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...