What if Sukhna Lake is no more there? The joggers and walkers will have to look for another track to maintain their fitness level. Couples will have no choice but to sit across the tables at eating joints. An alternative would have to be suggested to tourists. And those in the habit of being at Sukhna every morning and evening, just to appreciate the beauty of it, will have to engage themselves in a more sublime experience. But can any pleasure replace the joy of being at Sukhna?

All it takes to realise why people call Sukhna as the ‘soul of Chandigarh’, is a drive down to the Golf Course area adjoining Sukhna Lake. Climb the stairs to reach the top of the hillock and observe the lake for a few minutes. “Sukhna from that point looks serene that is has a lasting effect on the people,” says Ravi Prakash, a final-year student of MFA. But in his last few visits to the lake, he saw something else too. “Sukhna has developed a lot of dry patches. There is no water in some areas and the base is cracked,” he says.

To put forth his concern Ravi did what he could. He painted his face to mirror the condition of the lake. “I painted my face in red, blue and green, the primary colours to depict that lake is of prime importance to us. Also, in between I painted cracks to show how the lake looks like now,” he avers.

Ravi took the initiative to ensure that his source of inspiration stays there, just as other artists have done earlier. Pradeep Mahajan, a photographer, held an exhibition on Sukhna Lake, titled Enchanting Sukhna, two years back. The 53 photographs clocked in the period of four years captured various moods of the lake. “Sukhna is located at the foothills of Shivalik range. For an artist to paint or click nature, it’s important to be a part of nature and only Sukhna makes that possible in the city,” says Pradeep.

Recalling his days of clicking it, he tells us, “I used to visit Sukhna at odd times like four in the morning and one at night to see how the look changes.” Sunrise and sunset are still his favourite shots. The most interesting experience was, “When I visited the lake in a heavy storm post-midnight to capture how the water of Sukhna looks like.”

Bheem Malhotra, a city-based artist and faculty member at the Chandigarh College of Architecture, makes sure to take his students to the lake to paint nature. He himself has painted several sketches of the lake. “You can never have enough of it. View the lake from different locations and you will find it look different and inspire more.” He has painted Sukhna with the hills in the backdrop, with boats floating in it, water birds, people enjoying the beauty of it, and of course the sunrise and sunset.

“I painted Sukhna not for people to appreciate it but because I simply loved to paint it,” shares Bheem, just as Ravi has started to shoot it. He is planning to make a documentary on the lake that will have information on the conception of lake to its present form. “There is something magical about the lake. The more I look at it closely to shoot, the more it fascinates me. I have also tried to inform people through the documentary that the lake will dry up if we continue to take it for granted.”

For amateur artists in the city, the lake has always been the favourite subject. Sandeep Gupta, an HR consultant by profession, has his photograph of Sukhna Lake was on display at an exhibition organised by the Chandigarh Fotography Club recently. He has clicked the sunrise at the lake with boats and people enjoying it. “Sukhna Lake as a subject can never get dated. Photographers will find different moods, expressions and activities at different times.” They will as long as joggers, couples, tourists and lake lovers and the lake is there!

Step two

It’s yet another feather in Shobha Koser’s cap, known as an established kathak guru and performer, academician and administrator of the Pracheen Kala Kendra, who released her book An Exposition of Classical Dances of India at the Chandigarh Press Club on Tuesday. “As expected the book is an attempt to document the origin and history of Indian classical dances with a comprehensive study of the art from stone-age to the Mughal period,” said the chief guest, Jayant Kastuar, secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and an eminent kathak maestro.

“The author has put in her lifetime experiences and research work which will be of tremendous use to scholars, performers and art lovers,” he added. Says Shobha, “The purpose of present venture is to bring under one wrap all the material in an appropriate sequence so as to portray the different facets of Indian classical dance. The book covers both theoretical (literary) as well as practical (applied) sections of dance as well as the origin of various dance forms, gharanas and biographies of reputed pioneers in art.”

The book is being published by Abhishek Publications. Besides Hindi and English, the Punjabi and Bengali editions are in the offing, disclosed Kendra secretary Sajal Koser while presenting the vote of thanks. 

Katrina Kaif beats Shah Rukh Khan in mobile searchBollywood actor Katrina Kaif is the most searched celebrity on the mobile phones and has beaten the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Aishwarya Rai.

The research was conducted by mBit Infotech, a Value Added Service(VAS) provider. Among the Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities, Katrina is on the number one spot followed by Angelina Jolie, Kareena, Shah Rukh, Sal1man, Bipasha, Aishwarya, Monica Bellucci and Aamir Khan.Commenting on the results, Raghavendra Agarwala, CEO of mBit Infotech, said: "It is amazing to see that Katrina Kaif is ruling the charts with a major pie, presumably implying that Katrina's popularity is mounting for both national and international audiences." The research is based on the searches performed by over 120,000 users of mBit in the first quarter of 2010 (Jan to April) and it also found out that "sex" is still the most popular searched keyword followed by music where mostly international music icons like Akon, Linkin Park, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Rihanna and Michael Jackson top the list. — IANS

Deepika Padukone says that her co-actor in Pradeep Sarkar's Lafange Parindey Neil Nitin Mukesh is so protective of her that he gets tense every time she has to perform a stunt sequence."It's very sweet of him. But I insist on doing what I want to. Neil does get tense," she said.The actor has so impressed her that she cannot stop praising him.

"Neil is such a well brought-up guy, absolutely impeccable in his manners. Besides being a brilliant actor, he's also a great technician. I see him turning director soon. My other co-star Imran Khan in Break Ke Baad is great fun too. We shot in Delhi and bonded immediately," she said.

Speaking of Imran, there was talk of Deepika deliberately working with Ranbir Kapoor's immediate rival after their break up.

When asked about it, she flared up.

"No one tells me what to do and what not to do. My personal life has nothing to do with my professional one. Imran is a wonderful co-star. I like working with actors who are fun yet professional, like Akshay, Imran, Neil and Abhishek Bachchan."

When asked about her linkup with liquor baron Vijay Mallya's son, Deepika sighed, saying: "Can't I be seen with the people I'm working with without being linked to them? Not too many people know this. But Siddharth Mallaya actually runs the whole IPL (Indian Premier League) show for his father. So it was natural for me to celebrate with him when our team won a match. Anyway, the IPL season is now over. So I guess that rumour will end."

Deepika is very happy about her roles so far. "Housefull was a new experience. I had to do comedy. Like Akshay Kumar, I chose to do a more subtle comedy in Housefull. For me being funny doesn't mean screaming and rolling my eyes. Now I've three films that are about to be completed -- Ashutosh Gowariker's Khelenge Hum Jee Jaan Se, Pradeep Sarkar's Lafange Parindey and Danish Aslam's Break Ke Baad. Let's see which comes next."

— IANS

Lindsay Lohan's acting career took another hit after she was ordered by a court to wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet which would jeopardise her filming schedules.The 23-year-old lost a bid to relax restrictions involving drug and alcohol testing so that she can be in Texas to shoot for Machete, a Robert Rodriguez film that co-stars Jessica Alba and Robert DeNiro. But Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel told the star that she would have to delay her involvement in the project.Appearing in a Beverly Hills court today, the actress was ordered to wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet, despite her attorney saying it would interfere with photo shoots and her filming schedule.

Lohan appeared before a judge after missing a probation hearing last week relating to a 2007 drink-driving case.The Mean Girls star who wore a grey suit as she arrived at the Courthouse, was told she had violated her probation and the judge scheduled a new hearing in July to determine possible further sanctions.The Hollywood actor, who agreed to the conditions, claimed she lost her passport in France last week, preventing an earlier return to Los Angeles for the May 20 hearing she missed.

Photos from Cannes showed the actor partying on a yacht into the late hours on the day she was supposed to be in court in Beverly Hills. A bench warrant was issued for her arrest then lifted when her lawyer posted bail and Lohan flew back to the United States over the weekend.Judge Revel said Lohan had failed to complete alcohol education classes imposed as part of a 2007 sentence for reckless driving, drunken driving and driving under the influence of cocaine.The actress' once flourishing career has taken a hit because of her partying lifestyle. — PTI 

Divya Dutta is on a roll. Last seen as Jalebi in Delhi-6, the versatile actor says she will be seen in not one or two but eight films this year."I've been working very hard. Eight of my films will release this year and I have signed five new ones," Divya said in an interview.

The 32-year-old will be seen in diverse roles in the films.In Haat, The Weekly Bazaar, she plays a Rajasthani woman who has to pay a huge price for challenging the villagers and leaving her husband. The film is the directorial debut of Seema Kapoor and also stars Mukesh Tiwari, Archana Puran Singh and Yashpal Sharma.Then the actor will be seen in Sushen Bhatnagar's Monica, based on the life of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar who was found murdered in her Delhi home a few years ago.Apart from that she will feature in Subhash Ghai's Chaloo Movie, Amole Gupte's children's film and a Sudhir Mishra's yet-to-be-titled film, among others.At present, Divya is eagerly waiting for the August release of her Hollywood film Hisss that revolves around the life of a snake woman, played by Mallika Sherawat."Hisss is treated in a very different way. A similar story might have been heard before, but the way it is being presented is very modern. My character in the film brings the romantic angle," she said.

Directed by American director Jennifer Chambers Lynch, the film also stars Irrfan Khan, who plays Divya's husband and American actor Jeff Doucette.So did she have any scenes with a snake?"No, I didn't have anything to do with snakes," she said.When asked about her experience of working with Mallika, Divya said: "Mallika is known to be reclusive, but she is very friendly and we shared a great on-screen chemistry. I used to feel so bad for her because she had to sit the whole day with so much make up on. But she did a great job."

And how different did she find working with an international crew?"Working in a Bollywood film is also great and I have personally never experienced any problem, but the international crew I worked with was very passionate, dedicated and extremely punctual, which was the best part," said Divya.On her International stint, apart from Hisss, Divya is working on Heart Land a film that is being directed by Fred Holmes and where she plays the role of a Punjabi girl.She has also bagged another Hollywood project but refrains from divulging any details. — IANS

Hollywood star John Travolta's celebrity pals have congratulated the star after he confirmed reports his wife Kelly Preston is expecting a baby.The Pulp Fiction actor revealed Preston is three months pregnant last week, marking the end of a devastating period which began with the death of their teenage son Jett January last year and ended with an airport tragedy in Maine earlier this month, which claimed the lives of the family's two pet dogs.

Travolta's Look Who's Talking co-star Kirstie Alley was the first to coo about the news, writing in a post on her Twitter.Com page.

Jackman, who starred with Travolta in Swordfish, said, "I'm very thrilled for him. I know John - he's an amazing dad and so that's one lucky kid. I'm very, very, very happy for them. Very excited." Meanwhile, Travolta's Hairspray colleague Walken said, “Wonderful news.” And Lori Loughlin, who appeared with both Travolta and Preston in 2009's Old Dogs added, "Kelly and John are wonderful people. They deserve all the joy this new baby will bring them!" — PTI

Catherine Zeta-Jones has won the best actor award for A Little Night Music at the Drama Desk Awards in New York.The actor shared the honour with Memphis star Montego Glover at the ceremony, which celebrates both Broadway and off-Broadway productions.Actor Liev Schreiber was named best actor for his role in Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge, while drama Red was cited as Best Play. —IANS

British actor Orlando Bloom has been roped in to play a negative role in The Three Musketeers.

The 33-year-old will be playing Duke of Buckingham, the arch-nemesis to the Musketeers.

The film is based on Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same title and Paul W.S. Anderson will direct it. The script is being written by Anderson along with Andrew Davies, reports a website.

The 3-D action adventure movie will go on floors later this summer and will release next year. – IANS

No one’s asking you to buy a Roberto Cavalli, Jimmy Choo, Bottega Venetta or Salvatore Ferragamo. Designer labels aren’t limited to these few names, a creation of which has the capacity to do irreparable damage to your bank balance.

But fret not… there are a host of desi designers Abhishek Dutta, Jai Parvesh, Preetu Jwahar, Neta Bhargav, Shyam Narayan Prasad… that are stylish and affordable.

And the good news is, one need not rush to Delhi to buy an exclusive piece before a party as the stores in the city have brought the low-end designer creations here.

Geeta Sundra and Sunaina Chandra of Aranya have just added creations by Manju Bobby Grover and Preeti Maheshwar Kapoor to the existing line. “People have an inclination for designer labels. Price of designer creations as compared to the best of the brands available in the city are justified because of the exclusivity factor,” informs Geeta. Unlike in case of hi-end brands, there is no duplication of pieces of a single design and pattern.

Preference for designer labels has also increased because one can be experimental with the cut and silhouette. As Aarshi Gupta, owner of Soh Koh-26, puts it, “Branded casuals are in straight cuts, flairs or at the most in A-line where as in designer labels even casuals have interesting designs.”

But the gradual shift from brands to designer labels is for a different reason. She feels that the misconception that designer wear is more expensive than the brands have been done away with. “There are certain hi-end brands that are as costly as the designer creations. In this case designer wear has an advantage of better designs and cut,” adds Aarshi. At Soh Koh one can get creations by Preeti Jhawar, Ayan Sarkar and Jyoti Khosla.

At Aranya one can also get designer footwear. Sunaina says, “As accessories are as important as clothes, people also want the best.” Very affordable designer accessories are also available at Samsaara. “We have labels available in different ranges to cater to a wider clientele,” informs Meera Singh of Samsaara. Satya Paul sarees on display fall in the range of Rs 2,000-3,000. Also neckties, cuff-links and dresses by Satya Paul are reasonably priced. Other labels that fall in the low-end category are Aksh, Kranti Jain, Payal Kapoor and Radhika Gupta. The reason Meera cites for the growing popularity of these labels is, “They save people from the headache of explaining to a boutique owner what design they are looking for. Here instead they get what they want as there is a huge variety and easily available.” Also, Samsaara is promoting a new crop of designers for they are more accessible than labels by established designers. More the merrier indeed! 

Lifebuoy launches the Lifebuoy hand sanitizer, a convenient, accessible and easy-to-use way to keep ones hands germ-free, even in absence of access to water! Lifebuoy Hand Sanitizer is an effective, ethyl-alcohol based hand sanitizer, which kills 99.99 per cent of germs, including the deadly H1N1 virus without water. Added moisturizers and Vitamin E, make it tough on germs, yet gentle on hands, keeping the skin healthy and supple.

Lifebuoy sanitizer is an effective way to protect one’s health, given that hands transmit millions of germs everyday and often are the agents that carry deadly viruses and bacteria from external environment to inside our body. Many cases of cold flu and water borne illnesses are spread by unclean hands. Needless to say, keeping good hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. At the same time, finding soap and water every time and everywhere can be quiet a challenge, given the water cuts, distances  and travel that take over the urban life.

Sanitizing hands with Lifebuoy sanitizer can protect one against both direct (for example, shaking hands with a person with cold, flu, eye infection or a stomach infection…) and indirect contact (for example, touching a doorknob handled by an infected person) with the disease causing viruses.

The theatre buffs will be treated to a five-day Punjabi Drama Fest as the Adakar Manch-Mohali presents third edition of their annual theatre festival, titled Adakarian-2010, from May 26 to 31. The fest, being held in collaboration with Punjab Arts Council will stage five Punjabi plays written and directed by Sahib Singh. These plays have been staged in prestigious theatre festivals in Punjab, Delhi, Pakistan and won laurels.

Here is the schedule of plays and performance.

May 26: Pinjar (based on Amrita Pritam’s novel)

This play performed successfully at many places and during the National Theatre Festival by Punjabi Academy Delhi, had won the Best Director, Best Actor (Sahib Singh ) and Best Actress (Rajinder Rozy )awards. The play depicts the agony of women during riots.

May 27: Rawaitan ton par

The play revolves around the marriage of a handicapped poet and a teacher. Many situations arise and dramatic tensions prevail. The play won award in Delhi for Best Director, Best Actor (male) Best Actor (female) and Best Supporting Actor.

May 28: Paramvir Chakar

The play depicts the plight of families of martyrs. A Soldier dies in Kargil and many issues arise.

29 May: Vidya Vichari

The play creates awareness about the polluted education system and raises voice against mass copying and a dig at the functioning of private educational institutes.

May 30: Sooraj di Koi Pith Nain Hundi

The play depicts the story of a person who marries his niece to reach Canada. Their dodging the police and immigration makes interesting situation.

At Randhawa Auditorium-16, 7 pm. 

What's Myspace, Twitter, Facebook for? Learnt a new dish? Great, post it. Reading a book on hypnotism? Of what use if you don't let the whole world know about it.Not feeling great? Put it on wall. Need to get some sleep, having a new chocolate, trying a new sport, gathering rocks, need a holiday, making a paper airplane, extremely tired, trying to float boats in the puddle, don't feel like doing anything, spring cleaning your wardrobe…Looks like they love giving minute-by-minute updates. Another status change, "Chasing a squirrel." OMG, aren't they nuts!

Looks like giving every minute detail to 336 people on friend's list or 287 followers is the trend of the season. The debate isn't either or, about right or wrong. The debate is of two schools of thought; wait there's no debate at all, just a difference of perceptions.

For Sumedha Sachdeva, B. Comm student, MCM, it's only putting good quotes and meaningful taglines. "I personally don't put frisky things on Net and am not in favour of it but yes I have come across a lot of people posting quite frivolous things on social networking sites. Like on the lines of this campaign for breast cancer awareness a while ago, what girls have started doing is posting silly things to tease the guys. For example where do you keep your cell phones?" She adds, "They do this to get attention and generate interest." Inevitably, what follows is a host of comments.

In any case, it started with blogging, micro blogging. What was a platform to share ideologies, rather opinions, maybe take on some issues, has become a platform to tell everybody every tiny detail and schedule of the day. So the posts on a new college, Shimla trip, Mr Fresher competition has graduated onto to informing one and all, what chocolate you're eating what time of the day.

Or, may be it's an addiction. Vilphin Vincent, final year student, Indo Global Colleges, while recalling an sms forward where a prisoner before being hanged wanted to update his facebook status message as 'died', says, "I personally am not in favour of updates giving minutest details of the day. For example just the other day, I came across this update 4.34 am. What the guy meant was that he got up so early in the morning so he let everyone know about it."

Take another one. "Just the other day my friend banged his vehicle somewhere and he posted it. I personally feel what's the use of letting everyone know about it. I mean hardly anyone's going to come and compensate you for it," opines Piyush Aggarwal, fourth year student, Department of Law. He adds, "I don't see much use in it because these things hardly keep you connected with your friends in the true sense." He too puts down as a simple case of attention syndrome.

To each his own. And not that there's no flipping the coin for the other side. "There's also a positive part in the sense, suppose some close friend of yours has posted just a sad smiley. If you haven't talked to him for a while, you can call him up and be there," adds Sumedha. As long as, the endeavour is to let the friends know what you're up to.

Opines Vikramjeet Singh, an engineering student, ICAI, "When I traveled to Europe, I let my friends know about every tourist place I was visiting, asking if they wanted me to bring back any souvenir. There was a long list of things ordered to me each day. I think it did serve a purpose." As says Vilphin, "Suppose I have a rock performance some night then it's not possible for me to send a personal message to all the 600 people in my friends list. It's a great way of telling them about it." He sums up, "It's only those guys who are at home all the time, on the Net 24x7, end up posting things like, 'Going for a shower.' May it work for them." Meanwhile, make whatever sense you can of, "What a blah week!"

manpriya@tribunemail.com

Ever thought why you like one genre of music and dislike another? Well, scientists at University of Minnesota have delved deeper into the question to find out what makes a particular type of music pleasant or unpleasant. Researchers have got closer to the answer by studying the preferences of more than 250 college students from Minnesota to a variety of musical and nonmusical sounds.

"The question is, what makes certain combinations of musical notes pleasant or unpleasant? There have been a lot of claims. It might be one of the oldest questions in perception," said Josh McDermott, who conducted the studies at the University of Minnesota before moving to New York University.

The researchers could independently manipulate both the harmonic frequency relations of the sounds and another quality known as beating.

Harmonic frequencies are all multiples of the same fundamental frequency, McDermott explains. For example, notes at frequencies of 200, 300, and 400 hertz are all multiples of 100. Beating occurs when two sounds are close but not identical in frequency. Over time, the frequencies shift in and out of phase with each other, causing the sound to wax and wane in amplitude and producing an audible "wobbling" quality.

The results showed that musical chords sound good or bad mostly depending on whether the notes being played produce frequencies that are harmonically related or not.

Beating didn't turn out to be as important. Surprisingly, the preference for harmonic frequencies was stronger in people with experience in playing musical instruments. This means that learning plays a role-perhaps even a primary one, argued McDermott.

He said that whether you would get the same result in people from other parts of the world remains to be seen, but the effect of musical experience on the results suggests otherwise. "It suggests that Westerners learn to like the sound of harmonic frequencies because of their importance in Western music. Listeners with different experience might well have different preferences," he said.

The diversity of music from other cultures is consistent with this. "Intervals and chords that are dissonant by Western standards are fairly common in some cultures. Diversity is the rule, not the exception," he added. That's something that is increasingly easy to lose sight of as Western music has come to dominate radio waves all across the globe. "When all the kids in Indonesia are listening to Eminem, it becomes hard to get a true sense," said McDermott. — ANI

It's a library just as a library should be. With 'Switch off your mobiles', 'Keep quiet' posters obviated by the proverbial pin drop silence. With the books and the bookish forming part of the interiors. With everything erudite about it, the Dwarka Dass Library-Sector 15 is quite a haven for some scholarly. Manuscripts dating back to 1604 are just by the way, for this week's column on library series.

"This library was started in 1921 at Lahore. This is the only library where archival materials are available and research scholars especially come here," GS Thakar, hony. librarian, begins telling us about the place. He adds, "This is because there are a lot of rare books and manuscripts available here."

As rare and historical as, a journal or account of William Daniel's expedition from London to Surat in India, 1702. There are 900 handwritten pages in Persian from 1603 AD.

Moving on, there're are available newspapers 1922 onwards. A 14-volume set containing all the treaties signed during British time sits atop a shelf.

Not many must've visited it, not many go to libraries anyways. For those looking for a legacy, the books read by Shaheed Bhagat Singh form a part of the collection too. Adds G.S. Thakar, "Not everybody would be knowing but Shaheed Bhagat Singh was a member of the library too and the books read by him before and after the jail period are with us."

No wonder, the remarks register runs with acknowledgement and complements of finding some of the rare historical collections. "One Phd student came here from Canada and left his address and compliments on how he found some of the books only here," shares Kulwinder Kaur, library assistant.

Moving on from the index list to the interiors, there's no fancy stuff, not much crowd and the muted colours of the bound volumes add to the silent atmosphere. "Yes, mostly only scholars come here but that doesn't mean casual students don't come here. There are a lot of Panjab University students enrolled," adds Thakar. "Of course there are a lot of unique books available here but I like this place because of several things. It's never extremely crowded and conducive to studying, as it's quite secluded. Moreover the seating arrangement here is also quite different," shares Siddharth Negi, from School of Communication Studies. Perhaps he was comparing it to the varsity's main library. 

A new study has shown that parents who have books in the home increase the level of education their children will attain. 

The 20-year study was led by Mariah Evans, University of Nevada, Reno associate professor of sociology and resource economics.

For years, educators have thought the strongest predictor of attaining high levels of education was having parents who were highly educated.

But, strikingly, this massive study showed that the difference between being raised in a bookless home compared to being raised in a home with a 500-book library has as great an effect on the level of education a child will attain as having parents who are barely literate (3 years of education) compared to having parents who have a university education (15 or 16 years of education). 

Both factors, having a 500-book library or having university-educated parents, propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on an average. The study has been published in the journal, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. — ANI