Dil Se

The all Italian spread which has as many vegetarian dishes as it has a non-vegan spread is a must try. So is the espresso martini, simply out of the world.  Meenakshi Rao  tells you more. There are dreary February days when even mimosas just won’t do the trick. It takes nothing short of an Espresso martini with three coffee beans sprinkled on top and three power-packed liquids (vodka, kahlua and really strong espresso, anyone?) swirling at the bottom to lift your weepy day. Jeeves, here’s your next pick-me-up, go find it at the Prego, Westin-Gurgaon. The three beans are for wealth, health and prosperity (and you thought the Italians had no superstitions!) Wealth and prosperity quite apart, the Prego pulls no punches in setting you up for a healthy and flavourful brunch away from the globals in other places.  Very few restaurants in Delhi NCR do a speciality brunch which makes the meal at Prego just that extra bit special. The menu is standardised, though the expres...

The grand banyan over you, the ridge giving peace new meaning on one side and a spa on the other, Mehrauli’s Olive Kitchen and Bar gives Sunday brunch a punch of the Mediterranean in true style and an authenticity that rarely visits food counters of Delhi, says  MEENAKSHI RAO Call it unreasonably beautiful, romantic or appealing — the Olive Kitchen and Bar, quietly but efficiently teasing your taste buds on a wholesome Mediterranean spread, is one of the few peace nooks that Delhi’s otherwise crazed existence allows. It’s groovy location and its supremely chic ambience gang up to take away the honours from its food spread but who cares about the nitty-gritties if the platter is reasonably tasty, the staff knowledgeable enough to suggest which wine would appeal to you and the good old banyan tree giving you a lesson or two in the light and shade of life. While most would agree that this carefully nurtured banyan tree through which the sun rays play hide and seek on your counte...

If it is winters, brunches have to rain. But wait, you might be just mistaken. Now, like round-the-clock traffic in Delhi, brunches too have become all-season.  Meenakshi Rao  attends one to tell you how an away location, a sunny afternoon and a garden spread are must. The doctor had been recommending a jog for a very long time so I decided it was time I gave my stomach one. The sunny Sunday afternoon of a dying winter, the long forested area drive on a sinewy and lonely road soon after the BRT mayhem of sights and sounds, and the anticipation of spending a lazy afternoon doing nothing but sipping the bubbly and savouring the delights spurred me on to a track not oft taken by me even if I am feeling indulgent. As I sat twirling the long stemmed glass at a rather unconventional hour of 12 noon, my tummy comfortably jogged across continents and on layers and layers of lining. From China to Italy to Japan to America to India with short stopovers for a Mexican siesta, it ...

As he flits through myriad sessions around the sporting community’s worst scourge – doping – at the Doha Goals summit in Qatar,  Dr Olivier Rabin  looks pretty relaxed for the amount of work he has done as the World Anti-Doping Agency’s science director since September 2002. Looking every bit of a suave sleuth himself in his black tuxedo and a ubiquitous black briefcase, he takes pains to explain how WADA is not a testing agency but has an important job of being a world monitor and working on developing technologies to defeat dope cheats at all levels of camouflage. Dr Rabin boasts of an international reputation as an expert in pharmaceutical research and development, a seven-year research and business development stint with IPSEN Pharma and being the principal investigator in research in pharmacology and toxicology for Government organisations. He speaks with  MEENAKSHI RAO  on the sidelines of the Doha Goals Summit where he inaugurated Qatar’s state-of-the-art ant...

Qatar has never seen snow but has one of the world’s best ice hockey rinks; it does not play field hockey much but has 30-odd clubs; with the 2022 FIFA World Cup in bag, it has also bid for the Olympics.  MEENAKSHI RAO , who attended the high-profile Doha Goals Summit recently, tells you about the stunning journey of a small nation to the top echelons of the globe’s sporting corridors. I was escorted into Doha’s pride — the Aspire Zone — by a refreshingly young girl all the way from my hometown in India, Nellore. If that was not a surprise in itself, the sprawling media centre was being attended to by a French girl who said she was from Lyon. The chief delegates, meanwhile, were being cordoned off from the media and others by a stunning White girl. “Are you from Russia?” I asked tentatively. “No, I am from Latin America, from Honduras to be exact,” she said with a beaming smile. My surprise was all too evident. “So you must be working for the Richard Attias Group and are h...

One of the most brutal tales of woman empowerment has been scripted in Nagpur's Kasturbanagar. Tired of suffering rape and terror unleashed by a local goonda, 150 women of the locality caught hold of him in the courtroom, dismembered him, sliced his genitals and stoned him to death. Shielded by the police, the slumlord had left a trail of rape, intimidation and extortion in the 10 years of his criminal career. The rough and ready justice administered to Akku by his victims has struck a chill in the hearts of his gangmen who are now either underground or thinking of alternate careers. Meenakshi Rao meets Nagpur's overnight women heroes who are on a victory trail and daring the goons to come near them Nagpur is otherwise a quiet city, quiet and disciplined. On the crime graph, it takes only a bronze, with Mumbai and Thane doing the more respected (dis)honours for Maharashtra. But, for the past 10 days, it has been celebrating something it never would have dreamt of serenading ...

Has the scourge of rape, like corruption and environmental degradation, gone beyond any hope of damage control? Will the ailing system ever get healthy enough to be in a position to drive the fear of punishment in potential rapists? MEENAKSHI RAO  explores If I am ever raped — who knows who’s next — here’s what I should expect (going by what I have seen and heard in these last few days, here goes the list: 1) At least one speech in Parliament, of course by a woman while the men can keep watching porn; 2) Water-shelling on anyone who bothers to be vocal; 3) Top cops getting kudos for outstanding performance; and 4) More helplines for women set up where you can call for an update on K-serials for sure, but just try asking for help!” So screams a post on Facebook which has gone viral with outrage over the December 16’s brutal rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student hailing from Dehra Dun. Outside of the cyber zone, Delhi’s streets have been spilling over and even fighting pit...