Come summer and how can summer vacations be behind. Sending parents into a frenzy, it's this time of the year that makes the parents wear a 'holiday' thinking cap. Finding ideas to keep the children busy, they leave no newspaper advertisement or pamphlet unturned to find ways to keep their angels engaged. Lending you some possible ideas to tie down your little one, we zero in not on the usual workshops or hobby classes, but ideas for an adventure holiday.

For Rajeev Jindal, an employee of a telecom company in Mohali and resident of Sector-4 Panchkula, summer vacations are definitely not for hobby classes, "If you ask me, vacations are definitely not for joining some painting, dancing, art and craft or swimming classes, rather kids should be sent to camps in the hills. For they get to learn so many things that they cannot in the four walls of a home. Where in the city can they experience the flora and the fauna?"

We bet, after hearing the word adventure, your mind will travel to a Himalayan getaway. So, here's a checklist of mountaineering trips, water sports, wonderful settings, picturesque villages and small towns for that perfect vacation.

Go hiking

"Parents are more excited than children for these adventure trips," says Supreet Dhiman, founder CATS (an adventure club). Spelling out the itinerary, Supreet says, "This time, we are focusing on adventure sports and exploring the flora and the fauna of the area. And the holiday is not alone for the kids, but parents and grandparents can tag along too."

Animated comedy adventure Up helped lift the mood at the start of the Cannes filmfestival as cinema's biggest and glitziest gathering prepared to roll out the red carpet on Wednesday.

Up, directed by Pete Docter and produced by Disney's Pixar studios, has already been hailed as a triumph in advance reviews and was warmly applauded at its opening press screening, where journalists donned special goggles to see its 3D effects.

"A captivating odd-couple adventure that becomes funnier and more exciting as it flies along," as trade paper Variety described it, the tale of a retired balloon salesman and a zealous boy scout who fly to South America is not in the main competition.

But it adds the touch of Hollywood magic that is a big part of the Cannes mystique and may help outweigh a mood of anxiety and caution on the palm-lined Croisette waterfront this year.

The 100 or so Pixar Animation Studios employees had good reason to be giddy, and you could understand why they were more than a little nervous too. For more than four years, the animators, sound designers, editors and artists from every other Pixar department had plugged away on Up and on an early morning in April, they were finally about to see how their animated movie had turned out.

The movie itself -- Pixar's 10th animated film -- is narratively ambitious, a story about a 78-year-old widower's highly unusual road trip with a chubby young boy that, throughout its making, teetered on becoming sentimental and episodic. Although the movie is filled with comic bits, Up also features scenes of complex human emotion -- including the grief of a miscarriage -- that are rarely explored in family films. Parent studio Disney really needed the film to work commercially too. To add one more level of pressure to the Pixar team, just a few days before that April screening at George Lucas bucolic Skywalker Ranch, the Cannes Film Festival had selected Up to launch this week's prestigious festival, a first for an animated film.

If producer Jonas Rivera and writer-director Pete Docter, two of Pixar's earliest employees, were sweating bullets when they introduced Up to their Pixar colleagues, they didn't show it. "This is the first time that we've got everything together," Rivera said. Added Docter just before the house lights dimmed: "Thank you guys, for making the movie."

Despite all the end-of-the-journey gratitude, Up, which premieres in Cannes on Wednesday and arrives in theaters May 29, wasn't quite finished.

As soon as the screening ended, Docter, Rivera, composer Michael Giacchino, executive producer John Lasseter and a dozen members of Pixar's brain trust met over lunch in a Skywalker conference room to discuss what they had just seen. By the time the team finished dessert, they had decided Up needed a new piece of music, and the choice they made with Giacchino revealed much about the film's creative ambitions.

Up represents several Pixar firsts. In addition to the studio's first trip to Cannes, Up also marks a new move into producing and releasing a film in 3-D. It's a format that has worked well for competitor DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens, and Pixar is now remaking its first two Toy Story films. Up, for all of its novelty, was returning to some of the same simple, universal ideas that anchor all Pixar movies. Strip away the elaborate (if sometimes unconventional) narrative devices, and you begin to see relatable truths that give the movies heart. Wall-E just wants to hold hands. Ratatouille is about becoming the person you were born to be. The importance of family? Watch Finding Nemo.

What Up was trying to say, in other words, was not so different from what has happened to Pixar itself: that growing older can be a beautiful thing.

— LA Times-Washington Post, Reuters

Brooke Shields has defended pal Kiefer Sutherland after he was charged with assaulting fashion designer Jack McCollough. Shields' attorney, Gerald Lefcourt, has issued a statement, insisting the '24' star was just being a gentleman. "While at (the after-party at SubMercer), Brooke was bumped into by Jack McCollough, and Kiefer Sutherland became concerned. Kiefer has always been a gentleman in her company," the New York Daily News quoted the statement.

A source echoed Brooke's statement, saying that McCollough "may have shoved Kiefer first." Meanwhile, an attorney for Sutherland has released a statement, insisting that the actor was not to blame in an alleged assault on McCollough.— ANI 

Hollywood Actor Jason Bateman might have kissed a lot of actresses onscreen, but as far as his onscreen kiss with Jennifer Aniston in The Baster is concerned, he is pretty bashful. Though Bateman did not emphasise much about the kiss he definitely lauded Jennifer's kissing abilities.

"It felt ... It was a good scene, I'll say that. It was a good scene," People magazine quoted him as saying.

Bateman revealed that he had been friends with Jennifer since he worked with her in the Break-Up.

He also said that working with Jennifer again was fun.

"It's nice to finally work together. I think we just had one scene in The Break-Up. It's been a lot of fun," he said.

Case 1

Crisis: Twenty nine-year-old Niharika is a successful financial consultant. Her parents, who were pretty proud of her achievements, could not understand her strong aversion to marriage.

Cause: Parents approached a counsellor, who, after a series of sittings, revealed that while a kid, Niharika had been influenced by the disturbed relationship of her educated and professionally well-settled parents. The father who was an alcoholic was harsh on his wife not only emotionally but even used to beat her. Sadly, Niharika saw at least four more couples around who had troubled marriages. As she moved to boarding, at the age of 11 or 12, she made up her mind not to marry ever. The decision stayed with her for all these years till her parents approached the counsellor. After six months of counselling, Niharika is now seriously considering getting married.

Case 2

Crisis: Parag, a software engineer, is a caring husband and father to a seven-year-old boy. Though he fulfills every responsibility towards his son, the affection is clearly missing between the father and the boy.

Cause: The counselling revealed that when the couple’s son was born, Parag saw his wife undergo 20-hour long labour. Unable to see his wife in pain, he unconsciously held his son responsible for it and that prevented development of proper father-son bonding. A series of counselling sessions helped Parag let go the harsh feelings.

Case 3

Crisis: Despite her best efforts, Pooja is finding it difficult to adjust into a new role of a homemaker, worst, she is not able to pinpoint the reason.

Cause: Pooja’s father was quite aggressive. As a kid, she saw him bully his wife often. The fear that ‘my husband shouldn’t be like my father’ kept on growing, albeit at a subconscious level. Unfortunately, she got a dominating husband. She’s now unable to stand up for her rights as she doesn’t want to go through the turmoil and stress experienced by her mother. She’s still undergoing counselling and has shown signs of improvement

Nobody has a perfect past. The events, which may have happened with us while we were kids, leave an indelible mark on her psyche, affecting our present and future life. Past directs to a large extent how we act or react to situations and even relationships.

But then a lot depends on the individuals, believes city sociologist Sherry Sabbarwal: “People can be put into two categories — those who get stuck in the past and repeat the negative patterns and others who consider the past as a learning curve and emerge stronger after the experience.” It’s all about taking a positive approach, she suggests, adding that if someone has been through a rough patch it becomes even more important to avoid the similar pitfalls.

“Problems occur because there has been no sharing,” says Dr Parmod Kumar, consulting psychiatrist: “Studies reveal that if one goes through something very stressful, either it dies down itself in 12 weeks or stays with you forever. Basically it’s suppression of the event that starts it all. If one has family or friends with whom one can share, it greatly helps to nip the problem in the bud. However, it’s very much possible to get over and get back to normal life if you seek professional help,” he adds.

Poonam Sharma, a spiritual healer, says the past baggage is akin to kachra in the sink. “If not cleared, it will eventually clog life. The issues not resolved can hamper physical, emotional as well as mental well being,” quips the expert. So what’s the cure? “The suffering individual can try examining the past. Sometimes the very awareness of the root cause of the problem can lead to healing. Or one can try pen down technique. Just jotting down the emotions can be very relieving,” she opines.

(The names have been changed to protect identity)

mona@tribunemail.com

When it comes to equality, men may be lagging far behind women in certain matters.

For instance, the latest study by the McGill University Health Centre shows that women have a more powerful immune system than men. In fact, the production of oestrogen by females could have a beneficial effect on the innate inflammatory response against bacterial pathogens.

More specifically, oestrogen naturally produced in women seems to block the production of an enzyme called Caspase-12, which itself blocks the inflammatory process.

The presence of oestrogen would therefore have a beneficial effect on innate immunity, which represents the body’s first line of defence against pathogenic organisms.

“These results demonstrate that women have a more powerful inflammatory response than men,” said Maya Saleh, who conducted the study.

The study was based on mice lacking Caspase-12 gene, meaning that the mice were extremely resistant to infection.

The human Caspase-12 gene was implanted in a group of male and female mice, yet only the males became more prone to infection.

“We were very surprised by these results, and we determined that the oestrogen produced by the female mice blocked the expression of the human Caspase-12 gene,” explained Saleh, according to a McGill release.

“We were also able to locate where the oestrogen receptor binds on the gene in order to block its expression, which indicates that the hormone exerts direct action in this case.”

A majority of parents and adult children seem to be at loggerheads. Now a new study has narrowed it down, saying parents are more likely to quarrel with daughters than with sons, while adult children were more likely to quarrel with mothers than fathers.

The study also found these quarrels were likely to upset the parents more than they upset the children.

“The parent-child relationship is one of the longest lasting social ties human beings establish,” said Kira Birditt, study co-author and researcher at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR).

“This tie is often highly positive and supportive but it also commonly includes feelings of irritation, tension and ambivalence,” Birditt added.

The researchers asked about tensions related to a variety of topics, including personality differences, past relationship problems, children’s finances, housekeeping habits, lifestyles, and how often they contacted each other. According to Birditt, tensions may be more upsetting to parents than to children because parents have more invested in the relationship. Parents are also concerned with launching their children into successful adulthood.Both mothers and fathers reported more tension in their relationships with daughters than with sons. Daughters generally have closer relationships with parents that involve more contact which may provide more opportunities for tensions in the parent-daughter tie. Both adult sons and adult daughters reported more tension with their mothers than with their fathers. “It may be that children feel their mothers make more demands for closeness,” Birditt said, “or that they are generally more intrusive than fathers”. —IANS

Our brains are much more active while daydreaming than previously thought, if a new study is to be believed. Conducted by researchers at the University of British Colombia, the study has shown that activity in numerous brain regions increases when a person’s mind wanders.

It has also found that brain areas linked with complex problem-solving, which were previously thought to go dormant while daydreaming, remain highly active during such episodes.

“Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness. But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream - much more active than when we focus on routine tasks,” says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Department of Psychology.

During the study, the researchers placed the subjects inside an MRI scanner, where they performed the simple routine task of pushing a button when numbers appear on a screen.

The research team tracked the participants’ attentiveness moment-to-moment through brain scans, subjective reports from the subjects, and by tracking their performance on the task.

They found daydreaming to be an important cognitive state in which one may unconsciously turn one’s attention from immediate tasks to sort through important problems.

However, the latest study has shown that the brain’s ‘executive network’ - associated with high-level, complex problem-solving and including the lateral PFC and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex - also gets activated while people daydream.

This is a surprising finding, that these two brain networks are activated in parallel. Until now, scientists have thought they operated on an either-or basis - when one was activated, the other was thought to be dormant,” says Christoff.

According to the researchers, the less the participants were aware that their mind was wandering, the more both networks were activated.

The quantity and quality of brain activity suggests that people struggling to solve complicated problems might be better off switching to a simpler task, and letting their mind wander.

People for Animals, Chandigarh has the perfect companion for anyone who is ready to be loved unconditionally and just forever and ever:

F One male and one female kitten with shinning white and grey coat are ready for adoption. They have been sterilized and vaccinated too.

Anup Garg, a city-based businessman from Mohali, Phase 7, left for a short summer break to Dehradun with his family. However, planning and executing it wasn’t an easy one. No, it had nothing to do with the kids’ holiday homework or Anup trying to break the busy 24X7 schedule. It was about Sultan, their Dalmatian. ‘Who on earth will look after Sultan?’ The family grappled a lot with this concern, till they reached on a consensus. ‘We will train Bahadur (their family help) to look after Sultan. We don’t have an option,’ they decided.

And here they are, many like Sultan, who are left home alone as the family packs off for a summer break. But not before they have handed out instructions, and given wee amount of training to the person who would look after their pet.

Offers Anupama Garg, “I prepared a weeks chart and handed it to Bahadur before leaving. It has details on everything—Sultan’s feed, when to be given, how to be given. It has a list of dos and don’ts, like Sultan should not be let out in the veranda in the afternoon, he should not be allowed in the drawing room, he likes his bread a little warm...” Anupama has also neatly laid down contact numbers of three odd veterinary doctors and numbers of friends, Bahadur can contact if required. She adds, “I trained Bahadur pretty well before leaving. I call him up everyday to check on Sultan.”

Now, isn’t this a lot of trouble? How can someone enjoy in this scenario?

Provides Rajat Handa, director, Animal Kingdom-26, “The pet back home is definitely going to miss his or her owner. So, there are few things that an owner needs to take care of before they leaving for a vacation. Firstly, get the pet checked by the vet before you leave. Secondly, tell the help about the pets’ food habits because you don’t want them to experiment when you are not around. In case you plan to add something new to the pets diet, do it once you are back.” Adds Rajat, “Make sure to tell the help to increase the duration of the pets outings when you are not around. Not to forget, keep patting and loving them, so that they don’t miss the owner. And lastly, do not break their normal routine. The help should not introduce any changes in the pets schedule.” And, if this doesn’t work, book an air ticket for the little poodle too!

Dheeraj Chopra, an officer with the Merchant Navy, and his family too is working on the idea as to who will take care of Celia and Rustam after they leave for Malaysia next week. The maid is too scared of the Labradors, which obviously means she is not the right person to take care of them. “I had to ask one of my ‘bachelor’ friend Roshan Sharma who stays in Zirakpur to look after the two,” he smiles. “Which he reluctantly agreed to.”

Now, for the things that Dheeraj is doing before the family flies for Malaysia. “We asked Roshan to come and stay with us so that Rustam and Celia develop familiarity with him. Now, he feeds and looks after them, while we see a good and reassuring bond developing between the three. Puts in wife Sumedha, who does interiors for private firms, “I think now we can leave without any worry.” But, mind you they too have prepared a long list of how Rustam and Celia should be treated. “I have bought enough food for the pets, which will last them for a week and I have passed on Roshan’s number to our friends who will keep a check on the three of them. He gives a throaty laugh, “Roshan will kill me for this. But, I don’t have an option.”

jasmine@tribunemail.com

People for Animals, Chandigarh, presents Jugnu Bazaar, a sale and exhibition of hand made and recycled paper products, paintings, prints, photographs and antique tiles at Taj Chandigarh on May 17.

This event is being organised with a twin purpose of providing a platform for various non-government organisations working for different sectors such as environmental conservation, spastic children, physically challenged children as well as organisations working for street children to come together for the promotion of their work through their products. The funds generated through the sale of these products would help them to run their projects and activities. In addition to this Jugnu Bazaar will also provide an opportunity to the general public to contribute to the social sector by the purchase of these products. The products include photo frames, diaries, paper bags, boxes, cards and other stationary items- all made of handmade and recycled paper.

Paintings, photographs, prints and antique tiles will also be displayed and sold. —TNS