Month: November 2015

Categories
Event

The ‘Jeevan Saathi Sammelan’ is back!

Widowed, divorced or singletons over 50 years of age can participate in a marriage and live-in matchmaking event in Mumbai.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Seniors looking for love and companionship, pay attention. This is your chance to take a shot at love and friendship in your sunset years. The renowned Silver Inning Foundation, one of the country’s foremost entities working for senior citizens, is hosting its 2nd ‘Jeevan Saathi Sammelan’, a matchmaking event for marriage and live-in relationships.

All you have to do is register for the event beforehand and show up at the venue in Mumbai on December 13, 2015. The event will be held at 10 am at Dadar Cultural Centre. To register, fill out the form online (http://theseniorcitizen.in/register-here/) and send it to Silver Inning Foundation (look for address and details below).

The event is aimed at helping widowed, divorced and single men and women over 50 years of age seek love and companionship in their senior years. “We must break away from the old tradition of frowning upon our elders seeking love, and seek a new tradition of encouraging them to seek friendship and love at their age. In their advanced years, it is important for them to have a partner to share their lives with,” explains Silver Inning Foundation’s Sailesh Mishra.

The last such Sammelan, also held in Mumbai two years ago, received a staggering response with over 350 people showing up to look for partners. This time, the Foundation hopes that more people will arrive. The Metrognome is the online partner for the event.

Call 9833344359 / 8879924359 (Monday to Saturday 11 am to 5 pm) for details, or email silverinnings@gmail.com. Send the completed registration form to Silver Innings, J/47-48, Shop no. 10, opp. Navgraha Bldg, Lane behind Allahabad Bank, Poonam Sagar Complex, Mira Road (East), Mumbai – 401107.

Categories
Watch

Benedict Cumberbatch comes to Mumbai

…via a live screening of his new play, ‘Hamlet’ at the Godrej Dance Theatre, the NCPA, this evening and tomorrow.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The man who took the world by storm by playing the titular role in the BBC One series Sherlock is in Mumbai. Well, not really. For those who are suffering from Benedict Cumberbatch withdrawal symptoms (S04 of Sherlock screens not before next year), the NCPA has a bit of a repreive.

Cumberbatch can be seen at the NCPA this evening and tomorrow as he portrays Hamlet in the Barbican production of William Shakespeare’s most popular play, ‘Hamlet‘. The play will be screened for audiences at the venue. For the uninitiated, the story of Hamlet goes thus: ‘As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed by the task ahead, Prince Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the State.’

 

The British actor has won rave reviews for his portrayal of the Prince of Darkness, in a return to theatre alongside a trailblazing career in film and television. The play has now stopped production in the UK while the lead actor returns to his film duties in Hollywood, but it is being screened all over the world in association with the National Theatre Live.

Head to the Godrej Dance Theatre, NCPA today, Friday, November 11, 2015 and tomorrow Saturday, November 12, at 7 pm. Tickets cost Rs 500.

(Picture courtesy www.telegraph.co.uk)

Categories
Wellness

How to detox after Diwali binge eating

Sweets, colas, staying up late…all of these combine to wreak havoc on your system. Here’s how you detox and cleanse.
by Reyna Mathur

Diwali is a time for revelry, for meeting up with friends and eating sweets and namkeen food. We tell ourselves that the festival comes by just once a year, so it’s okay to let go and indulge our taste buds. While that is certainly fine once a year, your body needs some help cleansing itself once the festivities are over.

An excess of sugar may cause a hormonal imbalance, spike your blood sugar and blood pressure, cause mood swings and mess up your digestion. It further causes more cravings for sweet and fried food. Some people continue binging on sweets way after Diwali is over. It is time to rid the body of the excess sugar and regain good health. Here’s how:

1. Tank up on fluids.

Water is your #1 rescuer in these situations. It flushes out excess toxins and helps the kidneys eliminate sugar from the system. Start the day with a glass of warm water, mix the juice of half a lemon in it. Have this on an empty stomach. Have another glass after lunch and dinner. Additionally, keep sipping water throughout the day. Even green tea will work wonders in flushing out sugar.

2. Go raw.

Help your system relax by giving it a break from fried, processed food. Instead, stock up on raw fruit and vegetables. These will provide essential nutrients and fibre to aid the digestive process. Any metabolic disorders caused by excess sugar will also be balanced with this diet. The key is to include a variety of coloured vegetables in your diet for at least two consecutive days. Stay away from white rice, colas, maida and other processed foods.

3. Go for a walk.

Walking or any other physical exercise will make you sweat, get your heart racing and increase blood flow to the organs. In turn, this will the digestive system working better to eliminate sugars and toxins. Sugar also tends to harm the skin and hair – brisk exercise will correct these problems.

4. Nap less.

The idea is to rev up your metabolism, so avoid activities that make you sluggish. The excess sugar in your system will make you sleepy, but avoid taking naps right after eating or while sitting at your desk. Similarly, satisfy a sugar craving with a sweet fruit such as date or grapes. Walk around the neighbourhood after a meal to keep your brain alert.

5. Go for a body massage.

A trained masseur can help the body flush out toxins through a combination of acupressure and essential oil massage. It will also help calm your nerves after hectic partying and put you in a better frame of mind to adopt a healthier diet and exercise in your daily regimen.

(Picture courtesy www.bbcgoodfood.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Tech

Review: Samsung Galaxy Note5

This phone mostly performs well but stutters on a few basic parameters. It’s highly recommended for its display and camera.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

The Note series is perhaps the most popular line-up of smartphones that Samsung has produced in terms of dominance, incorporating a larger screen, a stylus, and various design parameters. Now, as almost all phone manufacturers have a large phone in their hand, what does Samsung have in store for us that others don’t?

The looks. Samsung changed its design philosophy for its high-end smartphones late last year, and this year it decided to continue on that path with the Galaxy S6, S6 edge and S6 Edge+, and now with the Note5. If you remember the Note 4, it had a plastic textured back that was removable, but the Note5 sports a shiny metallic and glass back that tapers on both sides, giving the phone a pretty premium feel, but also making it a lot slippery than its predecessor. The back is also reflective and catches fingerprints and smudges quickly.

The protruding camera at the back is joined by LED flash, heart rate monitor and the Samsung logo. The phone’s front resembles a typical Samsung Android phone with its familiar oval-shaped Home button (doubles up as the fingerprint scanner) surrounded by Recent Apps List and Back keys that light up just the right amount you would want; front-facing camera, visible sensors, ear-grille, LED notification right above the 5.7-inch Super AMOLED panel.

Things become even more interesting at the bottom: 3.5mm headset jack, microUSB port, loudspeaker, primary mic, and the S Pen placed neatly into its place. The top gets nano SIM slot and secondary mic.

Screen. The Note5, just like the Note 4, sports a 5.7-inch quad HD (2560×1440) Super AMOLED, but it’s slightly better this time, in my opinion. Samsung has been doing great work when it comes to phone screens and it shows with the Note5. This screen has deep Black colours you normally associate with AMOLEDs, as well as rich and vivid colours fairly more accurate than the Note 4’s screen. High resolution videos and images look great and the screen is much usable under sunlight. The Note5’s screen is undoubtedly among the best smartphone screens we have seen and that isn’t just because of its resolution, but also about sharpness, visibility, dimness for using in dark conditions.

Battery. The phone is equipped with a 3,000 mAh battery unit, which is a little smaller than the Note 4’s, but I found its battery life to be satisfactory. More often than not, with moderate usage and screen brightness at 20% level, the phone lasted me almost a full day (four hours of screen on time). But with a lot of HD videos and games, prepare to put it on charge within 15 hours. What makes things better is the quick charging feature that means getting 0 to full charge in a little about 70 minutes. The device also supports wireless charging for those that have a Qi standard wireless charging pad.

Sound. The loudspeaker at the bottom is quite loud and clear, but due to its placement you may often put your hand over it while watching videos or games in landscape mode. Otherwise, it does a really good job of handling sound and not distorting most of the times. Connectivity-wise, I didn’t find much of a problem with WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, though I did find network reception to be a little on the downside when used underground compared to other phones (apparently improved with the last firmware update).

Camera. The Galaxy Note5 features a 16 MP (f/1.9) camera (OIS) with an LED flash. Here are a few sample images.

This camera can take really nice and detailed shots in almost any situation. Images look sharp even in low-light. Its camera app has a lot of modes including manual mode to give you a host of controls while taking a shot. It even has a Live YouTube broadcast feature where you can directly broadcast something to YouTube using your Note5 (similar to what we saw on the Xperia Z3). You can also choose to get RAW (DNG) images for extensive editing. I found Double-tapping the Home button for opening the camera app useful and mostly lag-free. The front-facing 5 MP (f/1.9) camera is more than capable to handle your selfies and video calls.

Software and performance. Under the hood, the Note5 boasts Samsung’s own Exynos 7420 SoC (2.1 GHz octa-core processor, Mali-T760 GPU) along with 4 GB of RAM. There is 24 GB of internal storage available (32 Gb model) and you cannot expand it as there is no microSD card slot for the first time on a Note device. Every buyer gets free 100 GB of storage on OneDrive, though. Like the Galaxy S6, there is UFS 2.0 for internal flash storage, meaning faster read and write speeds as well as improved OS performance. The phone runs on Android 5.1.1 with TouchWiz UI on top.

For every day performance, I had no issues with playing games or watching high resolution videos. A slight issue is with animations and switching between apps not being very smooth. Mind you, this is a top-end device, so your expectations are just that little more than those priced significantly below. While multiple tabs and pre-loaded apps work mostly as you like, there’s often stuttering in general UI that seems to be TouchWiz’s fault. It’s quite disappointing that a device this powerful inside has this minor issue that, while not everybody may notice, some who care about their phone’s regular performance, especially when paying this much, will feel their overall experience being a little low on the scale.

The S Pen is a lot more natural to use now and the added feature where you can pull out S Pen and straight away write something on the screen without having to unlock the screen is a useful addition.

The Note5 has two sides to it: hardware – top of the line hardware inside, fine, premium design and build, and better S Pen, fantastic camera and top-notch screen; software – can handle games and video apps fine, but stutters when switching between apps or less-than fluid animation in a few apps. For those looking to get a phablet, and don’t care much about the aesthetic and build may look at the Note 4, but those who are okay with no storage expansion and want a no-compromise display and camera, should consider this Note5 provided you have Rs. 52,000 to spend.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

Categories
Enough said

Of intolerance and going against the grain

The question of what ‘others will think’ had surfaced during the Gujarat pogrom days of 2002. It appears again today.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

‘What will foreigners think?’ is a recurring motif in our country whenever a political upheaval takes place.

I was attending a governing council meet in a Delhi college when the Gujarat pogrom in 2002 was peaking. Seated next to me was a woman lawyer who later became one of the spokespersons for the BJP. Towards the end of that meet, she asked me what I thought of the news reports on the killings in Gujarat.

I told her exactly what I thought. I said that all the facts should come out, the entire truth should be reported, the murderers must be identified and punished. I spoke against the BJP top brass in Gujarat. She was furious and hissed, “You journalists are writing all this…do you realise what foreigners will think of us?”

To which I hit back, “There is planned butchery on in Gujarat and you expect nobody to write the details? You kill and nobody will voice their anger and anguish about these murders? You are more concerned about what foreigners will think?”

In the autumn of 2015, things have moved far beyond mere outrage. It is good to see that anger is mounting against the Government of the day, that people are no longer content to sit back and let the rulers of the land get away with anything and everything. A silent revolt is on, and it is taking the form of awards being returned. It is heartening to see that the country’s intellectual powers – its writers, poets, authors, scientist, artists, film makers and entrepreneurs – are taking a stand against hooliganism and fascism. This is the class that can exert direct pressure on the Government to mend its ways.

The passing of Shamshad Hussain

Shamshad HussainMF Hussain’s artist son, Shamshad, passed away recently. I have always suspected that he never got his due owing to his illustrious father’s aura. A shy man who spoke less but did not mince his words, he was always to be spotted at demonstrations and gatherings to voice his dissent against divisive forces in the country.

He once told me about his childhood years: “I was admitted to a Gujarati medium school in Mumbai, but I did not fare well at all. I hated school so much that I ran away from home. On one of my run-away trips, I landed in New Delhi. I stayed in Jangpura.

“I had taken Art as a teenager but I never had the financial means to put up an exhibition. I never had enough money even for basic train fare when I was invited to hold my first exhibition in Hyderabad. My Jangpura landlady was a great woman: when she realised I had cancelled my travel plans because I had no money, she paid for my ticket and I could hold my first show!”

That first exhibition helped him establish himself in the art world, but through endless struggle. “Even during those struggling days, I never asked my father for money or favours of any sort. I wanted to struggle and reach my goal by myself…” He was more than pained when his father was bullied and forced to leave the country. I wonder what he would have to say about the situation in the country right now.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of several books, including Kashmir: The Untold Story and Dagars and Dhrupad, among others.

(Pictures courtesy indianexpress.com. Image is a recent file picture. Shamshad Hussain picture courtesy www.snipview.com)

Categories
Film

Review: Hotel Transylvania 2

This week’s release is a sequel to ‘Hotel Transylvania’, an animated monster comedy that children will surely love to watch.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

This one is an ideal Diwali entertainer for the little ones: it combines animation, a story about ‘fitting in’ and vampires in the age of the Internet.

With the approval of her father Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler), vampire Mavis (Selena Gomez) gets married to the human Johnny (Andy Samberg). Mavis gives birth to a son named Dennis, but Dracula worries that his grandson might not gain vampire powers, since he is approaching his fifth birthday and still has not sprouted fangs. Mavis wants to raise her son in the land where Johnny grew up, but her father wishes to transform his grandson into a blood thirsty vampire.

Dracula devises a plan to ‘babysit’ Dennis – he wants to train him into vampirehood with the help of his friends – Wayne the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), Frankenstein (Kevin James), Murray the Mummy (Keegan Michael Key), Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade) and Blobby the Blob (Jonny Solomon).

 

Dracula takes little Dennis to the summer camp where he perfected his own vampire abilities, only to get disappointed on learning that the camp is no longer as dangerous as it was in the past. In desperation, Dracula flings Dennis from a tall tower to force his transformation into a bat, but rescues him at the last moment. This incident is captured by campers and is uploaded on the Internet. The clip reaches Mavis and Johnny who immediately rush to Transylvania – Mavis makes the journey as a bat carrying Johnny because there are no flights to Transylvania available.

A stellar cast is ably supported by fast paced action, excellent animation and witty dialogue. Adam Sandler is the most impressive as Dracula. The film has many LOL moments and will do well with children.

(Picture courtesy www.forbes.com)

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