Dil Se

Time for al fresco brunch breaks with the weather being on its best behaviour, says MEENAKSHI RAO It’s that time of the year when the garden becomes more important than the food that is going into you on a lazy Sunday afternoon, when sipping a delectable Sangriya or running high on Mimosas in between chunky nibbles and enervating conversations with family and friends becomes the high point of a much needed platter break. But in Delhi, all so crowded and concrete ridden, there are not too many eating places which give you best of both the worlds. That’s where Lord of the Drinks Meadow comes in with its virtually incomparable ambience. Who would not want an al fresco time out in the middle of a park with thickets growing all over the place and comfortable sofas inviting you to sink into them as the sunrays peep from between the greenery on a winter afternoon? More so, when the friendly but busy staff hands you an engaging glass to enjoy your Sunday to introspect on life bei...

Taking a break into the uncharted is the ultimate rejuvenator, says  Meenakshi Rao  after wandering into the lush green hilly interiors of the Kangra Valley What would you expect from a hilly stretch that connects two towns of a mountain State — the celebrated Dharamsala with its touristy twin city McLeod Ganj, to a comparatively lesser known Palampur with its relatively unsung tea gardens? Yes, a serpentine road to start with; forest land escorting the mortar path; hills graduating into mountains in the distance and, of course, unknown unsung and unvisited villages along the way, not to mention a clear blue sky above you and fresh enervating air resuscitating your Delhi burdened lungs as an emergency relief measure. Such uncharted stretches have, by the way, gained currency among the Indian traveller fed up with the humdrum and the routine. And that’s where this verdant terrain capped by the majestic Dhauladhar range comes in. The snow is yet to cap all the peaks ...

King of Continental, the good old Pickwick’s has had a change of platter .   MEENAKSHI RAO   bites into the street smart makeover to be pleasantly surprised by the desification As we mull over the efficacy of a celebrated and traditional continental great, high on English breakfast, tea and steak — medium to rare to fully done — should take to the Indian street food way, the wafting aroma of Karim’s type Chicken Ishtew if you please, waylays you into an unabashedly desi palate journey. Yes, it’s Pickwick’s and it is serving Delhi’s street food as also Rajasthani specials even as its good old sizzler sits on the shelf for some loyalist to walk in. And that’s not some food festival that will go off after a while. Pickwick’s has, indeed, turned street-smart  Dilliwallah  and that’s the way it will stay — till the next makeover. Those who know Pickwick’s know it is near impossible to replicate its garden view, heart of Delhi , long sofa backed cubicled tradit...

These are just ordinary people and yet so extra-ordinary in their everyday life.  MEENAKSHI RAO  caught up with these story makers of a different kind in the scenic and quiet Kangra Valley LIFE IS A COLOURFUL CANVAS Nishat Rehman, 34  |  wall/street visual artist Don’t be shocked by a sudden and unexpected splash of colours bursting out of an otherwise staid Government school building tucked away in the unknown hamlet of Rakh, somewhere between Dharamshala and Palampur. It almost feels like an Amazonian parrot has lost its way into Himachal and is inquisitively perched on a wall, ready to fly away into the dense pinewood forest greens surrounding this school which has come to life much after its principal went door-to-door urging parents to send their children to this school. Currently, this Senior Secondary School has just 264 schoolchildren on its rolls with some classes having only one or two students! But that has not deterred one Nishat Rehma...

Dr H Vinod Bhat, Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University has been leading a silent revolution in propelling research in private universities, implementing ways to plug the growing gap between education and careers and collaborating with knowledge centres across the spectrum to incentivize teaching.  MEENAKSHI RAO  caught up with him to discuss issues around the higher education system on the sidelines of the university’s convocation ceremony. Excerpts How focussed is higher education on the job market? Why this growing disconnect between education and careers? The year 2004-5 was when the McKinsey report came, saying that only 25 per cent of Indian graduates are employable. That was the first shock to the Indian education system. The main problem at that time was lack of job skills. We were good in programming, coding etc but were found lacking in team work, management jobs and skills. Immediately, the institutions and industry took corrective steps by strengthening and re...

As technical committee head of IFFI, young director Kukunoor’s job is to see that all films shown at the festival are of chakachak quality.  MEENAKSHI RAO  catches up with him in Goa to talk about cinema & issues around it What are you busy with nowadays? I did a web series, actually directed the pilot. It is with Nimrit Kaur and a fictional account of the first woman commando called   The Test Case , it is on the Balaji platform. It is a format I am exploring very actively, something that has fascinated me for long. I have always tried hard to do something that I have never done before. To tell a story in 100 or 120 minutes is something I have been doing but to tell it in 500 minutes is a huge challenge so I am interested in this new format. What are your views on this alternate platform of web entertainment? Right now we are all guessing, we are all hoping. We feel very strongly that it is the future for the simple reason that if you look at TV, we sta...

The Film Bazaar has emerged as the largest South Asian film market encouraging creative and financial collaboration between South Asian and international film communities, says   Meenakshi Rao Film Bazaar, the business and liaison hub of the international Film Festival of India, has been buzzing with activity, more so with an unprecedented boom of young Indian filmmakers finding a platform to showcase and find buyers for their mounts which rarely find multiplex openings in India and, thus, take to the Track 2 route of film festival buys and individual distributor interest from across the world. It is quite a revelation to attend the Film Bazaar’s unique concept event called Film Bazaar Recommends (FBR) where the young guns of world class Indian cinema, far away from Bollywood, show their independent movies and documentaries to prospective buyers and personally present a compelling pitch for their effort in three-minute talk slots attended by prospective buyers.  Th...

 Iranian film-maker MAJID MAJIDI has been the toast of the town at IFFI, what with his acclaimed film Beyond the Clouds inaugurating the festival to a jam-packed and appreciative audience . Meenakshi Rao  caught up with him on the sidelines of the Goa show Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi doesn’t know any Indian language but his first film about this country speaks volumes about the nation’s ethos, its daily tumult, underbelly, struggles and  negativity but, delightfully accompanied by its uniquely Indian consorts — hope and positivity. Beyond the Clouds is Majidi’s first Indian film, emanating from Mumbai, and it has created waves with its subtle journey through a brother-sister relationship immersed in crises of all kinds yet floating in a strange boat of hope and togetherness. “It is the story of a brother and sister in a very difficult situation and how the two realise the importance of the family and togetherness in such a complex situation. Strangely, the ...

  Nothing like reviving a lost cuisine and Anglo-Indian food is distinctly yours to relish  The romance of food revival stories goes much beyond the good old platter. It taps the entire ambience of those bygone times when each dish had a reason behind it, an occasion to serve, a tale to tell and a purpose to follow. It also makes you regret having forgotten the taste and trends of cuisines which were so much a part of our food culture, our spirit, our eating mores and even our journey soirees. The Anglo-Indian cuisine is one such wholesome platter lost in the folds of time, sadly. At one time, it powered an entire series of generations to form an invisible link between the rulers and the ruled. If the British colonised us for more than 200 years with their imperialistic designs, the natives hit back by changing their palate to a huge extent, making them slave to Indian aromas, variety and spice wonders. What developed in the process was the moderately spicy, delicate...

The new brand of feminism is cleverly inclusive, subtle but decisive. It is a way of life with the young Indian woman, away from those knee-jerk bra-burning days, writes   MEENAKSHI RAO A boy and a girl were constantly in competition to stand first in class. To emerge winner for all times to come, the smart Alec thought up a sexist competition in which the girl would have no answers to his limerick. But if she did manage to reply, he would concede, once and for all, that women had more brains than men. The girl accepted the challenge and this is how the contest went: Boy to girl : Two twos are four,Three threes are nine. Mine can go into yours,Yours cannot go into mine.  Unanswerable, a winner, he thought smugly. But the girl, not to be cornered, came back with a reply that had no answer from the boy, once and for all. Girl to boy : Two twos are four,Three threes are nine. I can measure the length of yours,You can’t measure the depth of mine. Of course, boys wi...