this city their home. The beautiful hills of Shimla did their magic and captivated the couple from South Korea who were visiting the hill station. And it’s been 10 years now that the Oh family has been living in Mohali.

But then that’s not the reason for us to narrate their story. Well, it’s the unique academy that the family is running that brings them into limelight. Perhaps the first of its kind, the Ohs are running a piano academy to teach all those who wished to run their fingers through the keys with as much expertise as our Hollywood and Bollywood heroes.

The academy boasts of not one, not two, but eight pianos. So what prompted them to teach piano in this part of the country, we ask. “In our country taking piano lessons is a part of the mainstream education. But when we came here, we were shocked to see that part of education missing and that’s how we got started,” avers Kwi, a music teacher at a school in Mohali who sometimes helps her husband and her niece Helen with the academy.

So was it easy to find piano lovers in a place where more than the piano people are avid lovers of the keyboard? “This was the first thing that we noticed. People are really keen to learn the keyboard simply because its easily available and consequently more popular,” she muses. But unlike a keyboard, which produces stored sounds, a piano doesn’t produce sound just by pressing it. Though the methods are the same, the techniques are different, she states.

Incidentally the Oh family procured their pianos from Soutrh Korea and faced no difficulty getting the instruments from there but it took ‘one month to get the pianos from Ludhiana to Chandigarh’, she laughs.

The profile of the students varies from a 6-year-old to a 55-year-old housewife. And out of the 20 students, some are doctors, managers, professionals and kids. “Playing a piano is like a mental exercise. It helps releasing stress and fatigue.” But the most important part of learning this unique instrument is your sitting posture and fingers position, reveals Helen. “Learning a piano is a long process, it may take you three years to play musical pieces on you own. It takes about a minimum of three months to read the basics,” she explains. So the key is patience and lots of practice, chorus the two.

And among their favourites are the classic composers like Beethoven, Handel and John Strauss. Their dream is now to start a degree course after getting affiliation from Trinity College, UK. Play the melody.

Trivia

•  A 64th note is called a hemidemisemi quaver.
• There are as many constellations in the sky as there are keys on the piano!
• In the 18th century (around Mozart’s time), some pianos had a knee pedal.
• The average medium sized piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 165 pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling approximately 18 tonnes.
• The oldest piano in existence was built in 1720.
• Each American president has had a personal piano, with the exception of Gerald Ford and George Bush.
• Mozart once composed a piano piece that required a player to use two hands and a nose in order to hit all the correct notes.
• When Beethoven was writing his 9th symphony he requested a piano that had a percussion pedal on it.

KEEP IT RIGHT

Pianos need regular tuning to keep them up to pitch and produce a pleasing sound. By convention they are tuned to the internationally recognised standard concert pitch of A = 440 Hz. 

Haywire 
Gem of an experience
Chetna Keer Banerjee

Two jewellery extravaganzas in the span of a week and more expected to come. That’s more jewels in the town than the glitterati could wish for, and enough for the home-grown jewelers to wish away. Time for the latter to go into a tizzy to further prove their metal.

Ah, actually this entire dazzle on display may not much take the shine out of the local goldsmiths’ eyes. They may sit pretty in the knowledge that all that glitters is not sold. The residents will no doubt make the customary trek to keep their date with the visiting diamonds. It’ll be a gem of an experience. They’ll feel the strings studded with precious stones. But not many will loosen their purse strings for the jewels. Not that the objects d’ desire are not a prize catch. But there’s a catch to buying these baubles. It’s tough to tell a real one from a fake, more so if it’s on the move. What can you do about traveling tricksters? Precious little.

Which makes it important to follow a code of conduct that dazzles when on these ornamental odysseys. Don’t want to be palmed off a fake? Well, go ahead and fake sparkling intelligence. Masquerade as an astute diamond dealer. Never mind if you’re completely carat illiterate. Just learn to mind your ‘Vs and Cues’. Spout with aplomb the ‘V’ terms and other cues that stand for diamond quality—-VVS 1, VVS 2 and what have you. Acquire the grammar of an avid bauble buyer. Embellish your posers with all the ‘Cs’—-carat, clarity, colour and cut——that are integral to an ornamentally correct vocabulary.

Whilst you mouth such stony speech, keep your ears open to gather any pearls of wisdom being dispensed by fellow visitors who may be more gem literate than you. Shopping for ornaments is, after all, not so much a civilized act as a cultured one. For, it takes a discerning eye to distinguish a cultured pearl from a real one. So, be at your ‘cultured’ best when picking pearls. And leave no stone unturned during the scrutiny. Squint, screen and size up. Turn the precious stones at every angle, as if to test their sparkle. Doesn’t matter if you can’t tell a real rock from zircon, you’ll at least rock as a clone.

Who knows, the sellers too may not be able to tell an intelligent buyer from one faking it.

(chetnabanerjee@tribunemail.com)

Online check-mate 
Saurabh Malik

He beats the best brains in the world without even moving out of his house. Logging on to excitement on the Internet, Ashish Kapoor dexterously moves the queen, the pawns and the bishop, till he checkmates his alien opponents in the familiar game of chess.

If in the process the seven-year-old makes the wrong move of ignoring his neighbourhood friends by not going out for a game of cricket with them, he is apparently not bothered about it.

Ask him and the little champion says he finds cornering monarchs, placed on the virtual chessboard by foes across the seas, “more challenging” than bowling out guys across the street. “It’s just a matter of preference,” he asserts with a smile.

Kapoor says he is into online gaming ever since his dad purchased a laptop with a data card for some serious business some six months ago. “Whenever the laptop is not in use, I simply sign in and start playing,” he chirps excitedly.

Well, Kapoor is not the only one heavily into online gaming. Leave Chandigarh and go to Ludhiana, Jalandhar and even Amritsar. And, you will find the younglings trying their hand in the little game of skill against unknown masterminds across the globe.

“If they do not find a brain-machine at home, they simply go in to a cyber café,” says 14-year-old computer wiz-kid Rahul Sharma. “And with charges as little as Rs 15 an hour, they do not find it difficult to try their luck online.” Nodding his head in agreement, his dad Ranjit Sharma, an IT professional, says: “The fad is catching up in the country with the increasing popularity of broadband connections and data cards. And with over 250 Reliance Web Worlds across the country, approximately 2,000 independent gaming cafes and gaming-enabled Sifys, the games are reaching the masses.”

Quoting rough figures, Ranjit, working with a software giant, says: “In countries like Korea, as many as 54 per cent of Internet users are also gamers. In India, the market is fast expanding. As of now, there are over 37 million Internet users in the country. A substantial number of them are active in gaming.” In case you are wondering how the system works, Ranjit does the explaining: If you’re familiar with local area networking or LAN gaming, you know gamers compete against one another over local area, instead of challenging the computer-generated opponents. But in case of proper online gaming, people from all over the world log on to the same site and play. Well, you can play the game against, or along with one another. The choice is yours entirely.

But is it good for the kids? What do the experts say? “Well, to begin with it exposes the child to the wonders of technology,” says child counsellor Puneeta Singh. “And then, it actually goes a long way in improving a child’s concentration. The only thing you have to look for is that the child does not become a couch potato by sitting at home and playing the games. You also have to make sure he does not enter an adult domain.” Well said, ma’am, hope everyone follows it! 

Fave Five

•  Internet Backgammon
• Checkers 
• Spades 
• Hearts
•  Reversi
• Also popular is Ragnarok. Korean in origin, Ragnarok is distributed and managed in the country by Level Up Network India, an online game publishing firm. And then there are games like Counter Strike 2 and Warcraft. The, Ramayana, too is forming the basis of a new online video game.

Serious Games
Saurabh Malik

She works for you to play. A city girl is making waves in computer graphics

As you target “the warrior” in the little game of skill on your computer monitors, you do not even realise it, but every day, the young digital artist works for hours together to give you precious moments of pure bliss that come with detached indulgence in computer gaming.

Just in case you still haven’t guessed it, NRI with roots in Chandigarh Vanita Vasudev is into computer graphics. The young modeler-cum-texture artist, who has just set up MV-Grafix, is big time into planning computer games, besides creating catalogues, cover pages, site designing and even maintenance. In fact, she loves to express creativity through a synergy between multimedia and design

Logged on to excitement, Vanita says the future belongs to hi-tech computer gaming. “As the brain machine is infiltrating into Indian houses in a big way, more and more youngsters are pushing simple traditional indoor games into the trashcan of their memories,” she says. “Soon games like snakes and ladders will be passé with youngsters going in for high-speed exciting games.”

Quoting rough estimates, she says Internet users in India reached the 37 million-mark last September. “The number of computer users in the country is much more than this. A substantial number of them are employing computer for gaming, along with other day to day activities,” she says.

Vanita knows what this bachelor of fine arts in graphics from the College of Art is saying. The youngster went on to do a diploma in “Game Art and Design” from Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, Canada. She has also worked as a multimedia visualiser and web designer in Virginia , USA. This is not all. She has designed and implemented interactive websites for multinational organisations, including McGraw-Hill publications. In the process, she has covered various subjects of all grades.

Good. But how did she get into it initially? “Well, my interest for detail was developed at a young age,” she says. “After exploring several fields in and out of India, I started to let my mind wonder in different worlds at the pace of my imagination. I soon came to the conclusion that computer graphics is a good vehicle to travel and discover those worlds. Needless to say, it quickly became a real passion”.

She adds: Conceptualising and realising characters of the game is a thrilling experience. But you need perfection to be successful. So, one really has to work hard for others to enjoy. You see, a delayed game is eventually good; a bad game is bad forever.”

Vanita has launched her own site where she shares her two and three dimensional works along with oil paintings and clay art.

In Chandigarh on a short “nostalgic” trip, Vanita says she plans to expand her operations, and is looking into the possibility of setting up an office in this part of the region, preferably in Chandigarh. After listening to her, you cannot help but wish her all the best. 

 Health TIP of the day

Exercising on a stationary cycle by sitting upright with arms swinging freely or placed on the hips and not hunched over holding low handle bars can avoid upper back and neck strain.— Dr Ravinder Chadha