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How to blow off the blues - Hindustan Times

2012-02-11T18:14:00.001+05:30

How to blow off the blues - Hindustan TimesHow to blow off the blues

Dr Shikha Sharma, Hindustan Times
February 04, 2012

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First Published: 18:39 IST(4/2/2012)
Last Updated: 19:10 IST(4/2/2012)

Feeling low is fast becoming a rising issue among people in cities today. Many people experience mild depression for months, sometimes years, but seem unable to do anything about it. These are the signs:

Lack of enthusiasm
A feeling that everything is dull and

monotonous
You stop taking care of yourself
You’d rather be alone than with anyone else
You eat mindlessly and without enjoyment
You sleep excessively
You smoke and drink more than usual
Life seems to lack joy
To cope, many people watch TV or surf the Internet endlessly and mindlessly.

There are numerous reasons for feeling low, but the result is always the same – a feeling of listlessness and lack of joy. Men and women respond differently to this situation. Men become irritable and incline towards addictions to cope with boredom, anxiety and depression. Women withdraw into a shell.

Solutions for women
Phone a friend who is a positive person, and listen to him or her with an open heart instead of doing the talking yourself.
Play your favourite music while you do your daily chores.

Write down seven things that you have and that you’re grateful for. Gratitude is a major mood lifter, unlike comparisons. Studies have shown that when people compare themselves to richer and more accomplished people, they make themselves feel small and unhappy.

Take up an activity that gives you happiness, such as singing, painting, dance or exercise classes or gardening.

Spend on small self-indulgences like a body massage – especially if you have never done this before. (Small actions like this often build up a feeling of being wanted and worthy.)

Go to a temple, satsang, church or any spiritual place, or join a class that teaches self-healing methods. You’ll meet positive like-minded people at those places and group therapy is much stronger than individual therapy

Light aroma incense sticks in the evening and put on soothing music.
Get a book if you enjoy reading.

Meet an old friend for lunch and laugh over old times.

Take up yoga or dance aerobics. These activities are a sure-shot way to change yourself.

Get a healthy cooking recipe book and start changing your eating patterns. (Unhealthy foods lead to unhealthy emotions. A vitamin

B12 deficiency is also a major nutritional reason for feeling low.)

Become a volunteer in any social organisation if you feel up to it. Women tend to be nurturing by nature and volunteer work synergises with that basic need to help others. Volunteer work also helps you increase your sense of self-worth, thanks to your belief that you are contributing to a worthy cause.

Next week: Solutions for men.

From HT Brunch, February 5

How much do you lie in a day? - Hindustan Times

2012-02-11T18:13:00.002+05:30

How much do you lie in a day? - Hindustan TimesHow much do you lie in a day?

Seema Goswami, Hindustan Times
February 04, 2012

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First Published: 17:59 IST(4/2/2012)
Last Updated: 19:12 IST(4/2/2012)

So, how many lies do you get through on an average day? Less than ten? More than 20? Around a 100? Well, if you’re hitting the three-figure mark, then it may be time to check in for some therapy. But if your individual score is less than 30, don’t worry: you come well within the normal

range.

Because, truth be told, it is impossible to get through the day without lying to someone or the other about something or the other. No matter what you do, whom you meet, you will always come up against situations in which truth-telling is both cruel and needlessly hurtful. There will always be some situations in which honesty is demonstratively not the best policy.

And that’s when you will realise that lying is the lubricant that keeps our social contract in good working order.

Never mind all those moral science lessons that were drummed into you in school. Never mind what your religious texts tell you about how lying is a Very Bad Thing. Never mind the scolding you got whenever you lied to your parents as a kid. Now that you’re a grown-up you have to assess when telling the truth works; and when it is simply out of the question.

While each one of us will have to make our own individual assessments as we go along, I think we can agree that there are some areas where lying is always better than sticking to inconvenient truths.

First up is children. Other people’s children, that is. No matter how close you are to the parents, it is never a good idea to tell them the truth about how you feel about their kids (unless, of course, you adore them – in which case, go right ahead). But otherwise, discretion is always the better part of frankness.

Going to see a friend’s new-born baby? Remember to coo and sigh and say “How cute” and “How absolutely adorable” at appropriate intervals even if she/he resembles nothing more than a shrivelled-up prune which comes with its own surround sound.

Having dinner with friends with young children? Smile encouragingly when they are coaxed out of their bedrooms to regale you with the rhymes and songs they have learned at play school. Clap loudly when the ordeal ends even if you are bored to death. And nod along enthusiastically when the proud parents tell you how marvellously talented they are.

Nobody wants to know what you really think. Nobody wants the truth. They just want someone to validate their pride in their children. So be a pet and play along.

In fact, the only way to negotiate the social minefield is to spread a few lies around strategically so that can you step on them and avoid being blown up by a hidden landmine.

You may well think that your cousin’s new home is a monstrosity, a landmark to bad taste and too much money. But what’s the point in saying that (unless you want to pay him back for the time he locked you into a toilet for an entire day)? Admire his new sound system, exclaim over the Italian furniture, go into ecstasies over the Jacuzzi in the bathroom. There, it wasn’t that difficult, was it?

Your boss’s wife’s home-cooked dinner may be completely inedible but if you want a raise – and an invitation back next year – then act as if you’re enjoying every morsel. The sweater your grandmother knitted for you may be in execrable taste, but if you don’t want to break her heart you better wear it when you go to visit her (and tell her how much you love it while you’re at it). Your father-in-law may be driving you up the wall by regaling you with the same stories over and over again. But don’t tell him that if you want your wife to be speaking to you at the end of the day.

A friend sends you his new novel and asks for your ‘honest’ opinion. Should you confess that you fell asleep over the first chapter? Of course not. He has an editor to tell him unpalatable truths. As his friend, you need to be supportive, even if that means offering up a few white lies at the altar of truth.

Your wife is getting ready to go out with the girls on their weekly night out. She pulls on her skinny jeans, pulls a face and turns to you with that old chestnut: “Does my bum look big in this?”

No, wait, what on earth are you doing? You are not supposed to actually look at the bum in question. That would imply that there was something to consider; a judgement to be made. No, trust me, you don’t want to go down that road. Just look at her straight in the eye and say: “No.”

If it makes you feel any better, rest assured she’s not going to wear that pair of jeans anyway. The reason she asked is because she’s already made up her mind that yes, her bum looks big in that. But it really isn’t for you to say.

Yes, sometimes people ask questions not because they want to know the truth. Sometimes they just ask them to find out if you care enough about them to lie. And sometimes a lie can tell the truth about a relationship much better than searing honesty.

Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami

From HT Brunch, February 5

Whose goat is it anyway? - Hindustan Times

2012-02-11T18:12:00.001+05:30

Whose goat is it anyway? - Hindustan TimesVir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times

February 10, 2012

First Published: 18:52 IST(10/2/2012)
Last Updated: 18:06 IST(11/2/2012)

Given that the cuisine of the sub-continent has developed around the meat of this animal, why are our chefs and restaurant managers so embarrassed to admit this? Just as every MP begins his or her career with a lie – by saying that total electoral expenditure was under the limit – so

every chef and restaurant manager who writes a menu usually starts out with a lie of his or her own.

The lie consists of a description of the red meat that is used in the kitchen. Often, the menu will simply say ‘mutton’. This is a term widely used in the culinary world to describe meat from a sheep. The term ‘lamb’ is restricted to young sheep. If the meat comes from an older animal then ‘mutton’ is used. It is the sort of distinction embodied by the phrase ‘mutton dressed as lamb’, commonly employed to describe older women who try and dress young.

The problem, of course, is that the kitchen does not use mutton, no matter what it says on the menu. The chances are that the chef is using goat, a meat for which the term mutton is never used outside of India.

Some chefs and menu writers go further with their evasions. In the descriptive line below such menu staples as seekh kebab and raan, they will use lamb instead of goat. So, a seekh kebab will be described as ‘minced lamb cooked on a skewer in the tandoor’ and a raan as ‘leg of lamb’.

A pound of goat meat has two-third the calories of a pound of beef and half the saturated fat of chicken

Even as the menu is being written, the chefs and managers will know that they are telling big fat lies. But they will rationalise it, arguing, just as our MPs do when they file their election expenses, that everyone does it so it is perfectly acceptable to engage in such evasions or misstatements.

The one time Indian chefs don’t lie about the true nature of the meat they are using is at restaurants abroad. Indian restaurants in London will usually substitute lamb with goat so when they say that their seekh kebabs are made with minced lamb, they are not lying. But the consequence is that their meat dishes hardly ever taste exactly the same as the original dishes do in India – how could they, given that they are using a completely different animal?

Two mysteries remain. One: why do chefs in India use goat rather than lamb? The answer is simple enough. The dishes were invented for goat meat, not for lamb. Besides, many Indians much prefer the taste of goat to that of lamb. Indian chefs sometimes complain that lamb can be too fatty and customers occasionally protest that dishes made with lamb smell all wrong.

The second mystery is the more profound one. Given that the cuisine of the sub-continent has developed around the meat of the goat, then why are our chefs and managers so embarrassed to admit this? Why do they feel obliged to lie?

One answer, usually offered by chefs, is that the term ‘mutton’ means goat meat in India. Well, yes, it does now after decades of misuse but you can’t arbitrarily rename an animal or a bird or its meat. You can’t say that it is perfectly legitimate to refer to a ‘duck’ as ‘chicken’ in India because that is how we use the term. So it is with mutton and goats.

The second answer – and I would argue that this one makes more sense – is that chefs treat this as a harmless evasion. Most Indians know that the meat they get served at restaurants (or the meat at home) is goat regardless of how it is described on the menu. So, when we order a seekh kebab at a restaurant, we expect to get goat meat even if the menu promises lamb.

Foreigners are not so understanding. There is no real tradition of eating goat in much of the Western world. You find goat in Jamaican, Mexican and African food and some Greek dishes require goat meat. But in most of Europe and America, the idea of eating goat is as repugnant as the idea of eating horse or fox would be to you and me. (Though the French and the Italians are quite happy to eat fox or horse, or even donkey, so why they should object to goat is strange.)

I sometimes wonder if our chefs are being too careful about offending foreigners. Goat meat is actually gaining in popularity in the West. It is still hard to find, but shops that do sell it often charge more for goat than they do for lamb, treating it as an exotic and hard-to-find meat.

What’s interesting though is that nobody in the West regards it as a simple substitute for lamb. Most Western chefs and food writers argue that the meat is very different. I was reading about the rising popularity of goat in the Wall Street Journal last weekend, and it intrigued me that the writer was struggling to describe the flavour of goat to American readers. As the Journal said, “Goat is the ultimate mystery meat for American home cooks... it’s just not part of our food culture.”

A cook-book writer is quoted by the Journal as saying that goat tastes like a cross between dark meat turkey and pork. Other descriptions suggest that it is a cross between veal and lamb.

American chefs also treat goat as a meat that is difficult to cook. Many suggestions are offered for softening the meat and taming what is described as its strong, gamey flavour.

Indian chefs have long recognised that goat requires special attention: that is one reason why marination is such an important part of the Indian culinary tradition. The process involved in making a raan, for instance, is so long and complicated that many Western chefs, used to simply roasting a leg of lamb, would faint at the prospect of turning a leg of goat into a melt-in-the-mouth dish.

But what’s interesting – and I didn’t realise this till I read the Journal story – is that goat is being promoted as the healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to beef, lamb and pork.

Bill Niman (the founder of Niman Ranch, whose meat products are famous the world over) recommends goat because it is a sustainable meat from animals that thrive on pasture. The health argument is also compelling. A pound of goat meat has two-third the calories of a pound of beef. And this is the astonishing bit: goat has half the saturated fat of chicken. So, all those Indian doctors who read American textbooks that tell people to give up red meat and switch to chicken for the sake of their hearts may be making a mistake. The American textbooks use red meat as a synonym for beef. But the red meat we eat, goat, is actually better for your heart than chicken.

As goat becomes the trendy meat, Western chefs are creating a caste system for goats similar to the one that is already employed for pork, chicken and beef. Most people in the food business know that black-leg chickens or those from the French town of Bresse are the best. There is a classification of pork as well. Near the top of the heap is Berkshire pork. (Berkshire pigs, bred in Japan, produce korobuta pork, which is also highly regarded.) When it comes to beef, such breeds as Angus are highly prized and beef from the Japanese town of Kobe can be among the world’s most expensive meats.

The same sort of thing seems set to happen to goat meat. Chefs look for goats from the Spanish, Kiko or Boer breeds. Goats from lesser breeds command a lower price. They insist that a goat should not weigh more than 60 pounds. If it is older than nine months, then its meat falls in value. Female goats are preferred to male goats because their meat is more tender.

Much of this will not surprise India’s Quereshi chefs who come from a long tradition of butchers and understand the goat best. The Quereshis even understand goat fat, choosing the fat from particular parts of the animal for each dish. (For instance, while the meat for a kakori can come from different parts of the goat, the fat must come from the kidney area.)

But Indian restaurants and hotels are reluctant to even admit that they serve goat, let alone brag about the expertise of the chef in choosing the right part of a goat from the best breed of a certain age and under a certain weight. So while American and European chefs celebrate the goat and turn it into a trendy gourmet delicacy, our contribution to goat-eating is to call the animal ‘lamb’ even though we know we are lying.

But as the goat craze catches on, perhaps Indian restaurants will finally overturn the lies and evasions of so many decades.

Google reveals V-Day love equation - Hindustan Times

2012-02-11T18:09:00.001+05:30

Google reveals V-Day love equation - Hindustan Times

Pasting this equation into Google's search engine will generate a love graph

Fans of technology and math feeling amorous in the lead up to Valentine's Day are causing excitement on the tech blogs with a mathematical equation that produces a romantic surprise when typed into Google.

The equation that is causing a buzz on tech blogs and media sources such

as Mashable and the National Post is as follows:

sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

Pasting the above equation into Google's search engine will generate a graph showing a heart at its center.

Google, know for its seasonal Doodles, did not write the equation and it is currently unclear who the mathematical romantic behind the formula is, though Twitter user @Huckberry was responsible for bringing it to the attention of blogs such as Mashable.

Google is well-known for creating its own Easter eggs -- for example, typing "do a barrel roll" into the search bar will make the page spin 360 degrees, and over the holiday period searching for "let it snow" would create a snowstorm effect on the screen.

What happens when troops - and money - leave Afghanistan?

2012-02-07T21:23:00.001+05:30

What happens when troops - and money - leave Afghanistan?

What happens when troops - and money - leave Afghanistan?

The drawdown of foreign troops – now slated for 2013 – could destabilize Afghanistan's economy – or, according to some, help stem rampant corruption.

By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / February 7, 2012

A US soldier keeps watch near the site of a car bomb blast that killed at least seven people on Sunday in the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Ahmad Nadeem/Reuters

Enlarge

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

After three decades of conflict, Afghanistan has a complicated relationship with war.

No one wants the fighting to continue. But many are worried what will happen if the foreign aid, social opportunity, and, in some parts of Afghanistan, relative security the fighting has brought ends.

As the international community accelerates its withdrawal from Afghanistan, many here say they'll be fine. As long as foreign spending continues, they say, security and the new status quo will remain. If the USand its allies cut development spending as their troops leave, however, many Afghans and aid workers worry that it could have a devastating affect on everything from women's rights to the stability of the entire economy.

Think you know Asia? Take our geography quiz.

“There will be much corruption on one side, and on the other, there will not be enough troops to secure the country, especially the rural areas,” says Mahmood Khan, a member of parliament from Kandahar Province.

Still, reflecting the view of many Afghans, he doesn't think that Afghans or the international community will give up on the development work they have started. “Something has been done in the last 10 years, and we have spent lots of money which has come from foreign sources.”

Shifting war timetable, shifting money

Last week, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that American troops would switch from a combat role to a support role in Afghanistan by mid- to late-2013, with all provinces in Afghan control by the end of 2014. The news came after French officials announced that all 3,600 of their troops stationed here will be completely withdrawn by mid-2013.

Initial estimates indicate that it will cost $6 billion annually to maintain Afghan security forces, following the drawdown – about three times Afghanistan’s current national tax revenues.

Currently, 90 percent of the Afghan government’s budget comes from foreign sources, and about 97 percent of the country’s GDP has come to depend on foreign aid and international military spending as well. The World Bank has even warned of economic collapse in Afghanistan if international donors pull funding too fast.

Indeed, the mark of foreign spending is clear. Over the past decade, NGOs and companies working with or for foreign organizations have grown, especially in the nation’s capital. As NATOlooks to cut back, many of those that depend on foreign funding to survive – as well as those that are self-sustaining – are concerned.

“If the security decreases in this country, women will be the first victims. They will go back to their homes,” says Najiba Ayubi, the managing director of the Development Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan at the Killid Group. “No family will give the women their right to work. It will affect women’s rights.”

Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach America?

2012-02-07T20:54:00.000+05:30

Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach America?

Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach America?

An Iranian missile under construction, caught up in a mysterious blast in November, had a range of 6,000 miles, a senior Israeli official said Thursday in a speech outside Tel Aviv.

By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer / February 2, 2012

In this undated file photo, a Ghader missile is launched at the shore of sea of Oman during Iran's navy drill. A missile under construction at an Iranian research-and-development facility, which was damaged by a mysterious explosion in November, was a long-range missile prototype with a range of 6,000 miles.

Hamed Jafarnejad/Fars News Agency/AP/File

Enlarge

Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach the "Great Satan"?

The missile under construction at an Iranian research-and-development facility, which was damaged by a mysterious explosion in November, was a long-range missile prototype with a range of 6,000 miles – enough to hit the United States, a senior Israeli official said Thursday in a speech to a defense and security forum.

At the time of the Nov. 12 explosion at a facility some 30 miles outside Tehran, Iranian officials insisted that the suspicious blast was an accident. It occurred, they said, during experimentation on a medium-range missile – one capable of reaching Israel.

RECOMMENDED: Top 4 threats against America – the good and bad news

But on Thursday, Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s vice prime minister and minister of strategic affairs, said in a speech outside Tel Aviv that the missile under development actually had a range closer to 6,000 miles.

“That’s the Great Satan,” Mr. Yaalon said, using the well-known pejorative term that Iranian officials have used for the US. “It was aimed at America, not at us.”

If true, Yaalon’s claim would put Iran’s missile development program into a new league. Until now, most arms analysts have estimated that the range of Iranian missiles is limited to about 1,500 miles – enough, to be sure, to reach Israel and parts of Europe. But analysts have speculated very little on research into or development of a longer-range missile.

One Washington weapons research organization, the Institute for Science and International Security, did conclude in a late November report on the Iranian facility explosion that the blast occurred just as Iran had achieved “a major milestone in the development of a new missile.”

The institute said its investigation revealed that the explosion took place during a tricky and volatile procedure involving a missile engine. Postexplosion speculation had centered on sabotage that might have been part of what many experts assume is a covert war against Iran’s nuclear and weapons programs, being carried out by Israel, the US, and perhaps other Western countries.

But the claim issued by Yaalon, who just last week was in Washington to confer with US officials on Iran’s nuclear program, may also have been aimed at convincing the US that Iran poses a dangerous and growing threat – not just to Israel and the Middle East region, but also to countries farther afield.

Yaalon said in his speech that the West does not yet realize how much of a threat is posed by Iran, which he called “a nightmare for the free world.” In reality, he said, Israel in the Iranian regime’s eyes is only the “little Satan,” while America, as leader of the West, is “the larger Satan.”

Q-and-A: What's with the war talk surrounding Iran?

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Charles Dickens at 200

2012-02-07T20:50:00.000+05:30

Charles Dickens at 200

Charles Dickens at 200

How would the social reformer who gave us Oliver Twist and Tiny Tim have viewed the 'Occupy' movement and Arab Spring? A look at Dickens's enduring legacy.

By Randy Dotinga, Correspondent / February 7, 2012

Tourists walk around Dickens World, a theme park based on the author’s works in Chatham, Kent, in southeastern England.

Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images/File

Enlarge

Charles Dickens appreciated the endless foibles of humanity as perhaps no one sinceShakespeare. With great affection, he loved to tweak our pretensions and contradictions.

Enlarge

"Charity begins at home," one of his characters declared in a trademark bit of Dickensian wit, "and justice begins next door."

But despite the humor and all those delicious names –Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Madame Defarge – Dickens had no patience for human failure. He was a fighter for justice, a well-off rebel who distrusted revolutions but still used his words to push for reform.

Charles Dickens: 10 favorite quotes on his 200th birthday

"He didn't advocate grand schemes to improve the world," says Mike Quinn, a former New York City parole officer who founded The Friends of Dickens New York. "He simply showed how each individual can make a difference by noticing, by caring, by encouraging."

As today marks the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, the question of society's obligations is on many lips, from those of presidential candidates who want to trim the American safety net to protesters who decry the dominance of the 1 percent.

People on the right and left might feel tempted to tap the Dickens hoopla (including a bounty of events on both sides of the Atlantic) and find support for their points of view in the author's work. "He can be used for different ends, depending on one's political views," says Lillian Nayder, a professor of English at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and author of the new book "The Other Dickens," about his wife, Catherine.

On one hand, his support of the poor and needy may make him seem liberal. But his appreciation of the value of charitable do-gooding by individuals gives him a conservative shine.

There's a problem with all this, however. Dickens fans say he doesn't quite fit perfectly into today's modern political boxes.

For one thing, he'd be just about the last person you'd find occupying anything, except maybe a nice London flat. Dickens was fascinated by political protest, but he saw menace in mobs and working-class revolutions, Ms. Nayder says.

"Wholesale societal movements were intimidating to him," she says. "That's not a place Dickens wanted to go. He liked social stability, and he liked social order. He was an up-and-coming middle-class man and had an expensive house and a staff of five servants. It's not as if he wanted the political structure of England to be changed."

But Dickens did want things to be different, and he went after injustice with uncommon weapons: a deep knowledge of wrongdoing in British society and a commitment to treating the poor as worthy human beings.

Dickens took field trips to understand the country in which he lived, even faking an identity to explore the pathetic state of the boarding schools that he exposed in "Nicholas Nickleby." "What outraged him more than anything else, in my opinion, was to see any vulnerable person, especially a child, being beaten down or treated unfairly," says Mr. Quinn, the Dickens fan in New York City.

But Dickens understood the world of the downtrodden long before he set pen to paper.

Men better at recalling unpleasant experiences than women

2012-02-07T20:42:00.000+05:30

Men better at recalling unpleasant experiences than women

Washington: Men may have more accurate memory than women, when it comes to recollecting unpleasant and emotionally provocative experiences, a new research has suggested.

Corresponding author, Dr. Marc Lavoie, of University of Montreal’s Department of Psychiatry and the hospital’s Fernand-Seguin Research Center said that very few studies have looked at how ‘valence’ and ‘arousal’ affect memories independently of each other, that is to say, how attractive or repulsive we find an experience and how emotionally provocative it is.

“Our test relied on photos – we found firstly that highly arousing pictures blur women’s capacity to determine whether they’ve seen it before, and secondly that women have a clearer memory of attractive experiences than men,” Lavoie said.

Arousal has an enhancing effect on the memory of men however, as does ‘low valence’ or unpleasantness.”

Participants were shown a variety of images on a computer screen that fell into four categories: “low-valence and low-arousal” such as scenes of babies crying, “low-valence and high-arousal,” for example, war photos, “high-valence and low-arousal,” which included pictures of kittens, and finally, erotic photos for the “high-valence and high-arousal” group.

They were then shown a second round of photos that included the same images as the first round and some new ones. The participants had to push buttons to indicate whether they had already seen it or if it was new, and the speed and accuracy with which they responded enabled the researchers to gauge which factors had the most influence.

They were also connected to EEG, a system for measuring the brain’s neuron activity, which enabled the researchers to see how their brain was working as they completed the task.
“Interestingly, the scans revealed more activity in the right hemisphere of women’s brains for the recognition of pleasant pictures – the opposite of what we witnessed in men” Lavoie said.

“This challenges earlier studies using unpleasant pictures that revealed more activity in the left hemisphere for women and in the right hemisphere for men.

“Our findings demonstrate the complexity of emotional memory and underscore the importance of taking valence, arousal, and sex differences into account when examining brain activity,” Lavoie added.

The study has been published online in the International Journal of Psychophysiology.

ANI

Love never fades for Brit couple even after 82 years together

2012-02-07T20:38:00.000+05:30

Love never fades for Brit couple even after 82 years together

London: One of Britain’s oldest married couples are still as happy as the day they met - almost 82 years ago.

Inseparable Lionel and Ellen Buxton tied the knot in 1936 have not spent more than one night apart from each other in the past eight decades.

“We have never been apart really and have never wanted anyone else,” the Daily Mail quoted Ellen, 100, as saying.

“We have been married happily because we have been good friends as well as husband and wife. We have always made sure we have had nice evenings out together. Whether it is going for a romantic meal or out to play bingo,” she stated.

Grandparents Ellen and Lionel, 99, both share all the same interests including TV soaps, bingo, cards, quizzes and reading novels.

The lovebirds, who live in Dover, Kent, even follow the same sports including darts, snooker and football and both are Charlton Athletic fans.

The pair who first met in March 1930 has seen 15 Prime Ministers come and go and watched on as Britain has fought a dozen conflicts.

They grew up in London’s East End and met while working at the Henley Cable factory in north Woolwich.

After six years dating they got hitched in Plumstead, on July 18, 1936, and stayed in London for the next 48 years.

The couple, who have four grandchildren, are stronger than ever. They look after themselves with a carer coming just once a week to help out.

“We are more in love now than ever. We keep each other going,” Ellen added.

ANI

Cut for Success? What Your Hairstyle Says About You | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T20:04:00.001+05:30

Cut for Success? What Your Hairstyle Says About You | Men's Life Today

Cut for Success? What Your Hairstyle Says About You

By Jessica Lothstein

Interview suit dry-cleaned? Check. Shoes shined? Check. Mohawk perfectly sculpted with extra Brylcreem?

Wait a second... This is a job interview, where you’re supposed to strut your experience, not your feathers!

“Research says we make our assessments of others in the first 15 seconds we meet them,” says John McKee, founder of the Business Success Coach website and author of Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Career Success. “Within those first critical moments,” he says, “you’re being judged based on how you look, not what you say.”

And how you look doesn’t just include your clothes and your hygiene, but how you fashion your locks. McKee says it may have something to do with the fact that women make up a majority of the hiring force today, and “women are much more conscious and concerned about grooming, especially when it comes to hair.” But experts agree that you can infer a lot about people based on how they fashion their coif, including how you think they’re going to function as employees.

“The truth is, the way you present yourself -- from your body language and clothing to the style of your haircut -- absolutely determines how people treat you, especially in the workplace,” says Bernardo Carducci, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Indiana University Southeast. “It’s a rapid judgment call termed ‘cognitive efficiency’ that stems from caveman times, and it’s based on using past experiences to predict future outcomes. Basically, if you don’t look the part, you won’t be deemed fit for the job (whether it’s true or not), and it could mean the difference between getting hired or not, or moving ahead as opposed to getting landlocked.”

So how do you know if you look the part? Here’s what your hairstyle really says about you.

Side Part
Popular in: Finance, politics, insurance.

Says: Serious and business-minded. You’re a hard worker who wants to get ahead.

Why: It’s on the conservative and simple side, but it still shows that you put some effort into your grooming routine. It’s also a classic look that will never go out of style, because it conveys a sense of class and importance. “There’s a secret among HR people: You’re more likely to get a promotion if you look like you’ve already made it,” says McKee.

“Take a cue from the hairstyles of the people one level above your current role,” concludes McKee. Chances are, you’ll see lots of side parts.

Buzz Cut
Popular in: Medicine, professional sports, the Army.

Says: Confident and masculine. You care about appearance, but you’re too busy to spend too much time on your hair.

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Take Your Scent From Day to Night | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T20:01:00.001+05:30

Take Your Scent From Day to Night | Men's Life Today

Take Your Scent From Day to Night

By Thomas Farley

In the Will Ferrell comedyAnchorman, Paul Rudd’s character proudly proclaims that his cologne -- Sex Panther -- is “illegal in nine countries.” He goes on to brag about its lady-killing qualities: “They’ve done studies, you know. Sixty percent of the time, it works … every time.”

If your cologne has similar powers, you’re a lucky man. But seducing the ladies is probably not uppermost in your mind when you splash your scent on in the morning -- and it shouldn’t be. You’ve got to get through the workday first. The ideal, of course, would be a one-stop cologne solution for day and night. Something that, as Mehdi Lisi -- senior fragrance development manager for International Flavours and Fragrances -- says, would make you “feel fresh and clean in morning, go through the day feeling energized, and then become a machine of seduction at night.”

Unfortunately, chemistry -- both that of our bodies and that of cologne itself -- makes the one-application goal somewhat elusive. Made up largely of alcohol, cologne begins evaporating immediately upon touching your skin. As your body temperature warms, it dissipates even faster. By the end of the workday, chances are it will be long gone. So what’s the man in search of an all-day, all-purpose cologne to do? The experts have a few suggestions.

Most importantly, do not douse yourself with vast quantities of cologne to make it last. “Your office colleagues will kill you,” says A.J. Jones, from the Nickel Spa for Men in New York. It’s far better to reapply later in the day than to go too heavy in the morning. And this should go without saying, but if you’ve hit the gym on your lunch break or after work, you’ve got to shower before reapplying cologne. Otherwise, you’re only going to exude a nasty mash-up of sweat and scent. Jones also suggests using multiple products -- such as body wash, deodorant and aftershave or cologne -- from the same label. This will deliver the same scent to different parts of the body and in different intensities.

And there are ways to give your cologne a fighting chance at making it past the 5 p.m. whistle, says Sarah Horowitz, owner and chief perfumer of custom fragrance company Sarah Horowitz Parfums. For one, if you pour a bit into your hands and clap, it will help burn off the alcohol and reduce the cologne to its signature (and longest-lasting) elements. Another stratagem Horowitz offers is to layer the scent by applying it to places that will retain it longer: “Your skin radiates heat, but hair does not. Put some cologne on your hands and then smooth it into the back of your hair or onto your beard.” You can also dab a little on a jacket or shirt -- providing you’ve rubbed it into your hands first. Whatever you do, don’t spray cologne directly onto your clothing. You might smell good, but that big stain on your shirt will likely mitigate any positive effects.

Play These Video Games to Perform Better … in Life | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T19:58:00.001+05:30

Play These Video Games to Perform Better … in Life | Men's Life Today

Play These Video Games to Perform Better … in Life

By Peter Pachal

Could there be benefits to playing “Halo” for hours on end … besides getting really good at “Halo”?

Over the past few years, research has shown that video games can give you an edge at some real-world skills. Actual, useful skills, stuff that will come in handy at times other than when you happen to come across an energy sword.

“When I was at Beth Israel Hospital, I noticed that surgeons who played video games were better at laparoscopic surgery,” says Dr. Paul Lynch, an Arizona doctor who’s been studying the effects of video games on physiology for over 20 years. Laparoscopic surgery involves inserting a camera into the patient. “In that type of procedure, surgeons have their hands on instruments while looking at a screen. It’s almost like playing a video game.”

That’s a very specific example of video games honing a particular skill, but all kinds of studies that have been done over the years point to the many benefits of gaming. Rolf Nelson, a professor of psychology at Wheaton College, recently looked at the effects of gaming on cognitive abilities.

“Different video games cause players to adopt different strategies in subsequent tasks,” says Nelson. “For example, after playing a fast-paced shooting game, players tend to sacrifice accuracy in favor of speed in a completely unrelated task.”

So which kinds of games emphasize which skills? Lynch’s research can give us a clue. In his study, he had his game-playing surgeons play three different kinds of games, each of which improved specific tasks:

To Improve Visual Skills:

Playing a shooter, particularly one with targeting crosshairs and a sniper-like experience, can improve visual skills. Anyone who plays “Halo 3”or “BioShock 2” will probably be better at tracking several objects at once and making snap decisions. That could be useful playing sports, but Nelson suggests it could be a benefit for even more mundane tasks.

“If you're playing ‘Halo’ with friends,” he says, “you need to track where they all are and to distinguish them from non-threatening things. Thus, video game players just may be able to find their keys faster in a messy room.”

To Improve Spatial Perception:

Second, games with heavy 3-D graphics can bestow better spatial perception. The immersive experience of “Super Monkey Ball” constantly forces players to imagine depth of field. That could come in handy in drafting or graphic design.

“What I can say with a fair amount of confidence is that for any task that uses a graphical user interface, video games can certainly help,” says Lynch.

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Love Lessons From Teen Movies of the ’80s | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T19:55:00.001+05:30

Love Lessons From Teen Movies of the ’80s | Men's Life Today

Love Lessons From Teen Movies of the ’80s

By Mike Hammer

The art of love is a delicate thing. That’s why we take our cues from the experts. We’re talking about the classic big-screen, teen-steam machines … Tom Cruise, Anthony Michael Hall, and even that resurgent Romeo, Amir Khan!

Yes, these high school anti-studs, who somehow bumbled their way into the hearts of some of the finest teen babes from the 80s, offer a fine road map to finding romance -- even if you’ve already made that wrong turn at Moradabad.

Here, some of the key lessons you need to study to score an “A” in Love For Beginners… or just to score.

Risky Business (1983)
Sex education: Put yourself at risk for a chick, and you can melt her heart.
Joel is a good kid with hydrogen-fueled hormones. He’s working to get on Princeton’s short list, but he’s no genius with the ladies (which is kinda weird since he looks suspiciously like Tom freakin’ Cruise). So when his friends dial up a not-quite-lady of the evening, who directs him to a sweetie with more up top and less between the legs … it’s unlikely love at first credit card swipe with superhot Lana (Rebecca De Mornay). And while Joel looks like an easy mark, his selfless efforts to save her from her somewhat menacing pimp (we actually think L. Ron Hubbard is scarier than Joe Pantoliano) cause her to fall head over hooker heels for him. Also? He gets into Princeton! Remember, though: Paying for sex never pays off … unless, you know, you’re Tom Cruise and you’re in a movie that says it does.

Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988)
Sex education: Never give up... even if everyone tells you she's not the one
In Bollywood's only (sort-of) entry to the 80's teen flick scene, baby-face Amir Khan decides to woo the only girl on the planet he really shouldn't – his dad's enemy's daughter. Just out of school, Khan decides to return home and figure stuff out – where he runs into the babe (Juhi Chawla). See, there's some complicated family blood feud, but they don't care. A couple of awesome disco song-and-dances later, they run away together. Then daddy's henchmen catch up... So what's the lesson here? If you're deadsure she's the one – you might be dead! Actually, the real lesson is that if she loves you back, nothing else (such as the family vendetta) matters.

Weird Science (1985)
Sex education: You can manufacture confidence, and when you do, it’ll bring you action.
It would take a miraculous scientific breakthrough for super nerds Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Illan Mitchell-Smith) to get a girl to notice them … so they plug a program into their SUV-sized computer and … Oingo Boingo! Say hello to the hottest digital development until the iPod: virtual vixen Lisa (Kelly LeBrock). Her mere presence alongside Gary and Wyatt makes these guys the coolest kids in school and the high schoolers with the hottest chicks. But it was more than just the virtual girl that got them action; it was the real confidence she gave them to prove that geeks can get freaky with the best of them. So remember: You don’t have to be cool to draw some heat … just gotta act it.

Pretty in Pink (1986)
Sex education: If you’re a good friend, you’ll get a girl -- it just might not be the girl.
Money-challenged Andie (Molly Ringwald) is in love with richie-rich Blaine (Andrew McCarthy). But Blaine’s snobby buddy, Steff (James Spader), wants him to dump her for someone more appropriate to his social set. But even more tragic is that Andie’s Salvation Army-styled best friend, Ducky (Jon Cryer), who’s hopelessly in love with her, has to convince Blaine that she’s worth more than all his friends combined. Sadly, he’s successful and Blaine blows off the snobs for Ducky’s dream doll. But wait! Ducky then gets plucked from the prom crowd by smokin’ hot, future vampire slayer Kristy Swanson … who admires his character! The lesson here? Friendship and loyalty lead to love -- at least for Jon Cryer, who gets action that’s way over his head. So be nice, kids -- clearly it pays off!

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The Quitting Quiz | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T19:52:00.001+05:30

The Quitting Quiz | Men's Life Today

The Quitting Quiz

By Thomas P. Farley

What are the telltale signs that the time has come to leave your job? Take this Men’s Life Today test for a definitive answer to an age-old question: Should you stay or should you go?

1) Every Monday morning, as you ponder the workweek ahead, you pull out your iPod and put one particular track on repeat. Its title is:

a) “Ni Nachleh” (Imran Khan)

b) “Just Can’t Get Enough” (Black Eyed Peas)
c) “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” (Katy Perry)
d) “Forget You” -- and not the clean version (Cee Lo Green)

2) When you get in late, your boss:

a) Doesn’t notice, because he never strolls in before noon anyway.

b) Asks if everything’s OK, since you’re usually the first one in the office.
c) Pulls you aside and tells you not to let it happen again.
d) Screams that the next time you’re tardy with his dry cleaning, there will be hell to pay.

3) Your workplace attire consists of:

a) Long hair, baggy shorts and a pair of blue chappals.

b) A three-piece suit, gleaming shoes and a freshly sharpened pencil on the ready, tucked behind your ear.
c) An Oxford shirt, khakis, and -- for rare occasions -- a Kevlar vest.
d) An airport gift that reads: “My Boss Went to Shanghai and All He Got Me Was this Lousy T-shirt.”

4) At lunchtime, you:

a) Find a couch for a nap, followed by a little Angry Birds action, followed by another nap.

b) Eat at your desk to save time. Gotta love multitasking!
c) Bring your lunch into the conference room and complain to your work buds about the idiots in accounting.
d) Fashion voodoo dolls of the CEO using paper clips and a bubble envelope.

5) On Take Our Children to Work Day, you:

a) Teach the boss’s kids how to make faces on the photocopier and fax the laugh-out-loud results to their teachers.

b) Put together a gripping PowerPoint presentation on how working hard in school truly gets you places!
c) Advise every youngster you see to put off the real world by getting an MBA.
d) Call in sick. Having to be nice to your colleagues is bad enough; being nice to their kids is beyond your pay grade.

6) A typical day’s assignment is:

a) Assignment? I’m not sure I’m following you.

b) There is no typical. Every project that lands on your desk is more refreshing and interesting than the last.
c) Not anything to write home about, but at least you’ve got health insurance.
d) So ludicrous and incomprehensible you wonder whether a lobotomized monkey thought it up.

7) When it comes time for the annual company picnic, you:

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The CD Solution | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T19:49:00.001+05:30

The CD Solution | Men's Life Today

The CD Solution

By Thomas P. Farley

When was the last time you bought a compact disc? For many of us, that’s like asking your friend about his latest video cassette purchase. But what about all those shiny discs you bought before the advent of iTunes, peer-to-peer sharing, music streaming and cloud storage made it so easy to find music online and access it on the device of your choice? In other words, is Fatboy Slim still staring at you from a jam-packed CD tower, its CD case growing dustier with each passing year?

Antiquated though they may seem, CDs should not be consigned to the digital rubbish heap — at least not until you’ve got what you need from them. For starters, the music quality is far superior to that in an MP3. The MP3 is a small file for a reason — it doesn’t contain anywhere near the amount of data (and thus fidelity) that a track on a CD does. Secondly, although the selections offered on Amazon, iTunes or India's own Saavn are enough to keep your head banging for a lifetime, chances are you own some eclectic albums that you won’t find in any of those libraries.

So what’s a guy to do about all those CDs that haven’t seen the light of day since Friends was a staple of Star World evenings? You’ve got two options: Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and outsourcing.

The DIY Route

If you're on a PC and don't use iTunes, there is software both free (e.g., Winamp) and paid (e.g., Nero and Winamp Pro) that can assist you with the music importing process. These time-saving programs will also help you manage your music library once you've finished importing your CDs. On a PC (and again, providing storage space is not an issue), you'll want to import the songs in either .WAV or FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec).

If you’re on a Mac and use iTunes to manage your music, you'll find an option under preferences (within the iTunes pull-down menu) to import songs automatically on insertion of a CD. Select that option. Also in this menu you'll find your import settings. To import your music at the highest quality possible (provided that space isn't an issue) select AIFF Encoder or Apple Lossless Encoder. If storage space is an issue, you can import your music as MP3s. As noted above, though, the MP3 format makes use of crafty (though some say undetectable) audio compromises to keep the files small.

The good news is that regardless of whether you're on a Mac or a PC, the software will do most of the heavy lifting for you (including finding album artwork and ID-ing the tracks on your CDs automatically). But you’ll still be stuck with the mind-numbing task of popping the CDs in and out of the computer every several minutes — with the time for ripping dependent on the format you select.

Once you’ve imported a few discs, test the extracted music by streaming it to your various devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone). Make sure the format you’ve selected will not prove problematic—or acoustically unsatisfying—on any of them. (Not all cloud services will accept the higher resolution files, for example.) Once you’re pleased with the results, finish ripping the rest of your CDs. And when you’ve finally finished, back up! Save your music files on a large external drive (or two) and, for safekeeping, on a cloud-storage server as well.

Outsourcing

Find a service that will convert all of your CDs to digital files and put them onto a hard drive or music player for you. Usually, any reasonable local market in India nowadays offers Internet cafes, printing services and CD conversions. Expect to pay anywhere from Rs. 25 to Rs.75or more per disc, depending on the final format you select. Highly reputable data-archiving companies will be pricier, and could clean your discs prior to importing and even attempt to repair damaged ones.

To make sure you’ll see your precious music collection again, ask your friends for services they might have used, or ask around at well-known music shops.

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How to Get into Bollywood | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T19:44:00.001+05:30

How to Get into Bollywood | Men's Life Today

How to Get into Bollywood

By Nishat Fatima

So you haven’t been born a Kapoor, Khan or Sippy, but you still want to get into Bollywood? If you're determined of being in the movie you're watching, don’t give up on your cinematic dreams. While there’s no guaranteed method for making it big in Bollywood, talent, persistence, connections, and a very thick skin usually pay off.

“Have patience and believe in yourself. If you are talented and true to your work, you will get that big break,” says actor Rajat Barmecha, who made his Bollywood debut with the 2010 sleeper hit Udaan. He joins a panel of outsiders-turned-Bollywood successes who share their advice about getting your name rolling in the credits - whether it’s as an actor, director, choreographer, dancer, or in any one of those critical behind-the-scenes jobs.

Ignore the naysayers. When 22-year-old Rajat Barmecha signed on for Udaan, he had only a few modelling assignments under his belt. He had no filmi background, no ‘godfather’ in the industry, no training, no manager, and his first audition for the role was not a success. While everybody agrees there’s no formula to get into Bollywood, you would think it would be hard to do without at least one of the above. But Barmecha did, and is now a successful and critically acclaimed actor.

Others have blazed their own trails as well. Vishal Bhardwaj composed music before he became a Bollywood director withMakdee; Kunal Kohli was a film critic pre-Mujhse Dosti Karoge, and Madhur Bhandarkar worked in a video library… and that’s just a small range of the jobs people did before becoming directors.

Learn from auditions and meet the right people. It’s easy learning even if you haven’t got your big breakthrough as an actor. “There is no shortcut to success, but do as many auditions as you can - they were my biggest learning process,” Barmecha says.

Barmecha also believes that acting or other film schools aren't necessarily the right way to get into the business, but it's much more important to network and make the right connections. Beyond that, his advice is to work hard, stay focused, not get jealous of others’ success, and to stay grounded.

Training is good… Film school is obviously not a requirement to becoming a director, but it’s the one recommendation director Prakash Jha makes. “Get some formal training,” he says, suggesting institutes such as Film and Television Institute of India or Whistling Woods. The training doesn’t have to be in directing. Any film-related field – editing, cinematography, critiquing – that gives you an introduction and some practical instruction will do.

But experience is better. Training on the job is what will actually teach you the nitty-gritty of being a director. To become the man calling the shots, the most valuable learning role is that of an assistant director. It’s the job that forms the basis of most of Bollywood’s current crop of successful directors - because it gave them hands-on experience in the craft.

Explore the options. Being an actor or director might be the big Bollywood aspiration, but a movie requires any number of crew members – editors, storywriters, lyricists, cinematographers, set designers, costume designers, sound recorder - jobs with a higher rate of success in breaching Bollywood’s barriers.

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My Turn: Patti Davis on the chains that break, the links that form in Alzheimer's

2012-02-07T17:32:00.001+05:30

My Turn: Patti Davis on the chains that break, the links that form in Alzheimer's

My Turn: Patti Davis on the chains that break, the links that form in Alzheimer's

Patti Davis, daughter of the late President Ronald Reagan, helps run a support group for others who have loved ones with Alzheimer's disease. (Chris Pizzello, Associated Press / November 20, 2004)

By Patti Davis, Special to the Los Angeles Times

February 6, 2012

In 1994, when my father disclosed that he had Alzheimer's disease, I was living in New York. The news that Ronald Reagan had willingly told the world about his condition was everywhere, and with the familiarity typical of New Yorkers, people would stop me on the street to express condolences or share their own experiences with the disease.

It was the latter scenario that transfixed me. Complete strangers would tell me about their mother or their father, a grandparent or aunt. They would give me a few details, their eyes would brim with emotion, and then they'd be gone. I never saw them again … and I looked for them, because there wasn't anyone in my life, other than family members, with whom I could discuss the strange, unpredictable journey we were suddenly on.

I knew I was now part of a club — one that no one wanted to be in — but it felt more like the French Underground, secretive and furtive, with messages exchanged on street corners and people vanishing into the mist.

One time, I confided in a close friend that I felt so guilty about having slipped up and asked my father a question, when you aren't supposed to do that with people who have Alzheimer's. It confuses them. She was deeply sympathetic yet clearly puzzled about how to respond. There was nothing in her own reality to allow her to identify with what I was going through.

I spoke to my mother on the phone every day, but she was losing her husband, her soul mate, and that is different from a daughter losing her father. My sister Maureen was waging her own battle with melanoma, and my brothers remained stoic and analytical. Each person in a family loses a loved one in his or her own way, fitting to the architecture of their relationship.

So I had to chart my own way across the foreign land of a disease that few people even discussed, one that doctors had no map for. I started a journal, which later became a book, "The Long Goodbye"; I prayed a lot, and I decided that the one navigational tool I had was the belief that my father's soul didn't have Alzheimer's.

I flew back and forth across the country so frequently I was running out of money. I finally returned to California for the last years of his life.

The loneliness of the journey was a constant. There was no one to talk to the first time I realized he had no idea I was his daughter — I said "I love you," and he looked surprised, as anyone would if a stranger said something so intimate. There was no one to call when my mother phoned me in New York late one night because my father was insisting he had just seen me in their living room and wanted to know where I'd gone. Neither of us could interpret what this meant. Had he hallucinated? Imagined my presence so strongly that he believed it was real?

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Six Great Dates That Won't Break the Bank | Men's Life Today

2012-02-07T16:20:00.000+05:30

Six Great Dates That Won't Break the Bank | Men's Life Today

Six Great Dates That Won't Break the Bank

By Rachel Khona

So you asked her out. What do you do now to totally impress her? Or it isn't your first date, but you want to try something different to keep the flames burning? With all the options out there, stand out from the masses. The best part? She'll feel special, and think you're cool and creative.

1. Take her out for a 'progressive dinner'
Instead of a regular old dinner, do a “progressive dinner.” New restaurants are popping up left and right. So why settle for one? Munch on starters at the bar of the first restaurant. Then move to a second establishment for the main course. Finish off with dessert at a café or another restaurant. If you’re on a budget, try what Grammy-recognized artist Anand Bhatt loves to do to woo the ladies; a dhaba crawl. “I map out some fun and non-upscale restaurants, ending with a nice place like the Oberoi or a walk on Juhu beach if I’m in Mumbai, and we go to each one and try something from their menu.”

Just be sure to save the fanciest place (anywhere you can sit down) for the main course since it's the most important!

2. Show her you're cultured -- check out a gallery
Checking out the different pieces on display is a great way to bond and will give you something to chat about. When choosing a gallery or museum, keep in mind your date’s interests. Is she into modern art? New art galleries are opening in all the major cities. The husband and wife team of Mortimer Chatterjee and Tara Lal have created a space in Mumbai, dedicated to the exhibition of cutting-edge Indian art. Delhi's Habitat Centre always has new art on display, with great restaurants nearby to boot.

What if she's a history buff? Delhi's National Museum has some great artifacts you probably haven't seen since your grade school visit. This time, both of you are sure to be blown away by the totally sexy Gupta period costumes. When you’re done perusing the displays, hit the museum restaurant or nearby café.

3. Take a ballroom dancing class
There’s nothing sexier (and more fun) than learning to shake it. Even if you're not the most co-ordinated person, just take it in stride and have a good time. Says Kamal Khatri of Dance Classes in Mumbai, “we see many couples coming in on dates, and they learn to dance together.”

In addition to Dance Classes, Swingers Dance in Bangalore and Ballroom Dreams in Mumbai offer a variety of courses in everything from the waltz to the jitterbug. But if you really want to move to something sultry, try one of the Latin styles like salsa, tango, or Brazil's "forbidden" dance, the Lambada. “Dancing brings couples close and as they spend quality time together, they can get to know each other better,” says Khatri. Just don't get too frisky too soon!

4. Play a board game
Ask her out for a coffee, then snag your favourite game and bring it along to your cafe. Board games are fun and can encourage a little friendly and flirty competition. Is she a witty wordsmith? Try Scrabble. Is she a financial maven? Monopoly should get her juices flowing. Plus board games give you an insight into her that you may not otherwise see. Is she a cheater? Does she get angry easily? Or does she take it all in stride? There’s only one way to find out.

5. Attend a cooking class
Show your lady you're manly enough to cook! Even better, you'll learn how to make all those fancy meals you enjoy while eating out. Nothing says romance more than French food, or sweet cupcakes and chocolate. Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Pooja Dhingra owns Le 15 Patisserie in Mumbai, where she conducts a variety of classes in the art of decadent desserts. Dhingra says a cooking class "takes the edge off and makes you comfortable while you're on a date."

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Mexico drinks to its roots

2012-02-07T16:15:00.000+05:30

Mexico drinks to its roots

Mexico drinks to its roots

Pulque, a popular workingman's drink dating to the Aztecs that had fallen out of favor long ago, makes a comeback in Mexico, thanks to the Facebook generation.

The legendary Aztec pulque was long considered the drink of the common man. It's served here at Pulquería la Pirata in Mexico City, poured by bartender Don Santiago. (Nicholas Gilman / July 2, 2011)

Related photos »

By Nicholas GilmanSpecial to the Los Angeles Times

November 10, 2011

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY—

I entered my first small-town pulquería, a place called Sal Si Puedes, with trepidation. The name itself was a warning: "Escape if You Can." Two toothless patrons teetering on bar stools gazed as I ordered a pulque. The bartender handed me a chipped mug brimming with a viscous, milky liquid. Its warm, slimy, acrid taste made me want to spit it out. But all eyes were upon me. I managed to quaff enough to impart a pleasant buzz — hmm, this is starting to taste better, I thought to myself. I paid my 3 pesos and made my escape.

Pulque, popular as a workingman's drink since the time of the Aztecs, slowly lost its appeal as beer, tequila and mezcal took over. Pulquerías became dives, the lowest places to drink into oblivion. Women rarely entered but could buy the drink discreetly from small side windows. Gradually, the number ofpulquerías in the Mexico City area dwindled from hundreds to a few dozen.

FOR THE RECORD:
Pulquerias: In the Nov. 10 Food section, an article and two photographs about the growing popularity of Mexico City's pulquerias should have been credited to Nicholas Gilman, not Nicholas Gill. —

But in the last 10 years, pulquerías have been making a comeback. Mexico's Facebook generation is embracing and celebrating its culture in ways unknown to its parents, for whom European or American tastes set the standards of chic.

PHOTOS: Pulqueria la Pirata

Older, distinctly Mexican traditions are now seen as cool.Pulquerías such as La Risa, the city's oldest, in business since 1905, and Las Duelistas, with its Aztec-inspired murals, have become fashionable places for young people to meet. One of Mexico's newest pulquerías, Expendio de Pulques Finos Insurgentes, was opened last year by a group of college-educated idealists whose agenda is to preserve and promote this age-old elixir. Of course, all three places have Facebook pages.

Pulque is fermented agua miel, the fresh sap of the maguey cactus (the same one used to make tequila and mezcal). The result is translucent milky-white, viscous, vaguely effervescent. It has a piquant, yeasty taste with just a hint of sweetness. Though the alcoholic content is low, from 2% to 8%, it can catch up with you — pulqueríapatrons drink liters of the stuff.

Pulque comes two ways: plain or flavored. Known as curados, flavored pulques may use strawberry, mango, guava, celery, beet or even oatmeal. Though many aficionados imbibe only the pure stuff, beginners may find curados more palatable.

Yeasty, constantly fermenting pulque is made fresh daily because it has a shelf life of less than 24 hours. Attempts to bottle it for export have met with limited success, although some pasteurized versions are available in the U.S., usually flavored and sweetened. So to sample true, fresh pulque, a trip to central Mexico is essential.

Most pulquerías offer botanas (snacks). For the price of a glass (less than $1), a satisfying meal can also be had. At Las Duelistas, which opened in 1930, a different botana, prepared by the bartenders, is served each day. Arturo Garrido Aldana, the third-generation owner, says that years ago, unusual "pre-Hispanic" dishes such as chapulines en salsa roja (grasshoppers in red sauce) were prepared.

Today's crowd is happy with less challenging fare. Most botanas are simple, light, inexpensive and easy to make at home. A taste of Don Arturo's black beans with nopalitos reveals a deceptively simple and extraordinarily earthy dish. Equally compelling is his essence-of-the-seashore caldo de camarónoffered every Saturday.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Consumed by their passion for rare Chinese teas

2012-02-07T16:12:00.000+05:30

Consumed by their passion for rare Chinese teas

A new generation of Southern California connoisseurs is emerging, seeking teas with layers of sublime taste revealed in multiple infusions. They can spend hundreds of dollars for a handful of leaves.

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Tom Ivey pours tea for guests, from left, Jason Fasi, William Yardley and Louise Yang at his Echo Park home. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / October 18, 2011)

By Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times

January 12, 2012

In an Echo Park home, four friends gather around a fist-sized clay pot steaming with a rare vintage of pu'er — an aged tea from southern China whose most exotic variations sell for $1,500 a pound or more.

They delicately pour the amber brew into tiny tasting cups. Then, holding the porcelain cups with just two fingers, they take in the fragrance. Finally, they sip, gingerly.

The verdict is unanimous.

"It's kind of got that dirty bandage taste," Louise Yang says.

Her husband, Will Yardley, is more diplomatic. "It's a little sour," he concludes, adding that the taste would improve if they brewed the tea again.

So they do. After another measured ritual of pouring, smelling and tasting, they nod with satisfaction.

A region filled with wine, beer and coffee connoisseurs, Southern California also has a lesser-known culinary subculture centered on rare Chinese teas.

Aficionados will spend hundreds of dollars for a handful of rare tea leaves from remote mountains in China. They look for quality, for good vintage, for teas carefully stored and aged.

For generations, an elevated appreciation for tea was largely the domain of older Chinese immigrants who had grown up with fine teas. During the height of Chinese immigration into the San Gabriel Valley 20 years ago, the demand supported several high-end Chinese tea shops, including one run by the family of the oldest tea company in Taipei.

Now a new generation of connoisseurs of Chinese tea is emerging. For many, the fascination with tea comes not from growing up with it. Rather, they are newcomers to the culture of the leaf, learning about it as outsiders.

They seek teas with layers of sublime taste — complexities lost on untrained drinkers. Brewing these teas is nothing like popping a tea bag into a cup of hot water. With rare Chinese teas, the key is looking for how the taste changes with each infusion. The first brew may be sharp, the second bitter, but this leads to the sweeter tastes of later rounds.

The teas are steeped in history, folklore and ritual. One tea tree in the Wuyi mountains is said to have been honored with the red robe of China's emperor after its leaves cured the ruler of a deadly illness.

The new connoisseurs try to teach themselves about a culture they were not born into, learning Chinese and traveling to southern China's ancient tea mountains, where they hunt for the best tea ware and perfectly aged pu'er, some centuries old.

They have bonded online through blogs and chat rooms, reviewing vintages and debating the best water to use for specific teas.

"I have tried a local bottled water from Buxton," wrote one user on a TeaChat forum. "It performs better than bottled French mineral waters, but my local tap water with the Chlorine and Fluorine removed by Brita… gives me great results."

Yardley, 34, prefers Volvic water.

The Caltech software administrator discovered through trial and error that the French spring water makes some medium-roast teas taste better.

Yardley's tea obsession took hold when he started dating Louise Yang and noticed that her family drank loose-leaf tea. Curious, he searched online, devoured books and discovered the history of high-grade tea and the scientific precision involved in brewing it. He lost interest in collecting bikes and in his thousands of vinyl records, and turned his attention to tea.,,,,,,,,,,,

The Year of the Dragon is also the Year of the Baby

2012-02-07T15:50:00.000+05:30

The Year of the Dragon is also the Year of the Baby

The Year of the Dragon is also the Year of the Baby

Many Asian American families are preparing to grow in the Year of the Dragon, which according to centuries-old tradition is a particularly promising year to have a child.

The dragon dance celebrates the lunar new year at Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in the United States. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / January 23, 2012)

By Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times

February 7, 2012

Taiko and Gemma Chen may not celebrate all 15 days of the lunar new year, nor do they believe they are sweeping away prosperity by cleaning the house. But there is one centuries-old tradition the Asian American couple still swears by: having a baby in the Year of the Dragon, considered the most auspicious year in the 12-year zodiac cycle.

"We're both dragons ourselves," said Gemma Chen, "so three dragons in the family would be really, really lucky. And we're 36, so we can't wait another 12 years."

In Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian communities across the world, it is widely accepted as fact that each dragon year brings a new wave of dedicated families eager for a "dragon baby." Every 12 years, media in China and southeast Asia report a surge in birthrates, with some maternity wards limiting the number of patients they accept for the year.

Even in the United States, the allure of the dragon baby still holds for many families.

"We've had a 250% increase in Chinese, Vietnamese clients in the last two months," said Kathryn Kaycoff Manos, co-founder of Global IVF and Agency for Surrogacy Solutions in Los Angeles.

Kaycoff Manos said she had never seen a cultural trend like this before.

"When I met a client about a year ago, they told us, 'We only want a baby in the Year of the Dragon,'" she said. "We sort of put that on the back burner, but suddenly we were getting all these phone calls from Asian clients. At first we thought it was because the economy was getting better. Now we understand."

Obstetricians and fertility centers in Greater Los Angeles, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley, have also noted an increasing number of Asian American patients planning to have babies this year.

Some centers have found ways to prepare specifically for the dragon baby boom.

Kaycoff Manos' company created the Dragon Baby Special, a personalized service that helps Chinese clients deliver babies in time through in vitro fertilization or surrogacy, connecting with bilingual fertility clinics and hiring Chinese translators.

Gemma Chen said she was at a good point in her career as a pharmacist and began planning in October for a child. The superstitious couple from Temple City asked that they be identified by their nicknames because they did not want to jinx the pregnancy. She hopes that her dragon baby, due in late fall, will be born with the brightest future possible.

"A lot of times, when we look at successful people — co-workers, friends — they tend to be dragons," her husband said. "Who knows if it's coincidence."

Although most ancient superstitions have disappeared from the conscience of second- and third-generation Asian Americans, the belief that the Year of the Dragon is lucky has persisted.

The dragon legend has remained consistent and has been passed down since early in Asian history, said Rick Chiu, a cultural presenter at the American Hakka Center in El Monte.

"It's one of the few unifying stories in all of Asia," he said in Mandarin. "China, Vietnam, Korea — there are political and geographic differences today, but the deep cultural history is all the same."

According to legend, the wife of the earliest emperor could not carry a child. She finally gave birth to a son who was a descendant of the dragon, brought to Earth to rule mankind. From then on, all people in the ancient Chinese kingdom considered themselves children of the dragon.

"Because of these roots, the dragon is considered to be a symbol of royalty, of power, of the most successful," Chiu said. "Up until about 100 years ago, only the emperor's circle could wear dragon embroidery and have the word dragon in their name. Otherwise, execution. Every Chinese word for an emperor's possessions — dragon chair, dragon cup, dragon boat — is associated."

Long, the Chinese character for dragon, is so deeply integrated into the language, Chiu said, that Chinese-speakers subconsciously internalize the importance of the dragon whenever they say everyday proverbs.

The dragon is also the only mythical creature in the Asian zodiac, a cycle that features 12 animals that embody unique characteristics — a dog is shy but loyal; a tiger aggressive and difficult to get along with. The dragon can swim and fly, traversing the seas as well as heaven. This symbolizes a life with no obstacles.

Parents hope a dragon baby will have a better chance of becoming a leader, a modern-day emperor. The child's success in turn brings good fortune to the entire family.
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Relationship Advice, Dating Tips, Parenting Advice and More! - femina.in

2012-02-07T15:15:00.000+05:30

Relationship Advice, Dating Tips, Parenting Advice and More! - femina.in

Intimacy: ‘I am not ready for a live-in’Feb 03, 2012 - 01:10 PM

Live-in may be a liberating concept but young, independent women of today are realising it could eat into their personal space, independence and even girly escapades. Three Femina readers in committed relationships tell Aparna Gupta why, despite the pestering, they are not keen on moving in with their men

'At 24 I don't want to take up the responsibility of house hunting and getting laundry, cooking and cleaning done.'
- Priyanka Wahi 24, Marketing Consultant
"I met Siddharth while we were studying (MBA School) and by the end of the final year we were dating exclusively. Our demanding jobs took us to different cities, ensuring that we could meet only on weekends or for a short holiday once a month. Now that Siddharth's work has also brought him to Mumbai, he practically asks me every day to move in with him. He's staying currently with a friend but is open to the idea of us renting out a place together. But I am sure I don't want to take the relationship to the next level. There's a lot of traveling involved in my job, sometimes international as well. Being an adventurous person, I often take off with my group of gal friends for hiking or water sports. I am staying with my parents who are cool with my dating status with him. In fact Siddharth visits us often and many times even stays over for the weekends. I don't want to move in with him and get into the hassle of managing a house."

'While I am open to marriage, a live-in seems too much of a risk. What are my legal rights if it doesn't work?'
- Kiana Seth 27, Advertising executive
"I have a lot of my friends and colleagues who are in live-in relationships, and I feel it is very difficult to move into another relationship after a live-in. If you are truly committed to each other and are not looking for something casual, then taking the plunge to stay together is almost the same as getting married in terms of time, energy and devotion. In fact the drawback is that you have no legal rights and little social sanction. For me the plot thickens further as the man that I am dating is also my boss. While I am open to the idea of marriage, Abhinav keeps proposing that we should consider moving together as that's really the first step to know if we are compatible. He's of course talking from experience as he lived with his ex-girlfriend for nearly two years before they decided it was time to part ways. I am not ready for a live-in as if it doesn't work, not only will I be in an emotional mess but also my career will be in jeopardy.",,,,,,,,,,

Relationship Advice, Dating Tips, Parenting Advice and More! - femina.in

2012-02-07T15:13:00.000+05:30

Relationship Advice, Dating Tips, Parenting Advice and More! - femina.in

Intimacy: What I want from afterplayFeb 06, 2012 - 04:41 PM

(0 Sure, many women love to be cuddled post some serious lovemaking but a few others may just desire some more action in a hot tub. Rubbishing the overrated 'cuddle theory', 3 Femina readers tell Amrita Sharma all about what is their idea of perfect afterplay

Shruti Sinha, Ad executive
'For me, the phase post love-making is the beginning of more exciting, sweeter indulgence.'

"Once I have had my orgasm I feel I am ready for more action, just for the pleasure of it. I love to have chocolates after we are done and I love having it with my boyfriend. We call it our chocolate session and our dessert. I place small pieces of chocolates all over my body and make him lick and have it and while he has it I get a share of it straight from his mouth. And when he is done, I do the same with him. I have also decided that before we get bored of chocolates, we will switch to strawberries. The new flavour will bring in more zing to our sex session and change our taste without changing our partners. It's a game that we both enjoy and no matter how tired we are, we feel our lovemaking is incomplete without our dessert. Believe me it tastes amazing.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

5 weirdest museums ever

2012-02-07T15:11:00.000+05:30

5 weirdest museums ever

Featured: 5 weirdest museums everDec 13, 2011 - 01:36 PM

(0 Not all museums of the world are a shimmering beacon of high culture. Sreyoshi takes you to the world's 5 weirdest museums that deserve to be visited for a glimpse of outrageous at its best!

1. Museum of dog collars, England: For canine collar couture
It's definitely a dog's world at The Museum of Dog Collars, located at Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, Kent. The museum is a first of its kind and houses a unique collection of almost 100 antique dog collars spanning five centuries, from Medieval to Victorian times. Originally assembled by the Irish medieval scholar, John Hunt and his wife Gertrude, who presented the collars to Leeds Castle in 1979 in memory of her husband, the collection has since been extended by the Leeds Castle Foundation. The museum is also a tribute to the Castle's last private owner, Lady Baillie, whose love of dogs inspired Gertrude Hunt to go ahead with the gift.

2. Museum of Bad Art, U.S.A: For bad art and few laughs sakes
It's surely not a place that's going to be a part of any art connoisseurs travel itinerary yet the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) in Boston is too bad (read hilarious) to be ignored . As the name suggests, this museum is dedicated to bad art since the fall of 1993, with disaster pieces contributed from artists and worldwide friends of MOBA. The collection which numbers about 600 pieces includes a transgender take on Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, called Mana Lisa, which guarantees heaps of laughter.

3. Hair museum in Turkey: A hairy haven
The history behind the hair museum in Avanos, Turkey is definitely not a hair-raising tale but interesting nevertheless. Worth mentioning that it has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records!

The founder and skilled Turkish potter Chez Galip was gifted by his friend a strand of her hair as a token of remembrance. This gave him an idea to start a hair museum that houses the world's largest collection of hair, sourced from more than 16,000 women in different colours, textures and lengths along with their names and addresses.

If you're here and having a good hair day, how about donating it to the museum, it has its own share of perks? Twice a year, the first customer who enters Galip's shop is given an opportunity to choose ten winners from the hair museum, who receive exciting prizes.

4. Museum of Enduring Beauty, Malaysia: A 'real' beauty,,,,,,,,,,,

Featured: Caving in Budapest /Travel. Femina

2012-02-07T15:09:00.000+05:30

Travel. Femina

Featured: Caving in BudapestJan 19, 2012 - 09:52 AM

(0 Budapest, like most of the bigger East European capital cities has much to offer. It's a city known for its rich culture and history, tourist attractions and its thermal baths. But a visit to Budapest is incomplete unless you go caving under the city, says Salil Jayakar

Not for the faint-hearted, the claustrophobic or those on the healthier side of fit, caving in Budapest leaves you with a sense of achievement, accomplishment and amazement that is unique in itself. Thankfully, I'm none of those, or thought so, when I decided to undertake what was to be the highlight of my two-week European backpacking holiday.

The Buda part of the city, hilly in parts, is home to the longest underground cave system in Hungary that is about 20 kms in length. This fascinating labyrinth was formed in the underground limestone mountains by the very hot waters that now supply water to Budapest's many thermal springs. As they receded, the water left behind a huge cave system. The Palvolgyi-Matyas-hegyi cave system in the Duna-Ipoly National Park is believed to be the second longest in the world!

The meeting point for most of the caving tours is the Nyugati Station in the Pest part of the city. From here it's approximately a 30-45 minutes bus ride across the Duma River to the Buda part from where the tour begins. A short walk from the bus stop is the tour office where you are given heavy-duty, workmen like jumpsuits and a safety helmet with headlamp. Another short walk from the office and you're at the entrance of an exciting adventure! All that's standing in your way is a small metal door, about 4 feet in height!,,,,,,,,,

Walk into the worldâ€™s 10 best castles

2012-02-07T15:03:00.000+05:30

Walk into the worldâ€™s 10 best castles

Featured: Walk into the world’s best castlesJan 25, 2012 - 01:58 PM
Irrespective of the fact that they are no longer used to ward-off the enemy or protect the kingdom, each of these 8 beautiful castles have a larger-than-life story to narrate. By Neha K Kulkarni

1. Windsor Castle, England
Built in 1070 and spread over 13 acres, this castle was originally designed to protect Norman dominance around the outskirts of London. As time passed, it went through several tumultuous periods, especially during the English Civil War in which the castle was used as military headquarters and a prison for Charles I. In recent times, it has evolved as one of the official residences of the Queen of England.

2. Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
Located in Bavaria, this 19th century castle is the most famous of the three royal palaces that were built for Ludwig II of Bavaria. In 1889, when the castle was nearing completion, King Ludwig II died under suspicious circumstances and his body was found floating in a lake next to his physician's body. Inspite of the unhappy ending, this palace remains a quintessential part of several happily-ever-after fairytales.

3. Hunyad Castle, Romania
Just like other castles, the Hunyad castle has a story to tell too. But what sets this castle apart from the rest, is its association with Vlad III of Wallachia who was commonly known as Dracula. This 13th century castle is located in Hunedoara in Romania and is also the castle where Dracula was held as a prisoner for seven years, after he was deposed in 1462.

4. Kronborg Castle, Denmark
Dating back to the 1420s, Kronborg is one of the best-preserved Renaissance castles. Located next to a strait separating the Danish island of SjÃ¦lland from Sweden, it held great strategic power over the sea traffic. Unfortunately, it was conquered by the Swedish in 1658. The castle's other claim to fame includes its mention in the Shakespeare's play - Hamlet.

5. Chateau de Castelnaud, France,,,,,,,,,,,,

3 coolest hot springs of India

2012-02-07T15:01:00.000+05:30

3 coolest hot springs of India

Featured: 3 coolest hot springs of IndiaFeb 02, 2012 - 01:38 PM
Take a dip into the country's 3 best natural hot springs and saunas to beat the chills and to detoxify yourself from the toxins of 2011! By Sreyoshi

The mystical Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh
Spice up your â€˜hot spring' break with a visit to Manikaran. Located about 70 kilometres from Manali and 1829 metres above sea level, the natural sauna is surrounded by the gorgeous Himalayas, greenery and fantastic atmosphere. Once you reach your destination, you will be surprised to see how nature can be full of pleasant revelations. The river is chilling cold and the water which pours out is boiling hot. The experience is nothing short of heavenly.

The springs emit magical sulphur-rich water from volcanic interiors deep down and contain a high dose of uranium and radioactive minerals. The temperature of the water which is above boiling point in contrast to the chilly winds offers a soothing break, perfect for physical and mental rejuvenation. For some self-introspection time, you can avail the separate facilities of bathing for women.

Getting there: Manikaran is linked by air to Chandigarh and Delhi. The airport at Bhuntar is 10-km from the town. It is also well connected by rail and road.

Accommodation: Hotels like Sharda Classic and Parvati are convenient places to put up.

Fiery and fabulous Agni Kund at Bakreshwar, West Bengal
Impart goodness in your soul and body at Bakreshwar, located in West Bengal. A renowned holy place, it comprises ten hot springs, naturally rich with therapeutic minerals and healing properties which are known to cure chronic ailments! Each spring is enclosed in a cistern 10 feet in depth and of dimensions ranging from a square of 9 feet to a rectangle of 75 by 30 feet. The hot piping of them all is the Agni Kund, where the temperature goes up to about 67C.

The other important springs here are Paphara Ganga, Baitarini Ganga and Khar Kunda etal. They are all sources of helium and emit sulphurous vapours skyward.

Getting there: One can travel by train from Howrah to Bolpur and then by bus to Bakreshwar. Alternately, one can avail the direct buses form Kolkata, which is 229 kms.

Accommodation: Lodging at WBTDC tourist lodge in Bakreshwar is both economical and comfortable.
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Health and Wellness Information from Femina Magazine

2012-02-07T15:00:00.000+05:30

Health and Wellness Information from Femina Magazine

Featured: Give fat the bootFeb 01, 2012 - 03:56 PM
Gearing up to say 'I do'? Get in shape quickly with the boot camp workout. By Poornima Makaram

Get healthy with:
BOOT CAMP TRAINING, A HIGH INTENSITY WORKOUT

Ideal for: Those who want to burn a lot of calories fast, while increasing strength and endurance.

What's the fuss about? Modelled after the military boot camps that give quick basic training to recruits, a boot camp workout is a circuit workout to train your entire body. It's a routine that mixes calisthenics, strength training and interval training, and is normally done in small groups. The workout is performed at high intensity, going from one exercise to another without any or little rest. The test is to take the body to its maximum limit.

USP: A boot camp workout is the fastest way to get into shape before a big event like a wedding. You burn a lot of calories in a short period of time and it's fun because the workout is varied. It is also highly motivational because it is done in a group with all the people working towards a common goal, simply to lose weight and get fit quickly. Most of all, it can be as challenging as you want it to be.

Calorie meter: 600 to 750 calories in a one hour session, but expect to put on some weight in the form of muscle.
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Food, Recipes, Menus, Cooking Advice and More! - Femina.in

2012-02-07T14:58:00.000+05:30

Food, Recipes, Menus, Cooking Advice and More! - Femina.in

Specials: A taste of Thai with angela jonssonFeb 02, 2012 - 01:17 PM

(0) Model Angela Jonsson can't resist spicy food, especially when it's Thai curry. Chef Dsilva dishes up delicacies from Thailand, the haven of food lovers, for her. By Anupa Shah

DEEP-FRIED SPICY FISH CAKE
Crispy deep-fried fish and pumpkin cakes infused with the flavours of zingy kaffir lime.

PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15 minutes
SERVES: Four

Ingredients
• 700 g basa fish fillet (or use pomfret or rawas), flaked
• 400 g pumpkin, diced, steamed and minced
• 4 tbsp red curry paste (available in gourmet stores)
• 3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped and crushed lemon grass
• 7 kaffir lime leaves, julienned
• 1 tsp ready mix vegetable soup powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp deseeded and chopped red chillies
• 20 g cornstarch, dissolved in 100 ml soya milk
• 100 g breadcrumbs
• 300 ml oil, to fry
• chilli sauce, to serve
• lime wedges, to serve
• 1 tsp garlic, roasted, to serve ,,,,,,,,,,,,