Dil Se

It’s finally winter, sunshine and time to turn lazy on laidback sun brunches in the Capital. As Sunday Pioneer starts it regular brunch series,   MEENAKSHI RAO  discovers the magic of Sevilla right in the heart of the Capital When the lambs were being milk fed in the Australian outback, little did they know that they would be sent on an exotic journey all the way to India, to figure as the culinary mainstay of a stylish Spanish restaurant. But the newly opened Sevilla el fresco dining experience, quietly spreading its romance under a cluster of teak trees in the backyard of the Claridges Hotel at Aurangzeb Road, has made that happen, much to the delight of foodies who have just started warming up to this new Sunday brunch place, much like the Capital’s laidback winters. Spain being the latest spotlight of Indian tourists and the well-heeled population now knowing and enjoying their paella and sangria, Sevilla has become just the place to be, not just for a laidback brunch but als

Meenakshi Rao  tells you how global film-makers, much away from the box office syndrome, are cutting in potent cinema with stunning footage from the heart of conflict zones all over the world, but how it’s a sad struggle for them to get the budgets required for garnering global eyeballs for their history-making efforts The brilliant romantic thriller  Omar  nearly did not make it to India. But thanks to its producer-actor Waleed Zuaiter, a Palestinian who plays an Israeli agent in the film, this haunting feature from the conflict driven West Bank region showed up at the recent Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) on a blue ray DVD. Zuaiter had sent it over from his personal collection after the film’s sales department said it could come here only on a format not available in India. It is a stunning movie of betrayal at all levels — personal, emotional, political and existential — identifying with the plight of the Palestinian refugees of over six decades. Brilliantly we

Colombia’s Juan Zuniga merely cracked a vertebra which will soon recover. Germany broke the backbone and pride of a nation from which there is no recovery. And they did it in such a clinical ease that the 2 million Brazilians in and around Bela Horizonte, headed by the hapless 11 in the middle, learnt a new and much more painful meaning of carnage, shock, shame and helplessness. 23, 24, 26 and 29 — six minutes to sudden death and then to undiluted mockery, that’s not the way even the Germans would have envisaged a victory over the hosts reeling under talent cut due to an injury and a yellow card. But it took them only 29 minutes to raise the starkest questions ever around Scolari’s so-called magic boys who resembled players of every game other than football. What to talk of the complete vanishing trick of Brazilian defence? The forward line was even more miserable. Fred managed to touch the ball perhaps only as many times as Mueller scored his goals! Hulk came down as incredibly

Spain out, Brazil struggling, two draws, three own goals, eight penalties and four red cards already — where exactly is the 20th World Cup going in football’s most exotic and passionate home?  MEENAKSHI RAO  tries to make some sense of all the upheaval and the chant for Brazil hitting the Hexa by lifting the Cup the sixth timeOn a day that Stuart Binny recorded one of the most handsome statistics in Indian cricket by hauling six Bangladeshi scalps, giving away only four runs in the process, it was rather ironical that sports editors, otherwise married to cricket, were struggling to find pride of place for this achiever, that too in expanded editions. Blame this on the great Brazilian wave that has captured the world sporting arena for the next month or so. All thanks to football taking centrestage and the tectonic shifts that the 20th FIFA World Cup has been witnessing at the event’s most nascent stage. Really! Think about it. Would even the now-late Paul have imagined that Sp

Singapore’s iconic bar makes a saddi Dilli grand entry with heady cocktails & good food Harry’s has walked into Delhi unpretentiously and nestles aptly on the high pedestal of Select City Walk’s third floor. Don’t read too much into the Bar tag as – thankfully – not deafening music but an inviting warmth envelopes you as you enter this “drinking eatery”, an icon of Singapore for more than a decade now. Welcoming you to your table, the young and vibrant manager Kuldeep tells you this is the second outlet to be opened in India after the unprecedented success in its inaugural edition in Powai, Mumbai. He is surprisingly knowledgeable about all that’s there on the menu, both as liquid diet and solids too! By general bar standards, Harry’s is a refreshingly cozy place with an imposing bar opening out horizontally. But it’s the high seat table running vertically across the bar that makes it look and feel different from all its peers till, of course, the food and drinks start wa