Cash hai to aish hai. At no other time does this hold more true than during the festive season. But it’s best to press pause before you go overboard with your credit card, writes Jasmine Singh

It’s time of the year when you should sew your pockets, hide your wallet, run away to a lonely island and freeze all your credit cards. Better still; plan your budget so that you don’t have to do any of this. With so many festive offers lined up for the coming months, this is one caution you’ll need to observe, that is if you do not want to go bankrupt by the end of the year. This goes for people across all age groups, especially youngsters who tend to go overboard with their expenditure. So people, there is no harm in being a little wise. Chalk out an expenditure plan; rotate it within the family and stick to it as far as possible. Amidst all the enticements, this sounds impossible, but it is better than begging for money from friends and family after burning your pocket. We get talking to people who tell us how you can save money and satiate your desires, both at the same time.

Let’s take it from Anurag Bhasin, a chartered accountant, has borne the brunt of getting extravagant during the festivals. “I have realised that it is very important to manage money during the festival season,” opines Anurag, who is clear about what he wants and what he can ignore. “Divali, Dasehra, Christmas, New Year, so many occasions that call for extra spending. The catch is to be careful and not go overboard with expenditure. I used to wait for the festival season to begin, to cash in on all the sales, new arrivals, splurge on gifts and by New Year, I would be literally borrowing cash,” he laughs.

Now that Anurag has learnt the simple funda, he shares it with us. “First, make a list of the things you want and the ones you can do without,” says this young boy. If you can resists simple temptations like a new pair of jeans, watches, perfumes, shoes, you will realise that you can save so much, which means you can enjoy better.”

Preety Saryu, who is studying finance and management, agrees. “No matter how hard we try not to spend, money flows out during these festivals anyone,” she quips. “Even if you don’t spend on yourself, you have to spend on gifts or on other items for your home. This is where the whole budget goes for a toss.” To avoid this, Preety suggests that we should spend on items which are required immediately.

“Freeze your credit cards,” smiles Preety. “You feel like a ‘king’ if you have one in your pocket. Use cash instead credit or debit cards. At least, you would have an idea on how much money are you spending. It is not mandatory to buy new clothes on Divali or New Year. You can wear something that you haven’t worn much. After all, the festivals are not going to last forever.” If only you can stick to them!

And lastly folks, it’s so much better to walk down to the market near your sector, rather than using your car. This will solve the parking problem during peak festival time, you will save petrol and the best part is you can get the real flavour of festivities.

So, for the coming festival season, be smart, spend wisely, save money and enjoy the time. The real spirit of any festival lies in the generosity of heart, not in being generous with your credit cards.

jasmine@tribunemail.com

Some men love cars with all the frills and will spend lakhs on modifying their speed machines
Ashima Sehajpal

Roaring engines, skirted bumpers, sunroofs and much more; trend of proclaiming style statements through modified cars is here to stay for sure. Call it a fad or passion among youngsters; they don’t mind shelling out a price as high as four lakhs to render their cars a sporty look. And giving a boost to their fondness for modified cars are swooning peers who look up to them for their taste. Here are some youngsters from the city who zip past others in their stylish ‘wagons’.

Abhishek Chandak, a businessman by profession bought accessories worth Rs 2 lakhs for his new car, Tata Safari. This is the fourth one that he has got modified, first being a Maruti 800 way back in 1995. “Just as people have hobbies like reading and stamp collection, I love giving a sports car shape to my cars,” says he. A veteran in the field, he further shares the reason for his unusual interest, “I always wanted to buy a sports car but considering its sky rocketing cost it is through these cars, I fulfill my desire.”

Tarun Chugh, an MBA student feels proud to share the fact that he was the first in his entire friend circle to get his car modified. “It was six years ago that car modification became a rage with youngsters but the scope was limited to skirting and alloy wheels.” Modification of a car today can go as far as entirely redesigning it. Tarun got his car modified from the renowned automobile designer, Dilip Chabria, “I didn’t want to go for casual alterations in the car, so decided to go for DC and spent a whopping amount of Rs 4 lakhs.”  Besides the looks of the car, there are other car accessories as well, which makes it a semi sports car. Tarun gives in the details, “The car has NOS that can accelerate it from 0 to 100 kilometers in just three seconds. Also there is a Hood added that makes the front of the car cut the air sharply and suspension rods which provides stability to it even at a very fast pace.”

A businessman, Chetan Aggarwal’s, red coloured two seater sports car is quite a famous one on the gheri route. Mazda Miata worth Rs 12 lakhs has a lot of modifications done other than alloy wheels and low profile tyres, “Major difference between a sports and a normal car is speed. To add to the acceleration of the car I have got an imported exhaust system fitted, which allows free flow of air and enhances its pick up.” With vrooming around at such a fast pace, it does not come as a surprise if he then tells us that he also participates in a number of rallies as well.

Rahul Shangari, a young hotelier too has spent 1.5 lakhs on the modification of his car Nisan X Trail and does not mind shelling more. “I have accessorised my car bearing in mind that I have to make it look like a sports car, since there aren’t many in town,” he avers. From four xenon lights fitted on the roof to chrome accessories and a powerful music system, the car has them all. And this is not the first car that he has got modified, “My last car accent so much modified that it looked like an original sports car.”

Bollywood director Rohit Shetty unveiled the promo of his forthcoming film, Golmaal Returns in Mumbai recently. The cast of the film includes Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Anjana Sukhani, Amrita Arora and Celina Jaitley.

In the film Kareena Kapoor plays the role of a housewife who is addicted to soap opera serials, and begins suspecting her husband, played by Ajay Devgan, of adultery. Tusshar Kapoor is playing a struggling mute barber as Kareena's brother. Celina will be playing a South Indian girl and Amrita is in the role of Ajay's sister.

Director Rohit Shetty, known for his films like Zameen, Golmaal and Sunday said he wanted to dispel notions that the film Golmaal Returns was the continuation of his earlier film Golmaal.

"The most important thing which I'm telling every one is that it is not the continuation of my earlier film Golmaal. It is a series and the new thing in this film is that there are four new girls especially the character of Kareena Kapoor is very funny. The final product is in front of us and we are very happy with the final result," said Shetty.

Talking about his role in the film Golmaal Returns actor Tusshar Kapoor said that he really worked hard on his role.

"I play the character of a dumb boy as I played in my last film Golmaal, but in this film I enter in an advanced stage. In this film no one understands what I convey and when no one understands my language my frustration increases. Then I use various ways to make them understand what I am saying, this results in confusion and misunderstanding, which results in humour. So in this film there is a lot more for me to do," said Kapoor.

Bollywood Actor, Celina Jaitley also seemed very excited about her role in the film, which she described as something different.

"I play the character of a South Indian girl named Mira Nair, I think the children are going to like my role in the film. I enact the role of simple girl who is a bit crazy. I think it is for the first time in my career I am doing this kind of a role so I really enjoyed doing it," said Jaitley.

The film is slated for an October 31 release.

Dubbing Amitabh Bachchan the uncrowned king of Bollywood, comic actor Johnny Lever said the megastar, who because of his acting skills is better than the latest craze Shah Rukh Khan.

"Bachchan holds the edge," Lever told reporters when asked for his comments on comparisons between the Big B and Shah Rukh.

"With lot of variety in his acting, Amitabh Bachchan is undoubtedly the king of Hindi movies," said Lever.

When asked who are the kings of comedy, he said, "Kishore Kumar and Mehmood as badshahs of comedy."

On comedy in today's films, he said, "Nowadays people go for shortcuts. This is the era of fast food and like other spheres of life, comedians also prefer shortcuts nowadays by cracking jokes which have an element of vulgarity in them," he said.

If you think golden bubbles at the brim of sparkling cut glasses are raising the spirits of the revelers just before multi-course dinners, hic no. You are mistaken.

So many city residents are saying cheers to the intoxicating concept of 'food pairing'. Just in case you are finding it hard to gulp, it's all about adding a dash of whisky to the food stuff, desserts included.

Now wait a minute. Don't you confuse it with the age-old recipe of enhancing the flavour of your favourite dish with a wee bit of beer or wine.

It is scrumptious, alright. But frankly speaking, the heady cocktail of wine and cheese is passé. Now, you don't want to get caught in a restaurant with your hands full of something that's not really fresh and stimulating. Do you?

So, the only spanking new option open to you is to raise a toast to your favourite dish infused with whisky. It may hit you with a bang. Like a strong drink that explodes in the head if tossed down hurriedly. But more and more connoisseurs across the city are already having a blast after saying bottoms up to grilled lamb washed with whisky, even your good old and healthy broccoli laced with the drink.

This is not all, folks! You have desserts spiked with whisky that give you an all-time high.

"Whisky goes down well with almost all the desserts, but tastes the best with chocolaty stuff," says Diageo India's managing director Asif Adil. He was in the city to host the Johnnie Walker Gold Label dinner on Sunday night.

Listen to him, fellows. Adil knows what he is saying. Diageo - the company behind the whisky and Taj are jointly promoting the concept of whisky-food pairing amongst the city residents.

You see, it's not easy to drown the propaganda by a powerful lobby of wine experts and producers. But then, it's right here on the platter for you.

Taking you around the dim-lit hall, full of fruity vapors, and soft music wafting out of the guitar of a live performer, Adil suggests sticky toffee pudding nicely done up with whisky for an invigorating dessert.

"You see, food pairing is all about matching the whisky with the foodstuff in a way that it compliments the dish, or gives it a completely different flavour," he asserts. "When the dish is done up with a whisky, it’s all the more better as the honeyed, smooth, product is easy on the palette and bursts into a myriad flavours in the mouth—vanilla, honey rich fruit and light smoke , all included."

A word of caution here! Folks, no matter how tempting, you should not have five different whiskies with a five-course meal. The concept of one course with a whisky for variety is the right thing.

Well, it all sounds neat guys! So what are you waiting for! Get ready for rejoicing the party of life without hangovers, please.

Thinking global, GCA students lend colour to their views on the nuke deal
Parbina Rashid

Not so long ago, during a casual conversation one of the faculty members of the Government College of Art had commented, 'ask the students to make a commercial for some luxury product; they are full of ideas. But ask them to depict a social issue, they draw a blank.' His lament came with a logical explanation-because of the environment in which they are born and brought up.

But apparently he was wrong. For once the Gen Y artists have proved that they are not wrapped up in their own little world and whatever happens in the world does affect them. Or how do you explain the amount of research and creativity one sees in the huge (25" X 15" to be precise) digital poster, which adorns the wall of the fourth year Applied Art classroom, which is put together by about 40 students as part of their project work. The theme is Nuclear Energy, Why? and there are 25 visual portrayals of their responses - positive, negative and neutral.

Some are quite interesting too. Like Kawalpreet Cheema's depiction, he is all for nuclear power but is worried about the financial viability which she depicts with a money plant with five hundred currency notes for leaves. "We, in India, have lots of minerals like thorium, which needs to be first converted into uranium to produce nuclear energy. It is a very expensive process." But Cheema has not given up hope, for she in the same frame portrays Hindustan as Nuclearstan and replaces the Ashok Chakra with an atomic configuration in the national flag.

Little Bansal, another student, is seeing the whole issue as another dead end and expresses her opinion with a bunch of roses in varied stages- in full bloom in one place and all wilted in another. "Uranium which is the main source of nuclear energy is like any other non-renewable natural resource. So, what happens once it is all spent. Dead-end again. Besides nuclear power may have negative impacts if fallen into the wrong hands," she justifies.

Some play it safe. Like, Noshima who calls the nuclear deal as the 'Need of the Hour', which she symbolises with a watch. And some others are clueless and they are brutally honest about it. "I have no clarity about the subject and this is exactly how I played with it, a hazy future," says George Emmanuel. Well, clarity or no clarity, what is heartening, is they are not the detached lot anymore.

parbina@tribunemail.com

Youngsters in the tricity tell Jasmine Singh about how much of the personal they’re willing to uncover on SNSs

Privacy. Once very safe and guarded, it has now become the most overexposed thing. Poor privacy, hardly anybody wants her anymore. Disowned, she now lives at the mercy of prying eyes.

And the one place where its death knell has been sounded good and proper are the so-called interactive sites, the Orkut, the hi-five and many make friends sites. Family portraits, personal pictures, memorable moments, priced possessions, just about every minute of your life is captured and put on these sites for all and sundry to ‘check out’. To hell with privacy, the buzzword is globalisation and the youngsters are just living up to it. But how much of openness is good. We talk to youngsters who are pretty okay about being open and the find privacy obsolete. Do we need to draw a line between what information should be shared on friendship sites and what shouldn’t? What say, youngistaan.

“Friendship sites are meant for making friends and how is that possible without sharing personal information,” says Manpreet Sodhi, a regular orkuter. “All the same, we are very careful about sharing information, be it personal details or pictures. Personally, I don’t put up personal pictures. My Orkut site has group pictures of friends and general photography shots of sunsets, wildlife, travel pictures,” adds Manpreet.

Dheeraj Dhiman, a student of commerce from SD College-32, is of the view that interactive and other friendship sites are all about sharing. “But there is a need to draw a line between what information should and shouldn’t be shared or revealed.”

Dheeraj mentions the incident wherein a boy with whom she used to interact on Orkut murdered a girl. “I am not in favour of sharing personal information on net . And I recommend, youngsters who are regular with friendship sites should be very careful with the information they are sharing.”

But then there are those who feel there is nothing personal about privacy. Sakshi Sarin, who is training with a city-based PR firm offers, “There is no harm in sharing information, as in general likes and dislikes with friends. I have a long list of friends, most of them are settled abroad. Now, I can’t talk to them on the phone everyday. Orkut allows me to chat with them and share what is happening in my life through pictures.”

jasmine@tribunemail.com

Cars that can shrink into tight parking spaces, are wind-powered, and can even do a u-turn on the spot are among the 29 vehicles that have made the shortlist for the Peugeot Design Contest 2008. The list even includes a car that can bend in the middle to allow the driver a better view of the road ahead and a two-wheeler that is operated by a joystick rather than a steering wheel.

Participants in the event were told to concentrate on environmental awareness, social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency, while retaining the Peugeot style. Ying Hui Choo, a participant from Singapore, has designed Peugeot Blade, a car that uses a resource most cars are designed to evade - air itself. It makes use of the air moving across its body to turn a wind turbine designed to generate electricity.

Turkish designer Emre Yazici has designed a two-wheel, lightweight electric car for a single passenger, which needs just a third of the parking space used by a typical saloon car. Another quality of his car is that it can do a u-turn on the spot.

Two French designers - Woo-Ram Lee and Argentine Esteban Peisci - have created cars that run on three spheres rather than traditional wheels. People can vote for their favourite design on the Peugeot website, and the winning design will be picked by Peugeot from 10 finalists — ANI

Keeping the health fad in mind, Britannia Industries, launched a biscuit that serves as a healthy solution to beat those in-between hunger pangs. Britannia NutriChoice 5 Grain biscuits combine five essential cereals, which are good for health. With oats (that help reduce bad cholesterol), corn (promotes heart health), ragi (high in calcium and fibre), rice (low in fat) and wheat (source of energy) NutriChoice 5 Grain biscuits contain no cholesterol and zero transfats. Sweetened with a hint of honey, each oval shaped biscuit is packed in single-serve packs containing 3 biscuits each.

Hidesign launches Onassis 04, classic Hidesign Hobo handbag for women. Crafted with eco- friendly techniques of Italian "cuoio" leather, Hidesign Onassis is a stylish flat hobo that sits neatly against your body.

Made from oil tanned ranch leather it has elegant woven details, with a large main zip compartment, an additional zip compartment and mobile and PDA pockets. The grab handles of the bag are made in brass metal lending it a subtle yet stylish look. The bag is available in varied hues like black, brown, dark green, grey and bordeaux.