Month: November 2012

Categories
Wellness

Getting married? Exercise will help

If you’re getting married soon, you and your family need to fight rising stress. Do it with exercise and diet.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

An Indian wedding is a grand affair. And a grand affair comes with its share of responsibilities, last-minute glitches, and a whole load of stress. Often, the couple to be married and their immediate families are under the most strain, which builds up till the actual day of the wedding. While the stress is inevitable, there’s no reason to not keep physically fit and mentally happy even as D-day draws near.

We caught up with fitness expert Sameer Sawant, who told us about a few tips and tricks to fight stress in the wedding season.

What should a person do to reduce/relieve themselves of stress during the wedding season?

When a person is feeling the stress, he or she can do a moderate intensity workout. Through this, a ‘feel good’ hormone (endorphin) is secreted by the human body, which lightens the person’s mood happy and helps to reduce stress. One should not do a high intensity activity, as it might exhaust him or her further and increase the stress level.

How can the parents of the couple reduce their stress?

The parents of couples can do exercises like stretching, or take up yoga sessions to release their stress. Also, a glass of fresh juice early in the morning will help them feel rejuvenated throughout the day as they help prepare for the wedding.

Are there any specific do-at-home exercises or breathing techniques?

Moderate intensity exercises such as jumping jacks, skipping, push-ups, squats, burpees and lunges are easy to do at home. They can also use therabands or resistance tubes for a home workout. Exercises like plank, Superman, cat camel, bridge and back extension on the floor should be done to increase core strength, since on the day of the wedding, they will have to stand for long hours – this needs a lot of core strength. They can also practice yoga, power yoga, tai chi and pilates, which will help them increase their mind and body awareness.

What are some interesting trends you have observed in Mumbai during the wedding season?

During the wedding season, there are many couples who join health clubs and gyms to get into shape quickly, but getting in shape is not a quick process and it takes a lot of time to get the BMR to a level where your body starts burning more calories to sustain the existing fat, muscles, organs and bones as compared to your calorie intake.

The trend which is most common is adopting a low carbohydrate diet, cutting out sugar from the diet, or going on a liquid diet, and most commonly, doing only cardiovascular training like running and cycling. People don’t concentrate on other elements of fitness like strength, flexibility, balance and core stability.

How can couples combat stress together?

An important tip for couples is that apart from vigorous workouts, couples should opt for simple

De-stress exercises like swimming, yoga and dancing. My ultimate tip, however, is to eat right, work out regularly and stay happy.

Sameer Sawant is a fitness expert specialising in functional training, martial art training and lifestyle management, among other things. He currently works with Fitness First.

(Picture courtesy www.madhvimad.wordpress.com)

Categories
Big story

A Chinese invasion this Diwali

Demand for Chinese products is up by 45 per cent. Tight household budgets and costly Indian products are to blame.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

Chinese products have more than flooded the market this Diwali – as per a survey by the Associated Chamber of Commerce’s (ASSOCHAM) Social Development Foundation, the demand for Chinese products this Diwali has gone up by an average of 45 per cent across the country. Their attractive packaging and low price are driving consumers to buy them over their Indian counterparts, the survey finds.

If this state of affairs continues, we might as well be learning how to say ‘Happy Diwali’ in Chinese.

The survey finds that local artisans are facing an increasingly stiff competition from the Chinese crackers, lampshades, lights, Ganesha and Laxmi idols, rangolis and diyas. “Over 78 per cent consumers said that the Chinese lights are almost 50 per cent cheaper as compared to Indian lights, and have more variety. Also, it saves nearly 35 per cent of the Diwali budget,” the survey says.

Suhashri Raut, a Matunga resident told The Metrognome, “We have been buying less crackers for our son, because the crackers he demands are more expensive every year. And children are never satisfied with just a few crackers, you have to keep buying more and more. I went to a market in Borivli with my cousin, and there we purchased many crackers which the dealer told us were from China. I purchased a lot of bombs and chakris for Rs 2,000.” The survey says that consumers are increasingly preferring Chinese crackers because they “are more colourful, produce more sound and have a lot of variety and are cheap, too.”

The Indian fireworks market is pegged at Rs 1,800 crore; it employs about 2.5 lakh people and provides an additional five lakh indirect jobs. The Chinese fireworks circulating in the market currently constitute about Rs 250 crore of the fireworks market share. The ASSOCHAM survey contends that Chinese fireworks illegally enter India through Nepal.

Nobody’s buying greeting cards either

Meanwhile, ASSOCHAM says that the demand for Diwali cards has gone down by over 70 per cent in the last five years, owing to people relying more on e-cards, SMS, MMS, phone calls and social networking to wish each other during the festive season. “During Diwali, the postal department is facing a slump because there is a steep decline in the movement of Diwali post cards and greetings cards. Earlier, the postal department used to handle about 8,000 post cards and greeting cards per day during Diwali, but now the numbers have come down to about 500 cards per day,” reveals ASSOCHAM.

(Picture courtesy www.india-forums.com)

Categories
Enough said

Naipaul and the overbearing wife

Humra Quraishi writes about her feelings about Girish Karnad’s recent tirade against VS Naipaul, and of the overprotective Mrs Naipaul.

When I heard about playwright and actor Girish Karnad’s tirade against writer VS Naipaul, I was a little amused, and I must admit, a little happy that somebody had finally spoken out so vehemently against him. But more on that later.

I first met Naipaul and his wife Nadira at Khushwant Singh’s home a few years ago. What had immediately struck me within minutes of the meeting, was the lady at the writer’s side. Nadira seemed to exercise total control over her husband, as though some severe insecurity was sapping her, making her hover over him constantly. She seemed overpowering, almost posing a  hurdle to any conversation between her famous husband and me.

And this pattern was repeated every time we met in subsequent years. When I next met them in around 2004, Naipaul had recently done the unthinkable – at least, unthinkable to the sane and  sound of mind in this country. From some semi-political platform, he had given a clean chit of  sorts to the destruction of the Babri Masjid. A Lord giving his approval to destruction! I was astounded.

And so I was dying to throw some unsettling questions at him when we met right after his famous pronouncement, but once again, Nadira swooped in and started hovering around. No sooner had I sat on the chair placed next to him, than she took hold of another chair and sat down on his other side. Though the host for the meeting tried to seat her elsewhere, she shook her head stubbornly and immediately put on a mothering act; serving daal and fried bhindi into a bowl together with salad and curd on his plate, she repeatedly kept asking him whether he wanted this or that.

As she got up to fetch a drink, I’d started the conversation with him, commenting on how little he was eating. “After a certain age, one shouldn’t eat much. I have begun to eat little,” he  said, sounding a little depressed.

“And what are you writing these days?” I asked.

“Nothing, really…after a certain age it gets difficult to write.”

“But isn’t writing an ongoing exercise?”

“No, it gets difficult to write after a certain age. I suppose if I was doing business, I would have carried on, but with writing it isn’t easy.”

“Are you planning to switch over to politics? I ask because you aired, rather too blatantly, some Right wing views recently?”

“No, no politics.”

“But didn’t you travel to Nashik?” I went on. “And it is said that your longish stay at the Maurya Sheraton’s luxury suite was sponsored by a certain political party?”

“Yes, I did travel to Nashik…and here in New Delhi, I did go to the  BJP office headquarters. What’s wrong if a writer goes to a political party’s office and interacts with their workers and leaders?” he spluttered.

I asked my next question. “Shouldn’t a writer not support blatant destruction? Of structures, human or otherwise?”

He’d looked rattled, cornered. And as if out of force of habit, he started looking around for an escape route, somebody to pamper and protect him from fresh onslaughts. And the escape route appeared just then – Nadira was back and seated in the chair she had briefly vacated. Any further queries directed at Naipaul were then answered by the ‘Back off’ look on her face.

He couldn’t answer any more questions, giving in completely to her ministrations with a lopsided smile. I stared with amazement as she overstretched herself, putting up a big show of protecting her husband in a laughably pretentious way.

But where was Nadira last week? It seems she couldn’t protect her husband from Girish  Karnad’s speech, that was aimed at exposing that jaundiced-against-certain-communities streak in most of Naipaul’s works. I confess that I was quietly elated with the incident – it was about time that someone ripped off the hypocrisy hovering around Naipaul and the heavily-biased views that he craftily weaves into his writings.

Humra Quraishi is a veteran journalist and author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Absolute Khushwant. 

(Picture courtesy www.outlook.com)

Categories
Eat

Last day: Grab your reward points and coupon code

PoshVine launches in the city today. Still haven’t signed up for great eating out experiences in Mumbai? Do it today.

Early this week, we featured PoshVine, a restaurant concierge service that is launching in Mumbai today. Prior to the launch, we tied up with PoshVine to offer you, our reader, an incredible eating out experience at a nice restaurant of your choice.

Reward points and coupon code

As reward for being our reader, we gave you the chance to sign up on poshvine.com for free, and use a discount coupon code unique to The Metrognome. You could register and immediately be rewarded with 1,000 points, which are redeemable later in lieu of several dining experiences that PoshVine has to offer. You could book a table and have a complimentary drink served to you and your friends, you could redeem your points for a special experience designed and executed by PoshVine – such as a masterclass with a reputed chef, or a food trail in the city – and for signing up, you could get an immediate offer of a one-time special discount on select PoshVine experiences.

We’re telling you all this because this offer ends today. If you still haven’t grabbed your chance for a wonderful eating out experience, sign up on this link http://www.poshvine.com/auth/register and use The Metrognome coupon code PVRCSON28.

It’s great being of help to you! Here’s wishing you and your family a very happy Diwali.

Regards,

The Editor.

 

Categories
Big story

EXCLUSIVE: Lavasa file destroyed in fire, still not restored

The top priority file had recommended the withdrawal of Lavasa’s special planning authority status on few counts of building norm violations.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

It doesn’t seem like the dust isn’t about to settle on the already mired-in-controversy Lavasa project.

It may be remembered that four months ago,on June 21, three floors of the Mantralaya were gutted in a major, daytime fire. Along with several important files, the file for the withdrawal of the much-debated Special Planning Authority (SPA) status granted to the Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL) was also destroyed. And four months later, the top priority file has not been completely restored yet.

Certain parts of the file were restored by the office of the Director of Town Planning based in Pune. After this, the restored documents were submitted to the Urban Development Department (UDD) in Mumbai in July this year. However, there has been no further development on the file’s complete restoration from the UDD end, since August this year.

Why is the file important?

The SPA status of the project, in essence, allows developers to function like planning agencies; they can even sanction building and construction plans in their own authority, and they do not need approval from the municipal corporation and town planning agencies. However, they must submit their sanctioned plan to the municipal corporation within three months of starting work. More importantly, the sanctioned plans thus submitted must fall in line with the Master Plan for that region, and not flout any development control regulation.

The UDD had, last year, recommended to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan that Lavasa’s SPA status be withdrawn – citing alleged violations in the project, such as work on certain portions had been done without a development plan. Also, the Floor-to-Space-Index (FSI) for certain non-buildable portions had allegedly been built upon. Additionally, the UDD had recommended that the SPA status provision for private entities be removed from town planning norms.

And then that file, which was in the Chief Minister’s office, got burnt.

Present status

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has been coming under fire for inaction on this matter, from all quarters. However, it is reliably learnt that after being burnt in the fire, the file has not yet been routed to the CM’s office. The CM is said to have called for the file now.

 (Picture courtesy www.ithappensindia.com)

 

Categories
Event

Dombivali may create Guinness World Record today

Mumbai Pooram event will see a record 3,500 Kaikottikali dancers perform at Dombivali tonight for a shot at Guinness glory.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Dombivali is all geared up for a massive dance show tonight – the KDMC Grounds will witness a historic 3,500 dancers, all of them from different parts of Mumbai and all of them originally from Kerala – where a massive but coordinated Kaikottikali dance performance will be put up on the first-day of a three-day annual cultural fest celebrating Kerala. The show might put the dancers and the event in the Guinness Book of World Records; officials from the organisation will be present to witness the performance for synchronisation and overall presentation.

Interestingly, all ages from years 13 and above are allowed to participate, so the group of dancers will be a motley mix of teenagers, mothers and even grandmothers.

The Metrognome spoke to a participant from Bhandup’s Usha Nagar, Madhuri Prathap (40), a Bharatnatyam dance teacher who, with nine of her students, will perform today. “A college friend of mine was one of the organisers for the event, and she told me to enter as many of my students as I could,” Madhuri said, adding that the call to participate for the event was made by two coordinators, who went to each Kerala samajam in Mumbai to stress on the fact that this time, the event could try for an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. Interestingly, the feat has already been performed last year and has won an entry in the Limca Book of Records.

“Last Sunday we had a mega rehearsal at Dombivali, where at least 2,000 dancers turned up to practice. We are nervous but very excited to be a part of such a historic event,” Madhuri beamed. “It’s a dream come true to be a part of it.”

About the event

Modelled on the lines of Kerala’s ‘Thrissur Pooram’, Kerala’s most famous temple festival held every year, the Mumbai Pooram is celebrated as a three-day extravaganza with dance performances, laser shows, pyrotechnics, food festivals and exhibitions, among others. Mumbai Pooram is reportedly the biggest Kerala festival held outside that State.

The Kaikottikali is a group dance comprising girls and women dressed in traditional Kerala saris. The mega dance event is called the Dhathri Maha Kaikottikali and has been approved by the Guinness Book of World Records as a viable attempt at creating a record.

(Picture courtesy www.downvids.com)  

 

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