Oh my Devil, look at you, looking so witchy!' Thanks, do you like it? I went all the way to the countryside to get these claws. 'I thought of putting on red lenses but they were just not as scary.' I have a strong feeling; the guy behind that mask is as ghostly as the dead. She couldn't have looked an authentic witch without that black soot smeared around her eyes.

Thirty-first October guys and Halloween's parties' conversations couldn't get better!

The night to look like at your ‘perfect beast’, like wolves or elves, like a devil or evil, like a bitch or witch, like a ghost or monster. Bringing you a fleeting round up and all the interesting bits.

"We'll be organising a dracula and vampire theme party with all the horrible decorations, there'll be masks and in drinks, we'll be though serving all the nice drinks but with really ugly presentations," Alok Bharadwaj, general manager, Voodoo-26, scares, entices, interests all in one. Nice drinks with ugly presentations, how about imagining your poison served with fangs or hedgehogs for décor.

Countless celebrate, few know. The day has origins in the ancient festival known as Samhain, that celebrates the end of the ‘Lighter half’ of the year and beginning of the ‘darker half’ of the year" and is sometimes regarded as the ‘celtic New Year’.

One school of thought, goes like 'we follow traditions like our ancestors and as this process goes on much of their originality gets distorted with newer additions and alterations. At one point of time, it leaves us puzzled with its multi-coloured faces and doubts lurk deep in our soul.' Some depict the history of Halloween in this light.

Traditions are for the bookish, back to, 'what's in for us?' At Black Magic, mazare party for a theme awaits the couples along with an all around true-blue ghostly experience. After all, it's the only night when you look on the outside what you are on the inside the other rest 364 nights! At Score-8, there'll be music to match the occasion and the staff will be in black dress and masks. "But we won't be handing out the masks to customers, for the fear anybody might mess up with anybody and a security nightmare," laughs Rahul Sharma, manager operations. For inspiration take a leaf out of Shakespeare's legendary Macbeth! Recalls Michelangelo Francis, art teacher, St. John's school-26, "Last year, I attended this really wild party in Peru, there it's like a festival, completely over the top, the beer is free, there are masks, very loud colours, food served in skull, cakes served as if somebody's eyes popping out, the whole experience was like you're walking among dead cops, I was taken aback."

The celebrations need not even be restricted to dancing at scary music with 500 strangers, try the traditional trick or treating or wearing costumes, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted places or plain playing with your folks to scare them no end. Take your pick. Smear the soot, spike up the hair, blood red lenses, claws, vampire canines, whatever it takes, get ready. See you there!

manpriya@tribunemail.com

¼ cup dhania patta, chopped

10-12 curry leaves

1 tblsp garam masala

1 potato

½ cup green peas, shelled

¼ of a cauliflower

10 French beans

12 tbsp groundnut oil

2 medium onions, chopped finely

1 capsicum

salt to taste

1 carrot

2 tomatoes

For masala paste

1" ginger, chopped

1 tsp jeera

2 tbsp khuskhus

12 cloves

8 pods garlic, crushed

6 red chillies whole

½ cup coconut, scraped

2 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp fennel (saunf) 

Method

Wash and cut all the vegetables into equal size pieces. Wash and puree the tomatoes. Heat up two tablespoon of oil and fry the paste ingredients till light brown. Cool and grind to a paste with little water. Boil the potatoes, cauliflower and carrots in salted water till half done. Drain and retain the water separately. Heat oil in pan and fry the onion till golden brown. Mix in the curry leaves and masala paste. Fry further till the oil separates. Mix in the vegetables and continue stirring. Add tomato puree and 2 cups of the saved water and bring to a boil. Simmer till the vegatables are cooked and the gravy is thick. Sprinkle garam masala and stir well.

It's not just culinary etiquette to pair red wine with red meat and not fish, with a Japanese research team finding there is a scientific explanation. Researcher Takayuki Tamura and colleagues from the product development research laboratory of Japanese wine producer Mercian Corp have found that wine connoisseurs established the rule of thumb because of the flavour clash between red wine and fish.

Until now, nobody could consistently predict which wines might trigger a fishy aftertaste because of the lack of knowledge about its cause.

But Tamura and his team found that an unpleasant, fishy aftertaste noticeable after drinking red wine with fish resulted from naturally occurring iron in red wine with some wines having more iron than others.

"Strong positive correlations were found between the intensity of fishy aftertaste and the concentration of both total iron and ferrous ion," the researchers said in a statement.

Their study, published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, was based on studying 38 commercial red wines from a list of countries, 26 white wines, two sherries, and one each of port, madeira and botrytised wine.

"They found that wines with high amounts of iron had a more intensely fishy aftertaste. This fishy taste diminished, on the other hand, when the researchers added a substance that binds up iron," the researchers said. They said the findings indicate that iron is the key factor in the fishy aftertaste of wine. —ANI

He is a busy guy. Promoting his latest movie, London Dreams, six-seven hours a day through Facebook and Twitter, discussing details and updates with his friends and acquaintances, giving interviews and posing for shutterbugs. He is just 14, but Rohin Bains is a very busy guy these days. Why? Playing the character of young Mannu

(Salman Khan’s character in London Dreams) demands it. As professional as he can be, the young actor cannot hide his excitement and nervousness, of course.

“The first thing that I do every morning is to Google for the reviews on the music, star cast and everything associated with London Dreams. And, I feel excited after reading some good ones. Even my friends at school are excited about the movie and I would like to go to watch it with the whole bunch when it releases,” says Rohin.

A student of YPS-Mohali, Rohin is already a hero in his school. “I am praying that the movie does well because everybody in the country might associate the success of London Dreams with Salman Khan or Ajay Devgan, but in my school and friend circle, it will be associated with me,” he says. Smart talk.

Though Rohin is not new to the camera, his earlier movie was EK with Bobby Deol and has been associated with Theatre Arts, Chandigarh since he was in class three, the limelight did come after a lot of hard work. “I play a naughty and carefree village kid. Sometimes, I had to shoot for long hours, say from 4 in the morning till 10 at night. Once, I had to run a lot for a shot and I was so tired when I came home that I fell dead asleep,” he shares. But he isn’t complaining. “You have to give your best when you are working along with such A-list actors. I enjoyed it because I was well taken care of,” he adds. Talk being professional!

He might be young in age but dreams big. “I would love to work again with Salman as he is the most down to earth human being and of course, Amitabh Bachchan.” And, the guy knows his future well too. “Though I love acting, I think it’s not a stable career. I’d love to become a journalist,” he says. Sure, for someone who reads Chetan Bhagat, the guy demands to be taken seriously.

A dream play is the one that offers an engrossing as well as meaningful entertainment and all that which should have meaning for life, the world and society that we live in. Driven by the belief the Yadvindra Public School (junior wing)- Mohali relied on the theatrical vision and potential of young thespian Zubin Mehta. The result was a mesmerising but didactic evolution of a play called The Last Leaf, based on a classic short story by O Henry, the American literary genius. The play was enacted by students of Class V of the school who performed like professional artistes.

Zubin made certain aberrations to the original script, especially sculpting the simple and expressive language easy for the conceptual grasp of the child actors.

The play effectively brought alive the extremes of poignancy due to depression and saga of courage and determination by the lead characters which rather augmented the climax at every phase. The story depicts the failures in the life of the protagonist, an artist, Behreman (Pavit Singh), who is consoled and supported by two orphan girl artists Sue (Raiza Choudhary) and Johnsy (Sweetaj Brar). Behreman, however, notwithstanding those frequent failures, resolves to create a marvel of artistic excellence, his masterpiece and continues to work hard. Meanwhile, Johnsy falls sick with severe pneumonia. In bed, she keeps looking at a cluster of leaves of an ivy vine collating with the wall, falling one by one.

In city to shake up the people with his play IPTA’s Be-Libaas (Introduced by the Sufi foundation) to be staged at Tagore theatre on Saturday, Aziz Quraishi, the playwright shares that theatre has definitely come of age. “We can see a lot of regional theatre now. Watching a play is a subjective matter, but there is no dearth of good plays and actors.” No wanting to scrape much into the play, Aziz throws light on the plot of the play, which is based on man woman relationship. “We react to situations, and sometimes they are the real culprits. Be-Libaas too depicts how simple, social and morally defined relationships at workplace, neighbourhood and even home can get twisted and cross the traditional accepted boundaries.” Aziz adds, “Ninty per cent of the plays have a strong social message, and this one too is challenging in terms of subject and execution.”

For Aziz, who believes in gathering and creating his own audiences, theatre has to change with the changing audiences. “ All the same, there can be no compromise on essence. It’s each to its own. Some people like comedy, musical and serious ones. But, it is the basic interest that binds them to the play, puts in Aziz, who has already garnered adulation from the Delhi and Srinagar audiences. But when it comes to talking on Aziz Quraishi, the playwright, limits to talking about the present. Even as the google search lists his work profile in chronological order. The man has written and directed more than 10 full- length plays and acted in more than 50. “We are surviving because of our passion. We are getting no funds from the government.”

Teekam Joshi, the lead actor or Be-Libaas, sees no problem with theatre in terms of sustainability. “ I am surviving only on theatre,”  he smiles.