|
|
|
|
|
Power dressing
All credit goes to Priyanka Gandhi, who opened the floodgates for Parliament ensembles. “The Gandhi daughter, sans sari look, made way for the Gen Y effect in politics as well. I think she looked really good, confident and best-ever in a trouser and fitted shirt,” feels Babi Grewal, a city-based designer. And ask youngsters about their fashion idols and some of our netas figure in the list too. Like who? Sachin Pilot, Rahul Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora and so on… Says Swati Acharaya, student, School of Communication Studies, PU, “I like Sachin Pilot for the simple reason that he is a combination of style and substance. He is a perfect example of restrained charm and not-to-forget good looks,” she says. Omar Abdullah is another favourite and comes across as an aggressive politician with elegance. “His style and confidence get reflected in his dressing sense but his work needs no formal presentation, it speaks for itself,” says Samarpreet Singh, a young businessman from the city. “Omar Abdullah has a personal style statement and has the attitude to carry his style,” he adds. And it’s not the junta who feels it, even the young leaders in the region share the feeling. “It is important to bring some changes in politics, when attire is concerned. It’s a different generation with different demands and you have to become a part of them,” says Amandeep Singh, who was the general secretary of the Youth Congress, Punjab, and a former president of the student council. He adds, “Only when one is confident about himself, he can represent others as well. A young, well-educated and well-groomed leader brings the energy and the enthusiasm required to represent a strong (read 70 per cent, young Indian democracy.” Though he feels that fashion for young politicians may not be the focal point, but they do make an extra effort to look presentable. No wonder the Omar Abdullahs and Rahul Gandhis are different from P.V. Narsimha Raos and Atal Bihari Vajpayees. The Gen Y gives thumbs up to Rahul Gandhi for his balancing act. The natty neta rules whether it’s his conventional yet trendy dressing or this progressive ideology. Next in line are Milind Deora and the ravishingly royal Jyotiraditya Scindia. While for Milind comfort matters over style as it is all about personal choice, the junior Scindia chooses luxurious bandhgallas to complete his trendy yet regal look. “Appearances do matter in any profession and politics is no different. They realise that they should wear what they want to and not what they are expected to wear. After all, they represent a country of well-dressed and well-versed people with the right attitude,” says Babi. As for the female politicians are concerned, the senior brigade still rules the roost with Sonia Gandhi, Renuka Chaudhary, Priya Dutt and Kiran Chaudhary leading the front. So, our young MPs do not underestimate the power of dressing. Indian democracy has seldom depended on the style quotient of our politicians, but with youngsters taking pride in their well-turned and cool leaders, may be the right to exercise our vote will be used more often now. lifestyle@tribunemail.com |
|
Chasing Salman
He is in city for a shooting schedule for Vipul Shah's musical London Dreams, in which he plays lead along with Ajay Devgan and
Ghajini girl Asin, who plays the female lead opposite Salman Khan. The movie is about individuals, their dreams and desires brought together by music. Looking his usual best, flaunting his Harley-Davidson-guy kinda look with jeans, tee and a leather jacket, his hair pulled back casually by a band and that now famous but a little longer ponytail. Ignoring the flashing lensmen and waiting media, he rushed in for a quick lunch. Well, but then Salman and media don’t exactly make a happy couple. Actor-director Atul Agnihotri and hounds of securitymen that form his second skin accompanied him. Though the actor as usual looked in no mood for a media interaction but the valiant ones who tried approaching him got a nod or just a faint smile (now that’s a respite, given his fist
history with media). But, all in all despite the disappointment, you just need one look and you are reminded why he is still the hottest and the most happening Khan.
lifestyle@tribunemail.com |
|
Drool on discounts
At Woodland showroom in Sector 17, shoe-enamored men outdo women. "The number of customers almost doubles in the discount season. So far we are witnessing a good response," tells store official Dinesh Sharma. The brand is offering flat 40 percent discount on apparel and up to 50 percent on shoes. Dockers has also come up with 50 percent off on apparel and is witnessing good rush. "Discounts boost up sales big time. Like any other city, Chandigarh residents have the tendency to throng stores when the sales are on. So it's the time to clear stocks," quips Bimal Rai, a store assistant. Numero Uno is another store crowded with customers who are finding 30 percent discount on winter wear alluring. "The initial response is good and we are planning to extend the discount further," shares Rajan Sachdeva, store in charge. While most brands are counting on discounts to spruce up sales, others are coming up with attractive offers. While Lee is giving free merchandise on every purchase of certain value, Louis Philipppe, apart from offering 40 percent discount, has come up with 'Fly to Switzerland' scheme. There's also an exchange offer going on wherein old pullovers can be traded with new one at a reasonable price. The old sweaters go to charity, informed one of the store men. Similarly, at Lee Cooper you can buy apparel and get 50 percent off on purchase of second one. Whatever may be the case, the shoppers are having a rollicking time. Sullal family, which has just moved to the city from Ludhiana, is on the prowl for the cool deals. "It's our first winter sale shopping here. So we are having a peep into every showroom," smiles Gagan Sullal, while trying on a pullover in pink. Rajiv Gambhir is another happy shopper. "I have been waiting for the sales to upgrade my winter wardrobe," he says. Not only locals, but those on a short visit to the city are also happy splurging here. "Kids are keen on brands and we see good offers here. My husband is busy in a business meeting, so I am here with my daughter for shopping," says Neelima Lahiri, a Karnal resident. So any signs of slowdown? "Meltdown monster seems to be working to promote the sales," opines Rohit Khanna, proprietor, Lee-17. "The uncertainty due to financial debacle has kept people away from shopping so far. The discounts are bringing the customers in. Our motive is to clear stocks, even if it means less profit," he
adds. Sensible splurging n
Don't buy something just because it's on sale mona@tribunemail.com |
|
In the right circle
We got it! Anybody would. On seeing the dominance of red, black, white and gold in the interiors, patterns looking like from the mysterious East, and motifs suggesting oriental origin. Another Chinese restaurant! What's more, this one is from the house of Copper Chimney and Noodle Bar. The name, China Circle-26, further contributes to making the already 'understood' as the 'obvious'.
Recession does not seem to have restricted them. Sandeep Ahluwalia, the consultant, says, "Food industry is not so much affected. In fact, we haven't seen even one per cent decrease in our sales elsewhere." The result? Another entry on the gastronomic map of the city! And this one aims to fill in the void in Chinese. According to Sandeep Ahluwalia, "Nowhere else will you find the quality of chefs we have. A chef is not made in a year or two. It takes at least 10 years of right training and adequate exposure to make an expert." Apart from chefs, what will be their specialty? He answers, "Our dim-sums are the finest in the country. We have a special chef who does just
dim-sums and nothing else." A plan to have a live dim-sum corner is too on the cards. That's not all. He adds, "Ninety per cent of the sauces we are using are imported. Some of the ingredients, like this special white flower, are as expensive as Rs 400 a kg." And if you thought, noodle and rice were staple Chinese, think again? For, both will be just accompaniments. Seafood lovers have quite a variety to choose from. From lobsters, prawns, squid, fish to lamb, options galore. Chef Raju Gurung recommends prawn in Sichuan sauce as a must try. But before the food and after the interiors, which have been done by a Mumbai-based company, next thing that strikes one is the cutlery. Get over the usual rectangle, square plates, here a range of asymmetrical patterns in combination of different geometrical shapes adorn the table, as if taking the shape of a dish. Each serves only two
persons. As says Sandeep, "Food is not dumped in the plate, which generally forces one to finish off. We want people to order more so that they can savor a variety." No harm trying.
manpriya@tribunemail.com |
|
A surge protector equipment is an appliance designed to protect electrical devices from power surges and voltage spikes. Surge protectors attempt to regulate the voltage supplied to an electric device by either blocking or shorting to ground voltage above a safe power voltage. To protect your home from external power surges, you can have a surge protector installed on your electric meter. This will protect most appliances, such as room heaters, air conditioners, washers, refrigerators, and dryers.
Surge protection equipment is one thing whose quality should not be compromised because of the price tag. One can get indications of a
product's performance level by looking for a few signs of quality. You shouldn't expect much from any cheap surge protector. Today's microchips can't tolerate small electrical disruptions and are more vulnerable to damage than ever before causing many appliances to be out of order. It can have devastating effects on finance or even life and death consequences when communications and medical equipment is disrupted. Protecting these equipments and us from the devastating effects of equipment failure is important and that's where surge protection comes in.
amitpalsinghgrewal@gmail.com |
|
Fanfare
“Shah Rukh is a truly brilliant actor. When he comes on the screen, you hardly look anywhere else but at him - he is that kind of an actor,” Benegal said in an interview. Asked if he would like to cast King Khan in any of his films, a disappointed Benegal said: “How can I cast him? I don’t have a subject that might even interest him.” After the successful comedy Welcome To Sajjanpur, which featured Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao, the director is set to make a political satire, but refused to divulge any details. “I am very superstitious, so I won’t talk much about the story right now. But I’ll surely make a political satire before starting my other films and it would also be a comedy,” Benegal said. The veteran director will wield the megaphone for projects like Chamki Chameli, a film based on the novella Carmen by French writer Prosper Mérimée, and an epic on Lord Buddha titled Gautam Buddha. “I also plan to make a documentary on the Indian spy princess Noor Inayat Khan.
Nothing has been decided yet, but it is in the pipeline,” said Benegal, a Dada Saheb Phalke award winner. He revealed that he had to defer his plans for a few big-budget films due to the economic downturn. Starting from art house movies to successfully going mainstream, the veteran insists that the “parallel and commercial” classification in cinema no longer exists. “There is a kind of stamp that has been put that tries to draw distinction in cinema as parallel or commercial. But now these lines have faded out and have become very blurry. In fact, films being made today that could have been earlier called parallel are being played in multiplexes commercially,” Benegal said. “For example, films like A Wednesday and Rang De Basanti ... if these movies would have been made earlier would have been called parallel cinema vis-à-vis their wide commercial acceptance now,” he added. Asked about the wide variety of subjects he chose for his films, the 74-year-old said: “I pick my subjects as to what I feel and like according to my interests and concern. I deal with the social problems that confront us.
It makes me gravitate to what I want to work on.” Benegal, in his earlier works, has cast the late Smita Patil in quite a few movies like
Nishant, Charandas Chor, Bhumika and Manthan. Asked if he considered any of the current actors at par with her, Benegal said: “Every generation has its own actors and they have different qualities. We can’t generalise actors and compare them with those from earlier films. They have their own strong and weak traits.”
— IANS |
|
Mera boyfriend sirf mera hai
After the reports of Britney Spears’ alleged affair with Bollywood dance instructor Sandip Soparkar, his girlfriend Jesse Randhawa has hit out against the pop singer and has warned her to stay away from her man. The 39-year-old model is livid over claims that Britney has started a love affair with dance expert Sandip Soparkar, who choreographed the video for her hit single Womanizer for her comeback. The Bollywood actor said in an interview that she has been dating Sandip for four-and-a-half years. “I don’t understand why Britney would stoop so low as to claim someone else’s boyfriend for her own. Sandip and I are very happy together,” Randhawa said. The 27-year-old Britney and Soparkar reportedly enjoyed a three-day Christmas break in Jodhpur. “Britney did come over to India and she and Sandip went away for a few days, but it was purely professional. They were busy rehearsing. I really do wish she’d just leave us alone now,” said Randhawa. “Britney’s gone through so much turmoil in her life and instead of making her a better person, t looks like she’s just left all her morals and ethics behind. She knows he’s in a relationship and is happy, so why spoil it?” The model is holding on to the belief that this is just a publicity stunt and added that Britney “is just not his type.” Britney first met Sandip in August last year when she saw him dance at Madonna’s 50th birthday bash in London and had then signed him on to choreograph her next song. — PTI
|
|
Play ‘boy’
“I hope to play ‘boy’ roles until I’m 40. Other actors are doing it. So why not me? I’m very happy being young,” Shahid said in an interview. While Shahid admits that the irony of Jab We Met becoming a hit soon after his break-up with Kareena Kapoor was hard to take, he says he has moved on and is no longer uncomfortable talking about it. “It’s been a year now. The pain has receded,” the actor said. Excited to work with his dad he says, “ We’re looking at
starting very soon. I’ve pushed him for years to take this plunge as a director. He has all these lovely scripts lying around that only his family knows about. I really wanted him to direct me... He has finally come up with something he thinks will do justice to both of us. I’m very excited about working with dad.” Finally, what have you learnt from life, “Expect anything.”
— IANS |
|
Man with a message
“I have done offbeat films like Maachis, Haasil, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Yahaan and A Wednesday in my career. These appeal to me as an actor because, apart from delivering a social message, they are entertaining as well,” Jimmy said. “If the audience spends two hours and nearly Rs 200 to go and watch a film, it is important for us to provide them wholesome entertainment,” he added. The actor, who has also starred in
conventional flicks like Mohabbatein, Dil Vil Pyar Vyar and Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, gives a thumbs up to films like Munnabhai M.B.B.S. and Lage Raho Munna Bhai. “Too much realism without any entertainment makes a boring film. I think there should be realism in movies, but the filmmaker must not get carried away and forget the entertainment aspect of it. I think the Munnabhai series are the best examples of the kind of films I believe in - those that entertain with a message,” said Jimmy. These days, the actor is in the news for having bagged the coveted V. Shantaram Award for Best Supporting Actor for his spirited performance in A Wednesday. “This is my first nomination and first award in the 13 years that I have spent in Bollywood. It feels so good and especially because it is a V. Shantaram Award - so respectable. I used to think that even after so many years, I had not received a single award and that I would possibly receive one lifetime achievement award 30 years down the line. But this award has changed it all,” Jimmy quipped. He said he was always confident about the success of A Wednesday, which starred
veteran actors Naseerudin Shah and Anupam Kher in pivotal roles. The film, directed by Neeraj Pandey, was a runaway hit with its strong script that revolved around a hapless middle class man taking on the task of eliminating hardcore terrorists undergoing trial in courts. Jimmy played a police officer in the film and received critical acclaim for his performance. “When I read the film’s script, I felt it had a voice of its own. I knew it would do well, but didn’t expect the amount of praise that came in from critics and audiences,” said Jimmy. As of now, the actor is upbeat about his forthcoming Bollywood releases including Anjum Rizvi’s supernatural thriller Flat, Shoojit Sarkar’s Johnny Mastana and an anthology Mumbai Cutting. He is also awaiting the release of a Punjabi film Tera Mera Ki Rishta.
— IANS |
|
Sound of Music
“He would give me numbers that used to have a lot of screaming notes like Piya tu ab to aaja and Aaja aaja mein hoon pyaar tera. One day I confronted him with that. And he said that if I will refuse to sing those songs, then he will never compose such tunes ever. According to him, only I could do justice to those songs. So I had to give in,” Asha said at function organised for naming a road after the legendary composer, also known as Pancham. Going down memory lane, she revealed that Pancham had only two passions in life. “One was, of course, music and the other was cooking. Since I am also a good cook, we often used to have competitions at home. That was the way he used to relax himself after thinking about music, composing tunes and experimenting with sounds,” Asha said. She also disclosed that the composer was completely blind to the material side of life. “So much so that, one day, when he saw me wearing a diamond ring, he wanted to know the name of the gem I was wearing in my finger. When I told him that it was a diamond, he asked if the diamond really looked like that. You see, that was Pancham,” Asha recalled. The seventy-five-year-old crooner, whose close association with the composer started in 1966 with Teesri Manzil culminated in their marriage in 1980, said that she had known Pancham from the time he had assisted his celebrated father, S.D. Burman. Asha said that they had a happy life together for 14 years till he died in 1994. “But he died a sad man. Mostly, he was saddened by the changing trends in Bollywood music,” Asha said. — IANS
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.” These words of compliment by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari for Sarah Palin, who was most talked about for her style statement during the US elections, made everybody sit back and notice the importance of dressing up in politics. The US elections were high on the political thrills as well as the fashion frills. Be it ensembled ties of Obama or the famous $150,000 wardrobe of Sarah Palin. But unlike the fellow world leaders like Nicolas Sarkozy or the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Indian netas still adhere to the khadi mantra. Or do they? Well, one look at the current crop of our young leaders and we have our fashion icons in Parliament to look up to.
What the hell, yaar! Star hai, wait toh karni padegi! These were the popular sentiments shared by the very patient clan of Chandigarh media, each member waiting to get their man— Ajay Devgan. After a long wait, that’s synonymous with journos, a snazzy white BMW arrived. Oh my God, its Salman Khan, said one from the media, so loud that all present were taken by surprise. And so with a silent charm and that rugged attitude, Salman Khan walked inside the Taj-17. Surprised, yes we were.
It's the time when you cannot simply purge the urge to splurge. If Boxing Day in the UK sees shoppers lining up outside Best Buy as early as four am, and Americans queing up outside Walmart at the dawn on Black Friday, apna city is not far behind. The big sales are here and shoppers are drooling on discounts, lapping up deals like there is no tomorrow. A look around the stores and they have already started to wear a 'ransacked' look. Enthusiastic, jostling shoppers, trying on apparels inside and outside the try rooms are enough to make you dive for merchandise in urgency.
Electronic equipment, such as computers, fax machines, televisions, stereos and VCRs are more sensitive and requires second protection which can be installed on the wall outlet or you can attach it with your equipment before reaching the power outlet. These surge protectors are basically power transformers be it a stabeliser CVT or a UPS (Un interrupted power supply) now days many of these are equipped surge protection for cable television line and phone line protectors as well. This is called point-of-use surge protection, which safeguards your equipment from alien surges.
These cheep units usually use simple and inexpensive components with limited capacities and won't protect your system from bigger surges or spikes. It is also true that high price doesn't promise quality. To find out what the unit is capable of, you need to check out the power spectrum it covers and its quality, quality check. Information can be checked by its certification such as CE, ISO or an ISI mark on what you buy. These are certification for assuring the product's tried and tested quality for quality, reliability, standard and safety. If a protector doesn't have any of these listed marks, it's probably junk. There's a good chance it doesn't have any protection components at all. 
He is full of admiration for Shah Rukh Khan and his on-screen charisma, but veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal rues that he doesn’t have a subject to cast the superstar.
Shahid Kapur is doing Kaminay with Vishal Bharadwaj, another movie with Ken Ghosh and his first venture with Yashraj Films. The actor hopes he can continue playing boyish roles until he is 40. But what he’s looking forward to most right now is being directed by dad Pankaj Kapur. Many newcomers have entered Bollywood after Shahid, but he hopes to play the boy-next-door for as long as possible.
Actor Jimmy Shergill is still riding high on the laurels his performance in A
Wednesday brought him, and says he is looking forward to doing more films that focus on providing “entertainment with
a message”.
Singing legend Asha Bhosle reveals she used to often fight with her late husband, composer R.D. Burman, because he would give the best of the romantic songs to her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar.