Celebrities are 'supposed' to throw attitude. They are 'supposed' to make journos wait even if they reach the venue on time. Even better, they are 'supposed' to become high-headed after a hit film or a TV show. Celebrities are not supposed to behave like common people.

One celebrity breaks this trend. She acknowledges the value of time, has no hang ups on being a star kid, need we say the 'rap kid' on the block. The world grooved to her numbers, but she only moved as and when god required her to! Hard Kaur, the self-made celebrity, walked in at Jack & Jones, Sector-17, for the opening of the store that would take place on Saturday and you bet the lady is 'hard' core practical.

"Just the way to be," she confesses. "I cannot be fake. My jaws would start hurting and fall down one day if I start pretending." 'Bindaas'…this rapper-cum-actor is every bit of it; nothing less and nothing more.

Nevertheless, something has changed. What's that? "Acting," she almost yells in excitement. "I am playing Akshay Kumar's sister in the upcoming movie Patiala House. I play a complete desi, sporting a long plait with a middle partition and salwaar kameez."

This is so not very you. "When I used to go to my father's parent's house I would dress up like this. So, I could relate to the character," says Hard Kaur, who pretty much likes the brand Jack & Jones.

Does the excitement make up for no background in acting whatsoever? "Sure it doesn't," pat comes the reply. "Let me make it clear, I can't fake nor would I lie. I picked up some tips from the Internet. I told the director I wouldn't be able to say the dialogues verbatim. So, he asked me to improvise and say the way I felt comfortable. It just rocked," she exclaims.

The new feather on the cap has given a new meaning to her life, which she has lived on her own terms. "I was destined to act. Akshay and Nikhil Advani saw me in Jhalak Dikhla Jaa. From that minute, Akshay declared that I would play the role of his younger sister."

God helps those who help themselves. Hard Kaur just helped herself, gave her best, collected her cheques and moved on from one substantial project to another. Bollywood definitely is the prestigious project. "I enjoyed working in the movie. I get along well with Dimple Kapadia, she is fun-loving just like the Punjabis," she smiles talking about the new project at length. "The movie is about generation gap between kids and their folks and how each one of them deals with it."

All said and done, she has sure learnt to deal with life and her profession. "I work on a simple funda, live and let live," shares Hard Kaur who wants to educate Indians about hip-hop music. Time for yet another big, big news. Hmmm! So…. "Yes, she smiles ear to ear. I have found someone in Mumbai. And well, things will take their course as and when," she declares. Pretty much like her life!

jasmine@tribunemail.com

There is no price for passion. And this exactly is the case with the Aulakh family from Patiala, who are so in love with vintage cars and jeeps that they maintain as many as 18 of them! The tradition continues generation after generation and Sammy Aulakh and Kavi Aulakh, the third generation of the Aulakh family, completely adore these vintage cars.

Outside their house near the Moti Bagh Palace, they have a specially designed garage for these cars, which is spread out in an area of 1,500 square yards. "For us, these cars are no less than heritage because we got them from our father Harinderpal Singh," chorus Sammy and Kavi Aulakh. The fleet includes big names like Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Land Rover, Chevrolet, Morris and Willis etc. The oldest car is 1923 model Fiat 509. The family also owns 1948 model Chevrolet Fleet Master and 1948 model Willys Jeep, besides several old cars from the 1960s and 80s. The Aulakhs have hired a permanent mechanic for the maintenance of these cars. Bought from various parts of the country, models of some of these vehicles can be spotted in old Bollywood flicks. Standard Herald, left hand Jeep and Volkswagen Camper were there in movies like Maine Pyar Kiya, Janbaaz and Hare Rama Hare Krishna respectively.

For Sammy, left hand jeep is quite close to his heart because he got it as a gift from his father in Class X. "Dad brought this Jeep from Jaunsar area of Uttar Pradesh especially for me," he said adding that after that his interest in vintage and luxury cars increased further. Kavi Aulakh, youngest in the Aulakh family, also spends sometime in the garage and loves to drive them.

Bollywood star Ajay Devgn, who plays a modern day Karna in Prakash Jha’s Mahabharata inspired magnum-opus Raajneeti, says he was initially reluctant to be a part of the multistarrer.

The film, which released today, is Jha’s biggest project till date and boasts of a stellar star cast in Devgn, Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Manoj Vajpayee.

Devgn, who has been a regular in Jha’s previous films like Dil Kya Kare, Apaharan and Gangajal, said he only decided to step in after Jha assured him that his presence in the film would be justified despite a crowd of actors.

“There are so many characters in the film. I was not sure whether Prakash really required me. This is why when he narrated the idea of Rajneeti to me, I only had one question from him - ‘Should I do this film?’. He said yes,” Devgn told.

“I again asked him whether he was really sure that he wanted me and he assured me that my presence would be justified. Once he confirmed twice, I didn’t ask him any further questions; I was on for the film,” Devgn added.

The 41-year-old actor said once he came on board to play the character of a firebrand Dalit leader, modelled on the Mahabharata’s Karna, he left it on Jha to justify his character’s presence in the movie.

“Once I came on board, it was entirely up to Jha to justify my presence in Rajneeti. In any case, there is no hero or heroine in the film. Moreover, this is my fourth film with Jha and I understand his working style. We are friends before anything else and share a great rapport,” the actor said. — PTI 

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who is a doting father to his children Aryaan and Suhana, feels parents should spend more quality time with their kids.

“Each time I am away from home for long I make sure that on return I have spent enough time and catch up with my children. I am sure a lot of fathers today go through this guilt as they may have missed seeing their child grow,” said the actor-producer who recently shot for a toothpaste commercial where he plays a loving father.

“In most cases, fathers never realise this as they have been busy with work, office meetings, deals and catching up with friends that they tend to miss out on smaller but important moments of their child’s growing years.” “Children are impressionable. So, parenting is not about you, your feelings, or your thoughts on how the child should develop. Instead it is about the person your child is and can be. While most of us did not figure out what we wanted to be until we were older, a lot of us had ideas about the types of careers, the type of person and what we want out of life as we grew up,” the 44-year-old star said.Being a parent is the greatest joy for Khan and playing the perfect father is the best role ever, he said.“I am the actor-entertainer, it is definitely my children that offer unconditional love and bring entertainment and joy to my life,” he added. — PTI 

Kristen Stewart faces criticism for rape remarks Hollywood actress Kristen Stewart is facing criticism from officials at a leading US charity after she compared press intrusion to rape.

The Twilight star compared stardom to being raped and her dislike about photographers and said: “The photos are so... I feel like I’m looking at someone being raped. A lot of the time I can’t handle it. I never expected that this would be my life,” she said.

Her comments have sparked outrage in America.

“Rape is a violation in which one has no choice. A star seeking publicity has choices. Although rape involves loss of privacy, loss of privacy does not constitute rape. Let’s use a little logical thinking here,” Margaret Lazarus, executive director of Rapels.org, was quoted as saying.

The 20-year-old actress played a rape victim in the 2004 movie Speak.

“Kristen Stewart’s comments are regrettable. Portraying a rape survivor in the film Speak should have led her to use a more appropriate metaphor to describe the intrusive nature of the paparazzi. Rape is more than an intrusion, it’s a violent crime, that causes serious long term mental health effects for victims,” said Katherine Hull, spokesperson of the Rape andIncest National Network charity. — IANS

Hollywood heavyweight Mel Gibson who comes back to the big screen after a seven years hiatus, with thriller Edge of Darkness, seems to have taken a liking for unhappy roles.

While the Martin Campbell directed movie stars him as Thomas Craven, a homicide detective investigating the death of his activist daughter, his other two projects The Beaver and How I Spent My Summer Vacation also revolve around the sad lines.

“Since I’ve passed the big 50, I’ve chosen my projects more carefully. When you realise that half of your life has gone by you don’t want to do stupid stuff anymore,” Gibson said in a statement.

“What does not kill you makes you stronger. Life’s experiences, whether they be pleasant, unpleasant, tortuous or excruciatingly wonderful and blissful, it seasons you somehow and you learn from it. Hopefully you learn,” he added.

The 54-year-old also said he enjoys taking on unhappy roles despite how difficult they can be because it makes him appreciate his own life and so he simply likes to deal with them over and over again. The Beaver is an idiosyncratic comic drama in which he plays a depressed father coping with his failures by communicating through a beaver hand puppet. While action drama How I Spent My Summer Vacation shows him as a criminal stuck in a Mexican prison.

Having released in the US Jan 29 this year, Edge of Darkness is being released in India June 25. — IANS

DEEKSHA (Diffuse Environmental Education, Keep Society Humbly Aware), a Delhi based NGO working in the field of environmental protection and education, launched it's regional resource center at Chandigarh by releasing a documentary film, Water is Life. An effort by Siddharth Samuel and Divya Jaiswal, both class twelfth students, the documentary is made under active guidance of Murali Menon, a renowned information scientist.

The documentary was released at Chandigarh, the city beautiful, as the city has always set up benchmarks as far as environmental conservation is concerned. It covers the issue of importance of water and methods of water conservation.

Tripat Parmar, director, DEEKSHA says that to build a sustainable society, we must learn not to rival nature but to cooperate with it and live in harmony. "For this the basic attitude of people needs to change and there is a need to create mass realisation so as to have environmentally conscious citizens. Hence, there is a growing need to educate the children in their formative years," she adds.

It is with this understanding DEEKSHA has been working with the children of the country for raising awareness levels and executing action programmes regarding the various environmental challenges. It plans to work in tandem with various government, other non governmental organisations and schools in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir to strengthen environmental activities of the schools in the region. — TNS

What’s a chic city without its cafés? Or what’s a city without its food, to be precise. Chandigarh is no more a city with a dead palette and with more and more cafés opening our appetite for innovative platter is getting bigger. And another example to prove our point is the Rae’s Café.

A snug joint inside the Sector 22 petrol pump opposite Aroma hotel, Rae’s offers a yummy drive-in experience. A debut venture of Raehat Mundi, Rae’s has an assorted menu with bakery, breakfast and cookies along with handmade chocolates. “Our products and preparations emphasise on seasonal ingredients. Everything is prepared fresh in our own bakery and cakes are done on orders only,” says Raehat, the owner.

After finishing a course in hospitality in Delhi, Raehat turned her hobby for baking into a business opportunity. Six months in the market and Rae’s already on the hangout list of youngsters in the city. Apart from the desserts, it also offers light snacking options.

“We believe in innovating with different flavours and recipes. That’s why we keep on adding to the menu items like minty cucumber sandwich or chocolate-coated Litchi soufflé. Our fillings and breads too are different in terms of their ingredients.”

Working on a seasonal menu, their summer specials include exotic fruit truffles with custard and jelly, mango yogurt, blueberry soufflé and assorted handmade chocolates with fruits and nuts.

And with the food, the idea is to add the fun element too. “For a complete drive in experience, we try to interact with our customers. We have a special wall where they can write in their remarks and informal conversations happen over desserts,” adds Reahat.

Well, if conversations are not your thing then gorge on the chocolate fudge and it feels like heaven!

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A complete breakfast should consist of food groups that represent a variety of nutrients necessary for optimum health. These include complex carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and fiber. Ideally breakfast should meet 25% of your daily dietary requirements,” says Dietician Nidhi Joshi.

Joshi, who has been associated with renowned hospitals including Ivy Hospital said, “It is about time we dispensed with the notion that a healthy breakfast is necessarily a leisurely one. If you stick to the basics you might very well fit a healthy breakfast into your cramped schedule. If you are really pressed for time, you might grab a whole-wheat sandwich with low fat cheese and lean meat together with a packet of 100% fruit juice. The trick is to ensure that you get your daily dose of essential nutrients.”

She further added that fruit juice has for generations been known for the wholesome nutrition it provides. Adding 100% fruit juice to the breakfast is a good option for it is a nutrient dense beverage. One four-ounce glass of 100% juice provides nutrition equal to a full serving of fruit. For people who don’t have a lot of time on their hands, it is a useful option as they can have it on the go. Fruit Juices are rich in as many as nine nutrients found naturally in fruits especially in vitamins like vitamin C and foliate and in minerals like potassium.

A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (June 2, 2008) found that children (aged 2-11) who drank any amount of 100% juice had healthier overall diets than non-juice consumers. The study conducted by child nutrition researcher Dr. Theresa Nicklas and her colleagues observes that juice consumers have higher intakes of a number of key nutrients.

100% fruit juice contains a number of key nutrients like vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, foliate, B6 and iron. In combining the virtues of taste and nutrition, fruit juice surfaces as an unmatched health drink. In view of the fact that fruit juice contains a number of key nutrients and has positive effects on the overall dietary intakes, it emerges as a key component of a balanced diet. —TNS

This news piece is for all those who love their history and savour it too. In a quite unsual way, history was ressurected by a bunch of scientists in China. Here’s how.

A beer that was brewed in China 9,000 years back from a blend of rice, honey and hawthorn berries has successfully been recreated. The beer, called Chateau Jiahu, has its roots in a village in Hunan province in northern China.

A molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern from the University of Pennsylvania found chemical traces of the 9,000-year-old beer on some pottery in a dig in the Neolithic village of Jiahu.

McGovern and people at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware decided to take the ancient beer’s ingredients and make a modern-day version of it, which was nowhere any easy task.

“All that Patrick McGovern could tell us is what the evidence was or a laundry list of organic substances,” said Sam Calagione, founder and president of the brewery.

“From there we have to create a recipe. We have to come up with the percentage or ratios and volumes of weight of honey, rice and fruit. We have to figure out how strong an alcohol it might have been.

“Whether it was filtered or cloudy, carbonated or flat. We have a lot of creative latitude to bring a modern interpretation of this ancient beverage back to life,” Calagione stated. The company has managed to replicate the beer, with Chateau Jiahu winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest in 2009.

It will be on sale in British Columbia by July and depending on sales perhaps sometimes soon in the rest of Canada. — ANI

Summer brings the onslaught of some less popular vegetables like lauki, tori and bhindi. You’ll probably add karela to this list if there are young children in your house! Yet, each of these veggies have a few avatars that are definitely likeable, so long as they are prepared with love and care! It can beat any vegetable hands down, when cooked right. It can also taste lousy if its squishy, bland, or chewy! I once followed a diet that required all greens to be eaten boiled, so one-day bhindi too, met the same fate in my full pelt enthusiasm. 

Only, you know and I know, that boiled bhindi could look rather unappetizing! So I decided to sneak away into a verandah for a solitary early dinner of boiled bhindi. I knew I needed to be away from the prying eyes and criticism of my family! It was a rude shock when I was pounced upon, unexpectedly by my two kids! They looked truly and utterly disgusted?! My son marched off to find his father, and announced, “Hey dad, look! Mom’s eating doggy-drool!” It wasn’t a statement. It sounded like an F.I.R being lodged. Did I feel ‘slimy’ just then? Well folks, bhindi is a primary summer vegetable we have to live with, so why not liven it up too? Using a non-stick pan is a great aid to oil reduction in most cooking. For doing lighter bhindi too, it is indeed a blessing!

Kurkuri besani Bhindi

500 gm bhindi

¾ tsp red chili powder

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

2-3 tbsp besan

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Chaat masaala (optional)

Method : Choose fresh young bhindis for this preparation. The larger, over ripe ones tend to be too stringy. Wash the bhindis and wipe them dry with a clean kitchen towel. Slice off the stem-end and cut them lengthwise into four slim strips. Use a wide, shallow bowl and toss the bhindis in, along with all the masalaas and the lemon juice. Sprinkle the besan over everything and mix lightly with your fingertips. The addition of the salt and juice will moisten the bhindis sufficiently to make the besan cling to the pieces. Heat the oil in a kadhai or a frying pan and fry the bhindi on a medium flame. To avoid the strips from clumping together, fry them in small batches so they are scattered with spaces between them. Remove when golden and crisp and transfer immediately to a paper towel. Serve them with a dusting of chaat masaala.

Bharwan Bhindi

(The surprise ingredient in this recipe is powdered peanuts)

500 gm bhindi

1 large onion

2 tomatoes

4 garlic cloves

2 green chillies

1 tsp jeera

1 sprig curry leaves

1 tbsp lime juice (Optional)

2 tbsp green dhaniya, finely chopped

3-4 tbsp oil

For the stuffing:

¼ cup roasted peanuts

2 tbsp besan

1 tsp jeera powder

½ tbsp dhaniya powder

1 tsp chili powder

A pinch of heeng

1 tsp amchur

½ tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Method: Coarsely grind the peanuts and mix in the rest of the stuffing ingredients. Wash and dry the bhindi, then trim the ends and carefully make a slit along one side. Stuff them with the spice powder. Don’t worry if you are left with excess spice powder as it will all get used later. Heat three tbsp of oil and fry the bhindi on a high flame till semi-cooked. Place them on a paper towel to absorb excess oil. For the masala, chop the garlic and slice the onions. Slit the green chillies and chop the tomatoes. Now heat another tbsp of oil in the same pan and sizzle the jeera in it. Add sliced onions, garlic, curry leaves, and green chillies. Sauté till softened and then add tomatoes to the pan along with any left over spice powder. Cook further for a few minutes and lower the bhindi into the masala paste and cook until it blends.