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Fumbling
Beauties
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| Winner
Pooja dlanked by the runners up |
Though
the irrepressible actress-turned-politician Vyjayanthimala Bali protested
against the beauty pageant ("they go against Tamil culture"),
the Miss Chennai contest held last week was fun to watch-not the least
for the blunders of some contestants. Like one girl who tried to explain
why she likes talking on the phone: "It's so nice you know ..."
The judges (including theatre personality Bharat Dabholkar and adman Kailash
Surendranath) voted for low-profile class XII student Pooja, who won with
her answer on what she would do to get noticed. "I'll keep quiet
and once people notice me, I'll speak in a way they're forced to listen."
The highlight of the evening: a performance of Bharatnatyam and Gujarati
folk dance. Maybe protests will work next year.
-Arun
Ram
Cuisine
Carnival
It was a
foodie's delight. Chocolate truffle pastries, blueberry pies, almond tarts-over
50 chefs from all over India created delectable goodies at the CII-organised
festival, Culinary Art India, held at Delhi's Pragati Maidan. At the ice
carving competition, one chef came up with a pair of eagles, while another
deftly made a Rennaissance-type sculpture out of white butter. "The
idea is for chefs to get together, cook and bounce ideas off each other,"
says Dal Chand Singharia, chef at Delhi's Park Royal Hotel. Singharia
won a gold medal for the best Artistic Pastry Showpiece-he created a shopping
bazaar out of marzipan, complete with a lady selling papayas and grapes.
Maneesha Bhasin, 33, (the only participating female chef), who won a silver
medal in the full meal category, served "a balance of fowl and fern"
(cornish hen with sushi) on white tiles. "It's about taste, presentation
and creativity," says Bhasin, who launched Maurya Sheraton's West
View restaurant. State-of-the-art cooking equipment was on display-for
aspiring restaurauteurs. "We plan to hold this festival every year,"
says Amitabh Dhawan of CII. Another forum to encourage culinary creativity.
-Leher
Kala
Star
Shots
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| Bahrami,
Amritraj and Leconte |
Bjorn
Borg missed his flight but guests at The Leela in Goa had some famous
players stopping by to hand out pointers in tennis. Iranian player Mansour
Bahrami, Davis Cup winner Henri Leconte and India's Vijay Amritraj conducted
a tennis clinic with CEOs attending a conference at the hotel. "Such
illustrious coaches are hard to come by," claimed one guest who worked
on his backhand with Bahrami. Leconte, known as much for his good looks
as his tennis, refused to give an interview but said: "Clinics should
be encouraged, it's promotes the game." The trio plan a tennis clinic
in Bangalore. There's hope yet for budding Indian players.
-Himanshi
Dhawan
more...
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With
all the noise about the cabinet resolution on dilution of the government’s
stakes in public sector banks, is anyone buying shares of these banks,
asks V. Shankar Aiyar in 
