Innholdsfortegnelse for October 22, 2018 i India Today

There are times when you can feel the rage and anguish in the air, at least from a certain section of society. It is the voice of the educated Indian woman against the deeply entrenched male-dominated culture at the workplace. Her moment to speak out against the repression of many decades has arrived. Like many spontaneous uprisings, it started rather innocuously this September with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing her colleague Nana Patekar of sexual harassment on a movie set 10 years ago. It lingered inconclusively in the public space for a fortnight till it emboldened other aggrieved women to come out with a torrent of accusations against their tormentors. In a matter of days, it has swept away stand-up comics, famous directors, a powerful editor-turned-minister, senior journalists, an eminent author,…

“We were very confident that we would never come to power, so we were advised to make tall promises. Since we weren’t going to come to power, we wouldn’t be responsible. But then the people voted us into power and now the public reminds us of those promises. We just laugh and move on” Transport minister NITIN GADKARI, speaking on a Marathi TV show, made a somewhat honest admission—that political parties exaggerate and dissemble in order to win votes. Laughing on a sofa, alongside actor Nana Patekar—at the centre of a still roiling storm over sexual harassment—Gadkari perhaps was not expecting his words to be taken literally. But he ended up providing ammunition to critics of PM Narendra Modi’s government. Congress president Rahul Gandhi was quick to tweet about the…

Sometimes you just have to laugh. Luckily, for Pieter Hanson’s mother, her son has both grace and a sense of humour. Hanson became an unwitting poster boy for the foolish ‘HimToo’ hashtag—popular with American conservatives seeking to express support for Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court justice whose nomination was cleared this week despite accusations of sexual assault—after his mother posted a picture of him in his Navy sailor’s uniform and claimed he wouldn’t “go on solo dates due to the current climate of false sexual accusations by radical feminists with an axe to grind”. Not so, said Hanson. His mother quickly deleted her account. And Hanson opened his, speaking for himself and charming social media.…

One of the items on the agenda of a hurriedly convened cabinet meeting in Bhopal last week to beat the imposition of the model code of conduct, was allotment of land to a government golf course. The Congress accused the government of being anti-cow: the golf green was to be made on land given to a cow research facility. Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s ministers opposed it too. Eventually, the golf course only got an in principle approval. Sandeep Unnithan with Anilesh Mahajan, Kaushik Deka, Rahul Noronha and Kiran D. Tare…

NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s troubles show no sign of ending. His remarks supporting PM Modi on the Rafale deal saw one of the party’s founders, Tariq Anwar, quitting to join the Congress. The latest worry is closer home. His nephew Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth, wants to contest the Lok Sabha polls. This could mean competition for the senior Pawar’s daughter, Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, and disrupt his unofficial division of power—Supriya in Delhi and Ajit in Mumbai.…

• Sexual harassment in the workplace is amongst the most unreported crimes against women. There were no clear laws on the subject before 2013 and many women desisted from reporting harassment • The gang-rape of social worker Bhanwari Devi in Rajasthan in 1992 led to a petition in the Supreme Court in 1997 by a group of women’s organisations called ‘Visakha’. The court issued guidelines in 1997 to protect women at the workplace • The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, is unique as for the first time it recognises workplace sexual harassment as an infringement of women’s fundamental rights as under the Indian Constitution • The statute places an obligation on both public and private sector employers to set up an Internal Complaints…

MADHYA PRADESH Total seats in the assembly: 230 What it means: The BJP gains and the Congress loses in a three-cornered contest. However, if the Congress and BSP were to ally, their combined 42.8% vote share, 2.1 percentage points below BJP’s 44.9%, could pose a threat to the saffron party, especially as it faces anti-incumbency CHHATTISGARH Total seats in the assembly: 90 What it means: The BJP gains and Congress faces an uphill task in a three-cornered contest; BSP+Janta Congress Chhattisgarh end up pivotal players. The combined Congress (including Jogi) plus BSP vote (44.6%) was 3.56 percentage points higher than BJP’s 41%. Jogi formed the JCC only in 2016. All assembly poll results are for 2013 Vote share figures are rounded…

Gandhi and Mao are not names often spoken together. So dissimilar do these giants of Asia seem, as men and leaders, that even thinking of them as contemporaries demands an imaginative leap. Luckily, Walter Bosshard met them both, and his pictures live to tell the tale. Peter Pfrunder, co-curator of ‘Envisioning Asia’, the first-ever Indian showing of Bosshard’s photojournalism, cheekily suggests in his brochure essay that “Bosshard himself could be seen as the link between Gandhi and Mao”. Certainly, the 51 photographs and one silent film on show at Delhi’s Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) make clear that both men “welcomed this foreign photojournalist with open arms”, at shaping moments of their careers. Bosshard met Gandhi in 1930 at Dandi, after the Salt March. In a piece of historical…

Unlike many household cooks, Iti Misra didn’t learn her recipes from her grandmother. “My grandmother was a zamindarni and did not go into the kitchen,” says the 77-year-old home chef who is bringing authentic Bengali cuisine to some of the country’s hippest ‘modern Indian’ restaurants. After winning fans with the dinners she hosts from her home in conjunction with Traveling Spoon (the AirBnB of culinary experiences), the former British Airways sales executive, known as ‘Iti Aunty’, imparted her knowledge to well-known chef Thomas Zacharias and his team during a pop-up at The Bombay Canteen in May. And this month, she’s consulting with chef Dheeraj Verma of Monkey Bar to create a special ‘Next Stop Kolkata’ menu for Durga Puja—an homage to the city’s street food. “I feel Kolkata is one…

Q. What was it like working with Kajol in Helicopter Eela? Initially, it was a little unnerving. We heard the final draft of the script together and she cracked us up with her amazing sense of humour. As the shooting schedule progressed, our bond grew, we became friends, like the mother and son in the film. Q. Are your parents (actors Kaushik and Reshmi Sen) helicopter parents? Not at all. My parents are my best friends, especially my mom. In fact, it is the other way around. I am the one always calling her; I am very protective of her. Even with my father, there are no taboo topics. There is nothing they would hide from me. Q. You’ve performed on stage and in films. Which one do you prefer?…

The splendour of Indian festivals is like none other. Durga Puja has always appealed to me. The pomp, the splendour, the drama and the grandeur of it all is unmatched. There is something about the power of Goddess Durga, the shakti, that draws me. Puja Fervour Come Puja season and visiting a pandal or two is a ritual. There is so much energy and revelry and I love seeing the idols of Durga in her saaj of crimson saris, bejewelled in gold with white shola. Women in gossamer dhaka saris with beautiful karan phools and men in crisp dhoti kurtas all intoxicated by the rhythmic sound of the dhak, the smell of dhoop and the dhunochi, all transport you into a mystical world. You also get to enjoy the creativity…

WHAT’S A FESTIVAL without delicious desserts? With a distinct shift towards eating healthy and sticking to different diets, desserts this season are all about making people feel good about what they are eating rather than guilty. So, the baker’s kitchen is experimenting with unconventional ingredients such as unrefined flours, raw sugars, more spices, nuts and grains that we didn’t ever imagine would go into cakes and cookies. Sugar, which is seen as the chief enemy by those watching calories, is making way for naturally sweet ingredients like panela and rice bran syrup which are going into desserts. Look at international dessert trends and you will see that vegetables and fruits like avocado, sweet potato, tapioca, coconut, bananas and apples are taking centre stage when it comes to desserts. Traditional ingredients…

Provenance IF food is your fad and luxury your mandate, this your best bet. With Maxim’s De Paris chocolates, beverages like sparkling juices, Dolfin chocolates, gourmet chocolate bars from Belgium, as well as limited edition chocolates from Whittaker’s in New Zealand, it’s a windfall. What’s more there are spreads, preserves and honey from Provenance and coffee packs of Indian specialty coffee specially sourced. Chocolate dragees from Greece, TWG Tea packs, tea infusers and loads more, this is where imagination and bounty come to roost. Price ₹1 lakh Where Palladium Mall, Mumbai William Penn IF you want to do it write, the Ganesha Set feather orange fountain pen, exclusive to India, is the answer. The Rubinato Ganesha Quill pen, complete with a Ganesha figurine pen stand and a quill set is…

Harking back to history for inspiration or affirmation is the way forward for most brands, especially those who boast a rich provenance. Luxury watch marque Blancpain, is no exception and has reinterpreted its flying tourbillon—the first of its kind to equip a wristwatch at the time of its launch in 1989—for Baselworld 2018. For its reimagined version, the Manufacture is pairing it with new complications—jump hours and retrograde minutes—in the Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde model. In addition to the tourbillon that appears to be floating on air, the new model offers an entirely decorated movement and a grand feu enamel dial handcrafted in the Blancpain workshops. With each movement having been produced in-house, the construction offers an unsurpassed view of the tourbillon’s key components, unobstructed by the…

The conversation starts with music. She says she just cannot get over film Rockstar’s instrumental track The Dichotomy of Fame. The irony is not lost. While almost every second person stops to congratulate her for emerging as the first woman president of the Panjab University Students Council, Chandigarh, Kanupriya, a MSc Zoology (II year) student, says, “Yes, it is a bit overwhelming, but I get energy spikes from just being around people." The 22-year-old defeated five male rivals fielded by parties including the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU), the Students Organisation of India (SOI), the Punjab Students Union (Lalkaar) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI). Representing the left-leaning Students for Students (SFS), the young lady, whose father is a businessman, and mother…

In an age when the leading countries of the world have adopted Israel’s tactics of targeted assassination, drone warfare and extraordinary rendition, this is mandatory reading for anyone even remotely interested in counterterrorism Ronen Bergman takes his title from the Talmudic injunction, ‘If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first’. Israel’s roots are inextricably intertwined with the rejection of the passivism that afflicted European Jews—contemptuously, Muselmänner—that sent them, unresisting, to the slaughterhouses of the Holocaust. They are equally enmeshed with the intelligence apparatus and the campaign of targeted killings that entrenched itself in the pre-state era and, subsequently, in the state’s strategy of survival. Targeted killings were not merely a tactical and strategic option, but also a moral choice. Open warfare was to be waged only…

Earlier this week, Google was forced to shut down its social networking site Google Plus after acknowledging a security breach had revealed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users. The breach was identified in March but Google decided to keep it secret, claiming it had no evidence that any third party had accessed the data. With the decision to shut down Google Plus, perhaps its parent company was acknowledging a new regulatory focus in Europe and some states in the US on the responsibility of companies to keep data secure. Last month, Facebook discovered that hackers were able to access the accounts of tens of millions of users. Both companies are being investigated by Irish data protection regulators. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which…

The recent buzz over Divya Spandana stepping down as Congress social media head was being attributed to Rahul Gandhi’s ire over her comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Others said it was her tussle with Nikhil Alva, who manages Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account. The real reason, party sources say, had to do with Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh’s frequent visits to 15, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road. The social media team operates from this address. Apparently, Jairam’s interference saw Divya Spandana threatening to quit. Until the next round then.…

NANA PATEKAR, Actor DEFENCE “What was the truth 10 years ago remains the same today and will continue to be tomorrow as well... My lawyer has advised me not to speak on the matter. Hence, I am silent” TANUSHREE DUTTA, Actor ACCUSATION “A lewd dance step was introduced on the insistence of #NanaPatekar (on the film sets of Horn OK Pleassss in 2008) so that he could touch me inappropriately. They made me go through hell and, till today, no one has condemned their actions” PRIYA RAMANI, Journalist ACCUSATION “You know how to pinch, pat, rub, grab and assault. Speaking up against you still carries a heavy price that many young women cannot afford to pay” GHAZALA WAHAB, Journalist ACCUSATION “He ran his hands from my breast to my hips.…

When the polar ice caps melt, we will be exposed to long-dormant killer viruses and bacteria, I read last year. I was thinking of that horror movie scenario this week as a fresh wave of #MeToo shook the media and entertainment establishment, just as #LoSHA had shaken the academic world last year. Stories from decades ago, stories from last week. Stories in the office, on the field, at parties and inside offices were all breaking out from under the tundra of The Show Must Go On. If you have been on Twitter at all this week, you would have found a million points of interest. I want to point to just two. One. If it’s a sign of intelligence to believe in two contradictory things at the same time, then…

RAJASTHAN Total seats in the assembly: 200 What it means: The combined 36.5% Congress-BSP vote is lower than BJP’s 45.2%. There is anti-incumbency against the Raje government but it gets partly weakened in a three-cornered contest. However, at 18.2%, the vote share for Others and Independents is very large. Others here include the JD(U), which is part of the NDA and the Samajwadi Party and CPI(M), among others UTTAR PRADESH Total seats: 80 What it means: According to pre-poll surveys, a grand alliance of BSP, SP and Congress in 2019 is likely to get 56 Lok Sabha seats out of 80. A combined BSP-SP alliance is predicted to get 42 seats; BJP 36 and Congress just 2 off and may not add up to 100 per cent Source: Election Commission…

Mar. 2006 The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology approves a Unique ID (UID) scheme 2009 Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) set up Dec. 2010 The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 (NIAI Bill) is introduced in Parliament Dec. 2011 Standing committee on finance rejects NIAI Bill in initial form; recommends privacy legislation and data protection law before continuance of scheme Nov. 2012 Ex-Karnataka high court judge K. Puttaswamy challenges Aadhaar in Supreme Court Sep. 2013 SC says no person should suffer for not having an Aadhaar card Mar. 2014 SC revokes orders by agencies demanding Aadhaar for welfare schemes; asks UIDAI to refrain from transfer of biometric info to any other agency without the individual’s consent in writing Mar. 2014 Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial & Other…

Three years after he stormed onto the filmmaking scene with Amdavad Ma Famous, a delightful short about a young kite enthusiast, National Award-winning filmmaker Hardik Mehta is premiering his first feature, Kaamyaab, at the Busan International Film Festival this week. Mehta spoke about his feature debut. Q. You’ve said that films about films are a studio’s worst nightmare. Why make your first feature on the life of a veteran side actor? The idea of Kaamyaab camefirst,and then it dawned on me that there is a certain aversion towards making films about films. But when I sent the script to producer Manish Mundra, he didn’t need any convincing. He read it in a day and called to ask the cast I had in mind and the budget required. His banner, Drishyam…

In 2011, Mikhil Musale led a team that made the short film Another Brick in the Wall. It won them the award for Best Cinematography at the inaugural edition of the India Film Project (IFP). Cut to seven years later, and Musale, the creative director of CineMan Productions, is now a recognised name. Last year, he won a National Award, and is now working on his Bollywood directorial debut. Musale was already making films then, but the contest proved propitious. “Winning the Filmmaking Challenge gave me that extra encouragement and motivation to make more films,” he says. It’s exactly what IFP started out to do. Launched in 2011, its aim was to provide amateur filmmakers a stage on which to practise their craft and showcase it to the world. Over…

THERE’S A PERCEPTIBLE MOOD SHIFT HELMED by the weather as the once merciless sun mellows to a lemony twang as October gets ready to rock and roll. There’s something sweet about this time of the year as you know that celebratory rush, the smell of winter, is in the air. In this issue Spice celebrates all things pleasant; the thrum of music, the clink of crystal, the joy of new, often expensive buys, and of course the anticipation of delicious food and fine spirits. Our cover story attempts to capture the nostalgia associated with festivals; from Diwali all the way to Holi. Chef Vineet Bhatia tells us why food has always evoked festival nostalgia and now, living far from home meant he went that extra mile to make festival time…

Par Excellence If it is a deepky personal you’re looking for, the Le Paradis from the house of Hayari is the perfect pick. This intriguing scent is an amalagmation of precious woods, leather, spices and flowers. Price On request Availability www.excedoluxuria.com Ready to Go Gift the Tumi extented trip packing case to the adventure lover in your life. The reinforced framecase design comes in an eye-catching colour, ensuring one never misses their luggage on the belt ever again! Price On request Availability Brand boutiques Cuff Parade These Tateossian geode cufflinks feature natural stones sliced to showcase the internal crystals in a rose gold setting. Its the ideal gift for the discerning gentleman. Price On request Availability www.mrporter.com Blue Crush This classic denin shirt should be…

Favourite festival memory Festivals have always been a great time for family bonding whether it was Diwali or Ganesh Chaturthi. But nothing exemplifies the festive spirit more than Diwali for me, with sweet memories of childhood laden with mithai—barfi, pedas and jalebisand of course crackers and lights. We used to have a small pooja at home with an arti just with the four of us and then crackers galore, followed by a great meal and late night sessions of teen patti. Now that we are older and settled far away from home, in the UK, we are much more conscious of the futility and negatives associated with burning crackers, which is merely a show of money. One has to be more sensitive to old people and pets in the house…

IT IS THE YEAR OF THE SUV and more than likely will continue to be the year of the SUV for a few more years if worldwide trends are anything to go by. No one would begrudge the government for imposing higher taxes on SUVs if all of them were like the Lamborghini Urus, the first in my list of the cars to get home this holiday season. It is a super sports luxury vehicle if one can call it that and will set you back by over ₹3 crore, the figure that marks its price tag. It is like a racing car on stilts, or a pulled up version of one of the super cars that Lamborghini is famous for. Powered by a 4-litre twin-turbo V8,…

From Swiss knives to watches and perfumes, please comment on the brand’s wide portfolio. We realised that there are a number of similarities between knives and watches. It’s about quality and iconic design. They are both small products, yet very valuable to the owner. The construction process of a knife is not so different from that of a watch; it has to have the same dedication and finesse. Most importantly, both tell the story of our brand. How would you describe the brand in three words ? Iconic, quality-assured and Swiss. You have an academic background of history, economics and politics. How did you make the move to watchmaking? It is quite unusual, but I got into consumer goods right after university, with Swarovski. Since then I’ve only worked with…

India is committed to power from renewable energy, but the process needs to be accelerated The world is heading over a cliff at a furious pace, confirmed a much-anticipated, comprehensive United Nations report on climate change. Released on October 9, and put together by a panel of international scientists, the report argued that the world needed to make “rapid and far-reaching” changes to limit global warming. A difference of half a degree could mean more wildfires, drought, poverty, and the death of 99 per cent of coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, an ecosystem some 25 million years old. The report gives the planet barely a dozen years to limit the damage predicted for decades into the future, if global warming continues at its current rate. India is particularly…

The Churchill Question American astronaut Scott Kelly stepped unwittingly into a social media hornets’ nest when he chose to quote former British prime minister Winston Churchill to send a message of unity to his compatriots in a time of arguably unprecedented political acrimony. “One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill,” tweeted Kelly, “said, ‘in victory, magnanimity’. I guess those days are over.” No doubt intended as innocuous pabulum, Kelly’s tweet generated plenty of acrimony and division itself, all of it catalysed by his apparent endorsement of Churchill’s ‘greatness’. The scolds and harrumphers, who seem perpetually to be lurking on Twitter, quickly descended on poor Kelly, pointing out that Churchill supported British imperialism on the grounds of racial superiority, that he was in large part responsible for…

Even as Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s health worries continue, the BJP has to deal with ambitions within the party. Deputy Speaker of the Assembly Michael Lobo has said that the state government has failed on many fronts—from economy and tourism to job creation. The buzz is that Lobo, a trusted Parrikar aide, wants a cabinet berth and sees room to rise as the party’s leading Catholic leader, as the veteran Francis D’Souza is hospitalised. Lobo also has the support of his friend Vijai Sardesai, the leader of Goa Forward Party, the BJP’s coalition partner.…

The Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party spat for political space has become decidedly ugly in Gujarat. The ruling BJP squarely accuses Congress MLA Alpesh Thakore of fuelling hatred against migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar following the rape of a 14-year-old girl in Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district. And even as an estimated 45,000 migrants fled Gujarat, the Congress, rising to Thakore’s defence, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “seeking votes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and victimising the people of both states [in Gujarat]”. Earlier, taking a cue from Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in Mumbai, the Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena, headed by the Congress legislator, launched protests in northern Gujarat, resulting in an exodus of migrant workers from Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Aravalli and Ahmedabad. Migrant workers are mostly employed on farms…

With 2019 in mind, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has forged an electoral alliance with the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM), which has significant influence amid the scheduled castes in Maharashtra. At a joint rally to announce the tie-up in Aurangabad on October 2, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi declared that Bhim Rao Ambedkar was a taller leader than Mahatma Gandhi. The Dalit icon, he pointed out, gave India her biggest democratic tool—the Constitution. The new alliance is eyeing the state’s 13 per cent SC and 12 per cent Muslim voters, who could jointly influence poll outcomes in Aurangabad, Akola, Malegaon and Mumbai South-Central, four of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. BBM president Prakash Ambedkar says the alliance will alter traditional voting patterns. “We have come together to teach…

PHYSICAL 1. Touching or pinching 2. Caressing, kissing or fondling someone against their will (could be considered assault) 3. Invasion of personal space (getting too close for no reason, brushing against or cornering someone) VERBAL 1. Sexually suggestive remarks, jokes, innuendos, offensive comments 2. Intimidation, threats and blackmail around sexual favours 3. Unwelcome social invitations, with sexual overtones commonly understood as flirting 4. Unwelcome sexual advances which may or may not be accompanied by promises or threats, explicit or implicit. 5. Persistently asking someone out despite being turned down 7. Stalking 8 . Abuse of authority or power to threaten a person’s job or undermine her performance against sexual favours 9. Controlling a person’s reputation by rumour-mongering about her private life Source: Handbook of Sexual Harassment of Women at the…

“NDA Union ministers have visited the state 130 times. PM Modi himself visited us twice”PEMA KHANDU Arunachal Pradesh CM “The Centre is focused on ensuring that projects get done on time. Union minister Nitin Gadkari spent 10 hours clearing snags in our projects”CONRAD SANGMA Meghalaya CM As the nation enters into poll mode for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the east of India is likely to emerge as a “laboratory of India’s many competing ideas and trends, a microcosm of both constructive and destructive spirits”. This central theme, as articulated by India Today Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie, manifested itself in the debates and discussions spanning 22 riveting sessions at the India Today Conclave East in Kolkata on October 5 and 6. The chief ministers of Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura…

WIDOW OF SILENCE Set in Kashmir, Praveen Morchhale’s film depicts the struggle of a Muslim woman to register her husband as dead after he disappeared seven years ago. Morchhale works with non-professional actors and uses long takes to give the film greater verisimilitude. YOURS TRULY Written and directed by Sanjoy Nag, this film stars Soni Razdan as a single and lonely middle-aged woman who is irresistibly drawn to the voice of the announcer at the railway station she uses for her daily commute. Now only if she can find the man it belongs to. BHONSLE Manoj Bajpayee returns to Busan for a third consecutive year, and his first as a producer. In filmmaker Devashish Makhija’s new political drama, the actor plays a terminally ill and lonely Maharashtrian policeman who comes…

“IT’S SAD THAT MOST INSTITUTIONS HAVE MADE LITTLE OR NO EFFORT TO PRESERVE OUR AGE-OLD [CULINARY] METHODS” Manjit Gill Ancient buildings with a tinge of Mughal architecture still stand tall along the winding lanes that lead to Kesar Dhaba in Amritsar, which shifted here from Pakistan after India’s independence. Youngsters in designer clothes and rickshaw-drivers stand shoulder to shoulder waiting for the grub to be dished out of massive brass pots. With its sweetshops, kulcha hawkers and dhabas, Amritsar’s culinary heritage is legendary. But this weekend, it hosts legends from across the globe at the first annual World Heritage Cuisine Summit & Food Festival (October 12-14). Organised by chef Manjit Gill, chairman of the World Cultural Culinary Heritage Committee of the World Association of Chefs Societies, the location of the…

RAGHAVENDRA RATHORE DESIGNER Rathore is recognised for placing the quintessentially Indian bandhgala on the global fashion map. VINEET BHATIA MICHELIN STAR CHEF Bhatia’s modern progressive attitude to Indian food changed the cuisine’s global perception. GAURI TANDON AND RADHIKA TANDON CO-FOUNDERS, ISHARYA Jewellery with a difference, Isharya is a favourite with Red Carpet A-listers like Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Selena Gomez. SUDARSHAN SHETTY ARTIST Shetty is a contemporary artist who paints, sculpts and dabbles in video, sound and performance installations. SANDEEP ARORA CO-FOUNDER, CASK SPIRIT MARKETING A whisky enthusiast himself, Sandeep Arora believes in creating experiential interactions with the drink.…

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A BURST OF COLOURS in the air and the playful essence of Holi engulfing Jodhpur still continues to be my fondest memory from childhood. The festive season is tinged with celebration, enthusiasm, fervour and devotion. I remember elders in the family greeting each other with colour as being one of my favourite memories growing up. Holi was a time when we enjoyed that extra helping of food spread over long lunches and endless laughter. To me the festival is a constant reminder of tradition especially, the burning of Holika that signifies the triumph of good over evil. Opulence, ritual and celebration aside, while the levels of excitement and energy are at its peak, it also gives everyone a reason to start afresh, and think anew about everything. Clothes dress tradition…

AT ISHARYA, WE have worked with American, European, Middle Eastern and the Indian markets over the past 15 years, and we’ve learnt a simple rule when it comes to jewellery trends: What works in one market may not in another, so one has to understand the pace and pulse of sensibilities around the world and identify what will resonate where. While European and American markets prefer natural stones and rich, deep colours but subtle silhouettes, India and the Middle East are culturally bolder when it comes to jewellery. This festive season, this aesthetic takes centre stage globally—bold colours, intriguing shapes and fascinating materials are lending a playful touch to women’s wardrobes. While one holds their mother’s heirlooms close to their heart, women are also investing in fierce and fun looks…

NOTHING CAN SUM IT UP BETTER than this as we step into the season of celebrations. This is a time when we look forward to entertaining and being entertained. And what is entertainment if not matched by some trendy drink being shaken and stirred by a motley crew? While most people can neatly be categorised into wine, beer or whisky drinkers, this season we are noticing a shift in what is being consumed and how. Here’s what’s trending in the spirit circuit this season. Gin is making waves and splashes this season and has undergone a renaissance of sorts. As a category, gin didn’t have much potential in India as there were not many takers for this spirit which was largely viewed as a lady’s summer, day drink. While markets…

The north of the country is always viewed as the place for all things luxury. With a culture of splurging on the best in the market, it has over the years, acquired a reputation for lapping up whatever international brands throw its way. DLF Emporio in Delhi was one of the first addresses for luxury retail in the country when it launched in 2008, and as the brand celebrates its 10th anniversary, we speak to Dinaz Madhukar, EVP, Luxury Retail and Hospitality, DLF on the evolution of the Indian luxury market and where it stands today. The First Leg “I joined DLF Emporio in 2010 at a time when the world economy was in a slump and things were tough. Luckily for us, all the partnerships had been tied up…

Tell us a bit about your second book It is called the Young and the Restless and focuses on nine young activists/politicians involved in the Indian electoral process. By 2019, this country will have the youngest population in the world. I thought it would be interesting for readers to get a glimpse of young leaders in the country and their ambitions for the nation they want to lead. Penguin Random House will be publishing my book in April next year. Did you face problems while researching it? Yes, I was looking for politicians hoping to find an equal number of men and women to write about. However, it was heartbreaking to see that not enough young women are working towards taking part in electoral politics. Given the limited opportunities available…