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Screen presence
Out of sight is certainly not out of mind when it comes to cricket. So, even though the IPL has moved out of the country and we will not be able to catch the action live, the excitement hasn’t dropped by an inch. To literally meet this hunger for a slice of the cricketing spectacle out there in South Africa, hotels and restaurants in the tricity have laid out sumptuous savouries, screens and more. Here’s spicing up the IPL season:
Says Anil Malhotra, GM Citco, “What induced us to introduce a special menu is the people’s love for the game. They just can’t get enough of it. We thought of spicing it up by bringing into the menu some special dishes.” So, watch IPL at Hotel Mountview-10 while tucking into ‘Gully’, which is grilled fish, ‘Leg bye’(Murg Tikka Afgani), ‘On side’ (Kastoori Kabab) and more. “We have categorized the menu mainly as ‘Scoring pitch’ comprising of the non-vegetarian dishes and ‘Greenfield’, the vegetarian fare.” There are even dishes named after the IPL teams as Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. And there is something else that’s special too. “It’s summer time and temperatures might soar further during a neck and neck match. To bring in some relief, we have introduced an array of mocktails and cocktails, with their names derived from cricketers and celebrities,” he adds. Some of the must-haves are Bhajji’s Googly, Cool Gambhir, Yuvi Shot, Ishant Heights, Warne’s Warning and Zinta’s Zing. Other than the menu, to make watching cricket here a memorable experience, special screens have been put up here. Similar is the scene at Score-8, a sports bar. Anupama Bhardwaj, MD, Score tells us more, “As watching cricket is enjoyed more while sitting in a crowd, we have put up screens and have come up with special drinks.” Though a comparison between watching cricket live and on screen cannot be drawn, she feels, watching it with lots of people and on a bigger screen makes it a fun experience. “Why not make the most of the situation and enjoy cricket. There will be special offers on drinks and snacks too on the occasion.” As most of the matches will be played in the evening, people from all age groups will be able to enjoy them. Bobby Garg, director of the Ovenfresh, Restaurant Lounge, 26, asserts, “IPL is not about passion but pure fun. People love to watch it in a lighter environment which city restaurants are apt at providing.” He sees an increasing trend of people watching cricket together at eating joints over a drink. Here, we have the facility of screens and special offers on drinks. Down Under, a restaurant bar in Sector 17 will be celebrating the special occasion in their own special way. Amarbir Singh, owner says, “We are expecting a lot of young crowd to turn up to watch cricket on the big screen.” ashima@tribunemail.com
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Friday saw journalist and author Aatish Taseer in the city at for a reading and signing event of his book Stranger To History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands at Capital Book Depot-17. Born in 1980, Aatish was raised by his Sikh mother in Delhi and his Pakistani father remained a distant figure, almost a figment of his imagination, until Aatish crossed the border when he was twenty-one to finally meet him. He lives in Delhi and London. Apart from a translation of Saddat Hasan Manto’s stories, ‘Stranger To History’ is his first book. This book is part memoir, part reportage and travelogue; an investigation of the question: What does it mean to be a young Muslim in the twenty-first century? Beginning in Beeston, UK, the Leeds suburb where the suicide bombers of 7/7 grew up, the book is an account of an overland journey that runs unbroken through Turkey, Syria, saudi Arabia and Iran, before ending in Pakistan, where his estranged father (the current governor of Punjab) lives. Taseer’s next book is a novel, The Temple-Goers. —TNS
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Vibing with verse
Admired by art lovers and connoisseurs for his myriad talents, that of a prolific poet, passionate painter, popular playwright, plus acclaimed stage radio TV and film actor, the Mohali-based theatre director, Vijay Kapoor, maintains a judicious balance between his passions and professional commitments as the vice-president of an MNC here. He is credited with four books in Hindi and two literary creations under print, roles in 11 feature films and 10 TV serials, 47 dramas as lead actor and six as director, and sculptures as well as 3000 paintings, partly exhibited. Upholding the tradition of aesthetic excellence, this B.Tech (mechanical) graduate with Master's in Business is not content with his achievements. Rather he reiterates, "Yeh dil maange more." Here, he shares his views on various issues. " I believe that 'literature' of all kinds is the mother of all arts as it enlightens you about life in all its manifestations, the part of life you are yet to experience," claims Vijay, an avid reader since childhood. "My maiden poem scribbled at Kulu when I was studying in Class IX was marked with stray brilliance, talking of ethics which were beyond the conceptual grasp of a boy of my age. However, the naïve description of the panoramic beauty of the valley in the poem could be understood, commented my teachers, appreciating the spark of talent in me. "A few of my 2000 poems have been presented in my books Antraal ki vyatha, Jadon se juda sangram, Parde, Anjuli bhar jal. I find that in free verse, with the inbuilt rhythm, one can express oneself better than strictly adhering to Chhand badh poetry." His poem Andhar Yatra depicts the detail of his plays in a fascinating style which testifies to his poetic potential. Many of his poems pulsate with imagery and subtlety of thought, symbols, play of similes, metaphors and idioms. He has been appreciated for his central roles in plays like Andhar Yatra, Hayavadan, Ashad ka ek din, Bhagwadjukkam, Jis Lahore ni, Agni aur barkha, but playing the main role in Arthur Miller's The Price, staged by Abhinet for the US embassy, is the closest to his heart. "Likewise, a long narration by me in an English film Vaki that won the best feature film award at Ashville International Fest-2005 in the USA still rejuvenates me. "Though many feature films and serials have given me immense popularity but penning poetry and writing plays remains my first love," says Vijay Kapoor, at present general secretary of Abhninet, the city's premier theater ensemble.
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Dr Sue Lyle from the UK on Friday conducted a workshop at The British School-44 in the city and interacted with the teachers, making them aware of the modern-day teaching techniques and skills. She guided the teachers to challenge the children thinking for high order thinking skills and insisted upon making children more robust learners, a need of the hour. She emphasized on the role of teachers in encouraging children for structured learning, playing and interactions. She further stated that it is in the hands of a teacher only to make a subject interesting or boring. The teachers should use more of creative imagination because more often than not, the syllabus is boring. Moreover, she emphasized, it was sheer peer pressure these days that was basically causing a breakdown amongst kids and they were not being able to enjoy their childhood to the full extent. Children must be allowed to choose a profession of their own so that they could enjoy what they do and not just tie them up due to one's own limitations . Mona Sethi, the director of the TBS thanked Sue and said "Technology and online learning, dealing with the unexpected and classroom management would greatly help the teachers in benefiting the children at the school". —TNS
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Spruce up your salad
Come summer and the colour and the flavour of the season is distinctly cool. And when it comes to food who can resist a sumptuous raw cold salad, whether plain or topped with a dash of honey, vinegar or lined with black pepper. Healthy and appetising this is one form of fare that can never fail. So, this summer we get for you some interesting and healthy ways to make your cold salad hot in
flavour.
But before we offer you some innovative ideas lets see what salad exactly means and where did it originate? First to the meaning, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary it is a mixture of raw vegetables such as lettuce, tomato, cucumber usually served with other food as part of a meal (though its no more only a part of the meal, instead a complete meal). And now to the origin, it is generally believed that salads were more enjoyed by ancient Romans and Greeks. For them it generally defined as mixed greens with dressing. And as time progressed, salads became more complicated; recipes varied according to place and time. And today we have a variety to choose from which, includes, hot, cold, oriental, fruit, dinner and many other variety of salads. Says Dimpy Anand, who runs her cooking classes in sector 35-D, "Come summers and cold salads are a hit and the flavour of this season is corn, macaroni and pasta salads." Ask her some tips to make a cold salad more flavorsome and she tips, "Yoghurt makes as one great dressing. But to make it low cal, use low fat milk and make curd out of it. In this dressing use salt, pepper, mustard powder and a pinch of sugar and for that mayonnaise flavour add a teaspoon of malai. Other than that readymade Italian dressing makes for a great combination." Lending a word of advice she adds, "While making cold salads keep it in mind that they have to be served chilled not even cold. So, refrigerate the dressing the moment you make it and then do the same with the veggies. And after you mix both, put them in the refrigerator and serve chilled." Telling us one zara hatke recipe of cold salad she says, "Papaya's are readily available these days. One can make Thai papaya cold salad. Yummy to eat and healthy for the body, in this salad one should use a raw papaya. For the dressing, mix tamarind and chilli powder. Add peanuts and serve chilled." Having become a complete meal in itself if you are a salad person then you can accompany brown, garlic or toasted bread for a wholesome meal. Dimpy gives another option, "Pita bread is easily available these days. One can fill any cold salad in it and have it for breakfast or dinner." Going by the medical practitioners, they too believe that raw vegetables (not all) easily slip through the system and do not create obstructions for what follows, therefore they should be served first. Says Sudha Khurana, consultant dietician, PGI, "Raw veggies are extremely good for health, but not all. Carrots, cabbage, capsicum, peas etc can be eaten raw, but beans, brinjal, ladyfinger etc need to be cooked as they have harsh fibres that need processing." Ask her does eating only a salad meet all the dietary requirements and she says, "It does, but one has to make it wholesome by adding vegetables and pulses. One can use rajmah, channa, moong, soya bean dal along with veggies to make it into a complete meal. And for non-vegetarians they can use boiled chicken instead of panner or dals." She adds, " The best way to include pulses in salads is sprout it and then have." Another important tip she gives is, "Tomato is a wonderful accompaniment, but one must sauté it a little, this adds to its healthy qualities." Creating a frenzy oriental salads are too a hit with people. Informing us more about orient flavours Vipul Dua, proprietor Purple Rice-35 says, "Cold salads are the most nutritious, as they have almost no calories (depending on the dressing used), use a variety of ingredients and are great in taste. And when we talk about Oriental salads they have a very distinct flavour as the ingredients used vary from honey to mustard sauce, to peanut butter sauce to sweet and spicy flavours making it different from usual salads. So people can add these ingredients to make the cold salads more appetising" He adds, "One of the favourite Oriental salad is Gado-Gado. It is made from a variety of veggies and the best thing about this salad is the dressing. A hot and cold salad the veggies used are cold but we add the dressing of hot peanut butter sauce that makes it lip-smacking." Adding Priya Garg, Director, Oven Fresh says, "People generally consider salads as devoid of nutrition, but here we are talking about cold salads that include veggies, pulses and seasoning. Equally healthy they give body the needed nutrition, but one has to be careful about the dressing used. Mayonnaise is full of fat so one can include vinaigrette, honey, yoghurt of low cal milk in the dressing. Our traditional kali mirch, lemon and salt too make for a wonderful dressing." So, what are you waiting for go make a meal! jigyasachimra@tribunemail.com Health bhi taste bhi
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Appetit The citrus king Kandla Nijhowne Looking through my notes of the past winter, I discovered to my utter dismay that the poor orange had been sidelined this season by wicked old me! Not a word had been dedicated to this sunny fruit! When I spotted oranges with my vendor, (albeit smallish ones), I decided, better late than never! My grey cells recollect that these smaller orbs are invariably very sweet, and perfect sized for the individual orange baskets described below. Oranges and orange blossoms have long been symbols of love. In olden days, no bride wanted to be married without wearing or holding them, The outside colour of an orange has absolutely no co-relation with the maturity of the fruit and juice inside. Some oranges turn orange when they are still unripe; others turn to green again as they ripen! People in Nepal almost never peel their oranges, but eat them rind and all! No peel off? Well, hats off to them then! In Afghanistan, oranges are customarily used as a seasoning at the dinner table. They are halved like lemons and squeezed over the food to help cut grease. In Jamaica, people clean their floors with an orange cut in half; mechanics there use oranges to clean away grease and oil. I for one have no desire to shine up my floors with them, or dive under the car bonnet on a scrubbing-spree, armed with innocent, unsuspecting orange halves! Give me the good old orange to peel, pull apart the segments and aim straight into the gob! The instant bursting of hundreds of miniature sacs and the release of the sweet juice flooding my mouth! Mmmmm…. Orange Baskets Ingredients 6 large navel oranges 2 slices canned pineapple 2 ripe bananas ½ cup granulated sugar ½ cup strawberries, sliced 1 cup whipping cream 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar ½ teaspoon almond extract 6 large strawberries for garnishing Method Wash oranges, dry well and cut a round slice off, leaving the lower two-thirds of the fruit intact. Excavate the segments as gently as possible. Discard the white membranes and clean out the shells of the spongy white pith. Chop the segments after removing the pips and tip into a bowl along with the pineapple, bananas and sugar. Gently fold in strawberries. Fill the rinds with this mixture. Whip the cream with the confectioners' sugar and almond extract. Pile large scoops of the cream into the orange baskets, ending the arrangement with a whole strawberry. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving. Ideally, serve each basket, nestled in a small glass bowl to prevent it from keeling over. Orange and Raisin Muffins Ingredients 1 large or 2 small oranges ½ cup orange juice 1 egg ½ cup butter 1½ cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder ¾ cup honey or white sugar 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup raisins Method Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Chop orange segments into pieces and remove pips. Blend the eggs, butter and juice with a whisk for 3 to 4 minutes. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Stir in the segments and raisins. Blend again until mixed. Spoon into paper cases placed in muffin pans. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. (If using honey, add with first 3 ingredients, if using sugar, add to the dry mix.) Split open while still warm and serve lightly smeared with butter.
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Face in the crowd Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty will be among those watching all the women attending the Indian Professional League (IPL) games in South Africa over the next five weeks to find the newest Bollywood starlet. The IPL has announced a Bollywood movie role for one lucky South African lass as it prepares to launch the five-week Twenty20 extravaganza here on Saturday with an inaugural double header. The search for a young South African woman with the potential to take Bollywood by storm was announced on Thursday by IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi and Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, all having stakes in the IPL teams. The lucky South African IPL fan with star quality stands to win a role in a Bollywood movie, 50,000 rands in cash, a business class trip to India and other prizes in the 2009 tournament's Miss Bollywood SA competition. "We're looking for someone who has the star quality to stand out in a crowd, probably without even trying that hard. It's that special, almost indefinable, quality that makes someone a star more than a beauty queen that we are looking for," Modi said. "The IPL matches with their mix of fun and excitement are an excellent environment to identify the kind of person who is a natural stand-out in a big crowd." "Star searches like this are a really great way to find people who may never even have thought that they have what it takes to really make it big," Shah Rukh said. "The heart of our idea is to search the crowd at IPL matches for someone who has the attitude and appearance that automatically draws the eye. It will be the kind of person who is not necessarily showing off for the camera, but who can mesmerise even total strangers," he said. IPL fans worldwide will also be able to cast their votes for the winner via the IPL website. — IANS
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If Big B launches a TV channel...
The 'Shahenshah' of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan may have dismissed the news that he is planning to launch a TV channel but that hasn't prevented a Pakistani news magazine from speculating about the would-be venture. The make-believe account in Instep magazine of how the channel will work with the "original Don at the helm" is hilarious. The potential breaking news: "Aishwarya pregnant!" Resident political analyst: "Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party, given his close friendship with Amitabh. The banned topics: Slumdog Millionaire would top the list. Shahrukh Khan, who has been in a row or two with Big B, and Hrithik Roshan, because of his screen chemistry with Aishwarya, would be banned by the channel. There would also be "a complete blanket ban on all former flames of the Bachchans: Rekha, Karisma Kapoor, Salman Khan, Vivek Oberoi," says the write-up titled "If Amitabh launches a news channel". Apart from the ban on celebrities, certain controversial topics too will be banished. Any Ram Gopal Verma films starring any Bachchan that may have flopped at the box office will never be discussed. Jaya Entertainment Programming will show constant replay of footage from the Unforgettable Tour; the IIFA awards featuring Bachchans in all their glory; any and all award ceremonies where the Bachchans have been awarded prizes - "whether they deserved them or not". Remakes special: Constant replays and re-runs of the "Great Bachchan Temple Hopping Sprees" will be allotted special slots. The news content will be driven from what Amitabh writes on his blog bigb.bigadda.com. Newscasters:They would, of course, be Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Celebrities who would "constantly be praised to the skies" would include the Bachchan clan, Ram Gopal Varma, Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Preity Zinta, John Abraham, Akshay Kumar "and again, the Bachchan clan". Tagline: The channel which would be run with the tagline Rishte mai to hum tumhare baap lagte hain, naam hai Shehenshah!'.
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Role gone Telugu hit Arundhati is all set to be remade into Hindi and the makers wanted to cast Anushka Sharma in the title role. But the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi heroine couldn't be finalised for it because of some misconceptions. "They needed someone strong, robust, young and determined and very north Indian as the lead in Hindi. They really wanted Anushka Sharma. She was perfect. But the producer was under the impression that she's under contract with Yash Raj Films and unable to do any outside film," said a source close to the film. "Now they might settle for the actress who played the lead in the Telugu Arundhati in Hindi. Coincidentally, her name too is Anushka," the source added. Many producers, including Madhu Mantena, who produced Ghajini, were vying for the Hindi remake rights. But Telugu producer M. Shyam Prasad Reddy is finally making it it in Hindi. Sonu Sood, who played the main antagonist in the Telugu version and is set to encore the same part in Hindi, confirms these developments. Sood has already started preparing for the part and said: "The Hindi version will have to be severely revised." — IANS
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Foolish no more Actor Raveena Tandon, who is all set to make her Bollywood comeback with Revathy's Chassni, says that she has evolved enough to not make a fool out of herself by accepting roles not meant for her. "Your career follows a cycle. The roles that actresses like Kareena (Kapoor) and Genelia (D'souza) are performing is something I cannot do at this stage of my career. If I agree to do such roles, I will only make a fool out of myself," Raveena said. "I played characters relevant to my age in films like Satta, Ghulam-E-Mustafa,and Shool. In Daman, given a good role I even agreed to play mother to Raima Sen," she said. But how difficult is it for the mother of two to return to the film industry, the Sheher ki ladki is quick to point out that the industry has matured and sensible films are being made. "It was not difficult for me to stage a comeback, I was getting offers right through. But I wanted to take it easy. At one stage, I had worked continuosly for 17 years and wanted to enjoy a break," she said. Television, the actress says, is not in her mind at this point of time. "I've just finished shooting for Chak de Bacche and have now taken up Chassni. I'm concentrating on taking up only project at a time as I want to devote time to my family." — PTI
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